#actually went there as a migrant worker and know what its like to be there (spoiler alert it sucks)

[selamat-linting]

skipping wwe ppv's set in the us, france, and australia because of their human rights abuses and ongoing support on neo-colonialism all over the world

[nasty-creeps]

Recently, I talked to some people about the EU election results. Specifically our city and germany/our hometowns. For context it went pretty bad. Our "new" Nazi Party has gained a lot of votes compared to the last election. In my Hometown they got about 30% and where I live now, 17%.

And some might say "It's Germany. Of course there's Nazis" and fair. Sure besides the Oktoberfest, Nazis are kinda "our thing" or at least the most famous example that everyone points to. So, why is it still shocking to us and also pretty fucking scary?

Well, after WWII denazification was one of the main goals of the allied forces that won the war. Getting rid of leaders in any sort of high positions in Government and other influencial organisations. Punishing war criminals for their actions. Educating citizens to debunk the stuff the nazis convinced them of through their propaganda and structuring the state in a way that makes it harder to overtake the whole government and its decision-making by one party alone. Just to name some of them. The success was ... mid at best. There was a shortage of people who could replace the ones that formerly held different positions that also didn't have connections to the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische deutsche Arbeiterpartei - national socialistic german workers party) themselves. And you also can't undo years of indoctrination and deeply held beliefs just like that. People obviously didn't necessarily agree or liked the new foreign administration either. They didn't all feel like they were saved or liberated.

And on top of that, the views that the Nazis stood for were actually not totally unpopular in other countries either. So not every part of the ideology was scrutinised by the occupying forces.

But for what it's worth, our people were confronted with their actions and the impact it had on the world. It's taught in schools and we are portrayed as "the bad guys" in our school books. Unlike some other countries like japan we were taught to feel ashamed of our past and semi held accountable to not repeat it.

The way the allies treated the citizens in the parts of Germany also impacts how the situation developed. Against popular belief this discussion is actually quite nuanced. But i won't get into this too much right now. As most people know, we were divided into east and west germany. The east (german democratic republic) was governed by the soviets and the west (german federal republic) by the US, France and the UK. In the cold war each half was exposed to "their side's" propaganda. Some of the stereotypes that evolved in that time still exists. And even the economic differences between east and west aren't yet eliminated entirely.

There is no point in time, where Nazism and what comes with it was eradicated here. But that's also just not possible. Domestic terror attacks against migrants, foreign workers, jews and other minorities still happend every once in a while. But over the last couple of decades the sympathy and acceptance for right-wing ideology has increased.

Up till 2013 most right wing parties didn't make it very far. Sometimes they were semi popular in regional elections but on a larger scale, they were often overlooked and disliked/rejected by the general population. That year tho, the "AFD" (Alternative for Germany) was founded. They gained followers uncomfortably quickly over the following years. At first their program was kinda "tame" in a way and they targeted the middle-class. In the EU elections 2014 their focus was mainly on the tightening of the right to asylum, rejection of Islam as a "part of German culture", gun laws and their disapproval of the EU.

Over time their demands have become more and more radical and they are now categorised as a right-wing extremist party. They pushed the boundaries of what they can say without being immediately scrutinised and made their talking points more and more socially acceptable. The good old "you can't say anything in this country anymore without getting cancelled"-argument is one of their go to's. And people unfortunately were very receptive to that.

Back to the conversation that I had with my co-workers. Thinking that a third or fifth of the people in your area agree with the views of a right-wing extremist party is obviously scary. Especially if you are so aware of how that went for us in the past. And a lot of people might not even actually agree with them and just vote for the party "out of protest" because they are unhappy with their own situation.

Being critical when it comes to what the state does is kinda what we were told to do after the war too, so unsurprisingly voting for a party that advertises themselves as against the status quo, can be taken as doing exactly that. In this case it's not because of their goals but out of principle. Showing the established parties that you don't approve of what they're doing.

We have tons of small parties here tho, to give you an impression the list for the recent EU election was literally as long as my leg, so why not vote for them instead? Maybe one of those does actually align with your own ideology and you still vote against the people that are in power atm. This might come from our voting system for general/national elections. Theres a thing called the "5%-Hürde" which basically means that a party has to get at least 5% of the votes to get a spot at the table. So if you vote for a small party that might not make it over that line you "waste" your vote. This is not the case for the EU-Parliament but I suspect that a lot of people just have that in mind and apply it to every election.

One of my coworkers kid, held a "fake election" at their school as a project. And as much as we want to think that right-wing ideology is a thing of the past and its the old people (who make up a pretty high percentage of the german population) are the problem in all this, that doesn't seem to be the case. The AFD scored a similarly high percentage among the school kids as irl. Some who were willing to give a reason why they'd vote for them stating "out of protest" as well.

So it's pretty clear that this shit is kinda fucked up.

How did we get here?

Well, these are my thought on that one. The west (BRD), as previously stated, was exposed to the anti-communist/socialist propaganda that a lot of the western world pushed intensively. Their neighbours were under soviet ruling and there were many horror stories about the living situation in the east (DDR) that were often true. Sometimes exaggerated for sure but true non the less. But there wasn't a lot of moderation or information to put them into perspective so the general opinion was that the eastern German people were all oppressed and needed to be liberated from the communists. After the reunion the west came out on top and for the most part their way of living was seen as the goal for society as a whole. The economical changes that the reunion brought had a pretty rough influence on the east tho. Many lost their jobs, tons went to the west to find new work, so the population shrank which in turn made it less attractive for companies that could bring the area the needed jobs. Pay was also lower and without the government set prices for basic goods that they had up till then, their wages weren't enough to make a living anymore.

Anyways. Still, the anti-soviet mentality swapped over to the east as well and schools adapted the narrative in history and politics classes over the years.

So the "west = good, Russia = bad" thinking is very present here too.

People are wary of "leftist" ideas because leftist ideology is often equated with "communist" Russia. Even tho Russia isn't and never was actually communist or socialist.

And since those have such a bad name, people are hesitant to vote for left wing parties even if it would just be a protest vote.

With the AFD gaining popularity, the "established" parties also adjusted their programs from "centrist" (very broad) to right leaning out of fear to lose more voters, since these talking points seemed to appeal to voters in general. (Not necessarily tho because protest voters didn't entirely support the actual ideology but just did it out of principle)

So we have a right wing extremist party that gains popularity, a government, that is more and more catering to the right because they are scared to loose their power and a general dislike for the left. Or at least people don't really consider voting for them in the first place subconsciously.

But how come that Nazi Ideation isn't equally disliked considering Germany's history, I hear you cry. Welp. I'd suggest populism and the human trait of wanting easy, practical solutions to their problems, ideally without having to change anything about themselves or their lives. Which is valid, who wouldn't want that? Unfortunately tho, real life isn't that easy. There are so many nuances to basically all issues that impact the outcome and solutions. And often it can take years or decades to fix a system but we want it fixed now.

Also informing yourself and learning, isn't something that everyone is really interested in or has the capacity to do in daily life. Which is also relatable. We usually pick up titbits here and there and make our conclusions based on those without having a full picture. And often we don't even realise those small excerpts aren't all there is to know. If you think you got it right, why research if it actually is.

These things are normal and won't change.

About populism, although no "side" is innocent of using it to gain a following and attention, on a larger scale, the left is more hesitant to use that tool, while the right fully embraces it. It's not based on facts but on feelings and long held beliefs of the people they try to appeal to. Facts can be boring, uncomfortable, depressing and are for nerds. They don't bring the effortless, easy solutions to your problems. They often make things even more difficult.

While the right and the left are both "against the state", the left tends to try to stay with the facts and makes their proposals based on those. Since the solutions often involve things like "changing your ways", "having to give up on certain luxuries" and stuff like that, it's not surprising, that they are seen as the party pooper. The right tells the people what they want to hear. Easy "fixes" for anything that sometimes, at the first glance, look solid but pretty much immediately fall apart if you take a closer look.

On top of that, the right uses peoples "fears" and the narratives that have been put in our heads for ages to further discourage them from questioning their views. Nobody likes to be proven wrong. And hey there's other people confirming what I believe so it must be right. The latter is also true for most people unrelated to their political alliance. I won't blame anyone for that and more often than not, I probably do the same. We trust our "common sense", although we might have different definitions of what that actually means.

Another thing that I won't blame anyone for is that they don't wanna be bummed out by even more things. Most people are aware of problems that they are confronted with in their bubble. And since there are countless issues in the world that need to be fixed, usually your bandwidth is already exhausted with that. Being confronted with more injustices can be super overwhelming.

Especially if the issues aren't directly connected and you can't fix them with the same solution.

Here the right often goes with "its the migrants/leftists fault! They are ruining it for you.". Blame it on others. You are not the problem, so you don't have to change. Just call people out on it. Easy fix. Get rid of the "intruders" or just be mad at the left. No context for what consequences the whole thing might have or coherent (tho often well presented) explanation of how these things go together. Also polarising, quirky and relatable as the kids (people in their mid 20s and 30s) would say.

The left has their thing too. "The patriarchy and capitalism". But you know, to get behind that, you first need to know what these things actually are. So from the start it requires you to learn. And it makes it looks like you expect from everyone to know what it is, which in turn seems elitist. Those are not words you use in daily life. Plus, as i said before, we've been told that communism is the opposite of capitalism (which its not) so being against capitalism must mean you want to live like people in Russia or China (because that's what too many people think living under communism would be like).

Besides that, "send people away" is, again at first glance, an easier solution than dismantling systemic structures that have been influencing our societal evolution for millenia. And you'd probably have to do something yourself to achieve it instead of just pointing a finger at someone else. Who wants to do that.

And (hopefully) the last thing is that the right is less hesitant to spread lies and don't fear to be proven wrong. Because they already know that they are wrong and their goal is not to be truthful. They count on people's lack of interest to check their beliefs. And since their suggested solutions sound so easy, there's no need to do research to understand it.

Another random train of thoughts, the right doesn't call themselves Nazis and don't like to be called Nazis. Instead they present themselves as conservatives, that they want to protect traditions and so on. And when we think about traditions, things like Christmas or Easter celebrations come to mind. Not the systematic oppression of minorities.

The left is aware that they can't use their potential catch phrases or words because, as we have already established, socialism has a bad name and you need to have a certain amount of specific knowledge to understand them. So they rely on at least being more or less factual. Their followers also do (and this is my assumption) care about if what they are told is true.

So my "conclusion" in lack of a better word is, the left is at a disadvantage by default due to the anti-leftist propaganda that was force fed to several generations from childhood on as well as their values of providing solutions that are factual and at least more or less considerate of consequences. They are the "nay-sayers" of society, like the kid in school that reminds the teacher that they had homework. The right are the "cool kids", that are spontaneous and lighthearted, who "just do things" because they are chill that way.

If they'd adapt the methods that the right uses, they would do exactly the opposite of what they're trying to embody.

I don't have a solution to this. We can try and educate kids better and less biased but to be honest, they do have other stuff on their minds. Figuring out growing up and who they are, how to interact with their peers, pressure to pass school, hormones and so much more. We can keep trying to debunk the rights claims but usually end up preaching to the choir. You might be able to convince a few but it's unlikely that it will change the opinion of the masses.

What I think we SHOULD do is, when trying to have an actual conversation, to not look down on them even if they do too. And to choose out battles wisely. We won't convince the loud people who already are dead set on their views and get defensive the moment someone tries to question them. There's not really anything we can do to change their minds. They may eventually see their belief system fall apart and hopefully some of them won't be too deep into denial to change their minds. Leaving the loud ones alone might still fuck it up at the end tho since they are unfortunately the ones that get heard.

We need to normalise being wrong and changing our minds/reassessing a situation. So less people will feel ashamed of their past beliefs. It does take quite a bit of courage to do that.

And although it puts us at a disadvantage, we shouldn't let go of our own value of telling the truth, even if uncomfortable or unpopular. Because if people do lose trust in a group that told them lies the whole time, they will be scared to walk right into another one of these cults again.

[scentedchildnacho]

I told her only the introduction of ethnic minority groups like wilma mankiller or barak obama or Fred hampton into colonial systems has ever governmentally helped poor white people.....otherwise most governments like Biden or trump usually express a solidarity that white religion is a threat to their white racial superiority and they do all they can to weed poor white people off stuff only for their family....if people arent an ethnic minority they want white things

I wasnt always science so to colonial Europeans the white religious is a subject of judeo africa and we are forcibly told we have to want genital mutilation and die an exotic other......

The United States also is an anti semitic nation so I can have a plastic fork but I don't ever touch the neo Nazis silver...as a vermin....

Their creepy awful Europeans and they humiliate themselves for trying to be a natural born United States citizen as white as good apple pie and fresh warm fires....their disgusting Europeans

Their off a European military base like dugas and aids and they needed to steal my things while others quite frankly are more Catholic and better then my small religion can be

It's the confederate generals that did warn attempting to spread white health ideas into large conscriptions would keep everyone at mal health and copeing...so some people feel confederates won for not over enlisting

I told her if people from my high school could do okay in life if they were told they don't know how to stop metropolisation and end deportation then they went to Tokyo they don't ask the states for anything ever again unless internationalism helps pick up the bill

I was told pretty firmly that I have to accept that I was white and I can go to London and be a large slum....it's I have to go to london no one has ever understood any advanced states

Thats why I don't apply for food stamps that would be thinking that it's the United Kingdom to believe there was an ibm and apple and that my cell phone represents a security group.....otherwise they have no technology and if I won't let them sell my citizenship away then I may not eat....

Its mafia ness that finds displacement.....wrong otherwise the states has embraced constant migrant renewal and enemy with the globe

So here I can at least have....if I tried to be London or Paris.....i think that is to severe of an exodus for my potential I wouldnt write passionate enjoyable verse for a pride I would just have to be truly ruined to have a victory and that would cause war

Nathan Bedford Forrest wasn't actually educated and that is who food stamp workers memorialize as important to white health.....they are always people technologically incapable and unliable needing a guardian to do the work assigned them like complete my case work efficiently without abusive demands from me like go get my birth certificate for them

These people deprive me till my manners are animalistic you have to make them put on the sheets and hoods to rule the manor and kill the slave

I told her under Obama they made me file a mental so all they wanted to do was get an easy place to deal drugs from and quickly steal my body organs to communist China it's not easy to be religious around communists unless you learn Jews about toleration of rhetoric when they can steal the racist research like an educated commie did it then it's wrong to kill people like farm animals

Thats this display by the Earl and birdie library when white mans burden to crop circle renewable energy can be infiltrated and taken over by ethnic minorities their debt of service to me can end

She showed me the San Diego shelter standards.......so I said I have an auto immune disease so I can't go to any disease experimentation like vaccines or I would die

She appears somewhat black so I tell her apologetically what legal groups I may be around tell me to tell them about their lawsuits around white diseases....biological warfare is patent white though sometimes

Dugas and aids something about disease is white though

Sacred natives tell me they could access their own differential trade systems free from federal papers so I tell her it's a segregation and you can just maybe go live your civil rights

She also told me about state id so I kept......repeating to her the conflict has been consciousness raised and I don't take any papers that could kill other people.....

And she was like if you don't show your papers the cops will beat you up so I told her Doris Lessing cops protect wealth not you no matter what you do for them your a criminal if your poor to them and haven't paid their active duty bill

Cops are very simple people who pay their active duty bill are protected people poor just cause casualty their a klan pack gang like any other

Paris on genocide....they have wealth groups that give them out of city in the country property if you have to be city your just to be a manipulated aggressive and take penalty and war for crimes of upper classes

If you have 🆔 then your insider information so it is a few more rights but your still a criminal to slaughter either way indigenous peoples may be sedentary.....

Ultima that's all upper class people do is figure out how to infiltrate impoverished systems because they over use their own resources and colonize priorly poor situations as theirs....it's the whole identity and game of being upper class is sci Fi fiction

I was like how can that mafia hit man be alive if he confesses serial killing and their guys if your upper class it's a real guy not some ken doll a whole real guy and they prove displacement and kill a lot of it

Cops just tend to admit their much better robotics models and that man as an a.i. can actually diagnose a lot

Cops act gentlemanly and protective because you need internal medicine it stops because people finally see your normal cop daddy beat you till internal medicine

I use to be regularly night stalked by cops but then COVID shut downs property owners as fuck the poor only social services finally were shown people don't have to tolerate profit rape ists

If ya can't be anything but fuck the poor begger profit rape ists I actually don't then have to give anything at all

Useing state id to just take things is thieve ing....ben Franklin the feds tell them their disgusting rude people who are not advanced state of the art and they just don't leave

Little rules like visas and state id...is just viewed as theft it's viewed as tourism just taking things not migrantcy and feds are that way it's wrong to deport and over burden Asia and Europe so it's I have lots of people to replace you gross dog shit

Then I told her to her protestations of God that if it was my motel I wouldn't call you all the time beach I would give her without ultimatum her scheduled migrantcy rights of nights in and bathroom time...

And if there were homeless self governing meetings I would keep your tables to three only all the time no crowding no violation of COVID sanitation mandates

And she was like God so I said oui God Pope Francis the world is falling apart it's not profit worthy if people left you out on the block to get raped I would let you in...if you promised you would stay safe keep yourself up and share the courtesy with others who needs it

I have been out in the street so I want you to know I would never ever not believe you if you needed to get in from a street rape I would never scream for id 🆔 from you

I told her not going into the library isn't about 🆔 it isn't coded for residential purpose so don't go in there at night it's hazardous

Something about it kills bugs so don't go in there if it's not operational

Upper class groups weren't suppose to be in there off hours....like it's a club house that was rude and cruel to poor people if you can't go in out of public hours none of it is suppose to

Anyway I apologized to her for getting political....and I admitted my problem is not liking people better for abnormalcy it's hard to friend me because I only want my normal close to me friends not casual well wishers...

I was really abused if I was homeless and I'm a little psychopathic about normalcy I do really love Them and everybody else was a problem or not

That and I get kind of motivated by competitional strategy and better then so one day I won't ever care about being better then people are....

People get an 🆔 and it's sad for others but it's just not a normal world...

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

giving men the legal right to sexually abuse women and other marginalised people is not helping women and other marginalised people. if you knew anything about radical feminist concerns you would know we are advocating for the nordic model which only criminalises buying sex. women and other marginalised people still very much have rights and possibility to seek out help in this model.

stop deterring from the reality of prostitution which is repeated undesired penetration and crossing of sexual boundaries. this is not a job this is sexual abuse. there are no regulations and workers rights that will protect women and other marginalised groups in prostitution. what you want are rights for migrants, rights for single mothers, and better support for drug addicts. its disgusting to say they have no alternative so you support their sexual abuse.

you know what legalisation does? increase demand. we have mass brothels in germany where sometimes young men go to celebrate their school graduation. this should not be normality. what signals is the legalisation sending to boys and girls alike? girls, when you‘re at the end of your luck there will always be a man who cant wait to pay to put his dick in you.

imagine defending an industry that advertises its workers as „whores without taboos“ and „dirty sluts“ and claim to care about women. big lol! and exploitation and sexual exploitation are not the same that is why there are different laws for sexual crimes. hint: sexual violence is considered especially heinous for a reason. being penetrated and used for (mainly) male sexual gratification is not a profession, sex is not a service, full legalisation tackles none of the issues with prostitution.

how exactly do you decrease suffering by allowing men to pay impoverished women, immigrated women, drug addicts, young gay men and transwomen, single mothers and other groups disproportionately in prostitution to penetrate them? „oh youre poor and need to send money to your family? suck my dick. literally. im glad that i can legally do this and yet you will never be able to prove that i went on after you said no“.

please enlighten me what concrete regulations you want under full legalisation that can actually realistically be implemented? lets for the sake of argument forget for a second that prostitution is undesired paid penetration. how are you ensuring that condoms are being used? is an inspector entering the room? are they introducing gloves like in real occupations where they work with bodily fluids? are the powerful brothel owners who run the lobby going to give up their money making machines? are there going to be contracts, and will sex buyers have to show id? are immigrated women who live and „work“ in the brothels going to have to move out?

people have called the nordic model an „easy fix“ to prostitution but i think full legalisation is even more of an easy fix. nothing against the systemic reasons for women entering prostitution is done. whelp nothing we can do about this happening so lets just legalise it! i dont know why men are not flocking to this promising industry! but i support the many women choosing this completely voluntarily! stop moralising paying someone under financial duress for sex! that should be legal!

the difference between prostitution and any hazardous occupation is that in dangerous jobs, the harm is a side effect. in prostitution, the harm being done to you is the job.

[nanowrimo]

The Importance of Filipino Stories: Celebrating Filipino American History Month

October is Filipino American History Month. With more than 4.2 million individuals of Filipino descent here in the U.S., we know there are at least 4.2 million stories to cherish and celebrate! Today’s story comes from Josie Gepulle, our fall 2022 Editorial intern and proud Filipino American. It wasn’t until I was in my second year of college that I got my first reading assignment on Filipino American stories.

At my university, I was taking a history course entitled “American Radicals and Reformers.” Halfway through the semester, I learned about Larry Itilong, a Filipino migrant laborer who went on to lead the five-year Delano Grape Strike in California and later co-founded the United Farm Workers of America.

I’m pretty sure my jaw actually dropped hearing about this. An actual Filipino American made his way into the history books, one who had a profound impact on the labor movement. 

That’s also when it really hit me: there was a lack of Filipino stories in my life.

I grew up in a small suburban Texas town. I was the first and only Filipino my community saw, so I don’t really blame anyone for their ignorance. It was frustrating, however, to receive several comments like, “Are you sure you’re Asian? You don’t look like it at all.” or “Where is the Philippines anyway?” I didn’t understand at that time because I’m proud of my heritage, but what does that mean to a world that doesn’t even know you exist? The most recognition I’ve gotten is from veterans recalling war buddies or travelers who visited Manila once.

I learned the history of the Philippines from my dad, not school. The Philippines, it seems, had no place in the story of America, despite being one of its former colonies. Even the mainstream media barely acknowledged our culture and our community. Any reference to the Philippines seemed to only refer to Manila and how the language was Tagalog. I couldn’t relate to that. My parents are from Bacolod, a city in central Philippines, where the community spoke Illongo. The narrative America wanted to tell about the Philippines, as limited as it was, was not one I could fit into.

It took me a long time to identify as a Pinoy writer. That same year at college when I learned about Larry Itliong, I attended a special event where I heard Jose Antonio Vargas, the famed journalist and immigration rights activist, and openly undocumented Filipino American, give a talk about his book, Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen. He, too, was a storyteller and writer, just like I wanted to be.

I finally realized I wasn’t alone. I didn’t need to be the author who put the Philippines in the history book. Several writers already did that for me. Carlos Bulosan wrote the famous America Is in the Heart, establishing the Filipino American perspective in literature. Then there are the writers of today, like Elaine Castillo with her book America Is Not the Heart, a clear callback to Bulosan. While Filipino Americans may have different interpretations of their identities, these stories are very much in dialogue with each other.

Each story, including mine, is only a small piece in a much larger puzzle. My own perspective that only represents a tiny fraction of Filipino history. The Philippines is made up of 7000+ islands and has 120+ spoken languages. We have our own history and mythology that existed long before the Americans came and long before the first colonizers, the Spaniards, arrived as well. While colonialism has tried time and time again to erase our stories, remembering our traditions and history is how they live on. We don’t want these stories to become forgotten simply because they’re left out of school curriculums. However, I do have to take a moment to be grateful for virtual spaces, especially those for writers. While my family is no longer the only Filipino family in my city, it was online where I met my very first Pinoy friends. Together, we traded experiences, laughing at the little tics that our families share. That, too, is an important part of the story. My friends and I aren’t famous, but aren’t those cherished moments together part of our experience as well?

And well, NaNoWriMo is the perfect time to explore your own stories, isn’t it? I remember being drawn to the challenge a long time ago, when I was a tiny middle schooler who felt so lonely in the giant world. NaNo made me believe that my story truly mattered, not just to everyone in the Philippines and America, but to me, the person who all my writing is eventually for. There’s no way I, or anyone for that matter, can accurately describe the story of every single Filipino, let alone Filipino American, out there. But you can talk about your story. Personally, I want to write characters who speak Ilonggo or grew up the only Filipino in their class. Maybe your characters will speak Cebuano or Ilocano. No matter what, Pinoys will get to be main characters! They’ll have grand adventures or share quiet moments with their loved ones. We’ll share our culture, our heritage with the world.

Together, our story will be told. Dungan ta sulat!

Josie Gepulle is a longtime NaNoWriMo fan, spending her teenage years lurking on the YWP forums and procrastinating her novel writing. She loves hearing the unique stories that come from writers all over the world and believes every voice is worth listening to. She enjoys the many different forms storytelling comes in, doing everything from analyzing TV shows to drawing her favorite characters. She can be found scribbling notes or doodling with an array of pens by her side. If you’d like to learn more about Filipino American History Month, here are some more sites to explore.

10 Ways to Celebrate Filipino American History Month

National Today

Filipino American National Historical Society

FAHM Resources and Creators to learn from (IG Post)

[phantom-of-the-keurig]

idk why u act like being a brown person frustrated that some media that im a fan of implied that having lighter skin is superior is me walking around angry all the time. u minimizing the feelings of poc just shows how privileged u are to not constantly be assaulted by the message of how we're inferior for our race. youre insensitive, entitled, and just an unsympathetic person towards issues of race when it involves things u like. why do u not care about poc? 🤔 or do u just care when it doesnt inconvenience u

Ooo, my first angry anon in this fandom. How nice. I’m going to try and go through this line by line so I don’t miss anything, stick with me.

idk why u act like being a brown person frustrated that some media that im a fan of implied that having lighter skin is superior is me walking around angry all the time.

Sorry, but I don’t recall saying that? From day one I have agreed the whitewashing of the bad batch isn’t cool, and it should be heavily criticized for how it stomps on POC representation within Star Wars. I did say, however, that people trying to make Galaxy Brain takes about the bad batch (ex. This show is bad because it tweaked how one specific scene in a comic went down, or this show is terrible because it makes the chipped clones seem like droids) is stupid and people should calm down a little bit. I also said that it’s okay to enjoy something while also pointing out its valid flaws, and you don’t need to strain yourself trying to reach for any petty criticism you can find when there are actual legit, real flaws we can talk about. Trying to make everything an issue takes away from the real issues (like whitewashing) and shifts the focuses from what we should be discussing / criticizing.

u minimizing the feelings of poc just shows how privileged u are to not constantly be assaulted by the message of how we're inferior for our race.

I’m trying to figure out how to answer this one without giving too much away about myself and typing too much out. I guess I’ll put it like this; please do not assume that I do not know what it is like to have my race thrown in my face and been made to feel inferior. I am indeed privileged over the rest of my family in that I’m white passing, but at the end of the day I am mixed race. I know, shocking, right?

My Mother is Mexican, her first language is Spanish, and her parents (my grandparents) were migrant workers that traveled up and down the west coast picking crops and doing labor jobs. I spoke Spanish growing up, and i used to be brown as hell when I was younger. Oh, and my first name? Yeah it ain’t white sounding at all, its Spanish as hell and I’ve never in my life met another person with my name.

With this in mind, you think when i moved to the Bible Belt as a kid I didn’t have that shit thrown in my face? You think I didn’t constantly have other kids, and their parents, make comments about my name, or ask if my Mom could speak English? You think I didn’t have to hear the teacher mumble about “that dirty beaner” under her breath? I’m super pale now because I never freaking go outside for one reason or another (depression, its hot and humid here in cornfield hell, etc.) and haven’t for over a decade but I still get shit about my name constantly. My Mom, sister, and brother are all a hell of a lot darker than me, in fact I look like the adopted white kid when I’m around them, but my mom and i sure as shit still get followed around by loss prevention when we go shopping.

Just last year I had a lawyer keep getting more and more aggressive as he demanded to know if my grandparents needed a translator, and he refused to believe me when i told him no, they could speak English just fine. Hell, there’s a client at work that only refers to me as “that little Spanish girl” and if that isn’t a little slap in the face idk what is.

So yeah my dude, I’m white passing and there is without a doubt a level of privilege that goes with that, but please do not assume to know my life, my experiences, or the experiences of my family.

youre insensitive, entitled, and just an unsympathetic person towards issues of race when it involves things u like

Now I don’t know about that friend, that’s assuming quite a lot about me? Especially when I am 100% firmly of the mindset that whitewashing and overall POC representation in Star Wars is a major problem. This is an absolutely valid criticism of Star Wars and should continue to be discussed until the creators start making an effort.

why do u not care about poc?

Again, a pretty bold assumption and one I really don’t appreciate. But I guess I’ll go let my Mom and Grandma know I no longer care about them. May as well call all my Tias and Tios and tell them to fuck off too, since tumblr said I don’t care about POC. (This is sarcasm, by the way. Just wanted to make that clear.)

or do u just care when it doesnt inconvenience u

No, I’d say I care all the time actually. Especially when they inconvenience me, because if I’m bothered by something I can’t imagine how hard it is for someone it has a real impact on.

Anyway to sum this all up, I find people getting up in arms about stupid stuff (minor changes in canon, crosshair’s chip working, etc.) is ridiculous. However, I do think it is absolutely okay to call out media for its legit flaws (whitewashing, POC representation) while still enjoying the good parts.

[nellygwyn]

So, Diane Johnson's bill that seeks to bring the Nordic Model to England and Wales has passed on its first reading. It has a few more stages to go through so it's not yet time to despair but honestly what the actual fuck? I saw one comment in reply to her self satisfied little tweets that was like 'At this point, when you are being told not just by sex workers but by the World Health Org, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and several leading anti trafficking organisations that the Nordic Model not only does nothing for trafficking victims but actively makes sex workers in the industry consensually unsafe, and you still decide to pursue it as best practice, despite all the evidence to the contrary, we can only assume that you do not give a shit about sex workers." And that really is it. Apparently, it also incorporated aspects of FOSTA/SESTA too. Great, so fuck any sex worker who needs to screen a client for her safety then? Because that's working SO well in the US.

I am scared for sex workers, to be honest, and I am sick to the back teeth of the Labour party in particular (many of whom endorsed this bill today, to their great shame), supposedly a left wing progressive party, falling back on regressive policies re: sex work because sex workers are just collateral damage for all these so-called "feminists." They care so much about punishing male clients, no matter what, that they've totally forgotten to ask the women that these policies directly affect what is best for THEM. And they steal the language of decriminalisation to run roughshod over the very few rights sex workers have. Sex workers are not free from criminalisation if you criminalise their source of income. You want to end sex work? Tackle the real issues AKA poverty, and poverty amongst women, migrants and trans people specifically. Give them the ability to be able to freely report when they are mistreated/hurt in their place of work. Give them the resources to exit if they want to, rather than throwing them in jail or taking away their ability to work safely at all and thinking you've done an amazing job because at least they aren't having sex with some dude!!!! when in reality, all you've essentially done is just taken the food out of their mouth in one foul swoop.

Shitty garbage country, with shitty garbage political parties full of fake, upper middle class "feminists" who think that paternalistic and carceral policies re: the lives of working class women have ever worked. It really says something when every British sex worker I know personally is absolutely terrified, saying that this is all they need on the top of a recession and a pandemic that has already made their lives next-to-impossible. Not one of them is jumping for joy, and many of them couldn't give a toss whether their clients went to prison or not - but when the evidence suggests that such a policy will increase your risk of violence by 92% (as in France & Ireland), you obviously sit up and listen.

[whisperthatruns]

Elegy with a Bridle in Its Hand

One was a bay cowhorse from Piedra & the other was a washed-out palomino  And both stood at the rail of the corral & both went on aging In each effortless tail swish, the flies rising, then congregating again

Around their eyes & muzzles & withers.

Their front teeth were by now yellow as antique piano keys & slanted to the angle  Of shingles on the maze of sheds & barn around them; their puckered

Chins were round & black as frostbitten oranges hanging unpicked from the limbs        Of trees all through winter like a comment of winter itself on everything        That led to it & found gradually the way out again.

In the slowness of time. Black time to white, & rind to blossom.  Deity is in the details & we are details among other details & we long to be

Teased out of ourselves. And become all of them.

The bay had worms once & had acquired the habit of drinking orange soda  From an uptilted bottle & nibbling cookies from the flat of a hand, & liked  to do  Nothing else now, & the palomino liked to do nothing but gaze off

At traffic going past on the road beyond vineyards & it would follow each car  With a slight turning of its neck, back & forth, as if it were a thing

Of great interest to him.

If I rode them, the palomino would stumble & wheeze when it broke  Into a trot & would relapse into a walk after a second or two & then stop  Completely & without cause; the bay would keep going though it creaked

Underneath me like a rocking chair of dry, frail wood, & when I knew it could no  longer  Continue but did so anyway, or when the palomino would stop & then take

Only a step or two when I nudged it forward again, I would slip off either one of them,  Riding bareback, & walk them slowly back, letting them pause when they wanted to.

At dawn in winter sometimes there would be a pane of black ice covering  The surface of the water trough & they would nudge it with their noses or  muzzles,        And stare at it as if they were capable of wonder or bewilderment.

They were worthless. They were the motionless dusk & the motionless

Moonlight, & in the moonlight they were other worlds. Worlds uninhabited        And without visitors. Worlds that would cock an ear a moment        When the migrant workers come back at night to the sheds they were housed in

And turn a radio on, but only for a moment before going back to whatever

Wordless & tuneless preoccupation involved them.

The  palomino was called Misfit & the bay was named Querido Flacco,        And the names of some of the other shapes had been Rockabye        And Ojo Pendejo & Cue Ball & Back Door Peter & Frenchfry & Sandman

And Rolling Ghost & Anastasia.

Death would come for both of them with its bridle of clear water in hand        And they would not look up from grazing on some patch of dry grass or even

Acknowledge it much; & for a while I began to think that the world

Rested on a limitless ossuary of horses where their bones & skulls stretched        And fused until only the skeleton of one enormous horse underlay        The smoke of cities & the cold branches of trees & the distant

Whine of traffic on the interstate.

If I & by implication therefore anyone looked at them long enough at dusk  Or in moonlight he would know the idea of heaven & of life everlasting        Was so much blown straw or momentary confetti

At the unhappy wedding of a sister.

Heaven was neither the light nor was it the air, & if it took a physical form        It was splintered lumber no one could build anything with.

Heaven was a weight behind the eyes & one would have to stare right through it        Until he saw the air itself, just air, the clarity that took the shackles from his  eyes        And the taste of the bit from his mouth & knocked the rider off his back

So he could walk for once in his life.

Or just stand there for a moment before he became something else, some  Flyspeck on the wall of a passing & uninterruptible history whose sounds claimed        To be a cheering from bleachers but were actually no more than the noise

Of cars entering the mouth of a tunnel.

And in the years that followed he would watch them in the backstretch or the far turn        At Santa Anita or Del Mar. Watch the way they made it all seem effortless,

Watch the way they were explosive & untiring.

And then watch the sun fail him again & slip from the world, & watch        The stands slowly empty. As if all moments came back to this one, inexplicably        To this one out of all he might have chosen—Heaven with ashes in its hair

And filling what were once its eyes—this one with its torn tickets  Littering  the aisles & the soft racket the wind made. This one. Which was his.

And  if the voice of a broken king were to come in the dusk & whisper        To the world, that grandstand with its thousands of empty seats,

Who among the numberless you have become desires this moment

Which comprehends nothing more than loss & fragility & the fleeing of flesh?  He would have to look up at quickening dark & say: Me. I do. It’s mine. 

Larry Levis (found here)

[sisoyyoalgunproblema]

Muslim attire in the EU

This is gonna be a guide to the bans (or lack thereof) on muslim attire in the European Union, country by country. Why am I doing this? Well, I’ve seen a discussion between  that you can read here about the ban on hijabs in public institutions in Belgium and France and how that’s done in the name of “secularism” (it was all brought on because of a gift-set of  Yasmina from wtfok, a hijabi muslim girl in a public school from Antwerp, Belgium) .

First of all, a disclaimer. I’m in no way shape or form an expert on this, I just have way too much time on my hands and want to understand the continent I live in and its relationship to Islam a little bit better. The information on here might be inaccurate or just wrong, I’ve spent only a few hours doing research, I know it’s not enough so if you know more be free to add your own info to this. 

I wanted to do a European list in general but there are A LOT of countries in Europe, so I’m limiting myself to 28, I might do the rest of countries another time, this is just to give you (us?) a general view of the continent.

I’m gonna put links to EVERYTHING so that if you wanna read the whole articles you can do so, the info there is gonna be much more specific, for I’m only doing a summary of it. Most of my links are gonna take you to articles in English, but some of them will be in Spanish, French and Italian, for those are the only languages I speak, I’d love to read the articles about Germany in German because they are usually more accurate than those in English, but I don’t speak the language, so I haven’t. 

Also, even though I feel pretty comfortable and confident in English it is not my first language (nor my second), so bear that in mind, there are gonna be some spelling and grammar mistakes, I’m sorry.

First of all, what is “secularism”? There are a couple definitions of the word that change it’s meaning, but I’m gonna use the definition presented by the Cambridge Dictionary, for I think it might be the most “european” one and we are talking secularism in the European Union, so, the Cambridge Dictionary defines “secularism” as:  “the belief that religion should not be involved with the ordinary social and political activities of a country”.

Having said this, I’ll tackle each country alphabetically in English (I’m including the UK because they haven’t left the Union yet). A lot of the info is gonna be based in this article. So brace yourselves:

AUSTRIA

Islam in Austria is the first minority religion. 8% of the total population declared themselves muslim in the last census.

In 2017 the Austrian Parliament banned all those items of clothing that covered the face, a law that mainly affects those muslim women who wear hijabs and niqabs.

In 2019 the Austrian Parliament passed a law banning young girls (up to 10 yo) to wear hijabs at school. The fine for going against this law goes up to 440€.

You can read more info about Islam in Austria here and about the hijab ban here.

BELGIUM

Islam is the second religion of this country after Christianity and the muslim population of the country represents the 7% of the total.

(I want to note here that the Wikipedia page in French makes close to no reference to the hijab bans in the country)

I think this is the country who’s hijab ban is making more head-lines as of late because of their last ban on hijabs in Universities (as of 2020) but the first hijab bans in schools in the country were seen in 2005. 

In 2017 the European Court ruled against two niqab-wearing (I couldn’t find the right terminology, if I’m not using this right, please tell me) Belgium muslim women who’d brought their country to court saying that the ban went against Human Rights.

The fines for not upholding this laws can go up to 150€ and can result in incarceration.

You can read about Islam in Belgium in French here and in English here. If you want to know more about the recent protests I’d recommend this article and if you wanna know about the ruling of the EU Court on the face-covering ban in Belgium, you can read this article.

BULGARIA

Islam in Bulgaria is practised by 15% of the population, it’s the second biggest religion in the country after Christianity.

On 2016 the Parliament of Bulgaria passed a law banning Bulgarian citizens from wearing burqas in public spaces, those who choose to oppose it will face fines up to 770€.

I haven’t seen much about Islam and Bulgaria, but the Wikipedia article is fine (you can find it here) and I also loved this article about how the Bulgarian government benefits from this ban (it could be applied to all the countries).

CROATIA

Islam is the second largest faith in the country after Christianity, but according to a 2011 census it only represents 1.47% of the population.

I haven’t been able to find any info about bans on either face-veils (burqas, niqabs) or hijabs, but the Wikipedia article if pretty good.

CYPRUS

Can I just leave it at “Cyprus is complicated af”, pretty please? Okay, the thing with Cyprus, without getting too deep into International politics, is this will vary depending on what you understand by “Cyprus” because if you ask a Turk, they’ll say there are two countries in the Island, but I’m gonna make this from the European POV, so the whole island is one country (please don’t murder me).

Islam makes up 18% of the population of the country (most muslims are in the northern part of the island, the Turkish part). There are no bans on muslim attire in the country that I know of.

If you wanna know more about Islam on the country I’d recommend this article, if you wanna know about the dangers of Imperialism and what the fuck is actually going on in Cyprus, this is nice. Oh! And this article about religions in Cyprus is good as well, but it’s in Spanish.

CZECHIA

So, Czechia (why is it spelled like this? why? I’ve had to check it over and over again!) so… Not much to say about this country (other than the fact that Prague might be my favourite city ever). Muslims only account for 0.1% of the population and I couldn’t find any bans whatsoever.

Oh! And its political leaders have proposed a ban on Islam itself, which isn’t Islamophobic at all!!! (according to their wonderful president refugees are colonizers, I love my continent :))

Okay, if you wanna read more about the whole Islam ban, this is a wonderful article to do so. And if you wanna know about Islam in the country in general, well, this isn’t the best Wikipedia article in the whole world, but it’s nice enough.

(I know my sarcasm is starting to show, I’m tired and I’ve only done 5 out of the 28 countries.)

DENMARK

And we’re finally here! The country with the little island for their muslim migrants!

Okay, joking aside, the muslim population of this country accounts for 5.4% of the total.

In 2005 the Parliament passed a law allowing businesses to ban women from wearing hijabs and on 2009 judges and jurors were forbidden to wear religious symbols. Some schools ban the use of head-scarfs. The fine for refusing to do so is of 1000 konner or 140 €. On 2018 they passed a law banning garments that cover the face.

This article is good for general information. And, if you want to know about the island, this article is good.

ESTONIA

Estonia has a very, very, very small Islamic community (0.1% of the total) and there’s not even one (1) Mosque in the country, although they practice in a Muslim Community centre.

Sorry I couldn’t find more info, you can read this, but it isn’t much.

FINLAND

Finland, 2.7% of the country’s population is Muslim. And… That’s all I could find? I’m sorry, really, if you want more info I can throw in the fact that “The Baltic Tatars” are a thing and they sound super cool.

Here’s the article.

FRANCE

Oh, France, the first country that used secularism to hide islamophobia, the land of Moliere, Champagne, my favourite cheese, Simone de Beauvoire… And the birthplace of the European hijab ban.

Okay, so things didn’t happen over night, in 1989 the French Minister of Education stated that it was up to the educators to accept or refuse the use of head-scarfs in their classrooms. In 2004 the French government banned religious symbols in schools and public places altogether (something that somehow only affects muslim women).

In 2010 dresses that covered ones face were banned (something that, again, mainly affect muslim women).

In 2016 there were very strong attempts to ban burkinis that were overthrown.

Oh! Muslims account for 8.8% of the total population in France.

To read more about Islam in France this article is good. And I’ve loved this article about the hijab in France. If you want something in French you can read this.

GERMANY

Muslims in Germany account for over 11.6% of the total population of the country.

In 2017 the government passed a law banning the covering of the face for soldiers and state-workers during work hours.

This article is great to get a superficial view about Islam in Germany.

GREECE

Muslims in Greece account for 4.7% of the population, I haven’t found much else other than the fact that there are two distinct groups, those who have been there since the Ottoman Empire and those who came in the late 20th century, early 21st.

I really liked this article, it’s not wikipedia.

HUNGARY

Muslims in Hungary make for less than 0.1% of the population. I haven’t found any information on bans on veils, but the country right now is ruled by the far-right and they won’t take any refugees (I know not all refugees identify as muslim but, believe me, in Europe everyone views them as muslim).

I got the info from this article, but I liked this article on Islam in Hungary much better, it just didn’t have the info I was looking for.

IRELAND

Ireland has a muslim population of 0.9% of the total of the country. Ireland is a fun country to do on this list because of the declaration from their Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, in 2018, about weather to ban veils or not, stating: “I don’t like it but I think people are entitled to wear what they want to wear. […] I believe in the freedom of religion. I don’t agree with the doctrine of every religion or necessarily any religion, but I do believe in the freedom of religion.”

You can read more about Ireland and Islam in this article.

ITALY

Muslims in Italy represent 2.3% of the total population, in 2015, Lombardy (a region in northern Italy) banned the use of burqas in hospitals and local governament buildings. Anyway, this article gives you a pretty good overview on Islam in Italy and this one on the Lombardy burqa ban.

LATVIA

Muslims make up around 1% of the population in the country, I couldn’t find anything about bans on veils in the country, or Islam in  general, but this article is an overview and this one talks about the experience of a muslim man in Latvia.

LITHUANIA

The only thing I’ve been able to find is that Lithuanian Tatars make for 0.1% of the population, but I couldn’t find anything about other Islamic families living in the country. You can read more on Islam’s history in the country in this article.

LUXEMBURG

The muslim population in Luxembourg accounts for 0.02% of the total population of the country, as fas as I know, there are no bans on veils, either hijabs or face-veils. So… Yeah, here’s a link, I couldn’t find much info on Islam in the country.

MALTA

Malta’s muslim community represents less than 1% of the country’s population.

In Malta, muslim women have to remove their veil when taking identification photos, but other than that, they can wear whatever they want, even though there was a proposal to ban burqas and niqabs in 2015, it was overthrown.

I couldn’t find much about Islam in Malta, mainly this article and this one about the proposal to ban full face veils. 

NETHERLANDS

5% of the population in the Netherlands practice Islam according to a 2018 census.

In 2019 the Netherlands passed a law banning the use of burqas and niqabs, but not without controversy, Amsterdam’s mayor has opposed the law since the beginning and the actual enforcement of such law is in question.

You can read more about the history of Islam in the Netherlands in this article and about the ban on burqas in this one.

POLAND

Today, less than 0.1% of the population of this country declares themselves as muslim, but it’s one of the most Islamophobic countries in the continent, although I haven’t been able to find any bans on veils, probably because the majority of muslims are Lipka Tatars and the women of that group traditionally don’t wear hijab.

You can read more about this in this article.

PORTUGAL

The muslim population of Portugal represents less than 1% of the total, I haven’t been able to find any info on veil bans, but I got everything from  this article.

ROMANIA

Muslims in Romania make up for the 0.3% of the population. As far as I’ve seen, there are no bans on veils in this country.

You can read more about Islam in Romania here.

SLOVAKIA

Less than 0.1% of the country’s population practice Islam and the country does not have a mosque. I haven’t been able to find anything about veil bans in the country, but they did ban Islam from becoming an official religion on 2016 and mosques in general (people worship in the Islamic Centre of Cordoba).

This is what I’ve been able to find about Islam in the country, this article is about the ban on mosques.

SLOVENIA

Muslims make up about 2.4% of the country’s population. I couldn’t find much else, and nothing on bans on veils. I got my info from this article.

SPAIN

Islam is practised in Spain by 4.5% of the country’s population. 

Some cities in the country (such as Barcelona, Tarragona and Lleida) have banned the use of burqas and niqabs since 2010 and, although the Senat has pressured the government to do so nation-wide, their proposal didn’t pass the Parliament nor the Government itself, no no action has been taken.

(Also, I’ve seen people in both burqas and niqabs in Barcelona, so I don’t know if the law is being applied)

Finding info on Islam in Spain is tricky because most articles talk about the 12th century and things like that, but this one in Spanish is pretty good.

SWEDEN

Sweden’s muslim population makes up for 8.1% of the total. In 2019 a few municipalities banned the use of the hijab in educational institutions.

You can read more about all of this here.

UNITED KINGDOM

Muslims represent 4.4% of the total population in the UK and there’s no law banning islamic dress.

You can read more about this here.

THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS VALUES

I know many defend the banning of such items of clothing stating that secularism is a European value, so I took the liberty of going into the EU official site and look up its values (you can find it all here). This are the values of the EU:

Human dignity

Freedom (yeah, freedom of religion and expression are included within the EU’s definition of freedom)

Democracy

Equality

Rule of law

Human Rights (again the right to be free of discrimination because of religion is here)

So, no “secularism” isn’t a European value, freedom of expression and of religion and faith are. So, although the EU has ruled in favour of this bans multiple times, those are not upholding European Values.

Also, I’ve been very careful to put the years all this bans have been approved because, if you look closely, you’ll see that these bans are the outcome of the Islamophobia, xenophobia and radicalism that has taken Europe (and the west) by storm after 9/11 and the Mediterranean Migratory Crisis.

OTHER RANDOM THINGS I’VE SEEN, LIKED BUT DON’T KNOW HOW TO WORK INTO THIS LONG ASS POST

I really liked this article about how Europe banned veils and now face-masks are mandatory in most places.

This article also touches on Turkey, Russia and other European countries.

I love this article about how wearing a hijab in a lot of places of Europe has become a symbol of resistance. 

A LITTLE NOTE FROM ME TO YOU

If you have gotten this far, I’m honestly surprised, I did this more for myself than others, but I really wanted to share it once it was done. Hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned something from it. I love you all 💜

[shadowfromthestarlight]

The moment a group of people stormed the Capitol building last Wednesday, news  companies began the process of sorting and commoditizing information that  long ago became standard in American media.

Media firms work backward. They first ask, “How does our target demographic want to  understand what’s just unfolded?” Then they pick both the words and the facts  they want to emphasize.

It’s why  Fox News uses the term, “Pro-Trump protesters,” while New York and The Atlantic use “Insurrectionists.” It’s why conservative media today is stressing how Apple, Google, and Amazon shut down the “Free Speech” platform Parler over  the weekend, while mainstream outlets are emphasizing a new round of  potentially armed protests reportedly planned for January 19th or 20th.

What happened last Wednesday was the apotheosis of the Hate Inc. era, when this  audience-first model became the primary means of communicating facts to the population. For a hundred reasons dating back to the mid-eighties, from the advent of the Internet to the development of the 24-hour news cycle to the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the Fox-led  discovery that news can be sold as character-driven, episodic TV in the  manner of soap operas, the concept of a “Just the facts” newscast designed to  be consumed by everyone died out.

News companies now clean world events like whalers, using every part of the  animal, funneling different facts to different consumers based upon  calculations about what will bring back the biggest engagement kick. The  Migrant Caravan? Fox slices  off comments from a Homeland Security official describing most of the  border-crossers as single adults coming for “economic reasons.” The New York Times counters  by running a story about how the caravan was deployed as a political issue by a Trump White  House staring at poor results in midterm elections.

Repeat this info-sifting process a few billion times and this is how we became, as none other than Mitch McConnell put it last week, a country:

Drifting apart into two separate tribes, with a separate set of facts and separate realities, with nothing in common except our hostility towards each other and mistrust for the few national institutions that we all still share.

The flaw in the system is that even the biggest news companies now operate under the assumption that at least half their potential audience isn’t listening. This leads to all sorts of problems, and the fact that the easiest way to keep your own demographic is to feed it negative stories about others is only the most  obvious. On all sides, we now lean into inflammatory caricatures, because the  financial incentives encourage it.

Everyone monetized Trump. The Fox  wing surrendered to the Trump phenomenon from the start, abandoning its  supposed fealty to “family values” from the Megyn Kelly incident on. Without  a thought, Rupert Murdoch sacrificed the paper-thin veneer of  pseudo-respectability Fox  had always maintained up to a point (that point being the moment advertisers  started to bail in horror, as they did with Glenn Beck). He reinvented Fox as a platform for  Trump’s conspiratorial brand of cartoon populism, rather than let some more-Fox-than-Fox imitator like OAN sell the  ads to Trump’s voters for four years.

In between its titillating quasi-porn headlines (“Lesbian Prison Gangs Waiting To Get Hands on Lindsay  Lohan, Inmate Says” is one from years ago that stuck in my mind), Fox’s business model has  long been based on scaring the crap out of aging Silent Majority viewers with  a parade of anything-but-the-truth explanations for America’s decline. It  villainized immigrants, Muslims, the new Black Panthers, environmentalists —  anyone but ADM, Wal-Mart, Countrywide, JP Morgan Chase, and other sponsors of  Fortress America. Donald Trump was one of the people who got hooked on Fox’s  narrative.

The rival media ecosystem chose cash over truth also. It could have responded to  the last election by looking harder at the tensions they didn’t see coming in  Trump’s America, which might have meant a more intense examination of the  problems that gave Trump his opening: the jobs that never came back after  bankers and retailers decided to move them to unfree labor zones in places  like China, the severe debt and addiction crises, the ridiculous  contradiction of an expanding international military garrison manned by a  population fast losing belief in the mission, etc., etc.

Instead, outlets like CNN and MSNBC took a Fox-like approach, downplaying issues in  favor of shoving Trump’s agitating personality in the faces of audiences over  and over, to the point where many people could no longer think about anything  else. To juice ratings, the Trump story — which didn’t need the slightest  exaggeration to be fantastic — was more or less constantly distorted.

Trump  began to be described as a cause of America’s problems, rather than a symptom,  and his followers, every last one, were demonized right along with him, in  caricatures that tickled the urbane audiences of channels like CNN but made  conservatives want to reach for something sharp. This technique was borrowed  from Fox,  which learned in the Bush years that you could boost ratings by selling  audiences on the idea that their liberal neighbors were terrorist traitors.  Such messaging worked better by far than bashing al-Qaeda, because this enemy  was closer, making the hate more real.

I came  into the news business convinced that the traditional “objective” style of  reporting was boring, deceptive, and deserving of mockery. I used to laugh at  the parade of “above the fray” columnists and stone-dull house editorials  that took no position on anything and always ended, “Only one thing’s for  sure: time will tell.” As a teenager I was struck by a passage in Tim  Crouse’s book about the 1972 presidential campaign, The Boys in the Bus, describing  the work of Hunter Thompson:

Thompson  had the freedom to describe the campaign as he actually experienced it: the  crummy hotels, the tedium of the press bus, the calculated lies of the press  secretaries, the agony of writing about the campaign when it seemed dull and  meaningless, the hopeless fatigue. When other reporters went home, their  wives asked them, “What was it really like?” Thompson’s wife knew from  reading his pieces.

What Rolling Stone did in  giving a political reporter the freedom to write about the banalities of the  system was revolutionary at the time. They also allowed their writer to be a  sides-taker and a rooter, which seemed natural and appropriate because biases  end up in media anyway. They were just hidden in the traditional dull  “objective” format.

The  problem is that the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction of  politicized hot-taking that reporters now lack freedom in the opposite  direction, i.e. the freedom to mitigate.

If you  work in conservative media, you probably felt tremendous pressure all  November to stay away from information suggesting Trump lost the election. If  you work in the other ecosystem, you probably feel right now that even  suggesting what happened last Wednesday was not a coup in the literal sense  of the word (e.g. an attempt at seizing power with an actual chance of  success) not only wouldn’t clear an editor, but might make you suspect in the  eyes of co-workers, a potentially job-imperiling problem in this environment.  

We need  a new media channel, the press version of a third party, where those  financial pressures to maintain audience are absent. Ideally, it would:

not be aligned with either Democrats or Republicans;

employ a Fairness Doctrine-inspired approach that discourages       groupthink and requires at  least occasional explorations of alternative points of view;

embrace a utilitarian mission stressing credibility over ratings, including by;

operating on a distribution model that as  much as possible doesn’t depend upon the indulgence of Apple, Google, and Amazon.

Innovations like Substack are great for opinionated individual voices like me, but what’s  desperately needed is an institutional reporting mechanism that has credibility with the whole population. That means a channel that sees its mission as something separate from politics, or at least as separate from politics as possible.

The media used to derive its institutional power from this perception of separateness. Politicians feared investigation by the news media precisely because they knew audiences perceived them as neutral arbiters.

Now there are no major commercial outlets not firmly associated with one or the other political party. Criticism of Republicans is as baked into New York Times coverage as the lambasting of Democrats is at Fox, and politicians don’t fear them as much because they know their  constituents do not consider rival media sources credible. Probably, they  don’t even read them. Echo chambers have limited utility in changing minds.

Media companies need to get out of the audience-stroking business, and by extension  the politics business. They’d then be more likely to be believed when making  pronouncements about elections or masks or anything else, for that matter.  Creating that kind of outlet also has a much better shot of restoring sanity  to the country than the current strategy, which seems based on stamping out  access to “wrong” information.

What we’ve been watching for four years, and what we saw explode last week, is a paradox: a political and informational system that profits from division and  conflict, and uses a factory-style process to stimulate it, but professes  shock and horror when real conflict happens. It’s time to admit this is a  failed system. You can’t sell hatred and seriously expect it to end.

Matt Taibbi is one of the only people I subscribe to. He’s one of the few journalists I like because I actually believe he’s genuine.

[freebooter4ever]

Eugene’s Third Date

AU where Eugene and Merriell meet before the war. The boys have been seeing each other for a number of weeks now, sharing lunches and kisses. But Eugene is disappointed by Merriell’s lack of enthusiasm for supporting the war and going off to fight - he is jealous of the fact that Merriell has a choice over enlisting while Eugene’s choice has been made for him due to physical limitations. At first Eugene avoids Merriell for an entire day, but of course the stupid lovebirds can’t stay away from each other so that night, pining hard full of remorse, he hunts Merriell down, and discovers Merriell doesn’t have many choices either.

-------------------------------

After missing third and fourth period for a month, the school finally sends a letter home to his parents. Eugene learns of this when he comes home one day to find both his mother and father waiting for him in the parlor with grim expressions.

"You've been missing class?" his father asks. His father sounds doubtful, like he is ready to listen to his dutiful son explain how the school made a mistake.

Eugene wonders if the trust he built up with his parents over the years will survive this. "I went today," he says sourly. He had thought about meeting Shelton for lunch again, but Eugene's eyes were still red and puffy, and his pride still hurt. He won't go back until Shelton asks him to.

"Eugene, we are worried you are risking your future," his mother says.

"What future?" Eugene demands, "Because from where I stand, mine looks awfully constrained."

"I hope you still plan on attending college?" his father asks, always the calm one.

"Of course, father," Eugene sighs, "What else would I do?"

"Good," his father nods, "Luckily the school informed us none of your grades have dropped, so as long as you return to class and make up assignments, things will go back to normal."

The minute Eugene's father says the word 'normal', Eugene realizes what life has been missing lately. Nothing has felt 'normal' for a long time - not since meeting Shelton - not even since a year ago when Mobile started filling with impoverished migrant workers answering the demands of the war effort. He doesn't know how to put any of this into words. And he definitely doesn't know how to make his father understand his need to do something beyond sitting by and watching from a safe distance.

His mother notices his silence. She's the observant one in the family. Eugene's father will take his son's word at face value, but his mother always knows. "Where have you been disappearing to all day if not at school?" she asks.

"The docks…" Eugene answers, "And I've only been missing lunch and a few minutes of each class. They're light subjects, nothing important like math or literature."

"Why are you going to the docks?" his mother clutches her necklace, "Eugene, it's become downright dangerous there nowadays…"

"I've been perfectly safe, mother," Eugene says impatiently, "I've been drawing the ships before they are sent overseas. Been watching their construction." And locking lips with Merriell Shelton who makes Eugene feel like he doesn't even need normal because he's already lost his mind to him.

"I hardly think drawing ships is a worthwhile expenditure of your time…" his mother begins.

Eugene doesn't listen to the rest of her sentence. He tosses his books on the hall table, sets his lunchbox down next to it, and walks right out the door.

"Where are you going?" his mother insists.

"Out," he says sharply.

He collects his bike from where he last left it and turns in the direction of town. The sun is setting by the time he reaches the docks. Shelton is nowhere to be seen. He cycles several laps around the area until he finds someone working late who recognizes Merriell's name. 

"Sent him home early," the man says, "Doubt he went there though. He got so distracted during the second half of the day he almost cut a finger off. Dumb kid, I couldn't have him hurt himself. Told him to sleep it off, whatever it is. Hope he took my advice but if I had to guess...I'd bet he's at the gambling tables again."

The man points Eugene in the direction of a bar.

Eugene parks his bike outside the place, and is very grateful he had the foresight to bring a lock. It's not a nice building and not in a nice area. There are no windows, only a single door built into the wood siding. It looks like an early pioneer building, or the kind of house a child might draw. And it leans, just a little, to the side.

The minute he steps inside he wants to turn around. He doesn't belong here, not in the way the grizzled looking older men hanging around the bar do. They eye him like he's a creature in the zoo. He tries not to stare back. This is the kind of place where a person has to earn their welcome. 

Somehow, deep in the reserves of his stubborn personality, he shoves all his feelings of inadequacy aside in order to ask after Merriell Shelton. He fakes confidence, but he feels a fool.

The bartender nods in recognition and directs him towards a walled-in circular staircase at the front of the dark room. Eugene tries to act as casual as possible when he starts to climb to the second floor. 

He hears Merriell's voice before he sees him.

He stops himself just as he hits the top of the staircase. At this level he can peer into the room without being seen himself, and he decides he needs to assess the situation before stumbling into it.

Eugene lifts his head ever so slowly and Merriell comes into view.

Merriell is laughing, his smile is wide. He's seated at a table with six other guys, all of whom are significantly older than him. And whatever card game they're playing, Merriell seems to be winning. If the large stack on the table cradled possessively just inside his elbow is anything to go by.

Merriell is beautiful. He plays cards with a confidence that can't be faked. And underneath the smiles and jolly banter, Eugene sees keen shrewdness in Shelton's eyes. The boy is calculating every move he takes in the game, while making it seem effortless.

Suddenly someone jostles into Eugene on the stairs. The man had been coming up with a full beer in hand. The beer spills down Eugene's shoulder, and the man complains, making a scene. Eugene tries to flatten himself against the stair wall and turn invisible.

But any attempts to hide are useless, the game is up, the minute Eugene dares to peek at Merriell's table again his gaze is met by pale ocean eyes staring directly at him. Eugene stays frozen in the stairwell, watching, unsure what his next move should be.

Merriell drains his beer, and says something to the men around him that makes them all groan with disappointment. Merriell stands and starts folding his large stack.

"You'll have plenty opportunity to win it back," he tells the table good naturedly as he weaves across the floor to the staircase. He's still smiling but that disappears by the time he reaches Eugene. Partially because Merriell trips over his own two feet and goes sprawling to the floor. He picks himself up pretty neatly - nearly gracefully, but he's still unsteady on his feet as he continues on.

Merriell takes the stairs two at a time till he and Eugene are on the same level. He collides into the wall in order to stop his downward momentum, and stares blankly at Eugene for what feels like a full minute.

"You weren't at the docks," Merriell comments with a slight shrug and a sway.

"I know," Eugene responds, "I'm sorry."

Merriell steps close and presses his lips against Eugene's so quick Eugene barely feels it. Eugene catches his elbow, shoves him away, and tries to keep him at a distance. They're hidden from view by the staircase but someone could go up or down at any time.

"Let's go someplace to talk," Eugene says low in Merriell's ear. He keeps his hand on Merriell's wrist, light enough to be a suggestion rather than a demand.

Merriell laughs and staggers backward. He lifts his chin and says, "Ain't going nowhere. Can't walk, can't drive," as if he is proud of the fact. As if determined to prove his own words wrong, Merriell walks down the rest of the stairs backwards and it's only a small miracle that he doesn't trip.

Eugene almost trips himself in his haste to keep pace with Shelton. At the base of the stairs he loops one of Merriell's arms over his own shoulder and supports him around his waist. The very second Eugene's arm tightens protectively around his hips, Merriell's body goes limp like a marionette with its strings cut. It forces all of Merriell's weight onto Eugene and for such a skinny guy he's as heavy and slippery as a giant catfish.

Eugene barely remembers to thank the bartender as the two of them stumble out the door. The night is unusually quiet, and the street they are on is even quieter, which is the only excuse Eugene can think of for why Merriell throws caution to the wind and throws both arms around Eugene's neck. Mer drags him into a sloppy, searing kiss while simultaneously flopping against him like he's trying to get his leg up around Eugene's hip.

Rather a lot like how Eugene imagines kissing a giant floppy catfish might be.

He pries Merriell's hands off his body and, having had enough, scoops him up bridal style. Merriell offers little resistance to this and instead seems to enjoy it immensely.

"How drunk are you?" Eugene asks, not actually expecting an answer.

"Shamefully so," Merriell croons into Eugene's ear while putting heavy emphasis on the word 'shame'.

"Are you even old enough to drink legally?" Eugene asks. He tries to ignore the jolt of arousal he feels at hearing Merriell's voice so full of mischief and so close to his ear.

"Eighteen," Merriell says, "Old enough to die." He pantomimes a salute.

Eugene sighs, "Where did you park?"

"Don't remember," is exactly the answer Eugene is expecting.

They manage to make it to an alley near Eugene's bike. He gently lowers Merriell to the ground where Merriell sits up against the wall.

Eugene pokes and prods Merriell's limbs about trying to find his car keys. Merriell gets giggly and twitchy. Apparently he's ticklish.

Luckily he's also responsible enough to not have lost his keys and Eugene finds them in his pants.

"Wrong pocket," Merriell drawls. Merriell's hands find the button on his own trousers and he starts to undo them.

Eugene hastily stops him, "Mer. Please. Slow down."

And surprisingly, Merriell listens. "I'm sorry," he says, staring at Eugene with remorse.

Eugene sits heavily on the ground beside Merriell's legs, facing him. Merriell leans forward and slumps his forehead against Eugene's shoulder. Eugene gives in. He scoots closer and cradles his arms around Merriell's body in a hug.

"Gene," Merriell breathes, sounding completely content with the world.

"Where's Mairzy?" Eugene asks quietly.

"Old lady," Merriell answers, "Better parent than me. Better home than me."

"As long as she's safe," Eugene says and tightens his hold around Merriell.

Merriell nods.

And then goes quiet, except for his breathing. And Eugene realizes he's sleeping. His idle daydream of rocking Merriell in his arms all night is coming true. Just not exactly in the way he expected. It surprises him to discover he's not disappointed one bit.

"God, I might be falling in love with you," Eugene despairs.

Merriell says nothing. He's fast asleep. He doesn't even snore.

When he does start to stir it's near dawn. The sky is lighter, and Eugene feels drawn and haggard. Merriell lifts his head. He meets Eugene's eyes. And looks very confused.

Eugene chuckles. He leans his forehead against Merriell's and smiles tiredly. "You forgot where you parked," he informs him.

Merriell starts laughing, "Didn't drive to work. Took the bus. Knew it would be a hard night after you didn't..." He trails off.

At first Eugene is irritated. Blinding, sharp irritation. But after seeing Merriell's soppy smile, Eugene laughs along. Together they wobble to their feet, limbs and extremities sore from sitting on cobblestone for a few long hours. Eugene unlocks his bike. And they start to walk. Merriell leads the way. Most of their time is spent in silence.

When they reach the park and are coming up on the boarding house, Merriell leans his head back and says to the sky, "Didn't think I'd ever see you again." And then rolls his neck to glance cautiously back at Eugene.

"Don't be dramatic," Eugene says.

"You stormed off in a huff, I think I'm allowed a little dramatics," Merriell argues. Eugene can hear the damn smirk on his face even though he's walking behind him.

"I shouldn't have left," Eugene answers, "Not without finishing the conversation."

"What else did you want to say?"

"Well, I thought about it," Eugene starts. He takes a deep breath, "I've decided I'm going to convince you to enlist."

Merriell snorts and turns back to Eugene in amusement. "Yeah?" he asks. His eyes linger over Eugene's form, "You that good with your mouth?"

Eugene stops short. He glances down at Merriell's crotch, and then back at his face. "Would that work? To convince you, I mean."

Merriell laughs and continues walking. "I ain't fighting for Uncle Sam," he says.

"Why not?" Eugene asks.

"You see anybody around here to take care of Mairzy if I go?" Merriell extends his arms wide.

"The old woman…"

"Is someone I rely on too much already," Merriell says.

"Your parents?" Eugene asks.

Merriel stops and pivots to face him, "You really think, if my parents were alive, I'd have brought my nine year old sister out here to live in a shitty migrant hut? When if I came alone I could've rented the night shift in a boarding room and saved a third of my pay?"

"You have no living relatives?" he asks.

Merriell shakes his head, "I'm all she has."

"All right," Eugene sighs. He takes Merriell's hand in his and places the truck keys in his palm. "Go collect your truck. Put my bike in the back for me. I'm going to go tell the generous elderly lady you're ill and will be in bed for the day."

"Why do I need my truck if I'm gonna be in bed?" Merriell asks.

"Cause it's my bed you'll be in," Eugene replies glibly. He's already halfway across the street heading towards the old woman's house, so he doesn't see Merriell's reaction. There's no parting comment thrown Eugene's way, though. For once Merriell doesn't insist on having the last word. So perhaps Eugene won this round.

The little old lady who answers the door looks terribly exhausted with worry. She is happy to hear Merriell is being looked after, and avidly agrees that Mairzy should be kept away for a short time so Merriell can heal up. She informs Eugene she already knows where Mairzy's school is, and has all her things, so he is not to worry his head about it.

After that, all that's left is sneaking Shelton into his parents home.

Eugene drives. Merriell lies down with his head on Eugene's lap and groans every time they go over the slightest bump. Luckily the sun isn't even up yet so the streets remain empty. Getting Merriell into his house is easy. Leaving the truck on the side of the driveway is a bit too obvious, but Eugene's parents are good at not noticing things they don't want to see, so he doesn't worry about it.

Eugene quietly leads Merriell to his room and turns on the light. He points Merriell to the bed, and pulls a set of pajamas out of his drawers. Merriell takes it without a word.

"I'll be right back," Eugene whispers. He kisses Merriell quickly to reassure him.

He goes to find Rose, who is already awake and baking bread for the day. He grabs a bowl of biscuits, gives Rose a kiss on the cheek, and asks if she would bring food up to his room for lunch today. She pats him on the shoulder and agrees, and if she suspects it won't be Eugene in his room eating the food, she shows no sign.

When Eugene does return to his room the lights are out, the curtains drawn, and everything is silent. Eugene sits on the bed next to the lump of covers he assumes is Merriell.

"Mer?" he whispers.

A bony wrist reaches out and takes Eugene's hand. Eugene smiles and follows the trajectory of the arm to find an opening in the blankets where he eventually uncovers a boy with big eyes and an even bigger mess of curls. He leans down to kiss him.

"I'm going to school," Eugene says.

Merriell starts to try to get up, "I thought you'd stay?"

Eugene shakes his head and weighs him down. "You stay. Sleep. Please stick to the room as much as possible. Rose will bring you food."

Merriell flops back onto the pillows and closes his eyes, "Too much shame for me to be seen?" When Merriell's brain latches onto a topic it does not let go.

"Pretty sure my parents would kick out anyone they found in my bed, no matter who, shame or no shame," Eugene grins.

"Fair enough," Merriell agrees. He rolls over, drags the covers with him, and for all appearances goes to sleep.

At breakfast Eugene's parents are unusually quiet. Perhaps they saw the truck.

"Eugene, we talked it over," his mother starts, "And if your teacher agrees, we think you can do an apprenticeship down at the docks in place of fourth period woodshop."

"You'll get a lot more worldly experience and industrial woodworking knowledge there than at school, that's for certain," his father adds.

"Third period art class would also have to be waived, obviously," his mother concludes.

"That's perfect," Eugene perks up, "Yes. I'd like that."

"Good," his mother smiles with relief.

The rest of the day goes by like normal. He shows his art teacher the sketches in his journal of the docks, and they both agree that Eugene will come into class once a week to receive guidance but otherwise will be under self study. The teacher lingers on the one sketch of Shelton that Eugene liked enough to not destroy. He looks at Eugene curiously. But he closes the journal, hands it back, and says nothing.

The wood shop teacher is less amenable and instead grumps about Eugene being useless at carpentry anyway. Eugene resolves to convince Merriell to do all of his wood shop work from then on in order to ace the class and make the teacher eat his words.

When he returns home his bedroom door is safely closed and inside there is a tray full of empty dirty dishes, signifying the lump on the bed moved at least once. Eugene smiles and sits next to it again.

This time Merriell is awake because he shoves the covers off his face and looks at Eugene.

"I don't think I've spent a whole day in bed since I was five," Merriell confesses.

"Not even when you're sick?" Eugene asks.

"I don't get sick."

"You looked ill last night."

"Just drunk." He sits up to better face Eugene. His expression is apologetic. Maybe a little bit guilty.

Eugene leans in to reassure him, places a hand on Merriell's hip, and notices the rough fabric.

"You slept in your work clothes?" he asks in disbelief, "In my bed?"

"No one took me out of 'em," Merriell whines. He slithers back down underneath the covers and grins at Eugene from a safe distance.

"I gave you pajamas," Eugene protests. He kicks off his own shoes and crawls onto the bed.

"Never said what to do with them," Merriell argues.

"These can't be comfortable," Eugene flicks at the metal hooks on Merriell's overalls.

"I did succeed in one act of personal hygiene," Merriell says, as if the bare minimum is all that can be expected from him, "Used your toothbrush."

"Well," Eugene says, feigning exasperation, "Thank god for small mercies."

Merriell smiles and bites his lip. His hips shift underneath the covers, and Eugene playfully leans on top of him to stop his wiggling.

"You up for dinner with my parents tonight?" Eugene asks, "I was thinking you could take the truck, pick up Mairzy, then come back at seven when my father's home."

Merriell nods, eyes wide.

"Good," Eugene says. He settles more comfortably on top of Shelton's chest and pillows his head in his arms while still keeping an eye on the boy underneath him. Eugene can feel every breath Merriell takes, even through the thick layer of quilts between them.

"I'm sorry," Eugene says quietly.

"Why are you apologizing?" Merriell asks. He scowls and shifts uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry for assuming your life is like mine," Eugene says. It was the thought that had been bouncing around in his head all day, and the thing that made him realize neither of their choices about the war were formed in a vacuum.

Merriell's expression switches over to surprise. He frowns a little. And then tentatively wriggles an arm out from underneath the blankets and combs his fingers through Eugene's hair.

"I guess I'm sorry too then," he says, still frowning about it, "For acting like an ass and going out to get piss drunk the first minute you break my heart."

"I didn't break your heart," Eugene scoffs.

"You walked away from me…"

"Never said I wasn't coming back."

Merriell laughs.

"Besides, I took your stand-in with me when I turned away," Eugene props himself up on his elbows and reaches over Shelton's shoulder to grab the stuffed teddy bear, "I had him to keep me company." He uses the bear for a pillow, and it's very comfortable until he notices something. "Why does my teddy smell like you?"

Shelton looks guilty.

"Were you hugging my teddy bear all day?" Eugene demands to know.

"You left me here all alone…"

"Well, now I'm jealous," Eugene says with movk seriousness. He discards the bear (safely against the corner of the wall where it can't fall off the bed) and drags the quilts down till he frees both of Merriell's arms. "You dirty my bed with greasy overalls, ignore me when I get home, deny me kisses, and I find out you've been cuddling my teddy bear," Eugene accuses.

"Ain't denying no one kisses," Merriell protests.

Eugene crawls over him till their faces are level. "Yeah?" he asks.

"Try me," Merriell says, tilting his head stubbornly.

So Eugene does.

Holding Merriell in bed is infinitely better than holding a stuffed animal. For one thing, Merriell moves in response to every one of Eugene's touches. And he kisses back with equal desperation. The only downside is - he makes noise.

"Shhh!" Eugene covers Merriell's mouth with his hand, "If we get caught…"

Merriell sucks in his lips and then licks Eugene's palm. Merriell's mouth is wet, and warm, and plush. And his tongue slides across Eugene's skin like velvet. The feeling sends tingles through Eugene's body so intense it startles him and he pulls away. 

"Gross!" Eugene retracts his hand hastily and wipes the spit off on Merriell's shirt sleeve.

"If that grosses you out, I don't know what to tell you about what comes next…" Merriell teases, a big grin on his face.

"Just stop talking," Eugene prompts, "Please!" He seals his lips to Merriell's - seemingly the only thing capable of keeping the other boy quiet.

He notices Merriell slows down after that. Merriell still kisses Eugene passionately, but he stops pulling at Eugene's clothes, and doesn't grab at Eugene's body so demandingly. It's up to Eugene to pull his own shirt over his head and toss it into the depths of his room.

Merriell stops him with a hand to his chest before Eugene can lean down to resume the kissing.

Eugene sits on the bed, somewhere on top of Merriell's legs under the quilts.

Merriell's hand trails over Eugene's bare chest and down his arm.

"Wow," Merriell says reverently.

Eugene huffs a laugh, "Don't see what all the fuss is." he looks down at his own chest.

"I'd marry you," Merriell declares, "Just like that. If I could see this."

"Don't think they'd let me into the church to get married without a shirt," Eugene says, wry.

"Don't think they'd let me in any church period," Merriell retorts.

"Then shut up about marriage and let me kiss you again," Eugene complains with a smile.

"What, I can't take a minute to admire you?" Merriell grins. His hand moves from Eugene's arm down to his belly and then to his hip.

"Not if you're gonna be this loud about it," Eugene says. He gets an idea and looks around his room for the old radio he used as a kid. He briefly gets up from the bed - Merriell whines - and grabs the radio to bring it closer. Eugene flicks it on and fiddles with the dial until he finds music loud enough to hide the noises Shelton won't stop making.

"What you gonna do now, Sledge?" Merriell taunts, "Under the cover of ambiance?"

"Admire you," Eugene answers as he rejoins Merriell in bed and straddles his waist. Eugene snaps the hooks off Shelton's overalls and lets the flap drop down. He gets his hands under the hem of Shelton's thin undershirt and pushes it up till he can feel the bare skin of his stomach. He follows the trail of hair below Merriell's stomach with his thumb, drawing it up from the waistband of his underwear to his belly button. And from there the next obvious destination is to explore Merriell's chest.

Eugene cups a hand around Merriell's pec and swipes his thumb across his nipple.

"Gene…" Merriell sighs. He closes his eyes and stretches on the bed like a cat.

Eugene leans down and kisses him, keeping one hand on his chest. The deeper the kiss gets, the farther Eugene leans in, until the quilts get squashed to the end of the bed and Merriell's legs become entwined with his, and Eugene's chest is flush against Merriell's. Eugene rolls his hips into Merriell and it relieves some of the tension twisted up through his body. Merriell wraps his arms around Eugene's neck and encourages him.

Eugene rocks into Merriell again, falls into a rhythm with him, and then starts to pick up the pace.

He's lost in their movement together until it feels so fucking good Eugene almost feels dizzy, and he realizes in his haste he keeps forgetting to breathe.

Eugene pauses for a minute to take a gasping breath. He loses his concentration and the music playing in the background filters into his thoughts - 'If it's a crime then I'm guilty, guilty of dreaming of you' Al Bowlly croons.

Eugene freezes, sudden pressure crashing down over his shoulders and deadening all sensation.

"Eugene?" Merriell whispers.

Eugene can't seem to catch his breath. He presses himself in as tight as he can get next to Merriell, and wraps legs and arms around the other boy's body. And then holds on for dear life.

"Gene…?" Merriell sounds concerned.

"Heart might be murmuring again," Eugene warns him in a scared whisper.

Merriell gently rolls them over so they are lying next to each other and he can put his hand to Eugene's cheek. "Okay, Gene…" Merriell says calmly though his voice is nervous, "It's gonna be okay...don't think about that just...just hold me," Merriell cradles him loosely, "Quiet your mind."

"Feeling too much for you," Eugene whispers.

Merriell pulls away and meets Eugene's eyes. He swallows thickly. And drags Eugene into a tight embrace. Merriell's arms wrap around Eugene's shoulders. He presses his face into Eugene's hair. And takes a shuddering breath.

Eugene runs his hands down Merriell's back and then returns the embrace. His arms against Merriell's skin

"I don't know how I ever lived without you," Eugene confesses.

"Probably lived a good deal more responsibly back then," Merriell jokes, "No missed classes."

"But none of this," Eugene replies with honest need.

Merriell has no counter arguement for that.

They lie together listening to the radio as Eugene's heart calms down. Slowly the one song ends and another begins. Eugene doesn't recognize the tune, but Merriell does. He starts singing along while brushing Eugene's hair with his hands.

"Here we are out of cigarettes - Holding hands and yawning," Merriell sings, quiet and low, "Look how late it gets. Two sleepy people by dawn's early light, and too much in love to say goodnight."

Eugene likes Merriell's voice. It does soothe him as Merriell intended. Unfortunately it soothes him a little too much. Eugene isn't sure who falls asleep first but he's the one to wake when he hears a knock on his bedroom door. The song previously playing is long over and Merriell's hand lies next to Eugene's head instead of in his hair. Merriell himself is sleeping peacefully.

"Eugene," his mother calls through the door, "Supper in an hour."

"Thank you, mother," Eugene replies. He shakes Merriell awake and cups a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. Merriell nods in understanding, his eyes wide and unblinking.

As soon as Eugene stops hearing his mother's footsteps in the hall he stumbles out of bed and opens the window. 

Merriell follows close on Eugene's heels. He barely makes it out the window with his clothes still on. The bib of his overalls flaps wildly as he sneaks around the bushes and runs to his truck. He keeps one hand gripped tight on the hip of his jeans or else the whole thing would fall off entirely.

Eugene watches him go with amusement. When Shelton makes it to the truck and climbs into the cab, the boy throws one final grin in Eugene's direction before starting the engine and backing off down the driveway.

Once Merriell is safe, Eugene leaves his room to find his mother and do damage control.

"Who was coming up the drive?" his mother asks him when he finds her in the dining room.

"That was my friend, Merriell Shelton," Eugene replies, "He's the one who works down at the docks for the war effort. He stopped by to ask why he didn't see me today. I invited him for dinner tonight, is that okay?"

"Of course!" his mother agrees, ever eager for guests.

"He's gone home to get cleaned up, but he'll be back soon," Eugene says, "And he's bringing his little sister."

"I'll arrange everything," his mother nods, "You go get ready, and make sure to use a comb, your hair looks like it's been slept on."

Eugene runs a hand over his hair, and sure enough it's tangled and clumped together in tufts from where Merriell had been playing with it. He smiles involuntarily at the memory. "I did take a nap earlier," he explains truthfully.

He smiles at Merriell too, when the Shelton siblings arrive on Eugene's doorstep at precisely seven. Both Merriell and Mairzy are pristine, with neatly pressed clothes, twin new bows in Mairzy's hair, and shiny clean shoes on Merriell's feet.

"We wore our Sunday best," Merriell whispers when Eugene pulls him into a quick hug before anyone else sees.

"Good evening!" Eugene's mother announces, bustling to the door from the dining room. Her step falters when she sees Mairzy's curly hair, and she sends a startled glance Eugene's way.

"Mother, you've met Merriell Shelton of course. After he helped out with the mailbox I destroyed," Eugene says and claps his arm around Shelton's shoulder casually, "This is his sister, Mairzy."

"Pleased to meet you ma'am," Mairzy attempts a curtsey.

Eugene's mother beams and disguises all traces of hesitation in her face. "How wonderful!" she exclaims, "Come in, come in." His mother leads Mairzy inside and Eugene can hear her asking if Mairzy likes pecan pie.

Her voice fades into the distance, which leaves Shelton and Eugene standing alone on the porch in silence.

"Sorry about her," Eugene says quietly, "My mother's social circle is narrow."

Merriell shrugs. He steps close, slides his hand into Eugene's pants pocket, and uses it to pull Eugene closer. He looks deep into Eugene's eyes and smirks. This close Eugene can smell some kind of cologne on him. And whatever gel Merriell used to slick his hair back so neatly.

But underneath all that is something else, more familiar; a smell Eugene recognizes as that of his own room.

"Missed you, cher," Merriell murmurs and plants a sensual kiss on Eugene's lips before letting him go and following his sister into the house.

Eugene breathes out the tension he hadn't even realized he was holding. He takes a minute to school his emotions. And when he's confident he won't fall all over himself trying to swoon into Shelton's arms every time Merriell looks at him, Eugene finally decides to join the party. He also comes up with a proper counter argument to Shelton's parting comment.

"You've only been gone five minutes," Eugene mutters - to himself since Shelton's long out of hearing range - and closes the door. 

Edit: I always forget to add the tags, i get so nervous about posting, im sorry! @xmxisxforxmaybe @diasimar

[therootsprojectuk]

Webinar Transcript with HS2 activist Goldilocks - 12.01.21

Webinar CONVERSATION WITH HS2 ACTIVIST GOLDILOCKS 12.01.2021

A transcription of a discussion between Goldilocks and webinar participants. A lockdown fundraising project coordinated between ‘The Roots Project’ and Kirkstall Valley Farm. The fundraising is supporting destitute refugee housing and community intergration projects

 https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-roots-project-1

For more information on The Roots Project links are available via their linktree:

https://linktr.ee/therootsprojectuk?

Seren Oakley(Host): I think everyone who’s come to listen to Goldilocks speak, um I don’t know who’s come from where but Kirkstall Valley farm and The Roots project are kind of the collaborators bringing this together so um there is a link for a Crowdfunder to raise money for migrants and refugees in the chat, if you can at the moment and if you wan to or if you want to share that with anyone interested. Um yeah, so I guess the first question for Goldilocks. Goldilocks is an activist who’s been working with the HS2 camps. Maybe if you go into a bit of what HS2 are doing and who they are.

 Goldilocks: I guess I can talk about like, sort of introduce myself, and a little bit about HS2. Um, I don’t know. I’ve kind of like written something down so, so I want to talk about first how HS2 describes itself, because I feel like if anyone’s heard of HS2 before it’s probably been n BBC news right? Or like something like that. Where it’s been like their angle on it. So HS2 describes itself as like this green solution to like all the economic imbalances we have between the north ad south of the country. A state funded infostructure, and it’s actually the biggest structural project that’s happening in Europe. So, HS2 stands for High Speed 2, so it’s the second High Speed 2, so it’s the second High Speed train line in this country. It’s supposed to connect London to Birmingham, I its first phase of works, which is a phase of works that is happening at the moment, and then it’s going to go like up North, connect up to Leeds and Manchester and to some airports and then Crewe and possibly Glasgow. It’s currently looking like, this might be cancelled, hopefully, fingers crossed.

 So, construction and deconstruction works have already begun for phase one. HS2’s been old as this eco-friendly, like progressive means of transport, that’s gonna fix all of our problems, that’s going to make less cars run, and people are going to fly places less despite the fact that it’s connecting up airports on its way.

Um claims to be creating jobs, one of their biggest selling points, but like we’ve got to think about lik the cost like no matter how sustainable and how progressive it is, like it is just pushing this idea of like endless economic growth, and like always making sure people are like occupied and working hard, I don’t know, it kind of really comes back to like, just a lot of bad ideas around capitalism and what people should be doing with their time. The first kind of, I guess when the first train lines were built in this country, they cut loads of trees down to build the sleeves and we’re kind of seeing that destruction kind of mirrored in HS2 now, that they’re felling loads of woodlands to make way for this line. I can talk a little bit later about the economic and ecological and human costs of things when it comes up.

S: How did you get involved in it?

 G: So I used to live in Leeds, I did some uni there, and then one of my friends was on the camps in like January (2020) and December last year (2019) and I was seeing all this destruction sort of happen like they did like a lot of livestreams o Facebook and a lot of like outreach stuff online, they dropped me a message to e like there’s stuff we’re planning, it’d be cool if you could come and support so I went down, I was just planning to go down and visit for like a few days to help out Harble Rd camp, which is one of he cams just outside London, actually in Boris Johnston city Cambridge, and that was January last year, um it says my speakers not working. But, can people hear me okay? Cool. I might just not be able to hear you back. Yeh I just kind of fell in lov with especially like the community there and the really beautiful area that it was at the time before HS2 kind of moved in, um the Harble road camp now, you used to be able to walk  from like the road camp all the way to one of the other camps at like Denham and ow like everything is boxed off everything has like fencing around, and like cleared or like felled or just not accessible to the public anymore, and there’s like two lake and you used to be able to walk around like the whole of both of them and now you just can’t and for people in that area, that is like just outside of London where people would go to just hangout and have some time in nature, and that’s just kind of been taken away from people. I kind of moved onto the campaign full time, I was very lucky to have to be working in a bar, for it to be closed, for me t be like “Right if I’m going to be in lockdown somewhere I may as well go and do it” like with people I love, like go and do this thing and kind of have ability, and decide whether I was going to stay there forever or not and yeah I kind of decided to stay, um , yeah, that’s kind of how I got involved. Just through kind of word of mouth. It’s really difficult to kind of know about these thigs unless you know people in these circles, and I think we need better outreach as a campaign, yeah.

S: Are most people in the same boat, that they’ve just heard through word of mouth or?

G: A lot of people, yeah, or they’re from other campaigns or they live in the squatter’s scene, everything is really transient which hasn’t really changed during lockdown. I don’t know, make of it what you will, but that’s just a way of life for some people. A lot of people heard about what’s going on through XR, and through HS2 rebellion, and other little groups. Kind of like locals get involved, obviously cause it’s right o their doorstep like what the fuck is happening out there, like um particularly around the celvin-steeple claden camps area there’s like a really strong like community of resistance against HS2, direct action side of it which I’m involved with has only been going for like the last three years, we often don’t really give enough credit to that this is a twelve year long campaign and people have been having their lives ruined for like 10 years, they did a lot of the ground work before we were even there, like especially Calbert. HS2 had pans to go through peoples back gardens and take hoses away from people. Locals kind of rose up and said ‘Nah you’re not doing that!’ but I just wanted to highlight that yeah, they also exist.

S: Yeah, like how have – What’s the min focus been for activists fighting that? How have they been going about it, is it just mainly like taking over the land or have there been many like legal disputes from you.

G: Um I guess, I guess so far, it’s mainly been about the ecology being destroyed and about biodiversity loss so, let me just get the exact numbers up so that I don’t say the wrong thing. But, HS2 is going to destroy 108 ancient woodlands, 33 sites of scientific interest, nearly 700 wildlife sites, 5 internationally designated wildlife sites. Loads of big conservation projects are happening um so a lot of the focus has been about the ecological damage that’s being caused and so a lot of like the narrative so far has been : there’s people and they’re going to go into the woods ad their going to live there and wait for eviction, and save the trees and if that’s what people are passionate about then that’s really important, we do that but this is about a wider network of problems.

Sorry U can just hear my voice echoing downstairs, it’s really funny, there ae people in the house listening to this. But yeah, so far it’s very much been like the tee defenders sort of side of things um but I guess some people are more concerned about like that this isn’t a good use of ta payers money, like particularly when the NHS is suffering and this project is costing what it would cost to build like 300 hospitals that’s also a concern that people have also like about like communities didn’t really get a say in this, this wasn’t democratically decided like it’s a huge chunk of money and a huge chunk of peoples taxes and they just haven’t got a say like it’s very authoritarian of hs2 to kind of come in and be like ‘ No we’re going to build this train line and work for us, and we’re going to take what we want’. There’s been like a lot of take recently about how this isn’t just about railway and I think there’s some like really cool things that we can explore there and like loads of other like movements that’re going on and a lot of the people building these things ae the same people are the people being exploited and I don’t know, solidarity is really important with these campaigns, and it’s something I’d really like to think a lot more about, like tying all these things together. So maybe I guess we can talk about mainly in terms of the pandemic like Hs2 have continued to like work through that and it’s been really quite damaging to like communities that are like especially vulnerable like people in the construction industry have had the highest rates of COVID-19, because they have been forced to go to work without proper PPE and being allowed to socially distance. I don’t like how HS2 continues to mistreat its workers as just disposable and their like ‘Oh we need to continue to do this amazing project that’s going to fix all of our problems even though we’re the ones perpetuating the problems in the first place’. Yeah.

S: Have you seen, because I’ve seen some videos from the cams where I think it’s bailiffs, who are not being COVID-19 – not paying attention to any of the rules surrounding COVID-19, especially towards the start of the pandemic. How has that kind of affected you guys? Has it had an effect on anyone getting COVID-19?

G: Um.. I mean, I don’t want to sound like a COVID-19 denier or anything but we haven’t had, until it got to winter there wasn’t really, like COVID-19 wasn’t really a thing on the camps. So, it was kind of like yeah evictions were still happening and stuff and people were being left with nowhere to go but it’s not like, like the people there all kind of were there out of choice or they new that they had other places to go. It hasn’t, COVID-19 hasn’t really affected how much work HS2 has done and like we re really lucky to have not caught COVID-19 from like bailiffs and stuff who’ve been travelling all over the country evicting people even though that’ something we were talking about at the time. I imagine there being a pandemic has put people off coming here it’s also like I don’t know I wouldn’t be here if that hadn’t happened in the first place. In a weird sort of way.

Yeah, like it’s not just squats, protesters have made tree houses that are being evicted during the pandemic as well, it’s like people are being kicked out of their homes and their farms and like getting their businesses taken away from them like their source of income taken away, and they’re not getting compensation to go ad live somewhere else.  So, say you don’t get as much money to go and buy a new building, you many only be able to rent a place, and it’s really difficult to rent houses at the moment because there’s a pandemic and estate agents are being a bit like “Hmm that’s not really quite on” or like being able to move in with family who are also vulnerable, it’s kind of like this knock-on effect that HS2 is having, they have these things called compulsory purchase orders. Which means they can just buy land off people, and those people don’t get a say in it and they also don’t get a say in how much money they get or when they get give, like you’re not aloud to do all these things, like you’re not allowed to go to the press, you’re not aloud to talk to protesters, you’re not aloud to have protesters on your land, you’re not allowed to talk to certain people or like drive through your own driveway at certain times because HS2 are there and it’s just really, really bad that people are being blackmailed into what HS2 want them to do, and yeah non of that has stopped during the pandemic there’s been absolutely no sympathy for anyone really. It almost feels like they maybe accelerated works because there’s less resistance happening.

S: How has, which laws exactly have been put into play r have they been specifically tailored for hS2 from what they’re doing?

G: So there’s a piece of legislation called schedule 17, which is basically the thing that allows hs2 to go ahead, so included in that is all of the compulsory purchases and temporary purchases, which is when they take a piece of land and they don’t pay you for it and you get it back in X amount of years, for example, one farmer has had , he’s like in his 70s, he’s had his land taken off of him, he’s going to get it back in 17 years’ time, like he probably won’t be around in that time to see the outcome of this. Like, the state that they give it back to you in is like very much up to them. They could cut everything down, or turn it to mud. It’s very much up to them, sorry this is a tangent.

So, yeah, there’s this piece of legislation called Schedule 17 which is HS2 can break loads of environmental laws as well because it’s deemed like necessary for the project and the greater good for this, also in terms of what they’re trying to push on protesters it’d be injunctions which is a piece of law which a private company can buy, and that then means these certain rules which people are meant to follow, and if they don’t then we’re going to put you in prison, ad we’re going to fine you loads an loads of money. I might talk a bit about that later if you wanted me to talk about trespass, and stuff as well.

Things that people have been charged for, for protesting has been like section 241 which is like a trade union act, like oh you’ve stopped works how dare you, things like aggravated trespass, like criminal damage and things like whatever.

Yeah, in terms of policing and actually enforcing the laws, police basically listen to what HS2 have told them to do because HS2 have given them loads of money and they’re all basically working together because it’s all the same state.

S: yeah so, have there been any authorities that have backed what you’re doing and supported you through legal trials or anything, cause I know there’s been like no media coverage of what’s going on , but anyone who’s been like pushing for it within a higher structure?

G: I know that Chris Packham’s tried to take HS2 to court to no avail, because like the court is on the side with HS2. I know that when we’ve been in court for like injunction cases before, HS2 have like hand picked the judges that have overseen that case because the 3 or 4 judges that were proposed before were like too sympathetic to protesters. We had some like a good barrister who gave us some good advice; who does stuff like this for squatters and protest occupation, things like environmental protesters. Um I don’t – There’s not really a lot going on, on the legal side I know there’s a petition happening at the moment, with 1000s and 1000s of signatures, and hopefully that’ll mean parliament will debate maybe postponing or cancelling HS2. But, yeah I don’t know too much about that, that’s not really something my activism involves I guess.

S: within your activism, what have you skill wise gained and what’s been affirmed since joining the camps.

G: I guess being on camps, all the practical skills that come with that like building things, is something I never thought I’d do. Spending not a lot of time outdoors in the past few years you lose that confidence to go out and do stuff, like learning to climb has been really, really freeing as well. I don’t know if you can do that now, it’s pretty fun. Also just learning how-to live-in communities and build communal spaces from like the ground up and make decisions together like learning how to communicate with other people as well in ways that you don’t generally do outside of this. Like this feels like we actually take peoples feelings into consideration a lot of the time and the space around us, and what impact we have on the environment. A lot of skill share and stuff do happen on the campaign. Crackley camp which I near Cannellworth, t the northern end of the line, like over summer. There were lots of people going there for the first time doing like workshops and skill shares, an learning your rights or doing non violent communications or like how to tie certain knows or things or how to cook for big groups and I guess all of these things are skills you don’t really get taught until you kind of put your mind to it in this sort of setting.

A lot of things we were like working on, obviously that’s a huge learning curve. Like I’ve seen people not know what to do to running with ecology work and stuff like that, or doing all the research themselves like talking to other people and learning what they can to do that or like, reading up on all the legal side to it, how to defend yourself in court and like there’s such a broad list of things to do, it’s kind of hard to pin point one thing.

S: I did have a question, I think it was on laws of trespass, and how that kind of affects the protester.

G: Okay trespass is usually like a civil matter, and the government is trying to make it like a criminal act, so let’s keep it civil guys… So, trespass is when you go onto someone else’s land without their permission. So if you’re out hiking and you go into someone’s field or if you’re like living in an empty building or something like that, it’s all encompassed I what trespass means. Like if you go onto someone’s land the owner can ask you to leave. And if you don’t do that whatever. They just ask you to leave it’s a civil matter, as long as you’re not like disrupting what they’re doing then like it’s still civil, if you start disrupting it that’s when it becomes aggravated trespass and that’s when it becomes a criminal matter. So for example like the postman isn’t trespassing because when they come into your garden they’re there to do a job and you kind of it’s somewhat informed , it’s somewhat allowed to happen, so hs2 use the civil injunction to stop their work from being disrupted which is basically like I guess there’s this list of rules which means you’re not supposed to trespass or you’re not aloud to standing front of the gates, and you’re not allowed to trespass on the land and that basically means if you get caught doing those things they can take you to court over it or you can be arrested . There’s been like a case last year were someone allegedly broke an injunction like 17 times and hs2 wanted to get him in prison for two years and like he basically got away with, I think he got a suspended sentence , so between that and going to prison that’s kind of the less harsh end of it. I don’t know, and also because it’s painted as like you know it’s just trespass, it’s just being peaceful trying to defend things, and protect trees and nature. But it very much feels like the kind of issue of trespass comes up in discussions like this a lot and it raises questions like who does this land belong to?

Who gets to decide the right make decisions about it especially untouched bits of woodland, like who gets the right to be there? Who should it be preserved for? Thinking about maybe protecting it for ourselves, or for future generations is really important for some people. In terms of like how it affects protesters like yeah you’re living on sites where you could be evicted because it could be considered trespass, or like the bailiffs will come in like “oh you’re trespassing” line, no “you’re trespassing” like “no , you’ve just walked into our home”

S: yeah, what is like, going back to you said like some people just think it’s about protecting trees and stuff, what would environmental repercussions of everything be in the long term, for these people who do want to look after the land for future generations?

G: S I guess what I’m going to talk about what HS2 are doing in terms of mitigating the damage they’re doing, and then we’ll kind of go from there I guess. So they’re doing really bad mitigation. They’re building habitats in places that these habitats have never existed before. Which for example, near Jones Hill hey want to build a pond, but there’s no pond near jones hill, like what animals are going to go live there or migrate to that pond. They’ve often tried to plant trees but often, said that they can’t afford to water them. But, then also happen to be able to afford security to stop activists from watering them. Those trees, they often plant the same kind of tree which just means that if one of those trees gets sick then they’ll all die. Or like um planting trees that were suited to the environment. They basically just bulldoze anything in their way. Calvert Jubilee was a really beautiful space. I spent a few weeks like helping set up the camp there, and spent a few weeks living there, it’s just so beautiful. There’re these lakes and like loads of ancient oaks around it and loads of birds, and it would be where birds stop off on their migrations over seas and it was just a really nice area, especially during lockdown. That reserve was like a lifeline for people, that was the only way of going outdoors, or being in nature and being able to socially distance from people. I was there the night before we took the camp and there was a lady there who travelled quite far to go and see it before, she knew it was going to be destroyed. She was telling us that she used to go looking for these rare Orchids there, and there were ancient grasslands. You could tell they were ancient because of how the ants had built their nests there.

Another thing HS2 do is they put down this netting over badger sets. So, badgers can’t go back to their sets after they’ve left and they have to leave. They can only do that at certain times of the year. So, it’s like a game with the activists to try and stop them from putting that netting down or disrupt that work before its time for them to fell that woodland. Other things they’ve done before is like putting concrete and stuff down badger sets which has bee really awful to see, or with the bat roosts they put all his wire netting around some of the trees so the bats couldn’t get back in or out. At Jones Hill we now that we had bats still in the wood, and HS2 knew which trees they were in and HS2 shone flood lights on them to stop the bats being able to like nest and stuff, it’s under hand sneaky tactics, to try and stop it happening and to say “oh there’s no bats here” although they’re putting up bat boxes in peoples house and stuff to try and mitigate for that, but it’s not the same as their natural habitat. I was actually talking to - I got arrested – and the lady who arrested me was telling me, she lost her house to HS2, we were just stood there outside the police station just chatting for hours. She was telling me HS2 used to come to her house and pretend to do bat surveys there cause the people who’d been hired to do them didn’t actually know how to do them. They’d just give her £1000s of pounds just for coming and pretending to do these surveys and her house before it was taken off of her, and it’s just so fucked that they can get away with that especially doing that to the police and the police were like hang on. That’s just a brief overview of what HS2  is doing to the kind of ecological destruction.

Yeah, on a more personal level there were these things called blissgliffs which are like large door mice, and they live in all of the beech trees around Tring, because someone let them out and they’re just an invasive species, but they’re so cute. They’re just like these big door mice and I had them living in my tree house, and there were two big nests, and they would keep me up all night and steal my food and break into everything but at the end of the day they were so adorable and I feel really bad that they were made homeless during eviction cause like it’s sad to see the animals dying, not great.

S: No. Do you think there were any actual ecologists working or are working with HS2?

G: HS2 have an ecology coursed school thing. I’m not really sure. I’ve not really looked that much into it really. I’d quite like to a bit more. Often ecologists will show up who aren’t trained properly or they’ll show up and be disguised as security because they know protesters will berate them about how much actual ecology knowledge they actually know. Some of them showed up at Jones Hill and we told them, we know where the badger sets are, we’ve done the surveys, you don’t need to come int the woods. Their way of looking at like badger sets was just like sticking a stick down it and being like ah this one doesn’t have badgers in it. If you were a good ecologist, you’d know it didn’t have badgers in it based on the signs around it show that it hasn’t been touched for a while, because there’s leaves in it. Stuff like that they don’t know their stuff and actually mitigating their damage is not up to the standards you need to if you were going to d a project like this for like. I mean it’s happening anyway so you might as well try I guess they just haven’t really done that.

Other things like about HS2 that they probably should have realised. They made like an Instagram post about how they so many good things for adders. But just the fact that they’re building a train line through the middle of England is just going to divide the adder territories in half. There’s been this happening in the past with building roads, building things like that it means that adders are really suffering and often end up interbreeding with their families which, dividing the country in half with a train line is just going to make that 10 times worse. Any good ecologist would give this the red flag and they’ve done this time and time again, and HS2 just haven’t listened. The woodland and other various organisations have been like HS2 = Bad, and HS2 just haven’t taken that on board.

S; Yeah, that’s awful…

G: train lines are actually really bad for animals as well there’s I think it’s a Spanish study that shows that train lines kill about 36 animals per Km, so if that’s applied to HS2 it’s about 30,000 animals killed on the line per year.

S: They have no plans for like over passes for animals then?

G: I don’t know, probably not I imagine. I don’t know yes or no to that one sorry.

S: What can like, I guess it’d be nice to open up the conversation to everyone else if people want to get involved at the moment?

G: Yeah, Absolutely. I did get sent a few questions on Instagram but I don’t know if the people who asked them are in this call. I’m happy to answer them anyway.

S: Yeah, maybe if you go through those questions that would be nice.

G: I didn’t hear there sorry.

S: I said yeah, it’d be quite nice to maybe go through the Instagram ones.

G: So, the first one was ‘How do we get more activists on camps during felling season? And that’s from someone I know who is on one of the cams at the moment.

So, felling season is generally like October, to march / early spring, I think. So, the question there is basically, how do we get people to stay on camps over winter, it’s cold it’s really grim, it’s a rally busy time for people like Christmas and new year, especially during the pandemic people don’t necessarily want to move outdoors into a community that they don’t know. I understand why that makes people a bit anxious, and why it’s pretty inaccessible as well. Like, getting people into the camps is something we can try and do, someone said to me the other day this campaign very much speaks the language of camps and if something needs defending go build a camp there, or go build a treehouse, go build a community, or whatever, kind of wait for eviction and then you wait for felling to happen.

The James Hill eviction was at the start of October. They haven’t touched like a single tree hardly. They’ve cleared some of the undergrowth. I think they might have even today only just come in with ecologists or Aubryists. Just because you’re protecting one bit doesn’t mean they’re not going to fell absolutely everything around it. They could fell jones Hill straight away; they can use that contract and go and fell like some of the Oaktree’s near by and fell like Grimm’s Ditch which was like another woodland near by with loads of badger sets in it. I don’t know, how do you get people on camps? The camps themselves I guess, building we’re doing spaces with a better infrastructure. Having spaces for people to work. I know there’s a few students on the campaign who are struggling cause they’re like “OH I can’t charge my laptop, I can’t go to my lectures” It can be quite stressful for people.

Especially people who can’t drive themselves p ad down the country. If you don’t live near by, I think personally we just need to start thinking a bit bigger than the cams, and working outside that. Hs2 have bought loads of buildings that are sitting empty. Hello!? As well as that, thinking a bit more, less defensively camps are very much about defending the space, where we could be like, we know where all the compounds are and where all the machinery is. Like c’mon. We know who the people are that are working for them. I don’t know. I’m not on a camp during winter, so I probably should think about what’s made me do that.

Someone asked me: What have the police interventions been like on the HS2 sites?

I grabbed a quote from a report by global diligence LEB, which was commissioned by a group called ‘Not One More’. The report looks at how the UK complies with international civil and political rights things, and the report claims that “The British police have systematically violated protesters rights under international law, targeted individuals based on gender and disability a pattern of behaviour by the police is suppressing environmental protest across the UK through unnecessary, and disproportionate violence, intimidation, and harassment. This appears to be indicative of state policy to deter people from exercising their rights to assembly and expression” That’s the quote from the report.

Basically, it’s just saying that like the police haven’t treated any protesters well but specially to like environmental protesters. They’ve really had the shit kicked out of them. This has always been a thing. It’s quite - kind of when the police show up to things, I get quite anxious cause I know even if I’m not doing anything wrong right now, there’s still a chance that they might nick some people. Particularly Thames valley, can be quite violent, like they’re paid for by HS2. They are the HS2 police. I don’t want to be around them ever. Often, they will over step their jurisdiction, during the eviction at Denham, even though like we were on the metropolitan police side of the ricer, it was the Thames valley police who showed up, and even though it was like, when they were cutting people off the traverse across the river. That was a thing that happened. Even though it was on the met side, it was a Thames Valley operation, so they’re in direct communication with HS2 and very much work for HS2, and happy to collaborate with them. I think the police are just there to protect the state, the capital and big companies, because that’s what they do. We can’t really expect them to be nice to us.

I’ve been pretty lucky with my own interactions with the police because I’m young and white and able bodied and it’s kind of like, I don’t even want to say shocking because it’s kind of like you expect it now with how they treat black and brown people on this campaign has been pretty horrendous. I’ve seen people like being specifically pointed out or targeted or arrested when it could have been any one of us who’s stood there. One of my friends I think he’s put in a complaint, there was a guardian article about it as well. Having his head knelt on by the police, when I spoke to him about it at first, he just kind of brushed it off, and kind of treated it as if as like that’s like the normality, that’s how your supposed to be treated by the police and that’s really wrong.

Especially when the vast majority of the police view it as they’re just there to do good, good lawful things and to protect people when that’s really not the case. It’s never an experience I’ve had, that’s been the case. People are often arrested for really silly things and then give ridiculously harsh bail conditions so there’s a set of bail conditions that people keep getting and it basically means you’re not allowe d near HS2 sites unless you live there and it means you can’t protest freely and you can’t – like you can get arrested for like being in a footpath near where there might be possibly some HS2 works going on, which to activists is fucking annoying.

Then the actual court process means having these fell conditions for like a year because it takes so long to get around to protesting all these ridiculous arrests in the first place and then people end up getting let off, like we all have a one in a hundred rate for people actually being convicted of anything like what’s the word, prosecuted for like anything they’ve been arrested for. The entire criminal justice system depends on how the police interact with us, its kind of comes out with how we deal with HS2 like it’s just bad. Just the police make me angry, I think. I think, there were some more questions but I can’t find them, but if anyone has any wants to send me some questions, that would be really cool.

S: Yeah, just in case quite a few people have some questions, people type into the chat and then we can go in order of who has a question maybe?

I had a question about basically youth and elder’s collaborative activism on HS2. What’s the kind of relationship been like between older activists and younger activists, and who’s taken on what roles, assuming not all the older activists are like up in the trees and stuff, but assuming they’ve got quite a lot of knowledge around it?

G: That’s such an interesting question. I’ve never really given that much thought, I guess, it’s kind of hard to divide in my head who do I see as the younger activists, and who do I see as older activists, and what they do because everyone is very mixed. Age doesn’t necessarily denote that you’ve got experience right? Like people came to this campaign and it might be their first direct action campaign and they might be in their 50s. But, there might be people in their 50s who’ve been doing this their entire lives I guess maybe the interactions between experienced people and non-experienced people, there’s often – it can sometimes feel like especially with men and people who are perceived as more masculine, people can maybe think that they’re someone to look up to or a leader in someway which is really weird because we’re supposed to like; we often like ourselves organising as like anarchists, where everyone has a voice and everyone’s kind of equal and that , but it’s obviously doesn’t play out like that. People have these little biases in our heads, people we think we already have ideas about. Often it can be like older people will. I don’t know, I think maybe the younger people stick together and the older people sort of stick together, and maybe like this assumption that older people don’t want to go and do like mad stuff like climb trees. But, often they’re the ones with the experience as well, I don’t know it can be quite nice to have these figures to look up to but you’re still on the same land with them anyway cause you’re – everyone has their own things that they’re good at, things that they need support with.

         Yeah it was very strange over the summer there was a lot of young people who came to join the campaign, who were really psyched to do actions and it was kind of like, hold up like hand people the wheel let them like let them do the cool thing that they want to, it shouldn’t be for anyone to act like anyone’s parent and be like no that’s a bad idea, like if people have the energy then go for it.

S- I think that someone’s posted a question.

G How do you cope with (broken signal) ? I think it an be rally easy to fall in love with a place, that’s a lie, personally for me I really struggle to fall in love with places that I know are going to be like felled, and cut down, and demolished, but then it also never happens any way because I really love the spaces that we make and the people that I’m with. So Calvern for example, we didn’t know if we were going to be evicted on the first night or whether the place was going to be there for weeks and weeks, like the time I was there I was like this is such a beautiful area and I haven’t been to that site since because I’m like – I don’t know , I did once but it was at night so I didn’t really see much, I haven’t seen the full  scale of the devastation and I don’t know if I want to , because I don’t know if its just going to make me sad and it’s going to make me lose hope , I think it is important for us to face up to the things we’re trying to fight against, cause the perspectives useful and you can do whatever you want really. I think like, at Denham , like when there were still trees there and kind of like, seeing the trees come down was really sad but I was kind of like the fact these trees have lasted a little bit longer ( broken signal ) because we’ve been here, and this whole movement is going to be a series of loses and I think it’s really important to not get lost in that and remember what we’re good at, and the things that are positive, like were building and keeping around and stuff , yeah.

I guess sometimes getting a bit of time away, and like I went to Leeds recently and I was like oh my god, it’s so grey and horrible here. But, that was quite nice cause I could come back and be like, ah I like green things. That was kind of cool.

S- I think there’s another question.

G – What are your arguments against building HS2 in the first place: i.e increasing economy, creating jobs , connecting the north and south , do you think these things will actually happen? I did talk a bit about this at the start. How HS2 describes itself, and I could go through and pick at every argument they make, but there’s websites for that already, and the stophs2.org website has lots of debunking on there, it’s really cool. I guess no I don’t think these things will happen, especially as there’s a pandemic and no one’s taking the train anyway and everyone’s remembering zoom exists, like I can’t imagine all of these people here being in the same room at the same time, but we have the internet, so it doesn’t need to be like that right? I think the kind of North South divide isn’t going to be fixed by an expensive train line that only goes to Birmingham, I don’t see that happening I don’t see it happening under the governments and HS2, I don’t see it happening under any government that exists as we know it.

Increasing economy, what does that mean? More money for rich people, and we will still have to pay taxes and they won’t. I can’t see HS2 being a solution to that. I don’t know the actual facts and figures for the money side of things but I do know that it is not economically viable. For example ‘X’ is how much a ticket is going to cost, and all of the primings that they have done for it, all of the money it will generate for the government despite the fact HS2 LTD is a private company. Despite it being state managed and state funded it will end up being a private company, getting sold off to someone.

 All of the pricing that HS2 have done, are based on the idea that every train that leaves a station runs on time and is full of people, which is unlikely to happen again after the pandemic and we are going to have to continue distancing from each other for years. The line is going to be finished in between 10 to 17 years time. I think in 17 years time tramlines like this will not be necessary. The technology that was designed for it, even 10 years ago, is not relevant anymore, and it is not going to fix the economy.

 I don’t think that creating jobs for the sake of creating jobs is going to boost the economy, it’s just going to waste peoples time.

 Q: Do we need more elders? I’d like to ask if you agree that we have been crippled by Coronavirus because we have not been able to do actual outreach in village halls, meet and greets ect. In past campaigns like anti-Fracking, Sheffield trees etc, they would hold tea and coffee meetings on the high street. Have you got any ideas on how we can combat this?

  Goldilocks - Do we need more elders? Absolutely. The more people the better, whether that’s young people or older people, its still people. I do think that outreach on the hughstreet is something that is very familiar to people and its good to do that because its something that people don’t feel as alienated from. Whereas, there’s people on the high street that would never dream in their lives of coming and moving to a camp and eating Vegan food. But they might want to take a flyer and come to a meeting where they can talk to their parish council for example. All of those things are important, and if its what gets people to start thinking about these big ideas around self organisation and how they can make changes then that’s important.

 I think a lot of that work was done before the direct action campaigns and the anti-HS2 campaigns started, and maybe it has dropped down a little bit, but without that work being done in the first place I’m not sure if people would have picked up the work around buildings camp and stuff so much. I’d love to see what the anti-Fracking campaign worked, I think that would be an interesting conversation to have.

 Also, I think when we think about the campaign its always about stopping HS2, or being as much of a nuisance as possible. Where I see it, its about stopping HS2 very firmly. But communities don’t necessarily need that, if someone is grieving because they have just lost their only access to nature then they need someone to support them through that, and that is what community is as well. That’s what outreach is for, about building networks and communities. Even if people don’t come and move to camps or start stopping HS2, it means that two people in a village meet up and have a cup of tea and decide to get an allotment or something. Anything else which is not directly organising against HS2 is still important and I guess if we can facilitate that in some way then that’s really cool.

 Q: What can someone who can’t go to the camps do to support the work against HS2?

 Goldilocks - Things like this, coming to these talks is really important because we can share what we know about the campaign, the camp side of things. So thank you for attending in the first place. Inviting your friends to these things as well, is really important. Spreading the word as far as possible. Supporting other campaigns. I don’t know where you’re from but there’s things like this happening all around the country and around the world and building bigger awareness and bigger networks of things that are happening can be important. In Leeds at the moment there’s an Armley trees campaign, so network rail want to fell some trees in Armley, and there’s somebody trying to organise people to come for years and hasn’t really gotten anywhere, so if you really do want to do something then maybe get in touch with them. Theres also things like the Stonehenge action group, camps that have been set up and there’s protests happening against Leeds Bradford Airport. Theres a group called GALBER?? who are a group against Leeds Bradford Airport, who are working with XR Leeds to do some really cool stuff. Theres coal mines that are being built. Well, I say being built, they’re being dug and they need support.

 Other things as well, we have a fundraiser, there’s currently a centralised group fundraiser. ((add in link)). Money donations and things like that. Doing artwork and stuff like that, doing reading or bits of research or writing. Theres an amazing website called TINAR.COM, who are trying to gather bits of work or bits of writing, rants, comics and things from basically anyone who wants to speak or share something. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about HS2, it doesn’t necessarily have to be directly related to this but you could write some things for that. Maybe having a read of that and thinking about if you’d want to write anything. Petitions and stuff sometimes help. Writing to MP’s, but I think this is something that Swampy said, talking to the BBC after an eviction he said ‘we’ve got to do this sort of stuff because would you be here if it wasn’t for people like me doing stuff like this - If i had written to my MP you wouldn’t have come along with your cameras today, I don’t think so’.

 Q: Why is the government pushing ahead with HS2 when we have successfully conducted business across the country without travelling, why can’t they stop this going ahead?

 Goldilocks - I think I’ve mostly covered this but I think by this point it is just a vanity project. Its peak, look at this amazing thing that we are going to build even though we don’t have to. It’s the same reason rich people have lawns, because they can have unproductive land, or they can have something pointless just because they can. Also, have you ever tried to tell a tory not to do something? They just want to do it more, they’re just children.

 Q: What can we do to stop HS2 from our sofas?

 Goldilocks - I’m happy to put some links to some cool stuff in the chat at the end of this that might be useful for people to get involved (LINK BELOW). Also organising actions in your own town or city, even if you can’t come to the camps, that’s really important.

 Q: Are you in camps right now and how are you coping with Covid?

 Goldilocks - I am not in a camp right now, I am in a squat instead, which is quite nice because its a little bit warmer and a little bit drier. We have had some concerns with Covid. Obviously now its Winter everyone is a lot closer together and being indoors together more, and its a bit riskier, especially with the other strain and another wave happening and stuff, and businesses being open and then closed again. But in the summer it wasn’t that much of a worry. Maybe we should have taken it a bit more seriously but it didn’t feel like there was anyone with Covid which is really strange to say. I wouldn’t recommend coming down if you have had contact with loads of people or if you are vulnerable yourself, it just wouldn’t be particularly safe.

 If people do want to come down then just keep your distance, bring a mask, just be really sensible about it. Think about who you’ve got to go back to and who you hang out with before you come down. You’ve got to remember these camps are peoples homes, people are in a bubble, a household, and you have to be careful with that.

 I know Ross from Jones Hill was live-streaming this morning and he was talking about the impact on actual HS2 workers, and what risks the things that HS2 are doing pose on them. So, people coming into the site but they weren’t wearing masks and they weren’t keeping their distance from people in their own workplace and people are being so flippant about it, and just treating people like they are disposable, its not on. There was a weird period of time after the eviction of Harvil Road when their way of dealing with us was just saying ‘two metres, two metres,’ and threatening to take their masks off. It was like, who are you? It was just really bad. Really bad practice.

 Q: Do you have any kind of NVDA code when it comes to dealing with the police?

 Goldilocks - So for those of you that don’t know, NVDA stands for Non-Violent Direct Action. I’m probably not the best person to speak about this. I guess it really depends on the parameters. So say there was an action happening and we’d discuss the parameters and what people are comfortable with. So IF there were people who wanted to organise an action, it would probably be best to discuss whether its going to be a non-violent actin or not. Or maybe what their plan is for dealing with the Police. I know in some groups like Youth Strike and XR that I’ve worked with its been like, okay there is someone with an assigned role to be a police liaison, or assigned the role of being a go to wellbeing support person. But it doesn’t feel like that on the campaign, people fulfil the role that they are comfortable with. If you are doing work with your camp or your affinity group then things happen quite organically.

 I have got a lovely bond with my affinity group, and we are starting to understand each others boundaries, and what people are comfortable with. Like non-violence or how we’re going to deal with the Police, or what support we do and don’t want. But if you’re new to the campaign, don’t have the expectations that everyone is going to act the same as they have in other activist spaces. It can be very strange for me when people assume that other people are cool with being around the Police, or that they want to do only non-violent stuff. It feels very strange and there’s a lot to unpack there I think.

 In terms of dealing with the Police, they’ll turn up and they’ll probably just be really horrible to you and then it’ll be really difficult not to be really horrible back to them, and some people have more restraint than others. Some think that others should have more self restraint than they do. But a lot of silly arrests happen because people shout at the Police, but the arrests wouldn’t happen if the Police weren’t there in the first place. Thats what it comes down to. In terms of dealing with the Police, Police station support wise, there’s generally always going to be someone to pick you up from the station, and we try to make sure people are really looked after when that happens. That can be really stressful times for people, especially if its violent or someones first arrest. After the eviction, it was nice, everyone came out of court and everyone was there to greet them.

 If you want to run NVDA training at a camp I’m sure nobody would be opposed to that, its a tactics amongst other tactics and shouldn’t be seen as more or less valuable. It depends on situation as well. If you were wanting to do an action that involved lots of families or lots of locals then probably going in with balaclavas and bolt cutters wouldn’t be the way to go.

If anyone has anymore questions that would be good, if not i have a few more notes of things I wanted to talk about, I don’t know if I’ve said them all or not.

 So, HS2 is planned to come up to Leeds. There will be a second phase of building starting sometime soon. I know they have started some pre-emptive works around Hebden Bridge, a lot of the land they take is not directly on the line. But yeah, HS2 is coming up to Leeds. IF people want to build a camp, now is the time for the reasons i’ve mentioned of Hambi and Germany worked so well is because they have ages to build the camps and establish these communities. They really rally up support from other activists for their camps.

 So yeah if you want to look at setting up a camp that could be good. Especially in South Leeds. I’ve looked at the map and it looks like its all going to be decimated, its very bad to see. It ties in quite nicely with a lot of other movements and I don’t know I feel that Leeds has a very strong activist network, especially in the time that I was there. It would be really cool to have a camp up that way.

 Q: What was your favourite camp?

 Jones Hill, its got to be. I moved to Jones Hill in June or July, and I was like right, I’ll be here for two weeks until eviction and then i’ll move onto something else, and in October, the eviction happened so it’s just lovely to have this amazing community there over summer and be in these beautiful woodlands. There was one camp down the road and you could just pop there for the day and do some painting, then come back up to see my friends and hang out. We ended up with 11 or 12 treehouses. You would go up to everyones treehouses and you could tell who’s it was just by how it was decorated. People put so much time and energy into building that camp. Even when we felt that eviction was imminent, we still did the washing up and stuff. Still trying to just keep being people. It was just a really nice summer. In the winter its obviously a lot colder and there’s no leaves on the trees. I visited the other day and they’ve built a little barn out of an old theatre set and its got a really good woodturner in there. The people there are really solemn and hardworking,  and they’ve been nailing it with all the ecology stuff. There was one or two people working on the ecology things, and they basically bought the woodland a few more months because they were doing so much for the bats.

 Q: Do you have a link to maps that show the route of HS2?

 Goldilocks - Not ones that I can give you.

 (Link to map posted in webinar chat - **COPY IN LINK**)

 I’d love to hear a little bit more about Kirkstall Valley Farm and why they’ve decided to do this series of webinars, it seems like a nice idea.

 Seren - I’ve joined the steering group, so they’re a CSA so they’re a community start up Agricultural project to benefit the community directly. So, they’re all crowdfunded or self funded. They’re going to hire and grower this year and then distribute veg boxes to the local area, but they’re in conjunction with Kirkstall Valley Development Trust, which is another community project which is working towards creating more biodiversity, wildlife and community organisation in Kirkstall. So, three days a week the give out food packages, they run stuff like kids clubs, looking after kids when families can’t do.

 What I’m working with them on is doing more stuff to link them to the Roots Project, as well as stuff for people who have to shield or distance to have some integration into ecology and environmental teachings. So we’re using that as a fundraising platform for refugees and migrants living at Abigail House at the moment.

Goldilocks - That sounds really cool. Some of my friends are trying to get a bit of land at the minute to start something, and seeing all of these other projects happen, we could do something like that one day, and just start really cool things. The furthest we got with growing things on this campaign was we got two different evictions of this tomato plant being moved from squat to squat, from bit of land to bit of land. Then it ended up on a broken canal boat, and then we moved before we were able to get the plants but it would be good to have some stability to grow stuff at some point. It would be really fun.

 Seren - I think its really important. Especially with stuff like HS2 happening, stuff that’s good for the land as well, not just relying on mass agriculture.

 Goldilocks - Being in a community is such an empowering thing and its one more step away from being self-sufficient. Even if you go skipping you’re still living in the ashes of capitalism I guess in some way, or even if you’re not buying stuff all the time its still one further step removed and an extra skill you can bring to this fight in being able to grow stuff.

 This has been really lovely, its been good to catch up and stuff as well.

[didanawisgi]

The Question Of Psalm 104

Written by Alden Bacuzmo

“This story begins in ancient Egypt with Amenhotep IV. (l350-1334 BC). He has been identified as uniquely the first "monotheist" worshipping his single god "Aten", the Sun. Aten, similar to the ancient Egyptian god "Ra", was represented by the sun-disk, was the creator of all life, and was a god of goodness and divine benevolence. Amenhotep was so sincere that he changed his name to Akenaten [also spelled Iknaten].

In each of the three divisions of the Egyptian empire Egypt, Kush, and Syria, he built a temple consecrated to Aten. He took up residence in a city he had built called Akhetaten, known today as the Tell el-Armarna in the southeastern part of Egypt. Aten represented a universal power that paralleled the Pharaoh's growing power over the known world. Akenaten actually paid individuals to proselytize his cult of Aten. However, the faith never became popular.

During Akenaten's reign, Egypt's power significantly declined. When Akenaten died, his temples were destroyed. Among the few remains of his cult were hymns found written in the tombs of the proselytes at Amarna. The longest of these hymns to Aten is noted to be similar to the Psalm 104, written for the Bible hundreds of years later. There are a few possibilities for how this might have come about. It is fairly certain that, even previous to the time of Moses, fleeing slaves in groups of various sizes, had wondered into the Sinai Peninsula. As the emigrants walked, they sang to keep up their spirits. One of the songs they sang may have been Akenaten's hymn to the Sun. Oral tradition could have perpetuated the elements of his hymn for 600 years. For those who are unconvinced about the similarity of these two documents, Jacob's descent into Egypt, described in the Bible, recalls the Hyksos dynasties, where the Iron age Canaanites conquered Egypt and ruled for several generations as Pharaohs. When the descendants of the original rulers regrouped and repelled the Hyksos, both the conquerors and the large Semitic population that had entered as migrant workers before and during the foreign dynasty were either driven out or placed in bondage. This was the beginning of the 400 years of slavery. Through those who were driven out, Hymns to the Sun were introduced into Canaan. Probably due to this, worship of the Sun is forbidden in the Bible.

Another possibility stems from the evidence of Persian names in residence at Amarna. These were literate people who may have transcribed Akenaten's poems. This would have placed the essence of this poem in Babylon, a world center for literature, by 600BC when the Jews were in exile, and the early Hebrew bible was assembled. Dr. H. Brugsch collected quite a few epithets and quotes from Egyptian scripture around fifty years ago and published them in his work, 'Religion and Mythology'. Much of Psalm 104 is vaguely similar to Egyptian Hymns, such as the following hymn to Ra from the Papyrus of Hu-nefer:

O thou who art crowned king amongst the gods...

[Here is expressed the polytheistic point of view]

Thou art the lord of heaven, Thou art the lord of the earth; Thou art the creator of those who dwell in the heights, and Those who dwell in the depths. Thou art the One God who came into being at the beginning of time.

[monotheism was beginning throughout the world with the idea of the "God of Gods", and is consistent with the concept of G-d in the Pentateuch]

Thou didst create the earth, Thou dist fashion the man, Thou didst make the watery abyss of the sky... Thou dost travel across the sky with thy heart swelling in joy; The great deep of heaven is content thereat..."

"the watery abyss of the sky" is similar to the Sumerian creation story, of 1500 years previous, where gods parted the water to create the world with a third god [see History begins at Sumer, by Noah Kramer]. This idea is repeated in Genesis with the actions of one God. The idea of water being above and below solves the enigma of where rain comes from. The Veda, Hindu scripture, considered this Sumerian story but concluded: "who cares" and left the process of creation unanswered.

Attributing the Lord with the characteristics of the sun. The Psalm 104 starts out attributing the Lord with the characteristics of the Sun. This is found nowhere else in the Scriptures.

[2. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain. 3. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters. Who maketh the clouds his chariot; Who walketh on the wings of the wind; Who maketh winds his messengers; Flames of fire his ministers.]

A search for references in the Bible to the sun is within our grasp. You may skim over the following scripture of the types of references to the Sun:

* The sun as a symbol of permanency and endurance: Psalms 72:5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. Psalms 72:17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and [men] shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. Psalms 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.

* The Sun must not become an object of worship: Deuteronomy 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to [even] all the host of heaven. Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, [were] about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. 8:17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen [this], O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?

* The sun was darkened at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, and will be darkened again at the time of his return to judge the world: Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. Mark 13:24 (But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,) Mark 13:25 (And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.) Mark 13:26 (And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.) Mark 13:27 (And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.)

* Sunlight as splendor: "Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, And array yourself with glory and beauty." [Job 40:10] "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear." [Matthew 13:43]

* Speaking of Jesus when He was with Moses and Elijah in the mount with His disciples: "And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." [Matthew 17:2]

* Paul in talking about what he saw on the road to Damascus, and learned that He was seeing Jesus at the right hand of the 'Majesty' of God: "...at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me." [Acts 26:13]

* In describing the One like the Son of Man, John in Revelation says this: "He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength." [this is similar to a typical Egyptian sun poem] [Revelation 1:16] "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." [Revelation 21:23] "And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever." [Revelation 22:5]

Only in Psalm 104 could the chosen description of the Lord be construed as that of the sun..

The eight points of comparison: Psalm 104 and the Hymn to Aten The following text in [parenthesis] is from Psalm 104 while the remainder is quoted translation by J.H.Breasted, from Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. II, Chapters 5 & 6.. and "The Rock Tombs of Tell el Armarna", Archeological Survey, Egyptian Exploration Society (6vol, 1903) N. de G. Davis.

The tradition of Egyptian, Hindu, and Hebrew cultures starts the day at sunset. Today the day normally starts at sunrise.

Akenhaten's Hymn to the Sun When thou settest in the western horizon of the sky, [1st comparison, verse 20] The earth is in darkness like the dead. They sleep in their chambers Their heads are wrapped up. Their nostrils are stopped And none see the other. While all their things are stolen Which are under their heads And they know it not Every Lion cometh forth from his den [2nd comparison, verse 21] All Serpents they sting Darkness The world is in silence. He that made them resteth in his horizon.

[22. The Sun riseth, they get them away, and lay them down in their dens.] [23. Man goeth forth unto his work And to his labor until the evening.]

Bright is the earth when thou riseth in the horizon. [3rd comparison, verse 22] When thou shinest as Aten by day Thou drivest away the darkness. When thou sendest forth thy rays The two lands (Egypt) are in daily festivity. Awake and standing upon their feet When thou has raised them up. Their limbs bathed they take their clothing Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning Then in all the world they do their work.. [4th comparison, verse 23] All cattle rest upon their pasturage The trees and the plants flourish

[12. By them the birds of the heavens have their habitation. They sing among the branches.]

The birds flutter in their marshes, [5th comparison, verse 12] Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee. All sheep dance on their feet. All winged things fly, They live when thou hast shone upon them.

[25. Yonder is the sea great and wide. Wherein are things creeping innumerable. Both small and great beasts.] [26. There go the ships.]

The barges sail upstream and downstream alike. [6th comparison, verse 26] Every highway is open because thou dawnest. The fish in the river leap before thee. Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea. Creator of the germ in woman Maker of the seed in man Giving life to the son in the body of his mother Soothing him that he may not weep. Nurse (even) in the womb.

[29. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled. Thou takest away their breath and they die. And return to their dust.]

Giver of breath to animals, every one that he maketh When he cometh forth from the womb [7th comparison, verse 29] On the day of their birth Thou openest his mouth in speech

[27. These wait all for thee. That thou may give them food in due season.]

Thou suppliest his necessities. [8th comparison, verse 27] When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell Thou givest him breath there-in to preserve him alive. When thou hast brought him together to (the point of) bursting it in the egg To chirp with all his might, He goeth about on his two feet When he hath come forth therefrom.

How manifold are thy works, They are hidden from before (us) O Sole God, whose powers no other possesseth. Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart While thou wast alone Man, all cattle, large and small All that are upon the earth That go about on their feet (All) That are on high That fly with their wings The foreign countries, Syria and Kush, The land of Egypt Thou settest every man into his place Thou suppliest their necessities Everyone has his possessions And his days are reckoned The tongues are divers in speech Their forms likewise and their skins are distinguished (For) thou makest different the strangers.

There is no doubt that the evolution of ideas throughout the history of human endeavors is a combination of past knowledge and original thinking. However, as short as sixty years ago, there is little doubt that the archaeologists who discovered the similarities in ancient texts were astounded since they had been raised to believe in the Bible as the "only word of God". The importance that The Measure of Truth assigns to this study is not to denigrate any of these early beliefs, but to examine why the Biblical scripture has lasted to be arguably the most read and influential literature in the history of mankind.” - Alden Bacuzmo

[roses-ruby]

Musty anon, as much as I disagree with SA regime you have to admit BTS doesn't have the power to reject not only the SA government but Korea's as well. If you're mad about it you're mad at the wrong people. And bts has said that they want to go to Africa. Why are you acting like BTS has the power to veto decisions and do what they want?

You make a point but there’s a lot more to it hun. The media likes to make SA look like some kind of lone wolf monster but the truth is, first world countries have equal blood on their hands. 

TW:// Unsettling topics

Did anyone learn about operation phoenix? Ya’ll remember what U.S. soldiers did to the women of Okinawa? Kids are in concentration camps as we speak, children are dying. A state just banned abortion for rape and incest victims. What about this fucking thing. Does anyone here remember Nelson Mandela’s quote about the US? They are going to Canada right? Let’s talk about how Canada supplied Saudi with 15 billion dollars worth of weapons. Let’s talk about the cultural genocide of indigenous people in Canada happening right now. I like how these countries have cleaned up the glass door of their image, bright enough for people to think the whole place is clean. Every single place they are visiting, I can name 100 things wrong there. Shit the place BTS live in is pretty shitty too. should we uhh send them to the moon?? that way they can never promote a violent regime uwu

They want to talk about violent regimes? I just know the people saying BTS are terrible for ‘promoting’ SA use Amazon, a place that literally optimizes slave labor. Want to talk about violent regimes? That apple you’re eating? A migrant worker probably bled to death picking it for you. The clothes you’re wearing? aha heard about something called fast fashion and its consequences?

I dislike SA myself. I’m a law student of all things, I know everything about everyone. But tearing up a fucking boy band for the bare minimum??? Do you actually think you’re being woke and edgy with shit like that??? We’re living under a capitalist regime, we’re all suffering and you want to spend your energy on a boy band lmao they are acting like BTS went to Saudi to wave their flag around a crowd of people asking them to submit or suffer for the rest of eternity. like BTS were singing love and praise to the government at their concert but somehow everyone still hates SA so I wonder what went wrong :( it’s kinda like…BTS are just musicians with no say in actual politics…who would have thought.

What we saw in Saudi thanks to BTS is that there is more to it than an oppressive government. There are women and girls with amazing personalities, kids who cry over a Korean band, men dancing in their thwabs and people just all coming together to enjoy music. That they are human beings just trying to enjoy the things we get to, that they aren’t apart of the fucking government just like we aren’t of our evil ones.

It’s funny to me, that musty is this dissatisfied with what BTS does but are coming on a BTS centered blog…for BTS content. So maybe it didn’t hurt your pussy as much as you tried to make it seem, did it musty? You spend your free time reading my stories huh musty 🥺 did CHTMD’s Jimin make you cry too bb? Trying to act woke on a tumblr blog, pressing on your keyboard behind the privilege that is your phone. Embarrassing.

[awed-frog]

If I may ask, what do you think of the whole sea watch 3 mess? And indeed of the whole migrant situation in Italy?

Well - I have messy thoughts about that. Mostly I’m angry, disgusted, worried and pretty hopeless about the whole thing.

As a recap for people who haven’t been following this (complicated stuff ahead, so I don’t claim to be right about everything): 

1) In 1990, the EU decided on how to deal with migrants by drafting the Dublin Regulation, which came into effect in 1997. The idea was charmingly simple: people seeking refuge in Europe should ask for asylum in the first European country they got to. Optimists claim it was difficult back then to imagine any complications, since immigration was very low and European countries still had borders and everything else, but in hindsight, you have to wonder why countries like Italy agreed to this at all. You obviously can’t get to Germany or the UK without crossing through Italy or Spain first, so the Dublin Regulation was bound to cause huge problems. The other ridiculous thing is that the Italian government that signed this was headed by Andreotti, a nearly immortal ghoul princeling who’d been in politics since the 1750s and had been implicated in at least two murders.

(He’d also been found guilty of collaboration with the mafia, but was let go on a technical detail.)

2) In 2011, Muammar Gaddafi, ‘Brotherly Leader’ of Libya, was killed. We still don’t know exactly what went down - more on that in a second - but a general problem the West has in the Middle East and Africa is that we tend to support dictatorts, no matter how brutal, because it’s just easier to do business and get our way with one greedy and corrupt person than it is to deal with an entire Parliament, but the risk we overlook, time and time again, is that all-powerful dictators tend to become more and more ambitious and form their own plans, which may or may not align with Western interests. In the case of Gaddafi, Hilary’s emails (I know, I know) seem to indicate the real reason the West - and particularly France, as in former President Nicholas ‘I’m the son of an immigrant but he was the right kind of immigrant’ Sarkozy - suddenly got annoyed with Gaddafi is that Gaddafi was planning to introduce a new banking system in Africa - a thing that would rival the CFA franc. 

(That’s a currency used in fourteen African countries which is basically a leftover from French colonialism - it’s managed directly from the French Treasury, and that gives France more or less full control of those countries’ economies). 

So anyway, NATO got all tough on Libya, Gaddafi was killed, and as a result Libya is now a failed state with - if that’s possible - more human rights violations than before - particularly relevant for your question is a very harsh treatment of black Africans (down to and including literal ‘slave markets’ where people are bought and sold, also torture camps and everything in between). This happens partly because it’s lucrative af, and partly because there’s been bad blood between ethnic Arabs and black Africans for generations.

So, aynway, that’s the general context. What happened next is what we’ve seen for the last few years - an increase in the number of immigrants coming to Europe, therefore an increase of the number of deaths in the Mediterranean, therefore widespread panic leading to 

immoral and unethical deals with people like Erdogan (I say ‘people’, lol)

a sharp rise of the extreme right and 

a general inability to welcome those desperate enough to come here and offer them a decent life.

Most recently, Italy’s far-right Interior Minister decided to close down the harbours to prevent NGOs-operated rescue ships from docking. The Sea-Watch 3, which was carrying 42 migrants, decided to ignore this and go to Lampedusa, in Sicily - the closest and safest harbour. Now its captain has been arrested, but it’s unclear what will happen next.

If you’re asking me what do I make of all this - I don’t know. It’s a mess. 

For instance, there are studies showing that if NGO ships patrol international waters, the crossing gets more dangerous, because people smugglers don’t bother finding good ships - they know they just have to get migrants off the coast of Libya, and someone will pick them up. This means more risk for the immigrants themselves, and more money for the smugglers. But on the other hand, no rescue ships there means no help at all, so if something goes wrong, those people are doomed. The same ‘yes but’ applies to many other issues concerning migration. Like, a lot of migrants coming in (and these are people who were left with nothing, including ID) means more of them disappearing into thin air, because of the badly-organized and overcrowded camps. We know thousands of them end up exploited by criminal gangs - in Italy, a particularly brutal business is managed by the Nigerian mafia, which trafficks thousands of women into prostitution and terrifies them into obedience thanks to ‘black magic’, but there’s also agricultural workers, people forced into drug trafficking, kids who end up homeless and so on. Another major problem is that - other than the Syrians - the immigrants who got to Europe over the last decade are difficult to integrate into the legit labour market because they lack the necessary qualifications. Most of the European is now tertiary-based, which means you need some kind of post-high school diploma to do anything, and research shows about half of those coming here didn’t even finish primary school.

(To be very clear: I’m not saying this is in any way their fault, or something that can’t be fixed. But: it does encourage a battle of the have-nots, as people at the bottom - including chunks of the native population, immigrants from Eastern Europe and more recent immigrants from the rest of the world - compete for those few and miserable options open to them, like run-down housing, meagre welfare checks, and a handful of jobs you don’t need qualifications for.)

On top of that, many migrants would need a lot of support, because they escaped from horrific situations - not only those torture camps in Libya, but everything else you can think of: civil wars, political persecution, brutal rapes, whatever - that’s also something that has a cost no one wants to cover. And finally, since coming to Europe is so dangerous, most immigrants tend to be young men on their own - which is exactly the ‘worst’ group of people in any culture.

(Sorry if that sounds bad, what I mean is - we know that for whatever reason, young men everywhere tend to be more reckless than other social groups, and that increases the chance for risky behaviour - especially when the person is not ‘kept in check’ by a well-structured community. Thus, a young man without family or friends is more likely to make stupid or dangerous choices - for himself or others - than, say, a middle-aged father or a young woman.)  

All of this, as daunting as it is, could be solved - after all, this is not an invasion: it’s numbers we can manage - but probably won’t because:

1) There’s some interest in keeping the situation as it is. More migrants means more political success for right-wing and extreme right parties, not to mention huge profits for a lot of people.

2) Right now, the EU can’t agree on anything because of reasons. 

3) Nobody wants to do the right thing, ie treat Middle Eastern and African countries with a modicum of respect and actually support them and their development instead of propping up whatever strongman is convenient and robbing their citizens of whatever isn’t nailed down.

4) The countries on the EU borders have their own issues and right now it’s very hard to imagine those issues ever going away. Like, under many respects Italy’s basically a failed state that relies on the goodwill of half its citizens to keep trudging forward. It never rooted out clientelism, corruption, or tax evasion - plus, it still hasn’t defeated its own mafias, and despite an exceedingly brave and dedicated bunch of policemen and judges (plus all those ordinary citizens risking their necks every day by saying no and living an honest life), the battle against foreign mafias (like the Albanians, and more recently the Nigerians) is probably a task beyond its means.

So, well - sorry this turned into a novel. I guess what I think is - I admire people like Sea-Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete and everyone else who volunteers and fights for the most vulnerable, and I think the current government is a disgrace, but ultimately immigration is a political problem whose only solution is the usual solution to everything else: more courage, more competence, more transparency; less inequality, less greed, less corruption. More democracy, and a democracy operating without the (overt and covert) influence of powerful lobbies. Less support to dictators, fair wages for workers and fair prices for raw materials - even if that includes higher prices for Western consumers. And, above all, more regulations and less power to corporations and stakeholders.

Very few people actually want to leave their homes, but if we keep forcing them out, then they’ll keep fleeing - with all the consequences that entails.  

[southeastasianists]

A fever. Shallow breathing. Racked by coughing. In May and June 2019, at least 15 Batek indigenous people of mainland Malaysia’s Kelantan state died with such symptoms. Some perished in the rainforest that had always sheltered their people, others in a settlement surrounded by oil palm plantations. A few passed away in hospital after the health crisis became known to the government.

Orang Asli, the indigenous peoples of mainland Malaysia, number less than 200,000 — under 1% of the country’s population. They include about 2,000 members of the Batek (also spelled Bateq) language group, who tend to have dark skin and curly hair. DNA studies indicate a Batek “deep ancestry” of at least 50,000 years in the region.

Dating back to post-WW2 counterinsurgency measures, Malaysian government policy has forced most Orang Asli into settlements, usually with dire results. But Bateks are some of the last roving forest foragers in the world.

With mainland Malaysia severely deforested in recent decades, Bateks now depend on protected forests, particularly Taman Negara (the National Park, their ancestral land) where they gather plants and hunt park-limited types of animals. They help prevent poaching, work as guides or build park structures. They also engage in unauthorised gathering of valuable fragrant gharu resin.

As many as 300 semi-nomadic Bateks are based near Kelantan State’s Kuala Koh entrance to Taman Negara in a small settlement of government-provided buildings and their own bamboo/tarp lean-tos. Except for the park access, the settlement is surrounded by the monoculture of erosion-prone Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) oil palm plantations.

At Kuala Koh, the Bateks were not isolated from other communities, including Indonesian migrant oil palm and rubber laborers. It is not a particularly remote area. When I visited in 2008 while researching my book “The Wind in the Bamboo” it was only a 2 hour drive from the busy town of Gua Musang.

I sought out Chinloy, a woman who as a teenager in 1975 single-handedly shifted anthropology’s gender preconceptions (“men hunt, women gather”) when American field workers Kirk and Karen Endicott observed her skill at blowpipe hunting. In addition to their gender egalitarianism, Bateks are anthropologically significant for having a culture of nonviolence.

When I met Chinloy she was a mother of eight, including girls who hunted in the park. Batek students went to school in an oil palm workers’ village and returned home to the edge of the forest in the afternoon. I wrote that “the children seemed well-fed and well-dressed.”

Colin Nicholas, director of the Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) has described the pre-2014 Kuala Koh Bateks as “healthy and happy people. And still in full control of their lives.”

Since then their circumstances have been severely reduced. A government program provided a piped water system that never worked. Catastrophic deforestation-related flooding in 2014-15 badly affected the river-dependent Bateks. According to COAC, “Their physical and mental health declined rapidly after that. And never really recovered.”

The Kuala Koh park entrance was described on TripAdvisor in 2018 as “dreary miles of oil palm plantations, unending… The river is muddy, forests disturbed…A heavy and oppressive atmosphere of decay”. As of January 2019, most of the children have dropped out of school because leaving their families for boarding schools has become the only option.

Dr Steven Chow of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations Malaysia was quoted in The Guardian about his April 2019 visit to the Kuala Koh Bateks: “Their water supply was virtually non-existent, sanitation was bad and they were suffering from all sorts of infections, showing their immune systems were very vulnerable”. The Bateks complained of an itching skin infection in March-April 2019.

When word of Batek deaths emerged in June, the press proclaimed a “mysterious disease” as if “the jungle” had perhaps produced some Ebola-like virus. Then pneumonia was identified as cause of death in some cases.

On 17 June, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad issued the official diagnosis of a measles outbreak. Nothing tropical “jungle” about that, just unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children and adults with compromised immunity exposed to measles and succumbing to related pneumonia.

Although some Orang Asli have traditional beliefs opposed to piercing skin, Kuala Koh’s 61.5% initial vaccination rate and 30% second dose makes it seem likely that lack of access and medical staff neglecting follow-up inoculations were more of a factor than Batek reluctance to get the shots. Malaysia’s overall measles vaccination rate had sunk to 89% in 2018, when nearly 2,000 cases of the illness, with 6 deaths, were reported.

It seems that a variety of factors contributed to low immunity: scarcity of protein and other food shortages, contaminated water. Not only were the Kuala Koh Bateks living in proximity to the FELDA oil palm plantations and rubber plantations with agricultural chemical runoff affecting soil and water, there were iron and manganese mining operations nearby. A manganese mine was still functioning despite having its licence revoked in 2017 for environmental noncompliance.

The official measles diagnosis followed the Malaysian government’s denial that environmental problems were involved in the deaths. Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail stated that a water sample test found no pollution from agriculture or mining.

Scepticism remains about those results. When local charity group Sahabat Jariah first brought outside attention to the Kuala Koh Batek deaths, it cited a university study of “the water in the surrounding rivers” which found “all sources of water are contaminated with metals, arsenic and agricultural chemicals.”

The Association for the Protection of Natural Heritage of Malaysia filmed some Kuala Koh Batek elder women, including Chinloy, speaking about the illness. One of them (as translated in The Malaysian Insight) said, “Before logging and mining commenced, nobody was ill or dead. Young people have died, babies in the womb also died.”

Chinloy’s husband Hamden Keladi, a respected community leader and three of their children, Laila, Romi and Din, died in the outbreak.

“I don’t know what has befallen me. I’ve never seen something like this before,” she told The Star newspaper, “I cry. I watch their graves.” Chinloy mentioned their living conditions: “When we don’t have water, we will use whatever we can get, including run-offs from an oil palm plantation.”

The Bateks clinging to the edge of the park are literally marginalised people. An 11 June COAC statement called the Batek deaths “a direct outcome of what happens when an indigenous community’s rights to the customary lands are not recognised, and the land destroyed and depleted in the name of progress and development.”

Orang Asli customary land rights are supposed to be protected by law but are instead constantly disregarded by Kelantan’s timber, agribusiness and mining interests. Temiar Orang Asli in the Gua Musang area have resorted to a series of blockades to prevent logging. In January 2019, Malaysia’s federal government filed a court case against the Kelantan state government for its failure to preserve Temiar traditional land from deforestation by plantation companies.

Now Bateks are returning home from hospital stays equipped with disposable masks. A charity announced they’ll furnish the Kuala Koh settlement with a solar powered water treatment system. Concerned Malaysians donated food and other supplies. The standard of healthcare will improve for a while.

Such sympathetic attention follows well-publicised Orang Asli deaths, like the five Temiar children who died in 2015 escaping one of the abusive boarding schools Malaysia still inflicts on indigenous children. This is a “vanishing races” syndrome in which land rights are never really respected and those considered fated to vanish are rarely consulted as equals.

Instead of sporadic, shocked attention driven by avoidable deaths, Malaysia’s Orang Asli communities need actual political and economic empowerment for their men and women. The Bateks, indigenous people of particular importance for their gender egalitarianism, nonviolence and botanical knowledge, must be included in all decisions affecting their lives.

Hamden Keladi told researcher Ivan Tacey back in 2008, “Our children when they live in the forest know how to live in the forest. They know how to hunt and find medicine in the forest”. With their expertise, the Bateks should be involved in the management of Taman Negara and supervise reforestation of their adjacent ancestral lands.