#also the wars in Congo are killing them

[roomba-with-knives-taped-to-it]

May I tell you about the matriarchal polyamorous lesbian ape that is now considered to be the boat intelligent nonhuman primate and also our closest known relative (tied with chimpanzees)

Everyone meet the bonobo

They live in female lead societies where lesbian sex is more common than heterosexual. This is because they use sex as a tool to deescalate situations, apologize, and also simply for recreation. They are also the only animal besides ourselves that have been observed tongue kissing and giving oral sex (in all variations of pairings)

Because they have natural deescalation tendencies, they are considered to be far less aggressive than their counterparts, the chimpanzee.

Bonobos have also been known to share food when there is no clear benefit for the sharer, come to the aid of humans when they sound distressed, and even comfort crying humans until they seem visibly better

They are also the only other species on earth to use midwives!

Anyway, I think they’re neat and I’m upset I didn’t know more about them until recently

. . . .

[a-very-tired-jew]

Columbia University's Joint Anti-Israel Groups Go Mask Off

Hey, remember how Columbia University had students in encampments protesting for months? Remember how their SJP, BDS movement, and associated groups endorsed terrorism, violence, and "resistance by any means"?

I remember. Well their joint SJP and BDS group called CU Apartheid Divest just posted something to their Instagram that shows it has never been about Palestine or Palestinians.

Fig. 1. CU Apartheid Divest group, made of SJP, BDS, and other groups openly admits that they are anti-Western Civilization

Read that again.

"We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."

That's a wild statement to make.

So what are they posting about suddenly that has them revealing their intent for their actions since October?

Bangladesh.

The CU Activists are attempting to liken October 7th attack by Hamas with the Bangladesh student protests. Bangladesh had a quota based employment system that students were protesting, the government responded violently, and everything escalated from there due to years of government corruption, violence, and economic turmoil. This was a protest turned revolution within a country by its own people. This was not a government run by a recognized terrorist group attacking another country, killing civilians, and taking them hostage.

However, the differences and reasons between Hamas's actions and the actions of the students in Bangladesh do not matter to the anti-Zionist Activist.

We've seen this repeatedly from these activists that they will try to liken their movement and/or attach it to other conflicts around the world. Many of these conflicts differ greatly from the Israel/Hamas war as they are internal issues with internal actors being involved.

Bangladesh is students protesting against their government.

Sudan is going through a civil war between various factions.

The Congo has been experiencing decades long violence as various militias fight each other for control.

Yet I've see anti-Israel protestors tag their posts with Free Bangladesh, Free Congo, Free Sudan even though these conflicts differ in origin and parties involved.

If you continue through the IG post you'll see very little information as to the cause of the protest/revolution in Bangladesh and continued attempts to coopt the actions for their movement.

Fig. 2. CU Apartheid Divest group tries to liken its student movements to the student protests in Bangladesh and calls to escalate.

I can't help but think that the CU student activists yearn to be oppressed in a way that would allow them to respond like revolutions and protests around the world. The way they speak and write exudes a yearning for violence. In Fig. 2. they detail the actions taken by students against an authoritarian government that has actively shot and killed protestors. Whereas here in the USA the students were forcibly removed from campuses, experienced some police violence, were arrested, and then released. No curfews with a shoot on sight policy were imposed here in the USA in response to college campus protests.

Fig. 3. CU Apartheid Divest classifies this as an Intifada and likens it to Hamas's attack.

Notice in Fig. 3. that they're trying to call the actions in Bangladesh an Intifada. Not an intifada, but an Intifada which is a proper noun with its own connotation. I know I may be a stickler here, but if I see that word capitalized then I know it's referencing the First and Second Intifadas, and I know that these student groups have been calling for a Third one under the guise of "Global Intifada". They also say that Westerners need to escalate and are "obligated" to do so.

Fig. 4. CU Apartheid Divest uses tankie terminology, refers to Bangladeshis as martyrs, and calls this part of the Global Intifada.

The terminology in Fig. 4. also shows how much the Free Palestine student movement in the USA is not actually about Palestine, Palestinians, or any other movement it tries to attach itself to. These are tankies as indicated by the use of "comrades" and they are wholly opposed to Western Civilization. They genuinely state that their movement should violently escalate here in the USA and that they should be prepared for "sacrifices". This language when coupled with the use of Intifada is alarming as it appears that these student activists are preparing to follow in the footsteps of the Second Intifada, or at the very least calling for others to do so.

These students, whom call themselves the Militants of Hind's Hall (seen in the IG post, but not pictured here), are coopting, or attempting to coopt, movements and conflicts from around the world for their own ideals. As these are students in the USA who are arguably experiencing the least amount of oppression when compared to these other conflicts, and are actively attending Ivy League or R1 universities, it can only be assumed that they're yearning to live out their Glorious Revolution fantasy.

I am under no illusion that I understand their reasoning. Are things perfect here in the USA? Of course not, but when compared to the countries that these student protestors are attaching themselves to, we are leaps and bounds better. And if you disagree, then I have to ask, when was the last time we had a curfew with a shoot on sight policy?

Anyone attempting to call this movement and group "peaceful" is naive. They've been telling you for months that they're not peaceful, that their goals are not peaceful, and that the only peace they want is after they commit violence.

The IG link for reference

[starlightshadowsworld]

It's important to recognise that what's happening in Palestine, what we are witnessing and what people are experiencing, are not isolated to Palestine.

You may hear people talk about the war in Sudan, the silent holocaust in Congo.

It's because these and so many more atrocities in the world are linked. They are preperuated by the same systems.

[Video Transcript:

So as a Palestinian when I say Free Palestine, I am not just talking about Palestine. I started nursing school in 2015 at Saint Louis, just a few miles away from where Michael Brown was killed by police.

Being in that city at that time, watching Black Lives Matter being born, stirred up a lot of feelings for me as a Palestinian.

I saw a country justifying a child being murdered by the state, in the street. I saw the people protesting that murder being vilified.

Standing there, protesting, watching a militarised police force with tear gas and rubber bullets matching towards me.

And I thought, this is that.

As a Palestinian to understand what is going on in Palestine is to understand the de facto aphartied that black Americans experience here in the states.

It's not an accident that when my grandfather came here, he was told to sit and the back of the bus. And it's not an accident that he marched with MLK.

It has been black and Palestinian solidarity, and it continues to be black and Palestinian solidarity.

Because yes, Free Palestine is about Palestine ceasefire now and the military occupation of the Palestinian people. It's also about resisting the global colonial hegemonic structure.

Because the shit happening there is happening here. If it isn't Palestinian women and babies being killed by bombs in Gaza, it's black women and babies being killed in American hospitals.

If its not Palestinian girls missing in the rubble. It is missing and murdered indigenous women here in the United States.

The rage I feel when I hear the names Michael Brown and Treyvon Martin is the same rage I feel when I hear the names Shireen Abu Akleh and Ahmad Manasra.

That's not to say that allyship is transactional, it is to say that the only thing we have is each other.

There's a reason that when people ask me about Free Palestine, I will point them to books on Black Lives matter.

When I say Free Palestine, yes I mean Free Palestine but I also mean Black Lives Matter, I also mean abolition now. I also mean reparations, I also mean land back.

This movement cannot lose steam, not just because there is currently a genocide being perpetuated against my people. And every minute we don't do something Palestinian lives are being lost.

But because this is a global struggle for justice. It does not start and end with Palestine, we will not be free until all of us are free.

The world is waking up, there has never been global solidarity for Palestine like this.

And we have them so scared. The violence is so disproportional because we are challenging a global power structure. Don't let the momentum die because this is about all of us.

Ceasefire now.

End the occupation.

But know what I mean when I say, Free Palestine.

End Transcript.]

Books shown in the video:

"When they call you a terrorist a black lives matter memoir" by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & asha bandele.

"Freedom is a constant struggle. Ferguson, Palestine and the foundations of a movement" by Angela Y. Davis

[grugruel]

While we're on the topic of war and genocide

Around 40 thousand Palestinians have been killed so far, and a ceasefire has yet to be granted. The number will continue to grow, which 50% of are children. In fact, every 15 minutes, a child is killed. That's 100 lives prematurely taken every day. Not by sickness or natural causes, but by other human beings. Humans beings who are cornering and targeting civilians. They're being exposed to death and suffering no one ever should be. Isreal is committing war crimes, witholding food and water from the Palestinians, among other things. They are taking their human rights away from them.

Also, please take time out of your day and read up on the silent genocide in Congo. Over 6 million killed in the last decade, over 40 women sexually assaulted every day.

And, lest we forget–there are muslim camps in China. Where they're being beaten and women gang-raped on a daily basis, and that's just scratching the surface.

Edited: The wars in Ukraine and Sudan is still ongoing. Please do not forget about them either.

I know money is not accessible to everyone, but educating yourselves and spreading the word is.

If you have more information to add, or know of other horrible things happening in the world that needs our attention–please do post and tell us about it.

No help is too little, so lets do what we can.

[unsolicited-opinions]

In April of 2024, Luai Ahmed asked an interesting question on Twitter.

You protested and turned the world upside down when 30,000+ Palestinians died in the past 7 months. But remained completely silent when:

400,000 Yemenis were killed

500,000+ Sudanese were killed

500,000+ Somalis were killed

5,400,000+ Congolese were killed

etc.

Why?

If this question was put to #jumblr, I'd expect to see a large number of people saying things like "No Jews, no news," and I suspect that's the point Ahmed was hoping to make.

As an exercise in intellectual honesty, I'd like to take this question at face value (AuDHD here) and attempt to answer it.

For the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume Ahmed was asking this question of US campus protesters advocating for BDS policies towards Israel:

To the extent the US is involved in the wars listed in Ahmed's post, the US is, from the majority perspective, aligned with the "good guys."

The only thing the US could really withdraw from Yemen, Somalia, Congo, and Sudan is humanitarian aid and limited protection from religious extremists. Other than isolationists and nationalists, very few Americans support withdrawing aid to refugees in those countries.

For example, the US is not aligned with the armed Houthi aggressors in the Yemeni civil war and does not financially support them. Their slogan is:

God is the Greatest

Death to America

Death to Israel

A Curse Upon the Jews

Victory to Islam

The US is the largest contributor of humanitarian aid in Yemen. There is little, if any, university involvement in the conflict in Yemen. Any increased support for the Saudi Arabia-backed Yemeni government is fraught.

The US is aligned with AMISOM and the UN in Somalia to provide humanitarian aid to civilians and refugees with over a billion dollars aimed at flood, drought, and famine relief. The US has also made many targeted air strikes against groups like of al-Shabaab, Islamic State and the remnants of Al Qaeda. (Unfortunately, these airstrikes have reportedly resulted in at least 21 non-combatant civilian deaths and 11 injuries.)

The US is the largest source of humanitarian aid in Sudan and funds 80% of the World Food Program. It supports neither side in the war and has undertaken specific measures to promote accountability for the actions committed by the two forces, including imposing visa restrictions and levying economic sanctions against leadership. There is nothing which divestment would accomplish other than hastening starvation and depriving people of shelter and medical aid.

In Congo…that’s a mind-boggling catastrophic miscarriage of colonialism and the Cold War the dimensions of which no one can distill into a slogan or policy position. There is probably nothing and no faction in the Congolese war that protests in the US directed at universities or government entities could effectively support or pressure. What would student protestors be calling for the US to do?

So it makes sense to me why US activists would get involved the conflict between Israel and Hamas, but not these other conflicts.

I appreciate Ahmed's determination to fight antisemitism, but I don't think he's making a particularly good point here.

I object to protestors using falsehoods, disinformation, ignorance, Jewish cosplay, or antisemitic tropes in their protesting - but I don't think their protests are fundamentally illegitimate. They might be wrong, they might be foolish, but not in the way Ahmed seems to suggest.

[philsmeatylegss]

Okay, idk if anyone will see this, but it’s driving me nuts how Zionists are using the situation in Syria to say “why are no pro-Palestine people talking about this? It’s because no Jews are involved.”

No, it’s because western media rarely reports on tragedies and foreign conflict that they can’t make money off of. And, more unfortunately, the media is aware that most westerners don’t care about humanitarian crises that don’t involve them (or their money).

It’s why you hear very little also about the Sudan war, Ethiopian humanitarian crises (especially with Tigrays and other territories and ethnicities), the very active military dictatorship is Burkina Faso, Haiti becoming a failed state and being abandoned by everyone, the (hopefully soon ending) war in Myanmar/Burma, the dictatorships in Eritrea, Venezuela, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Equatorial Guinea, the civil war in the Central African Republic, protests in Georgia, the complete stripping of rights for women in Afghanistan, and the humanitarian crises (other than Sudan, DRC, and Palestine) in so many places including but not limited to South Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, the Rohingya, Venezuela, Central African Republic, Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Lebanon, Mali, and Sahel.

It’s not an antisemitism problem. It’s a problem of westerners not giving a shit about developing countries and conflicts that involve our allies/don’t involve us. Which should make you fucking angry.

Palestine, Sudan, and DRC are the tip of a devastating iceberg that includes the current situation in Syria and thousands of other entries. It’s not a competition.

So instead of complaining about who cares about what, use your platforms to spread information about these events. Don’t complain about certain people not talking about Syria, start posting and talking about Syria.

Or will you just admit you are using humanitarian crises and the devastation of millions to further you opinion?

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are fleeing on top of the millions of Syrian refugees who also have fled in the past years. If that bothers you, talk about them, advocate for them rather than wasting time attacking others for not caring.

Incase anyone is interested in any of the stuff I mentioned above, here’s a few sources:

Syria:

What’s happening in Syria? A simple guide

What’s happening in Syria? How an old conflict in the Middle East erupted again

What's happening in Syria? What to know about the complex, long-simmering civil war

(Video) What is happening in Syria?

Who are the rebels who have seized control of Aleppo, Syria?

Sudan:

Civil War in Sudan

Crisis in Sudan: What is happening and how to help

(Wikipedia) Sudanese civil war (2023–present)

Ethiopia:

Conflict in Ethiopia

Tigray: the war the world forgot

Crisis in Ethiopia: What you need to know and how to help

Desperation in Ethiopia as hunger crisis deepens

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC):

Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo

A guide to the decades-long conflict in DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo crisis, explained

Burkina Faso:

What Burkina Faso’s Tragic History Teaches Us

(Video) Burkina Faso: The World’s Most Neglected War

Once again, Burkina Faso is the world’s most neglected crisis

Haiti:

Haiti crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help

What’s Happening in Haiti? Explainer on Gang Violence, Hunger Crisis and Humanitarian Aid to Civilians

Myanmar/Burma:

Nine Things to Know About Myanmar’s Conflict Three Years On

Myanmar, ravaged by civil war, teeters on the edge of famine

UN accuses Myanmar's military of mass killings, torture since 2021 coup

Eritrea:

(Video) Isaias Afwerki: Dictator who has ruled Eritrea for 31 years

Eritrea: Events of 2022

Venezuela:

Venezuela: Reversing the Slide into Dictatorship

Evidence shows Venezuela’s election was stolen – but will Maduro budge?

Belarus:

After 30 years in power, 'Europe's last dictator' remains firmly in control

Why Belarus is called Europe’s last dictatorship

Turkmenistan:

Here's what it's like inside Turkmenistan, the secretive Asian dictatorship

(Video) The Weirdest Dictatorship on Earth: Turkmenistan

Equatorial Guinea:

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: ‘The government uses violence to dominate through fear’

The politics of autocratic survival in Equatorial Guinea: Co-optation, restrictive institutional rules, repression, and international projection

Central African Republic:

Conflict in the Central African Republic

(Wikipedia) Central African Republic Civil War

Georgia:

Georgia is being rocked by growing protests. Here’s what you need to know

Why protests in the country of Georgia matter

Afghanistan:

Afghanistan: Taliban rule has erased women from public life, sparked mental health crisis

Back to basics: Fighting for women’s rights under the Taliban

South Sudan:

South Sudan Refugee Crisis Explained

Instability in South Sudan

Yemen:

Yemen Crisis Explained

Yemen humanitarian crisis

The Rohingya:

Rohingya Refugee Crisis Explained

Far from the Headlines: Myanmar – The Rohingya crisis

Somalia:

Crisis in Somalia

Somalia: Climate change, conflicts and rising cost fuels humanitarian crisis

Lebanon:

What’s happening in Lebanon

Far from home: inside Lebanon’s displacement crisis

Mali:

Crisis in Mali: What you need to know and how to help

Do not ignore Mali’s multifaceted humanitarian catastrophe

The Sahel:

A call to action: The humanitarian crisis in the Sahel is worsening

Violent Extremism in the Sahel

Responding to neglected crises in the Sahel

[fatehbaz]

hi! SUPER interesting excerpt on ants and empire; adding it to my reading list. have you ever read "mosquito empires," by john mcneill?

Yea, I've read it. (Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914, basically about influence of environment and specifically insect-borne disease on colonial/imperial projects. Kinda brings to mind Centering Animals in Latin American History [Few and Tortorici, 2013] and the exploration of the centrality of ecology/plants to colonialism in Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World [Schiebinger, 2007].)

If you're interested: So, in the article we're discussing, Rohan Deb Roy shows how Victorian/Edwardian British scientists, naturalists, academics, administrators, etc., used language/rhetoric to reinforce colonialism while characterizing insects, especially termites in India and elsewhere in the tropics, as "Goths"; "arch scourge of humanity"; "blight of learning"; "destroying hordes"; and "the foe of civilization". [Rohan Deb Roy. “White ants, empire, and entomo-politics in South Asia.” The Historical Journal. October 2019.] He explores how academic and pop-sci literature in the US and Britain participated in racist dehumanization of non-European people by characterizing them as "uncivilized", as insects/animals. (This sort of stuff is summarized by Neel Ahuja, describing interplay of race, gender, class, imperialism, disease/health, anthropomorphism. See Ahuja's “Postcolonial Critique in a Multispecies World.”)

In a different 2018 article on "decolonizing science," Deb Roy also moves closer to the issue of mosquitoes, disease, hygiene, etc. explored in Mosquito Empires. Deb Roy writes: 'Sir Ronald Ross had just returned from an expedition to Sierra Leone. The British doctor had been leading efforts to tackle the malaria that so often killed English colonists in the country, and in December 1899 he gave a lecture to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce [...]. [H]e argued that "in the coming century, the success of imperialism will depend largely upon success with the microscope."''

Deb Roy also writes elsewhere about "nonhuman empire" and how Empire/colonialism brutalizes, conscripts, employs, narrates other-than-human creatures. See his book Malarial Subjects: Empire, Medicine and Nonhumans in British India, 1820-1909 (published 2017).

---

Like Rohan Deb Roy, Jonathan Saha is another scholar with a similar focus (relationship of other-than-human creatures with British Empire's projects in Asia). Among his articles: "Accumulations and Cascades: Burmese Elephants and the Ecological Impact of British Imperialism." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 2022. /// “Colonizing elephants: animal agency, undead capital and imperial science in British Burma.” BJHS Themes. British Society for the History of Science. 2017. /// "Among the Beasts of Burma: Animals and the Politics of Colonial Sensibilities, c. 1840-1940." Journal of Social History. 2015. /// And his book Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar (published 2021).

---

Related spirit/focus. If you liked the termite/India excerpt, you might enjoy checking out this similar exploration of political/imperial imagery of bugs a bit later in the twentieth century: Fahim Amir. “Cloudy Swords” e-flux Journal Issue #115. February 2021.

Amir explores not only insect imagery, specifically caricatures of termites in discourse about civilization (like the Deb Roy article about termites in India), but Amir also explores the mosquito/disease aspect invoked by your message (Mosquito Empires) by discussing racially segregated city planning and anti-mosquito architecture in British West Africa and Belgian Congo, as well as anti-mosquito campaigns of fascist Italy and the ascendant US empire. German cities began experiencing a non-native termite infestation problem shortly after German forces participated in violent suppression of resistance in colonial Africa. Meanwhile, during anti-mosquito campaigns in the Panama Canal zone, US authorities imposed forced medical testing of women suspected of carrying disease. Article features interesting statements like: 'The history of the struggle against the [...] mosquito reads like the history of capitalism in the twentieth century: after imperial, colonial, and nationalistic periods of combatting mosquitoes, we are now in the NGO phase, characterized by shrinking [...] health care budgets, privatization [...].' I've shared/posted excerpts before, which I introduce with my added summary of some of the insect-related imagery: “Thousands of tiny Bakunins”. Insects "colonize the colonizers". The German Empire fights bugs. Fascist ants, communist termites, and the “collectivism of shit-eating”. Insects speak, scream, and “go on rampage”.

---

In that Deb Roy article, there is a section where we see that some Victorian writers pontificated on how "ants have colonies and they're quite hard workers, just like us!" or "bugs have their own imperium/domain, like us!" So that bugs can be both reviled and also admired. On a similar note, in the popular imagination, about anthropomorphism of Victorian bugs, and the "celebrated" "industriousness" and "cleverness" of spiders, there is: Claire Charlotte McKechnie. “Spiders, Horror, and Animal Others in Late Victorian Empire Fiction.” Journal of Victorian Culture. December 2012. She also addresses how Victorian literature uses natural science and science fiction to process anxiety about imperialism. This British/Victorian excitement at encountering "exotic" creatures of Empire, and popular discourse which engaged in anthropormorphism, is explored by Eileen Crist's Images of Animals: Anthropomorphism and Animal Mind and O'Connor's The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856.

Related anthologies include a look at other-than-humans in literature and popular discourse: Gothic Animals: Uncanny Otherness and the Animal With-Out (Heholt and Edmunson, 2020). There are a few studies/scholars which look specifically at "monstrous plants" in the Victorian imagination. Anxiety about gender and imperialism produced caricatures of woman as exotic anthropomorphic plants, as in: “Murderous plants: Victorian Gothic, Darwin and modern insights into vegetable carnivory" (Chase et al., Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009). Special mention for the work of Anna Boswell, which explores the British anxiety about imperialism reflected in their relationships with and perceptions of "strange" creatures and "alien" ecosystems, especially in Aotearoa. (Check out her “Anamorphic Ecology, or the Return of the Possum.” Transformations. 2018.)

And then bridging the Victorian anthropomorphism of bugs with twentieth-century hygiene campaigns, exploring "domestic sanitation" there is: David Hollingshead. “Women, insects, modernity: American domestic ecologies in the late nineteenth century.” Feminist Modernist Studies. August 2020. (About the cultural/social pressure to protect "the home" from bugs, disease, and "invasion".)

---

In fields like geography, history of science, etc., much has been said/written about how botany was the key imperial science/field, and there is the classic quintessential tale of the British pursuit of cinchona from Latin America, to treat mosquito-borne disease among its colonial administrators in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. In other words: Colonialism, insects, plants in the West Indies shaped and influenced Empire and ecosystems in the East Indies, and vice versa. One overview of this issue from Early Modern era through the Edwardian era, focused on Britain and cinchona: Zaheer Baber. "The Plants of Empire: Botanic Gardens, Colonial Power and Botanical Knowledge." May 2016. Elizabeth DeLoughrey and other scholars of the Caribbean, "the postcolonial," revolutionary Black Atlantic, etc. have written about how plantation slavery in the Caribbean provided a sort of bounded laboratory space. (See Britt Rusert's "Plantation Ecologies: The Experiential Plantation [...].") The argument is that plantations were already of course a sort of botanical laboratory for naturalizing and cultivating valuable commodity plants, but they were also laboratories to observe disease spread and to practice containment/surveillance of slaves and laborers. See also Chakrabarti's Bacteriology in British India: laboratory medicine and the tropics (2012). Sharae Deckard looks at natural history in imperial/colonial imagination and discourse (especially involving the Caribbean, plantations, the sea, and the tropics) looking at "the ecogothic/eco-Gothic", Edenic "nature", monstrous creatures, exoticism, etc. Kinda like Grove's discussion of "tropical Edens" in the colonial imagination of Green Imperialism.

Dante Furioso's article "Sanitary Imperialism" (from e-flux's Sick Architecture series) provides a summary of US entomology and anti-mosquito campaigns in the Caribbean, and how "US imperial concepts about the tropics" and racist pathologization helped influence anti-mosquito campaigns that imposed racial segregation in the midst of hard labor, gendered violence, and surveillance in the Panama Canal zone. A similar look at manipulation of mosquito-borne disease in building empire: Gregg Mitman. “Forgotten Paths of Empire: Ecology, Disease, and Commerce in the Making of Liberia’s Plantation Economy.” Environmental History. 2017. (Basically, some prominent medical schools/departments evolved directly out of US military occupation and industrial plantations of fruit/rubber/sugar corporations; faculty were employed sometimes simultaneously by fruit companies, the military, and academic institutions.) This issue is also addressed by Pratik Chakrabarti in Medicine and Empire, 1600-1960 (2014).

---

Meanwhile, there are some other studies that use non-human creatures (like a mosquito) to frame imperialism. Some other stuff that comes to mind about multispecies relationships to empire:

Lawrence H. Kessler. “Entomology and Empire: Settler Colonial Science and the Campaign for Hawaiian Annexation.” Arcadia (Spring 2017)

No Wood, No Kingdom: Political Ecology in the English Atlantic (Keith Pluymers)

Archie Davies. "The racial division of nature: Making land in Recife". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Volume 46, Issue 2, pp. 270-283. November 2020.

Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans (Urmi Engineer Willoughby, 2017)

Pasteur’s Empire: Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World (Aro Velmet, 2022)

Tom Brooking and Eric Pawson. “Silences of Grass: Retrieving the Role of Pasture Plants in the Development of New Zealand and the British Empire.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. August 2007.

Under Osman's Tree: The Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Environmental History (Alan Mikhail)

The Herds Shot Round the World: Native Breeds and the British Empire, 1800-1900 (Rebecca J.H. Woods, 2017)

Imperial Bodies in London: Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914 (Kristen Hussey, 2021)

Red Coats and Wild Birds: How Military Ornithologists and Migrant Birds Shaped Empire (Kirsten Greer, 2020)

Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa: The Human and Nonhuman Creatures of Nigeria (Saheed Aderinto, 2022)

Imperial Creatures: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942 (Timothy P. Barnard, 2019)

Biotic Borders: Transpacific Plant and Insect Migration and the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in America, 1890-1950 (Jeannie N. Shinozuka)

[toletoles]

GENREAL FREE PDFS ON PALESTINIAN LIBERATION Below are a collection of books written by Palestinians authors to help further understand their struggle vv Master thread/Google drive link of PDFs: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18u9KYo3MvRpyI0SDqD2AzseTvuSn3S8T (

“ there’s so many, where do I start?”

HIGHLIGHTED TEXTS these texts have been selected as being the most “beginner friendly” offering information for those still somewhat unfamiliar with Palestine and its history.

Palestine in Perspective: On the Image and Reality of Palestine Throughout the Ages by Khalid Kishtainy. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, Beirut, May 1971. 130 pages https://archive.org/details/palestine-in-perspective

Torture in Israeli Jails Foreign Information Department, PLO Unified Information, Beirut, July 1977. 68 pages PDF: https://archive.org/details/torture-in-israeli-jails

'Hollow Land' by Eyal Weizman https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l8E-mAJVGaDkheYpBaICXiwMgnMG0afj/view?usp=drivesdk

*”ADVANCED READINGS” These are a small list of books that go into more detailed/nuances of the Palestinian struggle. Such as the political economy etc. all books have been translated into English.

Google dive masterlist: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i2U7nuWtRcwDNMyd2Dp-vseEv-8UDkCT

Stole this announcement from Palestine I.N.D, if you’d like to join, the link is above

SUDAN

resources

https://eyesonsudan.net/

https://x.com/hkzuk/status/1722122606453661940?s=46&t=03WDSopg10j_4l7ZJXSPZQ

https://x.com/longlivemireia/status/1721105158736658897?s=46&t=03WDSopg10j_4l7ZJXSPZQ donate

https://sapa-usa.org/sudan-war-crisis-emergency-relief/

https://irusa.org/sudan/

KURDISTAN

resources

https://x.com/assyrianpolicy/status/1328095269397913605?s=46&t=03WDSopg10j_4l7ZJXSPZQ petition

https://t.co/O2wwKr5SyS

ARMENIA

resources

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Q30t_RuC_PN_ENJhJm05Q_oVRe0D-XIvu7BZ4hIFSY/mobilebasic

HAITI

resources

https://www.tiktok.com/@bertrhude?_t=8hdf2azJhus&_r=1

YEMEN

resources

https://crisesinthemiddleast.carrd.co/ (also has info for Palestine, Syria & Afghanistan)

TIGRAY

resources

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8yvjsxb/ donate

https://give.unhcr.ca/page/71470/donate/1?locale=en-US

SYRIA

resources

https://sites.google.com/view/syrianeedshelp/home?authuser=0

https://helpsyria.carrd.co/

Free Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Kurdistan, Armenia, Haiti, Yemen, Tigray, Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Arakan, Tamil, Eelam, Western Sahara, West Papua, Kashmir, & everyone undergoing genocide / colonialism.

— Scroll up for all resources / info !

Updated coverage v

more below, please read if you can

**Companies / Foodchains to Boycott **

thread of alternatives

BDS movement and knowing how and what to boycott

other companies to boycott

How to protest safely

general rules of thumb when protesting

same as above but w/ alt text.

** What YOU can do to support Palestine **

ways to help

actions across the continent

** Various links to educate / support**

Workshops and direct action protests

click to help palestine

masterlist with links to help, educate, etc.

how staying neutral is not a choice

Adding on, the Palestinian people have been suffering from this for over 75 years, 2023-2024 finally gave them the global attention they needed.

“if October 7th didn’t happen, this wouldn’t have been a problem for Palestinians” October 7th was a violent day, the israeli military had no right to go on and kill innocent civilians in gaza and plan to “wipe them out completely from the earth” ; over 2 million innocent Palestinians have been killed and still counting, they were stripped out their rights, wills, freedom and youth. In addition, Israel started their plan on taking over the ENTIRETY of the middle east, they've started with their crucial attacks on Lebanon and Iran, and will be moving forward after completely taking over both countries.

this is not a war, but a human cleanse. what is going on in gaza is the most documented killings of innocent civilians and yet the most denied by foreign countries.

all these statements are proven true. It would be appreciated if you have an open mind and leave your opinions aside, as majority of things on social media are twisted, played with, and somewhat false. PLEASE refrain from believing everything you see online, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! learn more here gofundme boycotted items

on a side note, since today marks one year since october 7th, i will not be uploading anything or doing requests (mainly because it feels wrong to be making layouts meanwhile countless people are suffering, but tomorrow ill continue doing requests & uploading)

[hadesoftheladies]

palestine is a wake up call to all the people in the global south and all countries and peoples that have experienced colonialism by western empires. especially following the western world's response to ukraine.

when you're flooded with footage of children starving, their bodies shredded by missiles, shrapnel and collapsed buildings, when you see once vibrant, beautiful lands reduced in seconds to rubble . . . you realize how easy it is to provoke a white man. all you have to do is a be a person of colour on your land with all its natural resources. that's it. all you have to do is exist on the same soil as your ancestors. and if a white man says you're in the way of his expansion, it doesn't matter what moral ethics you think white people have. it really doesn't matter what you expect of a human being. what conscience you think they have.

you will die. no one will rescue you. they will murder you. torture you. they will justify it. they will make jokes about it. and years later, when it's not too inconvenient for their people to feel guilt, they will feel sorry and still make what they did to you about them. about their "human complexity" and their "nuance." your people will be dead for thousands of years before they "apologize" (not to you but) to their descendants. and even then they'll lie. they'll blame the "internal conflicts of the region." conveniently leaving out who supplies the guns and military gangs. why. what they get in return.

what's happening in congo, tigray, palestine, haiti, iran, afghanistan, etc is not an isolated event. you cannot afford to think so. it's literally what they did from the 17th-20th centuries. the exact same tactics. the exact same propaganda. these are millions of people dying and set up to die within this year alone.

white man sees resource, white man cuts a bloody path toward it. he is superior, so it's his right. it's that simple.

if you are self-righteous about politics (especially toward western empires like france, britain, russia, canada and the u.s., etc.) please understand that the only thing between your "peaceful" or stable country and all-out war is how agreeable you are to the demands of these empires. please don't think these people have evolved or will consider you in any way. they will nuke you, too, if you resist. that isn't peace. we don't have peace with them. they aren't peaceful. complying under threat of war isn't peace. coercion is not consent.

if these insane people can hear from the mouths of their own scientists that their wars are killing their own people and accelerating the death of life on this planet, i don't know why you'd think they have a shred of humanity left in them. that there's anyone in this life they could possibly care for.

reject that lie. that you can appeal to their humanity. how many fucking "peace talks" have we had since hitler? for fucks sake. begin to build your community and focus your aid and efforts on each other. be aware, but also think smaller. focus on local businesses and markets rather than imports. let's change the way we consume (this is hugely important). wherever you are, whichever people concern you, take care of your own communities. give back. even if you're part of the diaspora. just find a way to give back and strengthen your communities. don't let "the drain" empty out in the west. i'm not claiming its simple work, or that i have all the answers. i'm just saying increase your awareness of how these empires and their propaganda function and don't give into them however you can afford to. you know what you can do. you know your own communities and countries better than i do. and we all know that one of the prime ways the empires keep us weak is by destroying or own intracommunity solidarity.

because there is no UN we can appeal to. there is no western "mediator" we can rely on.

they'd kill us all if it wouldn't tank their economy.

internalize that. don't ever let them coax any trust out of you. there is no "international unity" we can have with them because their prosperity will always require our suffering. resist, at least, by reclaiming your mind from them. see them outside of how they have conditioned you to see them. every time your president shakes one of their hands, see the blood smearing them.

don't trust a single word out of their dirty, lying mouths.

[mariacallous]

This year marks 30 years since the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when a Hutu-majority government and a privately owned radio station with close ties to the government colluded to murder 800,000 people.

The year 1994 may seem recent, but for a continent as young as Africa (where the median age is 19), it’s more like a distant past.

Suppose this had happened today, in the age of the algorithm. How much more chaos and murder would ensue if doctored images and deepfakes were proliferating on social media rather than radio, and radicalizing even more of the public? None of this is beyond reach, and countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and Niger are at risk—owing to their confluence of ethno-religious tensions, political instability, and the presence of foreign adversaries.

Over the last few years, social media companies have culled their trust and safety units, reversing the gains made in the wake of the Myanmar genocide and the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. elections. Nowhere else are these reductions more consequential than in Africa. Low levels of digital literacy, fragile politics, and limited online safety systems render the continent ripe for hate speech and violence.

Last year, a Kenyan court held Facebook parent company Meta liable for the unlawful dismissal of 184 content moderators, after the company invested in only one content moderator for every 64,000 users in neighboring Ethiopia.

This was while Ethiopia spiraled into one of the world’s deadliest wars this century. During this time, Facebook was awash with content inciting ethnic violence and genocide. Its algorithms couldn’t detect hate speech in local languages while its engagement-based ranking systems continued to provide a platform for violent content. The scale of disinformation meant that the website’s remaining content moderators were no match for the moment.

The advent of adversarial artificial intelligence—which involves algorithms that seek to dodge content moderation tools—could light the match of the continent’s next war, and most social media companies are woefully underprepared.

And even if safety systems were to be put in place, hateful posts will spread at a far greater pace and scale, which would undermine the algorithms used to detect incendiary content. Sophisticated new AI systems could also analyze the most effective forms of disinformation messaging, produce them at scale, and effectively tailor them according to the targeted audience.

With limited oversight, this can easily tip some communities—ones that are already fraught with tensions—toward conflict and collapse.

Facebook has drawn criticism from human rights organizations for its perceived role in enabling and disseminating content intended to incite violence during the war centered in Ethiopia’s Tigray region from 2020-2022, a conflict which is estimated to have killed more than 600,000 people.

“Meta has yet again repeated its pattern of waiting until violence begins to support even rudimentary safety systems in Ethiopia,” Frances Haugen, the most prominent whistleblower to testify against Meta, told Foreign Policy.

In 2021, Haugen testified before the U.S Congress, exposing Facebook’s internal practices and sparking a global reckoning about social media’s influence over the communities that use it. Her disclosures suggested that Facebook knew that its systems fanned the flames of ethnic violence in Ethiopia and did little to stop it.

It did so because it knew it could. Far from the spotlight of a congressional hearing, most technology companies attract less scrutiny for operations abroad.

“It just doesn’t make the news cycle” according to Peter Cunliffe-Jones, the founder of Africa Check, the continent’s first independent fact-checking organization.

Most technology companies do not share basic data that would allow third-party organizations to effectively monitor and halt dangerous influence operations. As a result, most countries are left to outsource this critical task of maintaining social cohesion to the companies themselves. In other words, the very companies that profit the most from disinformation are now the arbiters of social order. This becomes dangerous when the companies slash safety resources in both wealthy nations and more peripheral markets beyond North America and Europe.

“One of the great misfortunes is that the war in Tigray [took place] in Africa. There was less oversight and unverified claims ran rampant” Cunliffe-Jones told Foreign Policy.

In leaked files, Meta found that its own algorithm to detect hate speech was unable to perform adequately in either of Ethiopia’s most widely used languages, Amharic and Oromo. Furthermore, the organization fell short on investing in enough content moderators.

While Meta has made significant strides elsewhere to counter disinformation, its strategy in Africa remains opaque and often involves the mobilization of response teams after a crisis becomes dire. The measures taken and their impact are not made public, leaving experts in the dark. This includes Meta’s own Oversight Board, whose requests for independent impact assessments in crisis zones were effectively ignored.

The war in Tigray is by no means an anomaly, nor should it be treated as such. In fact, across much of the continent, identity is still largely delineated by ethnicity, or along clan or religious lines—some of them a remnant of European imperialism.

With the advent of adversarial AI, Rwanda and Ethiopia could pale in comparison to an even more deadly future conflict. This is because these new algorithms don’t just spread disinformation—they also attack the very systems tasked with reviewing and removing incendiary content. For example, an adversarial AI program might slightly change the video frames of a deepfake, such that it’s still recognizable to the human eye but the slight alteration (technically known as noise) causes the algorithm to misclassify it, thereby dodging content moderation tools.

“We have been told by Big Tech that the path to safety is dependent on content moderation. Adversarial AI blows up this paradigm by allowing attackers to side-step safety systems based on content,” Haugen told Foreign Policy. “We may see the consequences first in conflicts in Africa, but no one is safe.”

Africa is at a crossroads. It is rich in critical minerals—such as cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements, which make up essential components of the technology driving the green energy transition—and has a young workforce that could turbocharge its economic growth. But it could fall prey to yet another resource curse driven by proxy wars between large powers seeking to dominate the supply chains of those critical minerals.

In this context, it’s not hard to imagine foreign mercenaries and insurgent groups leveraging adversarial AI to sow chaos and disorder. One of the greatest threats is in the eastern regions of Congo, home to an estimated 50 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves.

The region is also plagued by roughly 120 warring factions vying for control. These include, for example, the March 23 Movement (M23) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The FDLR, an offshoot of the former Hutu extremist government in Rwanda, is in a heated contest against the Tutsi-majority M23, which argues that the FDLR poses a threat to local Tutsis as well as neighboring Rwanda.

According to U.N. experts, the current Rwandan government supports M23, though Kigali denies it. Through targeted information warfare, M23 argued that a genocide was looming against the Tutsi population. The Congolese army, along with the FDLR, argued that the M23 is yet another example of foreign interference and warfare intended to sow chaos and seize Congolese assets. But both sides have been accused of manufacturing news stories about violence through manipulated images and inflated death tolls, which are widely shared on social media.

The advent of adversarial AI could prove particularly dangerous here, given the ethnic tensions, foreign interference, lucrative critical mineral reserves, and a provocative online discourse that tends to fly without many strategic guardrails. Different factions could easily deploy deepfakes that mimic the casualties of past massacres or declare war from seemingly official sources.

Given the market value of critical minerals and the role of foreign adversaries, this could quickly spiral into mass violence that destabilizes Congo and neighboring countries.

Faced with such a risk, Africa cannot afford to wait for Western tech companies to act. African governments must take the lead.

As the tools of disinformation grow more sophisticated, old safety systems are becoming defunct. Faced with such a threat, the solution cannot be to invest exclusively in content moderation.

An alliance between Africa and South Asia could prove crucial. These two regions alone account for the largest anticipated growth in internet users over the coming decade as well as a growing share of market revenue. Many middle-income powers—such as Nigeria, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Pakistan—command a growing influence in global affairs.

A coordinated effort among these nations, focused on auditing tech platforms, muting destructive algorithms, and ensuring corporate accountability for social media-driven violence, could help set new standards against disinformation and adversarial AI.

Leaders in the global south should first turn to experts on disinformation. Nations threatened by the technology should demand the appointment of an independent board of experts who can request independent audits into the nature of algorithms used, co-sign on content moderation decisions in crisis zones, and measure the efficacy of new interventions. Such a board would need the accountability powers currently vested in U.S.- and EU-based agencies to ensure that there are consequences when standards aren’t adhered to.

When the independent board deems a country high risk, tech companies would be required to effectively mute algorithms that rank content based on engagement—that is, the numbers that track how many people have seen, liked, and shared it. As such, users would only see information chronologically (regardless of how much engagement it gets), thereby drastically reducing the likelihood of traffic gravitating toward incendiary content. In the age of adversarial AI, this would give an expanded team of human moderators a far better shot at removing dangerous content.

And if the board determines that an algorithm platformed incendiary content that consequently led to offline violence, the tech companies responsible for those algorithms should be pressured to contribute to a dedicated victims fund for families that bear the deadly consequences of those calls for violence.

African governments must also spearhead digital literacy efforts. In 2011, South African politician Lindiwe Mazibuko made history as the first Black woman elected as opposition leader in the South African Parliament. Today, she runs Futureelect, an organization aimed at training the next generation of ethical public leaders.

“There are 19 elections taking place this year across Africa. We’re lagging on digital literacy globally and so I worry that deep fakes and disinformation warfare could be more consequential here,” she said. “It’s why we are actively training the next cycle of ethical leaders to be cognizant of this threat.”

Ahmed Kaballo, who co-founded the pan-African media house African Stream, is focused on building more independent media. “There is virtually no way to effectively fact-check rival claims without a flourishing independent media landscape. Otherwise, the public is left to accept disinformation as the truth,” he argues.

Meanwhile, technology companies should, in the near term, invest in algorithms that can detect hate speech in local languages; build a more expansive network of content moderators and research experts; and prioritize far greater transparency and collaboration that would allow independent experts to conduct audits, design policy interventions, and ultimately measure progress.

For Haugen, it comes down to advertisers, investors, and the public demanding more oversight.

“Investors need to understand that allowing social media companies to continue to operate without oversight places systemic risk across their portfolios. Social stability and rule of law are the foundation of long-term returns, and Ethiopia demonstrates how when basic guardrails are lacking, social media can fan the flames of chaos,” she said.

In Africa, the confluence of political tensions, critical mineral reserves, and superpower competition make the continent ripe for targeting by new technologies designed to evade detection and spread chaos. Rather than just becoming a testing ground, Africa must take proactive steps to leverage its growing global weight (alongside South Asia) to demand greater government action against new forms of AI-driven disinformation that have the potential to upend societies across the world.

[papirouge]

I gave up on being pro life publicly and online. The genocide in the Congo and in Gaza have proved it to me that many western women who run those pro life accounts don’t care for children. Many babies have been lost due to hospital bombings. More children are displaced with no families.

I’ve tried reaching out when they talk about saving children in generic posts because very real babies are losing their lives by IDF terrorism. And I get blocked or I get told “that’s different/ they’re Muslim/they should have left already/I don’t care” over and over and over again. The countless videos are already out that have children begging and crying for their families they lost or the homes that can’t be saved. Some of the worst messages I read criticized and blame the Palestinian men too that they should be protecting the kids, so when they die, it’s actually Palestinians fault. Not the IDF. Meanwhile those “young men” are just teenagers because their parents are dead. The Congolese topic is worst. Many are begging people to stop buying the iPhone 15 to raise awareness over the issues there but I got told by one girl who likes to call herself an anti woke submissive wife that she couldn’t care less about the Congo, she’s going to do whatever her husband wants, if that means ignoring genocide then that’s what she will do too. It’s her god given to have freedom over dead bodies l…

I’m fed up. I’m sick of the hypocrisy. I’m sick of seeing stupid homestead content of how they’re at peace taking care of a home as they purposefully condone genocide. If some hacker group exposed all these “submissive Godly trad wife” accounts as being agents for Israel to distract the west from IDF war crimes, I wouldn’t be surprised the least. Their apathy is demonic

@not-your-average-prolifer is the only pro life blog who passed the vibe check as far as I know. She reblogged posts about the emergency of pregnant women in Palestine and also post about mental health of middle east women. I think she is left leaning (correct me if I'm wrong!) so I'm not surprised to see her with more empathy about whatever's happening to women abroad, unlike Conservatives who are extremely stupid & uneducated when it comes to foreign affairs, if not straight up xenophobic.

I hope for every single Christian I know to never open their mouth about uwu Christianism is from Middle east uwu ever again the next time someone calls Christianism white man's religion or I'll go berserk on them. They better shut up forever. They had no problem to keep their mouth shut witnessing the martyrdom of our brothers - they better keep it that way permanently and stop summoning their struggle once it's convenient to them. YES, they proved they definitely consider Christianism a white man thing, considering our little care they have for our (non white) Christian brothers overseas. They better keep them out of their mouth permanently.

"They're Muslim" it's been well documented that there are Christians in Palestine. But even if they weren't, Christ wants everyone to be saved and accept him as their lord and savior - refusing to extend some basic empathy to people being bombed and killed in their sin is not the way to go. Never forget that Jesus didn't heal or saved only Jews, but also pagans, prostitutes, etc. It's insane how so unemphatic "Christians" have become.

Christian Palestinians are actually some of the oldest Christians - like, where do they those idiots think Jerusalem was?? where did the Pentecost happen? IN MIAMI?? KANSAS?? "They should have left" WHERE?? aren't the ppl pulling out this argument the same crybabies whining about woke culture destroying western civilization? Why didn't they leave the western zone already??? Also aren't they the same against immigration and how men fleeing their country are lazy cowards? so why are they mad at Palestinians sticking to their land?? Damn, Western politicians/diplomacy have the opportunity to do the funniest thing possible and mass import Palestinians in western countries to abide Zionists requirements in Israel 💀

And LOL oh so now Palestinian men are supposed to protect children? what are they supposed to do when the IDF is bombing their house? Take weapons to defend/get back their land and shit? Oh my bad, that makes them terrorists (and let's be clear : what happened on October 7th is unjustifiable but let's not act like the Hamas wasn't called terrorist much earlier than that). It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they do nothing, they're cowards, and if they do, they are terrorists - because in this case, resistance is defiance. Ultimately they just want to deflect from their own lack on empathy and find a rational explanation to that.

Conservative scrotes are the LAST people who should lecture anyone about defending the children when there are acting bullying kids young enough to be their grandchildren calling them wokes, leftists, or whatever. I won't even start about gun violence and how deflective they are about protecting the children only to protect their precious right to carry. Ghouls. They only care abt unborn babies because they are unable to call them out on their bs yet. Once they do, they'll cuss them, call them woke, and all sort of -ists.

On TikTok there was a Christian girl saying how Christians are "too emotional" and how we should keep supporting "God chosen people" (Israel). I already made a post calling out how this "god chosen people " narrative didn't stand now that we were in the NEW COVENANT. But let's follow her train of thought: isn't humankind made from God image? Where do emotions come from? Didn't God himself have emotion? Why? What's the right or wrong place to have emotion? She and all the clown who agreed with her would never be able to reply those questions. We've all seen the videos. I did what I could to avoid them but they're quite unavoidable at this point. What's the correct emotion after seeing 2 kids younger than 10 carrying a third one crying while one of his foot was hanging with only one tendon?? This girl, along with every single Christian unmoved by this disaster has to shut up. Their heart is a stone and they should stop trying to lecture people who still have a heart made of flesh. We're not the same. Christ is PEACE. Not war or violence.

And girl, you really shouldn't even engage with women labelling themselves "anti woke submissive wife" 💀 why would you expect them to care about anything but their idol (husband)? Stay focus on what really matters. Peace and God. We're in the end times and God is slowly but surely unfolding the truth. The masks are slipping. Take note of all the so called who remained silent witnessing satan action, take proper action, and go on.

[reasoningdaily]

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Outside of Cuba, Palo is generally called Palo Mayombe ; however, this is a misnomer since not all lineages and houses are truly Mayombe – in fact, most are not. To my knowledge there is only one (perhaps a couple) Munanzo outside of Cuba that are accepted as a true Mayombe houses amongst the elders on the Island.

In Cuba, “Palo Monte” is used far more frequently to speak to the entire body of Regla-Kongo Palo tradition. Other terms such as Palo Cruzado (‘crossed palo’, denoting heavy syncretization with other religions), Palo Cristiano (‘Christian palo’) and Palo Judio (‘Jewish palo’, not actually jewish, but simply non-Christian) deserve a brief mention. However, these are not specific ramas of Palo, but rather terms that are used to denote the degree of syncretism and mixing in individual lineages and practices.

There are many houses (munansos) and foundational lineages (ramas) of Palo Monte, but commonly they are understood to fit within three major  forms or sub ‘reglas’ within the greater Regla-Kongo:

Mayombe

Biyumba (Vrillumba o Brillumba)

Kimbiza

Palo Mayombe is the oldest and most orthodox form of Palo. The origins trace back to a specific Nkisi cult in the Mayombe region of Cabinda (NW Congo) from where it gets its name and the tradition came into its own in the caves and wilderness of the Pinar del Rio highlands of Cuba. Mayomberos typically shun away from syncretism and are extremely orthodox in our practices. The most well known of the Mayombe houses are the houses of “Batalla Saca Empeño” and “Bejuco Nfinda”.

Palo Biyumba developed out of Palo Mayombe and rose in popularity during Cuba’s war of Independence. It was the first regla to initiate people of non-Bantu ancestry and frequently worked with and developed pacts with dead spirits of no particular blood or spiritual lineage (often times to send them out for warring intentions). It is a vast regla and has many ramas and sub-lineages. Indeed, a great number of houses today are some offshoot of Biyumba. Broadly speaking, Palo Biyumba is more oriented toward the various mpungos and over time some lineages have introduced a degree of syncretization with elements of Ocha and Catholicism.

Palo Kimbisa was popular on the eastern side of the Cuban island and has absorbed many influences from Catholicism to Freemasonry to Haitian Vodou. Kimbisa likely originated within an already syncretized Catholic-Kongo religious tradition from the Kingdom of Kongo following Kimpa Vita’s Christian reform in the 18th C. In Kimbisa the mpungos are paramount and are seen as divinities and saints. Thus, Kimbiseros will venerate the mpungos and focus much of their work calling upon them, instead of upon the dead. The most well known Kimbisa rama is Andrés Petit’s La Regla Kimbisa de Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje.

The Kimbisa prendas/ngangas I have seen also tend to be huge in comparison to Mayombe. Although my elders have reassured me that there are Kimbisa prendas that are built almost identical to Mayombe as there is more variance per house/lineage than across the greater sub-reglas. It is also common to see Kimbisa (as well as Briyumba) prendas with crucifixes. Moreover, many Kimbiseros and Biymberos will make a distinction between prendas judias or prendas ndoki(those without crucifixes and containing the bones of non-baptized individuals) used to curse, kill, and other malefica; and prendas cristianas (with cross and baptized nfumbe) used to heal and general benefica. This distinction does not appear in Mayombe.

Assortment of now defunct/dormant Briyumba Ngangas on display in the Museo Municipal de Regla

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[letz-smoke-zaza]

What is happening in Congo ?

I. INTRODUCTION

Today, it’s been 64 years since the Democratic Republic of Congo is officially an independent country. Yet, Congo, a country that I cherish is going through multiple crises, and particularly a genocide since long time ago.

If you didn’t know it yet, this genocide is orchestrated by Rwanda and Uganda’s governments and militaries, but also congolese militias, composed of rebels named the M23 but funded and sold weapons to notably by European countries. This is happening since near 30 years.

I feel compelled to talk about it since what is happening isn’t talked about enough in mainstream medias. Yes, it is true these last months a lot of people have learned about it and even celebrities expressed their support for the inhabitants of Kivu (the region targeted by the genocide), but fewer people really know what it is about and how destructive it is.

First, how did it happen ?

If you have to know one thing it is certainly that since D.R.C.’s liberation from the kingdom of Belgium the 30th of June 1960, after Lumumba fought for his people’s freedom, he became the prime minister, then was betrayed by his comrades, and finally murdered, since these times, Congolese people almost always been living in between civilians crises, wars, and genocide.

Lumumba before his execution. ⬆️

To simplify, in 1971, Mobutu succeeded a coup d'état and the Democratic Republic of Congo officially became ‘Zaïre’ under Mobutu’s dictatorship. However, Mobutu was kicked out after the first war of D.R.C., opposing the Zaïre and Allies led by Mobutu, and AFLD (The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo) led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his Allies including Uganda and Rwanda.

To understand the origins of the congolese genocide, we have to acknowledge what happened in Rwanda later after the events I just spoke about. Between the 7th April of 1994 and 15th July of 1994, which, in the time span of 3 months, only 3 months and 10 days, 800,000 millions of civilians died. Primarily members of the minority ethnic group Tutsis but also moderate Hutus and Twa were killed by armed Hutu militias. This genocide was supported by Rwanda’s government and still in these days is considered as the bloodiest one in a short time span.

« Although the origins of the mass killing were initially blamed on the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana (whom the Hutu falsely claimed had been murdered by Tutsis), the conflict’s actual origins can be traced to decades prior.

During Belgian rule, the colonial government instituted a separation of Hutus and Tutsis, favoring the Tutsis and placing them in greater leadership roles within the country. The systematic divide led to tremendous resentment in the years that followed, culminating in unresolved tension that provoked the Hutus to steal, rape, and kill for basic human rights. » source : What Was the Biggest Genocide in Human History

The connection with D.R.C. ?

The fact over 2,000,000 Rwandan fled the country during or immediately after the genocide, in the people who emigrated were members of the Hutu ethnicity, some of them being genociders. They took refuge in Nord-Kivu, in D.R.C. , at the border of Rwanda. They were scared because at that time Tutsi gained the power over the country and Hutus feared they would take their revenge, that is why they left Rwanda.

Nord-Kivu on a map. ⬆️

« The Congo-Kinshasa government agreed to repatriate Hutus involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide if Rwanda agreed to remove its forces from the Kivus, the land Rwanda has controlled since 1998. 

Furthermore, the resource-rich nature of the DRC also makes the area prone to conflict, further placing the Hutus at risk. One can not be optimistic, therefore, in the near-term prospects of DRC Hutus to live in relative peace and security. » Assessment for Hutus in the Dem. Rep. of the Congo

Then, happened the second war of D.R.C. from 1998 to 2003, which killed from 183,000 to 4 or 4,5 millions of people due to starvation and illnesses.

« According to the Kigali government, the Hutu refugee camps formed after the genocide fell under the control of the Interahamwe Hutu militias, to which many genocides belonged, and helped by the Hutu members of the former Rwandan army, they planned to regain power by force.

According to other actors, the presence of Rwandan troops in the DRC was motivated by the project to plunder mining resources in the region. This is confirmed by a UN report requested by the Security Council which indicates, from the interviews conducted by the expert group, that the Rwandan army remained mainly to obtain goods. The report also describes the strategy of the armed groups present in the area to plunder resources from the subsoil for their benefit, in a context of massacres and rape. » source : Deuxième guerre du Congo

Players of the DRC team, during semi-final of the CAN. ⬆️

II. GENOCIDE

As I said it before, genocide been going on for 26-27 years to be exact. Kivu is mainly targeted for its ressources of Coltan, Cobalt, Diamonds and Gold since the M23 and Rwandan military took control of the mines we named "blood mines" because of the deaths they cause. It had been estimated more than 40,000 children are forced to work in mines in Nord-Kivu.

Coltan and Cobalt are both materials used in computers, phones, most electronics devices in general. Both have in common to be materials mined in Nord-Kivu in unethical ways, it’s literally slavery, workers aren’t paid and are forced to work for the militias and Rwanda. Which later on sell these ressources to the whole world and steal Congolese’s ressources. Yet, talking about natural ressources D.R.C. is one of, if not the first, richest country in the whole world. And if Nord-Kivu is so coveted by entreprises AND countries in commercial interests, it’s because this place holds 70% of world’s Cobalt, as for Coltan it’s about 60%. That is also why medias and other countries’ presidents are silent. They know that if they speak up, they will lose partnerships with Rwanda, Uganda and rebels… when you grasp that fact, you are able to understand why violation of human rights, war crimes, child work, sexual crimes, literally slavery is condoned by the whole world. You can finally understand why the world try to silence congolese people : it’s easier to act as if their struggles didn’t exist and exploit them rather than helping them out, that is how cruel the world is.

Let’s not forget about rebels and soldiers who actively terrorize inhabitants, steal them, torture them for fun and influct painful deaths to them. They train children and give them weapons to help them, children, they don’t even know better! Women, children and men are trying to escape their own villages in the Northeast region of D.R.C. to go somewhere else. Millions of displaced people are in makeshift displacement camps, particularly in Goma. Around 600,000 congolese can be found in there, living in unsanitary conditions and earning money mainly through donations and local organizations.

The 3rd of May, at least five rockets exploded in the southwest of the capital of North Kivu (Goma), killing at least 18 people, 32 were injured, including 27 seriously, most of them were women and children. Congolese people struggle to escape these places, struggle to get access to food, struggle to access water and fill their vital needs since mainly militias of rebels and Rwandan soldiers run the zones with weapons and threaten to kill, kidnap, torture and rape anyone who wouldn’t listen to their orders or do something that displease them.

III. SEXUAL VIOLENCES

(TW : that can be very disturbing or triggering for some people to read this, as said in the title, I’m going to talk about sexual assaults, rape and a slight mention of necrophilia(?).)

Let’s not forget about the sexual violence who occur in Nord-Kivu, like in every wars and genocides, soldiers and rebels take advantage of vulnerable situations and poverty to rape women. Women and girls are coerced into doing sex work to ensure their income, buy food and shelters from the same rebels who abuse them. We estimated 48 women get raped by HOURS (source). During two weeks of April 2011, more than 670 victims (more like 1152) of sexual violence were taken care of in the East of D.R.C.

« The vast majority of victims are women and more than half of them say they were attacked by armed men. This happens most of the time "during their travels outside the sites of displaced persons, in search of firewood and food," says the medical organization. » source : RDC autour de Goma, "48 victimes de violences sexuelles par jour"

For feminist organizations, these are feminicides, nothing else other than that. Women and children are especially targeted. White feminists would never talk about what happen to congolese women daily, nor palestinians women. We want women to be free, the violence they go through is not a war weapon that should be used. Wars shouldn’t happen at all. They shouldn’t feel unsafe and dehumanized when they’re going through hardships in their own countries, they shouldn’t feel like they are left out and damned to go through this without any support.

« Most attacks are related to living conditions in the camps. Displaced women find themselves without money, without resources, they are forced to go into the bush to find something to eat or earn a small income » deplores Daddy Ngeve, a midwife, doctors Without Borders.

« There are girls, some of whom are minors, who work in houses of tolerance. They receive between 500 and 2 000 francs [17 to 67 euro cents - editor’s note], » alarms Yvette Shakira, a lawyer at Dynamique des femmes juristes (DFJ), an organization committed to the protection of women.

A lot of congolese women see sex work as their only way out from extreme poverty and I would even say death. They see prostitution as their only way to pay food, water, get access to the most basic healthcare, shelters for themselves, their children and their families. They often get STDs like HIV from lack of protections, serious health issues and deaths through rapes…

What is even sadder is that these women are rejected by their own family, which comfort them into keeping the silence and not telling their relatives about what happened to them.

« "In 9/10 cases, the husband leaves his wife and leaves her in charge of the children. This pushes women to hide the rapes they have suffered", admits Yvette Shakira. "If it happens to his mother, his sister, the man defends them, if it happens to his daughter he takes the lead and asks for justice, but when it happens to his wife, he denies her instead of protecting her." »

source : RDC : à l’ombre du conflit, les femmes en proie à une hausse des viols.

Manyotisi, 32, holds her 6-month-old son, Merveil. He was conceived during a group rape while she was looking for food. She already has two children, but decided to keep Merveil. “He is innocent. I love him,” she said. ⬆️

« In North Kivu, 76% of the victims received by MSF were raped by armed men, the others having been assaulted by civilians. » source : RDC : à l’ombre du conflit, les femmes en proie à une hausse des viols

Testimony of Fatouma, a victim of rape as a weapon of war in the DRC (in French without English subtitles) ⬆️

translation : "They forced me to rape my mother’s c0rpse, to eat her flesh in the presence of my children." - Desiré Goyabaki, M23 survivor. ⬆️

IV. HOW TO HELP ?

If you want to help Congo, first, being aware, as I said, that Coltan and Cobalt are both materials used for electronics devices is a good start. I know in such a society it’s impossible to get rid of them, but if you are ready to change something - at least in your own habits to reduce the consequences - then there’s advices :

- you could stop buying VAPES, those are bad for health anyway and, on top of that, requires Coltan, which is mined by children. To me, that doesn’t worth buying e-cigarettes, even less at humans lives cost.

- avoid electronic cars, it also requires cobalt and on top of that those cars’ batteries are as bad for environment as average cars, except it does pollute in another way.

- for computers, phones, TVs etc. try to keep them as long as you can. It will save you money and you don’t need the newest phones or the newest electronics devices. If yours work fine, then keep them and you will be able to pay yourself other things instead. Refurbished devices are also a really good idea to save money AND be able to buy new things.

- Make donations if you can and if you got enough money. Obviously, if you struggle for your own needs, it’s only fair to privilege your own life. But if you have some money here and then and are sure about where the money is going to, then you can do this.

- Finally, spread awareness. I’m not telling you to give all the details of D.R.C. history to your relatives. But if you have some friends, siblings, parents, talk to them about what happen. The more people know, the more people are invested. That’s a small thing, but it could change everything.

V. CONCLUSION

I am feeling powerless when I see how live congolese people in Kivu, but most of the matters I mentioned concern the whole country, or at least, big parts of it, ESPECIALLY for sexual abuse.

The president does nothing, because like in many African countries if not almost all, they are corrupt and pushed by greed not to do anything for their countries and the security of their inhabitants, but it’s much bigger, reflecting on the impact of past colonialism and neo-colonialism, how European countries, USA and most generally world powers step on African, Asian, Middle Eastern countries and care so little about what happen there even when it’s serious and cost millions of lives. That is why after multiple transgressions of human’s rights, they never spoke up about it as it should be spoken about by the whole world’s medias.

I took a lot of time to write this. But I rushed the end to post this EXACTLY on the 30th June. Don’t hesitate to tell me if there is (serious) typos or ask me if you think I need to add context and historical informations and I’ll try to do so.

Thanks for reading all this 🫶🏽

[oxoxevoledicius]

You know something I've noticed during this genocide of Palestinians that's been going on for over seven months now? The absolute nonchalant attitude people have about it. And not just about Palestine, but also Congo, Sudan and others... The whole "It's just something that happens during war" whenever you tell them about a new massacre that occurred or show them pictures of people, CHILDREN who lost their fucking limbs.

I just cannot fathom being so brain-dead that you can really look at all this and think that this is something regular, something normal.

Are you really that incapable of critical thinking that you're able to read about how Palestinian hostages are treated by Israeli soldiers and not say "This is fucked up"?

Nobody is asking you to go to Palestine and risk your life there, to fight Israelis or anything. I mean, if something like this was happening to your people, wouldn't you just want somebody to care at least one fucking bit? To be able to look at your people getting tortured, tens of thousands killed and say how it isn't okay at the very least? Is it really that hard to just reblog a post or boycott some brands?

Have you ever wondered why you learn about certain things in school? About the Holocaust or any other horrible event, any other genocide in our history? Here let me tell you why, you learn about that so that you can learn from it.

It's easy to go on about how you would've supported Jews in WW2 but then turn around and call Palestinians terrorists and say how "it's complicated" or how "there's always two sides to a story". Would this be your attitude back then, had you been alive during 1939-1945?

"But Hamas started it" Ever heard of Nakba 1948 (marked every year on May 15th ever since)? Did Hamas start that too? Over 750000 Palestinians expelled from their homes and at least 15000 murdered and it was all because of Hamas that didn't even exist back then. You can't be that dense.

All people are asking of you is to care, not that fucking hard.

[legalkimchi]

Who is are the victims of these genocides?

It is a question we need to know the answer to if we want to formulate helping others. While my last big post was about the nature of the other conflicts happening, namely the Third war of the Congo and the Sudanese Civil War, I failed to answer a central question in that post.

Who is getting killed here?

People who call the situation in the Congo a "genocide" have a hard time telling you who is the victim of the genocide.

If you google "congo genocide" you will get the figure of 6 million dead in the wars of the Congo. These conflicts have been going on for about 30 years and we are entering the third war of the Congo now. But they won't mention the target. That's partially there are two groups that hate each other, but also other groups that hate all of them.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the wars in the Congo started because of spill over from the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. That's where the hutu majority fought against the ruling tutsi minority. The Tutsi were the ruling elite and used as puppets of the belgium colonizers. The Belgians used these two ethnic groups against each other, fueling a hatred between them to their own benefit.

When Rwanda gained independence, the hutus took control. They treated the tutsi as second class citizens and eventually, during the Rwandan Civil War, extremist hutus killed tutsis and moderate hutus in the Rwandan genocide. But it isn't an easy binary. War crimes were committed by both sides and atrocities were commonplace.

Prior to that, many tutsis fled rwanda. Most going to places like Uganda or, then zaire,now the Drc. So you have a displaced tutsi population in the drc.

After the end of the Rwandan Civil War, hutu genociders, fearful of tutsi reprisals, fled into the Drc. They brought their war with them.

Rwandan government accused the drc of harboring genociders. They armed tutsi refugees in the drc. Hutus were trying to fight to take back rwanda, while also killing tutsis in the drc.

As the war escalated, neighboring nations joined in. Rwandas armies massacred hutu populations. (They also fight to control the Diamond and cobalt mines. If you hear about apple supporting genocide it is because of these cobalt mines. Cobalt is essential for modern computing and yes, children are mining in slave conditions to make your phone affordable)

DRC, angry at the Rwandan tutsi government fanning the flames of war, called upon the Congolese people to kill tutsis.

So the genocide here is of tutsis (like the Rwandan genocide) but also of hutus. All while a civil war is happening in the drc, which is being exacerbated by local African governments and "the west" (through the exploitation of the diamond and cobalt reserves.)

The Sudanese genocide is a little simpler. Sudans major ethnic group are sudanese Arabs. While there is a civil war happening, Darfur is where the genocide is happening. Why that area specifically?

Darfur means "home of the Fur people." You probably already guessed it. These people are black africans, not sudanese Arabs. While they speak Arabic and are generally muslim... they are darker skinned folks.

With this knowledge, I hope you have a better understanding of the situations and can press your politicians into action.

[andillwatchh]

After reading it, what lessons you can take from THG trilogy?

Mockingjay deals with rebellion of the Districts toward the Capitol.

What lessons can we apply to current world affairs?

Thank you.

@curiousnonny

okay *takes a deep breath* hii thank you for the ask @curiousnonny! finally sitting down to answer this. for some reason i'm really nervous to jot down my thoughts on this one. i feel like i will never be able to cover everything i want and will end up forgetting some stuff but i'm going to try my best. (edit : so i might have gone a bit overboard... sorry for that)

i think the lessons and messages suzanne has conveyed through her books can be divided into parts. some are about how to act in the reality of these problems and, to put it in the most plainly way, to ingrain the good in our lives. whereas the others are about those problems and the harsh reality of our world.

one of the major things this series talks about is of course oppression and how necessary it is to retaliate against it. funny how people will straight away jump in and chant over those in books and movies, but then suddenly it's a different thing when it happens in real life, but that's for later.

this series covered a lot of grounds in relation to that. and sometimes when i think and correlate it too much to our world i go a bit insane about how uncanny it is because my god are they an accurate depiction of the wars and bloodshed and corrupted governments of our own kind. art imitates life, life imitates art.

for the current world affairs, i will mostly be associating my thoughts with the current situation in palestine, but also a few with what is now happening in congo, sudan, and west papua.

first :

how children are often exploited in wars by people in power. to either gain sympathy, support, or to induce rage, even though they don't actually care about them.

in the hunger games, we saw how the capitol used the districts children to hold on onto that fear they already have over them and remind them of their power. in mockingjay, we saw how president coin used the capitol children by bombing them to make every last of their citizens turn their backs against snow.

but we also saw how the capitol used their own children too in tbosas. how the government used their very students, who were still recovering from the war they went through at a very young age, to be mentors and be beneficial to the games, even though most didn't want to.

like arachne's funeral being blown out of proportion for propaganda use. how lots of the mentors mentioned that they felt used by the capitol for the success of the games. how snow himself even had expressed his weariness of everything that had been going on. how it was all being put on their shoulders, a burden most didn't want.

we see this case a lot too. how high governments preaching for "the safety of our children" or "for the well-being of the young generation" to sway the people's views when really, they don't care about them. they just care about the political goals they're trying to achieve or the societal condition they're trying to protect because it plays in their favors.

how people are able to put a blind eye against oppression and the fact that they are killing children

and in this context, genocide.

the capitol was broadcasting the games. they put it on tv, they made it a whole spectacle and a cause for celebration. you would think that the world outside of panem would step up and put an end it to it after realizing that :

"oh, the capitol has been annually killing 23 children each year for entertainment. and not to mention those who have died under their ruling because of now trivial solvable things like hunger and easily cured illness because of lack of medical resources from their government while they themselves throw up on purpose just to eat more"

but they didn't. and look where we are now.

israel has been occupying gaza for more than the past 75 years (on the Nakba in 1948). the civilians there has been living in an apartheid state (an article for further elaboration). they don't have equal rights on their land just because they were born palestinians. it has been described as an “open air prison”, so alike to the arena the capitol used for the games. how many news have you witnessed about the bombings in gaza before 2023? how many times has this happened, again and again throughout the decades?

thousands of men, women, and children alike are being killed from the attacks (and it's not even from the past decades, only from october 7th) , and over 1.7 millions have been displaced out of their own homes in gaza because of the occupation .

same thing with congo and sudan and west papua. they are currently going through a genocide too, but not a lot of protests or posts on that because not much is aware of it.

with social medias in the play, we've seen so many footages being spread around to show people what actually is happening there. these hurting civilians have had to put aside their mourning for the loss of their family, relatives, and friends just to make the rest of the world hear them. so many have had to put their injured children, brothers and sisters with missing limbs, and their people under the rubble just to make the media see them.

this is why spreading awareness is so so important. it's the least you can do if you don't have the means to donate or help in any other way. so many parts of the world is suffering and it's necessary to bring them to light. don't be like the capitol citizens, blinded by medias and glamorous shows that are being fed into us daily so we won't see what the actual problem is.

how propagandas and being control of the narrative play such a vital role in wars and conflicts.

just like how it is right now with what's currently happening in palestine. how so many journalists who were stationed there and risking their lives in the hopes of reporting the world on the crisis situation in gaza, are getting killed and attacked by isareli strikes left and right.

another thing i would like to point out, just because i can't get it out of my mind, is how imbalance the power that are being played. like that one chapter in tbosas. we see it loud and clear the significant difference in terms of privilege and who are holding the upper hand in the midst of all the pictures and videos being taken.

remember that part in tbosas when the capitol made arachne's death a major event? but really it wasn't about giving her respects or anything, it was to make a statement. what with making her tribute's punishment a public and broadcasted exhibition. they wasted money on all that when they were still on rocky ground with the economy. just to remind the districts what the capitol could do to them if they step out of the line and remind them of their assets.

the capitol were still capable of spending some to record and assemble that, while the districts are dying out of starvation and natural causes and them.

i have some thoughts, but i’m just going to leave it at how so many countries have played this too. maybe not so much the blatant and brutal part, but how so many of the governments have played the ‘victim card’ to show off to the world too, when they themselves are the root of the problem.

how power and moral superiority corrupt.

we see this in tbosas, mostly, because of the fact we saw it in the perspective of the oppressive government itself. when i was reading the original trilogy, i was wondering how they had come to make that decision and how could they justify it when, at the cost of it all, they are killing innocent lives. children, not even the adults in charge of the first rebellion themselves.

how does one have the decency to do that and not feel guilty? how could they not see how sick this is?

and that's because the capitol didn't see these children as people. to see them as barely above animals was already a rare case. they saw them as rabid, savages, scums of the earth.

they didn't see the loss we see through our third-person perspective because they don't think there were losses to begin with. they felt that letting them to live was already a good "mercy" to give and that these district people owed them. their death had no value to them, and their lives only did because it served them materials to live by.

we saw a lot of this too in our world. how great countries (*ekhem* western countries *ekhem*) have hold themselves above others and see minorities, people of color, people with different cultures and beliefs as violent. when really, whose side had their hands red first?

we saw this happening in the past that led to colonialism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, etc.

and we still see this happening right now too. everywhere.

for example, like the common views that arabs are dangerous or that muslims are terrorists, which can lead to the dismissing of what israel is currently doing to the people in palestine where the majority of the citizens are muslims.

the US government funding the bombs that resulted in these thousands of palestinian deaths and biden supporting israel on their inhumane attacks is just. you see where i'm getting at. (recent news on their "concerned" thoughts of the 4-day pause)

how the israeli forces can just attack al-aqsa mosque during ramadhan regularly and still able to do it and not get condemnation from lots of the western countries that powers the world. i can't find the recent numbers, but news from november 9th 2023 shows that they have bombed 66 mosques with partial damage to 146 others across gaza.

what are their justification for the damage and injuries? "that hamas are hiding in there", "that they are using it as headquarters." and they can still continue to do that too, bomb sacred places and desperately needed sites with that excuse as a shield for all their atrocities, if this does not stop here.

which leads us to,

war crimes

the capitol bombed an entire district, killing almost everyone there. and they bombed a makeshift hospital in district 8—that's a war crime.

according to the WHO, 39 health facilities have been damaged since the war began (and that's from 20 days ago).

al-shifa hospital, al-quds hospital, al-rantisi hospital , the indonesian hospital. where patients, casualties, and premature babies are.

not only that, they have also bombed schools (including the UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp). i don't even need to explain how this is a place for children to learn and they bombed that too.

Other than mosques, they have also bombed churches (one namely the greek orthodox church, the oldest in the city)

they bombed refugee camps, evacuations routes where they had told the citizens to flee. they have used white phosphorus to bomb gaza, a weapon illegal to use even in wars.

people have cried reading and/or watching katniss' speech to snow after he had ordered for the makeshift hospital to be bombed because it is powerful and incredibly moving to see. it was a spark of the rebellion, and people love rooting for fictional characters overthrowing the government and getting the justice they deserved, especially if said government hit too close to home. but that is fiction.

but when they see real people actually living under tyranny and having their homes being bombed, and citizens being killed every 10 minutes, lots of the same people just look away, refusing to acknowledge it. prefer to turn into a "safer" program instead. when what's currently happening isn't fiction and there are actually CASUALTIES and people dying. most refuse to see it and some even take desperate measures to defend it. and that's insane.

i'm sure there are more i haven't elaborated, but now let's move on to what i think is the biggest takeaway from this series :

that wars hurt everybody.

one of the things katniss concluded by the end of mockingjay is that "it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen." (mj, chapter 27).

i know lots of people have a lot of things to say about suzanne's ending message feeling slightly against violent resistance, but that's not it. she was saying that in return of violence itself, we could've changed it and turned it for the better. all of us, together. (because after all, haven't we labelled ourselves as the superior species of earth?)

but how could we do so, when the politics of our world and our own views of it are so complicated and tangled and tampered, and already so many of us have blood on our hands? that’s the question.

"i think that peeta was onto something about us destroying one another and letting some decent species take over. because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children's lives to settle its differences. you can spin it anyway you like."

we saw the entire problem being elaborated more in tbosas. how the hunger games was to punish the district because of the rebellion they incited, and of course with the aftermath of the war still fresh in their minds, the capitol citizens agreed or did not mind it.

but what they did not realize or refused to remember was that the district had taken a stand against the capitol because of the capitol itself. (which i think also connects to the recent events, but). because they had had their lives taken from them while still living it, because they had been robbed of their rights to live as human beings should, because the capitol had reduced them to slavers for their purposes and their purposes only.

i see it as an "if only." on what we could do instead of what we have been doing for millennia. what we could be evolving to instead of resorting to more wars in the future, had everything had not happened.

but how could we form peace all around the world when so many of reigning and powerful countries that was the start of all of this in the first place only advocate for diplomacy but doesn't actually practice them? how could we, when control and greed and take, take, take has always been the motivator? but that's a talk for another day.

as we all aware of, oppression, wars, slavery, genocide, ethnic cleansing etc are still happening in different parts of the world. we unfortunately did not leave them in the old history books and became better like we would all like to believe. so, where does that leave us? when the money power hungry governments are still out there to get others and us and all we, the rest of the world, can do is watch?

so let's talk on WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.

learn and educate yourselves on the matter.

i know only a few people will read this, but i'm going to add links either way :

on palestine -> comprehensive masterlist , thepalestineacademy.com , decolonizepalestine.com | on congo -> m23 cobalt mining in congo (2) | on sudan -> ICC, CNN, sudan genocide | west papua -> genocidewatch , research paper on it, the guardian.

spread awareness.

this is the very least you can do. just tell people what you know, let people acknowledge it. information holds power, that's why we have seen so many journalists being killed trying to get some. it's not useless. even if you don't have a big following or whatever, app like twitter and tiktok relies heavily on algorithm. just giving likes or retweet/repost could help a lot on it reaching a wider audience. a post on tumblr, on the other hand, dies with a like— so reblog!!

social media has a bad reputation for false information, and i'm not saying it is a misconception but seriously, what does most of the big (especially western) news channels tell us? lies, cover-ups, lies. so take advantage of the accessibility of the internet to share information on what's happening, but do make sure to use your own media literacy while doing so too.

donate, if you can.

but make sure to check who are in charge of the donations too!

you can also join rallies or protests, but do it according to regulations. don’t do things that can be harmful to other people’s safety or yours.

so, to wrap it all up :

the hunger games is a series that tells us about injustice and how it could go on so long without any repercussions due to suppressed voices and silenced speeches. so share those voice of theirs, let the world know and see and hear them. because we can't let history keep being repeated over and over again when ours has held so many bloodshed and costed so many of people lives in between them.