#biggest debate is which province he's from.

[thawthebeez]

thinking about the sk8 the infinity boys. boy. langa ..my fellow canadian brother. i have so many thoughts about him.

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

Du Wen at Her, the bar she started last year, in Shanghai. “I think everyone living in this city seems to have reached this stage that they want to explore more about the power of women,” she said.

Her is a self-described feminist bar in Shanghai where women gather to talk about their place in society

Tang Shuang at her bookstore, Paper Moon, in Shanghai

Wang Xia, left, and her Xin Chao Bookstore space in the Shanghai Book City in Shanghai

The female bookstore, Paper Moon, in Shanghai

In bars tucked away in alleys and at salons and bookstores around Shanghai, women are debating their place in a country where men make the laws.

Some wore wedding gowns to take public vows of commitment to themselves. Others gathered to watch films made by women about women. The bookish flocked to female bookshops to read titles like “The Woman Destroyed” and “Living a Feminist Life.”

Women in Shanghai, and some of China’s other biggest cities, are negotiating the fragile terms of public expression at a politically precarious moment. China’s ruling Communist Party has identified feminism as a threat to its authority. Female rights activists have been jailed. Concerns about harassment and violence against women are ignored or outright silenced.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has diminished the role of women at work and in public office. There are no female members of Mr. Xi’s inner circle or the Politburo, the executive policymaking body. He has invoked more traditional roles for women, as caretakers and mothers, in planning a new “childbearing culture” to address a shrinking population.

But groups of women around China are quietly reclaiming their own identities. Many are from a generation that grew up with more freedom than their mothers. Women in Shanghai, profoundly shaken by a two-month Covid lockdown in 2022, are being driven by a need to build community.

“I think everyone living in this city seems to have reached this stage that they want to explore more about the power of women,” said Du Wen, the founder of Her, a bar that hosts salon discussions.

Frustrated by the increasingly narrow understanding of women by the public, Nong He, a film and theater student, held a screening of three documentaries about women by female Chinese directors.

“I think we should have a broader space for women to create,” Ms. He said. “We hope to organize such an event to let people know what our life is like, what the life of other women is like, and with that understanding, we can connect and provide some help to each other.”

At quietly advertised events, women question misogynistic tropes in Chinese culture. “Why are lonely ghosts always female?” one woman recently asked, referring to Chinese literature’s depiction of homeless women after death. They share tips for beginners to feminism. Start with history, said Tang Shuang, the owner of Paper Moon, which sells books by female authors. “This is like the basement of the structure.”

There are few reliable statistics about gender violence and sexual harassment in China, but incidents of violence against women have occurred with greater frequency, according to researchers and social workers. Stories have circulated widely online of women being physically maimed or brutally murdered for trying to leave their husbands, or savagely beaten for resisting unwanted attention from men. The discovery of a woman who was chained inside a doorless shack in the eastern province of Jiangsu became one of the most debated topics online in years.

With each case, the reactions have been highly divisive. Many people denounced the attackers and called out sexism in society. Many others blamed the victims.

The way these discussions polarize society unnerved Ms. Tang, an entrepreneur and former deputy editor of Vogue China. Events in her own life unsettled her, too. As female friends shared feelings of shame and worthlessness for not getting married, Ms. Tang searched for a framework to articulate what she was feeling.

“Then I found out, you know, even myself, I don’t have very clear thoughts about these things,” she said. “People are eager to talk, but they don’t know what they are talking about.” Ms. Tang decided to open Paper Moon, a store for intellectually curious readers like herself.

The bookstore is divided into an academic section that features feminist history and social studies, as well as literature and poetry. There is an area for biographies. “You need to have some real stories to encourage women,” Ms. Tang said.

Anxiety about attracting the wrong kind of attention is always present.

When Ms. Tang opened her store, she placed a sign in the door describing it as a feminist bookstore that welcomed all genders, as well as pets. “But my friend warned me to take it out because, you know, I could cause trouble by using the word feminism.”

Wang Xia, the owner of Xin Chao Bookstore, has chosen to stay away from the “F” word altogether. Instead she described her bookstore as “woman-themed.” When she opened it in 2020, the store was a sprawling space with nooks to foster private conversations and six study rooms named after famous female authors like Simone de Beauvoir.

Xin Chao Bookstore served more than 50,000 people through events, workshops and online lectures, Ms. Wang said. It had more than 20,000 books about art, literature and self-improvement — books about women and books for women. The store became so prominent that state-owned media wrote about it and the Shanghai government posted the article on its website.

Still, Ms. Wang was careful to steer clear of making a political statement. “My ambition is not to develop feminism,” she said.

For Ms. Du, the Her founder, empowering women is at the heart of her motivation. She was jolted into action by the isolation of the pandemic: Shanghai ordered its residents to stay in their apartments under lockdown for two months, and her world narrowed to the walls of her apartment.

For years she dreamed of opening a place where she could elevate the voices of women, and now it seemed more urgent than ever. After the lockdown, she opened Her, a place where women could strike friendships and debate the social expectations that society had placed on them.

On International Women’s Day in March, Her held an event it called Marry Me, in which women took vows to themselves. The bar has also hosted a salon where women acted out the roles of mothers and daughters. Many younger women described a reluctance to be treated the way their mothers were treated and said they did not know how to talk to them, Ms. Du said.

The authorities have met with Ms. Du and indicated that as long as the events at Her didn’t become too popular, there was a place for it in Shanghai, she said.

But in China, there is always the possibility that officials will crack down. “They never tell you clearly what is forbidden,” Ms. Tang of Paper Moon said.

Ms. Wang recently moved Xin Chao Bookstore into Shanghai Book City, a famous store with large atriums and long columns of bookcases. A four-volume collection of Mr. Xi’s writings are prominently displayed in several languages.

Book City is huge. The space for Xin Chao Bookstore is not, Ms. Wang said, with several shelves inside and around a small room that may eventually hold about only 3,000 books.

“It’s a small cell of the city, a cultural cell,” Ms. Wang said.

Still, it stands out in China.

“Not every city has a woman’s bookstore,” she said. “There are many cities that do not have such cultural soil.””

[newstfionline]

Monday, July 22, 2024

Wildfires in Canada’s Alberta, British Columbia prompt evacuation orders (Reuters) Wildfires raging through the northern part of Canada’s Alberta have forced evacuations of three communities, a provincial body said on Saturday, as the oil-rich province continues to fight five different ‘wildfires of note’ in separate areas. The evacuation orders have been issued across John D’Or, Fox Lake and Garden River communities in northern Albert, covering close to 62,000 hectares and comprising 5,000 inhabitants. Alberta is in the grip of 158 wildfire events of which 55 are out of control. Meanwhile in neighboring British Columbia, where up to 319 active wildfires are burning, evacuation orders have been issued on Saturday due to an uncontrolled wildfire blazing between two lakes, BC Wildfire Service said on social media platform X.

Biden drops out of presidential race, endorses Harris (NYT) President Biden abandoned his bid for re-election , succumbing to intense pressure from the Democratic Party in a dramatic attempt to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House. No sitting president has dropped out of a race so late in an election cycle. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden said in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” Biden said he planned to serve out his term, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee. Not long after, Harris announced that she was running. Biden, 81, announced his withdrawal after a disastrous debate performance against Trump intensified concerns about the president’s age and ability to win the election. Biden defied calls to drop out for weeks and told aides as recently as last night that the campaign was still full speed ahead. Most of his staff was informed of his decision at 1:45 p.m., one minute before Biden posted his announcement. Biden’s decision sets the stage for an intense, abbreviated scramble to build a new Democratic ticket, the first time in generations that a nominee will be chosen at a convention rather than through primaries.

Lack of motive in Trump attack frustrates public, but fits a pattern (Washington Post) In the week since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, details have emerged about sniper positions and Secret Service agents, witnesses and warnings. But the answer to the biggest question remains elusive: Why? So far, investigators say, they have found little evidence of an ideology driving the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old nursing home aide who was killed at the scene. Barring a breakthrough in the investigation, Crooks appears poised to join a string of high-profile attackers with no discernible ideological driver, or with influences from a mixed bag of beliefs. That outcome is frustrating for a nation struggling to make sense of the event, analysts say, but it fits into a pattern of bloody episodes that defy categorization along a traditional left-right spectrum. “It’s very unsatisfying, psychologically, to say, ‘Stuff happens and we don’t know why,” one terrorism researcher said. “As a society, we’re kind of preprogrammed for a TV culture that there’s an event, then a resolution, and it has to make sense,” Andrew Rouse said. “People have to have patience and realize there’s not a grand cabal behind every event.” FBI officials who study mass shootings say that roughly 20% of the time, a gunman doesn’t want anyone to know their motive or reasons.

Airlines and others rush to get back on track after global tech disruption (AP) Transport providers, businesses and governments on Saturday are rushing to get all their systems back online after long disruptions following a widespread technology outage. The biggest continuing effect has been on air travel. Carriers canceled thousands of flights on Friday and now have many of their planes and crews in the wrong place, while airports facing continued problems with checking in and security. Microsoft says 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by a faulty cybersecurity update Friday that led to worldwide disruptions. People seeking to enter the U.S. from both the north and the south found that the border crossings were delayed by the internet outage. The San Ysidro Port of Entry was gridlocked Friday morning with pedestrians waiting three hours to cross, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Meanwhile, at the U.S.-Canada border, Windsor Police reported long delays at the crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel.

Mexican president calls Donald Trump ‘a friend’ and says he’ll warn him against closing border (AP) Mexico’s president called Donald Trump “a friend” Friday and said he would write to the former U.S. president to warn him against pledging to close the border or blaming migrants for bringing drugs into the United States. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called Trump, president from 2017 to 2021 and again the Republican nominee for this fall’s presidential election, “a man of intelligence and vision,” despite Trump’s repeated calls to close the two countries’ border. López Obrador also addressed a growing discomfort in the United States with the massive transfer of U.S. auto companies to lower-wage plants in Mexico. López Obrador claimed that moving auto production back to the United States “would mean that on average, each automobile sold would cost U.S. citizens between $15,000 and $20,000 more.”

With AI, jets and police squadrons, Paris is securing the Olympics (AP) A year ago, the head of the Paris Olympics boldly declared that France’s capital would be “ the safest place in the world “ when the Games open this Friday. Tony Estanguet’s confident forecast looks less far-fetched now with squadrons of police patrolling Paris’ streets, fighter jets and soldiers primed to scramble, and imposing metal-fence security barriers erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine that will star in the opening show. France’s vast police and military operation is in large part because the July 26-Aug. 11 Games face unprecedented security challenges. The city has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks and international tensions are high because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Olympic organizers also have cyberattack concerns, while rights campaigners and Games critics are worried about Paris’ use of AI-equipped surveillance technology and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security.

As Georgia presses on with ‘Russia-style’ laws, its citizens describe a country on the brink (AP) Eka Gigauri is used to harsh words from officials about the anti-corruption work she does in Georgia. But seeing her face on posters, accusing her of being an agent of foreign influence, a traitor and a spy, rattled her. Gigauri, who leads one of Georgia’s main anti-corruption campaign groups, says she and many others have been targeted in connection with a new law, pushed through parliament by the government. The “foreign influence” law requires media, civil society groups and nonprofit organizations to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. It also subjects them to intense state scrutiny and imposes steep fines for noncompliance. The government argues the law is needed to curb harmful foreign actors trying to destabilize the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million. Many journalists and activists say its true goal is to stigmatize them and restrict debate before an election scheduled for October.

China braces for twin tropical cyclones after deadly flash floods (Reuters) Two tropical cyclones will bring gales and heavy rain to China’s eastern seaboard this week, with the first expected to make landfall on Sunday, after deadly flash floods struck the country’s interior over the weekend. Prapiroon, named after a Thai rain god, is expected to make landfall in China’s southernmost island province of Hainan on Sunday night as a strong tropical storm, the first tropical cyclone to hit China this year, national forecasters said. Later this week, Gaemi, which was about 530 km (330 miles) northeast of Philippine capital Manila on Sunday morning, is expected to brush past the northern tip of Taiwan, then make landfall in China as a typhoon, packing wind speeds of up to 50 metres per second (180 kph), according to Chinese forecasters.

South Korea boosts propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at border after North Korea flies more balloons (AP) South Korea said Sunday it was bolstering its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the tense border with rival North Korea, after the North launched more balloons likely carrying trash toward South Korea. The Cold War-style psychological battle between the two Koreas is adding to already-high tensions on the Korean Peninsula, with the rivals threatening stronger steps against each other and warning of devastating consequences.

Israel shoots down a missile fired from Yemen hours after an Israeli strike on Houthi rebels (AP) The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen early Sunday, hours after Israeli warplanes struck several Houthi targets in the Arabian peninsula country. The Israeli airstrikes—in response to a deadly Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv—were the first time Israel is known to have responded to repeated Houthi attacks throughout its nine-month war against Hamas. The burst of violence between the distant enemies has threatened to open a new front for Israel.

Chinese companies offer to 'resurrect' deceased loved ones with AI avatars (NPR) Whenever stress at work builds, Chinese tech executive Sun Kai turns to his mother for support. Or rather, he talks with her digital avatar on a tablet device, rendered from the shoulders upby artificial intelligence to look and sound just like his flesh-and-blood mother, who died in 2018. “I do not treat [the avatar] as a kind of digital person. I truly regard it as a mother,” says Sun, 47,from his office in China’s eastern port city of Nanjing. He estimates he converses with her avatar at least once a week. The company that made the avatar of Sun’s mother is called Silicon Intelligence, where Sun is also an executive working on voice simulation. The Nanjing-based company is among a boom in technology startups in China and around the world that create AI chatbots using a person’s likeness and voice. The idea to digitally clone people who have died is not new but until recent years had been relegated to the realm of science fiction. Now, increasingly powerful chatbots and serious investment in computing power have enabled private companies to offer affordable digital “clones” of real people.

[atlanticcanada]

Housing strategy revealed for New Brunswick

Minister Jill Green revealed her long awaited province-wide housing strategy in Moncton on Thursday, which included $500 million to be spent over three years.

“This is the start,” she said.

“This strategy is providing a number of different pillars and funds to help get things moving, but we’re not done and so this is identifying the most immediate, faster things we can get in place to make the biggest impact over three years.”

Included in the provincial blueprint is a plan to create a rent bank to offer short-term loans to help renters with upfront costs and offer a new $22 million fund to lower the subsidized housing wait list. The province said it hopes to drop the number of households needing subsidized housing to 7,500 by 2026, and raise the number of new residential construction projects to 6,000 per years.

The current waitlist is more than 11,000.

“This strategy is about balance. The programs and the funding we put forward is about balance,” said Green.

There are four main target areas within the Housing for All plan that was released:

 a healthy and competitive housing market

 affordable homes for low-to-mid income earners

 a safe home for vulnerable New Brunswickers

 a strong foundation for the housing system

Green says within each pillar is a number of different, new or enhanced existing programs to address the current crisis.

“It’s a puzzle that we’re putting together. There are the foundational pieces in here to begin correcting this problem that we have,” she said.

However, what’s absent in the strategy is a rent cap.

“New Brunswick has seen, you know, a rent increase in 2023 which is double the national average,” said Liberal MLA Benoit Bourque.

“So obviously the rent cap was working last year and this year, the fact that it’s not there, is creating hardship for New Brunswickers in terms of rent increases.”

He says it’s disappointing to see that they haven’t taken a more aggressive stand when it comes to rent.

“What has been currently, you know, done by this government in terms of the residency tenancy tribunal and other things have clearly not been enough,” said Bourque.

While excluded right now, some say there just isn’t enough research to back up a rent cap.

Executive director with Ability New Brunswick, Haley Flaro, says it was a heavily debated topic.

“There’s a lot of economic analysis that needs to go into rent caps, moratoriums and at this time our board really struggled with the decision on whether or not to recommend that so it’s not in the plan now, does it mean it won’t be in the plan in the future? There’s some really strategic actions in the plan that need to be tested first,” she said.

Overall, she says she’s happy with the strategy in place now.

“We went to the summit, we submitted a brief, and our board had long discussions about strategic recommendations and many of them are reflected in the plan.”

Another part of the plan that raised flags for the liberal opposition was the amount of money being put forward.

“They’re talking about $500 million, which on the surface is a sizeable amount of money, but when you know that to actually fix the current crisis it is estimated that we would need $2 billion, we’re far from that mark,” said Bourque.

Minister Green says if she needs to go back and ask for more assistance she’ll do that. 

For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/IfgtM5K

[sonxofxgondor]

Between fingers battle beaten and roughened - debated as either natural or through the artistic work of the ladies who ran the Steward household, fine lines drawn by pencil and added rouge - a wrapper which contained within it chocolate was popped into Boromir's mouth. Filled on the inside with peanuts, a crunch that was not expected but happily welcomed anyways, right from Thera's bowl had it been stolen. Neither trick nor treat asked before having been procured; as the children who held their sacks out to receive their own candies. A smile as youthful as theirs, devilish from the corners and all throughout, Boromir tucked the used wrapper into his tunic pocket and put back onto his head the helmet that he had been holding. Adjusted the accessory until it was just right and fit, with gray eyes shimmering, he offered his arm to Thera. Chewed what remained of the chocolate candy, the peanuts, too, and nodded cheerfully.

"A waste, indeed!" Boromir agreed. "Let's not have it slip by us. My sweet dancer, put down your bowl of goodies and walk with me! Quickly! Before the children get to all of the best ones first! I saw a particularly scary ghoul wander by your door not too long before I showed. She seemed to be on the hunt for only the best! We must not let her get that far!"

Screams and howls of the nighttime festivities lifted into the air, a new sort of life had come upon both Minas Tirith and the people that called her home. Pleasant, almost silly and insane, a beauty that was able to distract from the horrors that nested just outside of the capital's limits. Mordor - the realm that housed true monsters and mutants - province that felt so far away, blissfully unreal. For the first time in many years, in many sunrises and sunsets, Boromir felt at peace. There was nothing that could have soured his happiness; the joy he felt when Thera looked upon him so, the excitement that would come from stuffing his face full of treats.

Boromir entreated, gaze widened, his voice juvenile, "Thera! There she is! The she-witch of Gondor. Do you not see how she provokes us? There! She's stuck her tongue out toward us. We must put an end to her! Or, in the very least, get to the next house before she does. I heard rumor that they were gifting the biggest pieces over there. We cannot miss out!"

The knock upon her door was firmer than the rest, more assured. Those prior had been either the smaller knocks of children or the polite ones of parents accompanying - cautious despite the agreed symbol on display to show this house stood ready for visitors of that kind.

First clue, then, that a different sort had now arrived, raising both Thera's brow and her expectation, or indeed hope, of whom she might find beyond. Eyes lit with pleasure and mirth at the sight - and a veil or two had been left aside before she answered, the better to show movement and poise (had it not actually been Boromir come to call ... well, perhaps there would be disappointment, but no harm).

Watching his glance run between the sweets and herself only widened the smile, the soft chime of bells and coins on her belt sounding as she moved. "What manner of trick," Thera questioned, gaze innocent from under lashes painted dark, "would I dare to play on such a sage and ancient warrior?" If one could forgive the 'sage' warrior that helmet, of course. "I fear the children besmirch my good name!"

Said children, if any had actually spoken so, likely adored the Captain so well that he could have coaxed them to it in fun. In fact, if not for the greater joys of sweets at other doors, a few sets of curious eyes might be following him even now.

"I believe," A further chime, as her free hand reached to smooth the blue of his coat, "it's a matter of for the warrior's courage to decide. Will he simply take his treats and depart, or venture into my lair? Or," Her pretense of seriousness failed, broke into a laugh, "we could join the other travelers walking abroad tonight? It seems a shame to waste either your costume or mine."

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, has promoted an uplifting vision for growth increasingly freed from greenhouse gas pollution, but turning that plan into action is already proving contentious.

The big issue is coal.

Mr. Xi’s climate-saving ambitions are a pillar of a plan for the country’s post-pandemic ascent that was endorsed by China’s Communist Party-controlled legislature days ago.

The plan is designed to steer the country toward two signature commitments that Mr. Xi made last year. China’s emissions of carbon dioxide would peak before 2030, he said, and the country would reach net carbon neutrality before 2060, meaning it would emit no more of the greenhouse gas than it takes from the atmosphere by methods like engineering or planting forests.

But unusually sharp debate has risen in China over how aggressively it should cut the use of coal, which has fueled its industrial takeoff yet made it the world’s top-polluting nation in recent decades.

Prominent Chinese climate scientists and policy advisers want stricter emissions limits, including virtually no new coal power projects, and they foresee a boom in solar and wind generation. Powerful provinces, state companies and industry groups say China still needs to use large amounts of coal for electricity and industry for years to come.

“There is absolutely a tension,” said Leon Clarke, a professor at the University of Maryland and a leading co-author of a recent study on China’s options for curtailing emissions. “On the one side, there’s a sense that coal has driven the economy and you don’t want to give that up. On the other hand, coal is the biggest target for climate action, particularly in the near term.”

China’s environmental pressures were brought to life last week as a thick smog hung over Beijing, reflecting an uptick in industrial pollution.

[justamusicpodcast]

Sup, I’m Laura Cousineau and welcome to Just A Music Podcast, where I, Laura Cousineau, tell you about some music history, how it relates to the world around us, and hopefully, introduce you to some new tunes. This show is theoretically for everyone but I will swear and when it comes down to it and sometimes we may need to talk about some sensitive topics so ur weeuns might wanna sit this one out.

Folk music! What a fucking blanket of a genre title isn’t it? We got 1960s folk in america, we got different folk genres in terms of mixed genres like folk metal, we got folk music as sort of an interchangeable term for ethnic musics, it’s all fuckin folk from here on out folks! But what is folk music where does it come from, what are we talking about when we talk about folk music? Well that’s what we’re going to talk about this week to kick off our North American music genre analysis with North American folk musics! Truth be told I did wanna start out with an episode on North American Native musics but as I’m whiter than sour cream on rice and there isn’t as much scholarship on it as I would like to confidently do a whole episode on it without input from actual native peoples. That all being said, if anyone listening is native and would like to give me some input on their musics, I would be more than happy to cover it.

But for now folk. North American folk musics. You notice I mention musics, it’s because north American folk music can be defined as a lot of things. So what are we talking about when we talk about the genre of folk musics. Well that’s gonna change depending on who you ask from what I explained before, we have some kind of mish mosh, multiple definition, popular idea of what folk music is and that’s not surprising given how that definition has grown and changed over time. Some of you will be surprised to hear that when we talk about north American folk music’s we’re actually talking about A BUNCH of different musical genres, not just one. Sure we have what people would usually associate with North American folk, the very Appalachian sounding bluegrass, country and then of course western, but we also have native musics (which again, I promise I will talk about at some point), and Maritime Canadian folk musics, we have cajun and creole musics, we have a bunch of racist shit too unfortunately but like legit we have so much stuff to talk about this episode I might have to break it up into two episodes.

Like all other musics, it all started from somewhere… I know, that’s the take of the century isn’t it. I mean it would be so much cooler if all folk music started cause some little gnome hopped out of the ground and was like imma invent music, but like that gnome would also be incredibly racist so I dunno, gnome theory sucks. So where did North American folk music come from? Well that’s a matter of looking at the mostly euro populations that colonized North America and this will change depending on the regions that we’re looking at. So WE need a SHORT HISTORY of the beginning of exploration.  

So, there’s some debate as to who we should credit with the “discovery” of north america, cause on one hand we have the Viking settlements in eastern Canada in the year 1000,  there’s some speculation that there were even other visitors before then, and of course we have the populations of native people’s who have lived here for forever, but in terms of the European colonial pattern we’re looking for, for our needs we’re looking at Christopher Columbus. So as y’all know Christopher Columbus, Portuguese adventurer, getting permission from Queen Isabella of Castille in 1492 set sail across the Atlantic to try and find a passage to India to get some of them good ass spices everyone was raving about. Though he didn’t find India he managed to find the Caribbean also known as Central America. Now I know in the news for a little bit with the ever increasing prevalence of the Black Lives Matter movement y’all been hearing about people tearing down Christopher Columbus statues in the news and there is a very good reason for that.

So as I’ve already told you Chris didn’t discover North america but he also was, and this is gonna be a massive understatement, but the dude was a massive asshole, like take the biggest asshole you can imagine and times that by about 10. It’s estimated that his colonization of the Caribbean resulted in the deaths of over 8 million people, or or about the entire population of Switzerland. You can’t even use the product of his time excuse because even Queen Isabella, the person in charge of the Spanish Inquisition, which famously saw hte torture and death of tonnes of people under the guise of religious purity, was even like yo dude you need to slow down. I will talk about him more once we reach central American music genres but just for now yeah he existed, yeah he kinda started the wave of north American exploration, but he was also an absolute asshat and there should never have been a statue let alone a day to commemorate the shitheel of a man.

So we get the start of this wave of immigration into what will become northern South america, Central America, and southern north America by Portuguese populations who mainly speak, well, Portuguese, bringing music from the Iberian peninsula. But we’re more concerned with what’s happening up north and for that we’re gonna have to look at later waves of immigration that started with Roanoake starting in the 1520s.

So the start of British colonization started with Roanoake and Newfoundland (which, yes, for our non canadian listeners it’s pronounced newfinland not new found land like the name would suggest, which to be fair would also be cool, I’ll welcome the Fins in my land anytime, they do fantastic music). One of these settlements was infinitely more successful than the other with Newfoundland becoming what we know now to be the east most province of Canada and while Roanoake is still there it failed so hard that a population of 112 people disappeared without a trace. Like legit we still don’t know what precisely happened to them. Some assume they integrated into the local native populations, some assume they were all murdered, some assume cannibals, essentially it was a bad time for all involved.

What this means for newfoundland though and other English colonies is that musically we hear a very British folk song base to the music that’s being established here, with newfoundland being very much established as a fishing colony the musical style echoes that. Since we’re talking about the Kingdom of England more broadly this meant that there was an absolute tonne of Irish and Scottish influence to the music. This is why when you listen to the folk musics of Newfoundland (established in 1583), Virginia (established in 1607), and Parts of the Carolinas (established in 1712), you hear it sounds very similar to that of their colonial forefathers. This means that there was commonly a lot of fiddle, flute, English guitar, a string instrument with a long handle, rounded body and ten strings that was a version of a Renaissance cittern, simple stringed banjos; zithers, which were flat, shallow boxes with strings running the length of the body that were plucked by the fingers and and hammered dulcimers, various shaped (like trapezoidal and peanut shaped) sound boxes with strings across them that were hit with small hammers, Much like this!

So we have all these people coming into the area, and with that too you’re also going to get jigs and reels too. Jigs and reels are both types of dance music widely enjoyed across the British Isles but are most associated with Scottish and Irish dancing musics. The difference between the two is mostly the time signature as the instruments used to play both of them are roughly the same, that being said Scottish musics tend to have more pipes and irish does traditionally use a type of handdrum which are both excellent. Jigs are in compound duple time meaning that there are 12 8th notes in a bar of music and reels are played in simple time like 2/2 (two half notes per bar) or 4/4 (4 quarter notes in a bar). They sound like this.

Its important to note here too that when we talk about all of these peoples from the British Isles that we don’t unintentionally assume that they were all nice and cozy with one another. Many of the Scottish and Irish parties, often referred to simply as the scotch irish or scotts irish came to america as a form of Religious punishmen because they didn’t precisely fit in with the church of England, some of my ancestors were scotts-irish and came to what would eventually become America because they were Quakers.

It is from these traditions that the music then evolves into something different over time and actually we’re gonna take a quick detour into linguistics for a second because it will be particularly helpful in demonstrating my point and y’all will be able to hear something way cool. So for those who are not aware, linguistics is the study of, well, language. (big brain moment right?) But what does that mean? Whereas when you take English, Igbo, Japanese, Arabic, or any other established language in an academic setting (so like learning in school when you’re growing up) the emphasis is on spelling, grammar, how to write and speak your language in the way that it has been determined is the best way to speak it (which isn’t always ACTUALLY the best way to speak it but we’ll get into that in a second.) Linguistics is the study of pretty much every other component of the language. So linguists study the phonemes or the sounds that comprise the word and how they change based on the dialect that a person is speaking (a dialect being a regional difference of a language such as how someone from Scotland speaks English and how I as a Canadian speak English), they study how languages become standard languages and why (spoiler alert there’s a lot of elitism involved), they study meaning and why we put certain words in the order that we do (for Example in English we put adjectives (or the words that describe things) in very specific order being quantity, quality, size, age shape, color, proper adjective and purpose or qualifier so describing a thing could be a shitty old triangular purple metal pair of shoes, but if you were like the triangular purples old shitty pair of shoes you would lose your gourd.)

But why does linguistics matter? Well language actually acts a lot like music in the ways that it travels and changes over time which makes sense doesn’t it? When a people move around and interact with other cultures or are even just are separated from a larger group, over time their language will change! One change that is easy for us to see in our life-time is in word usage, for example, you use different phrases and slang that your parents and your grandparents didn’t use. The same goes for accents this means that your accent is going to be different than your parents and their parents. In some cases this will smooth it out or ramp it up, it will accentuate features, or drop features entirely. And actually this is where I’m going to give you over to a linguist to better explain this because where I do know about some linguistic shift they will definitely explain it better.

Why this is important is BECAUSE music functions similarly in terms of drift. Though musical drift doesn’t happen as FAST as language because language you use everyday with incredibly intensity and music you do not, it does still happen. Even more helpful in the tracing of language is how and where it moves over time. Because language is contingent on people speaking it and music is also contingent on those who play it, you can track how music and language changes and who it interacts with based on the stylistic attributes and or instruments that it acquires over time. If we wanna think about this in a real practical sense come with me into the theater of ur brainhole for a second. Imagine for a second there is a group of people who live in lets say India in like the 500s C.E for some reason or another they’re pushed out of India and into the west where they met like Turks and hung out with them for a couple hundred years. So they pick up some Turkish words, incorporate some of their musical elements and then move farther west. Then they meet the Greeks! The Greeks are pretty rad, they got some good shit going for them, so they stay for another couple hundred years! Again, they pick up some Greek words, some Greek musical elements. After that let’s say some of the people from this group were captured and held as indentured workers in a country forcing them to integrate into the culture of the majority but another portion of the population was fortunate enough to be able to get away and keep moving west into the Balkans where they also picked up a bunch of words and musical elements. You see where I’m going with this? Cultures are all contingent on how often or how little they come in contact with other cultures, this goes for music, this goes for language, hell this pretty much goes for all sorts of art. For the sake of our example I used the Roma who also just serve as a crazy good example for this because we didn’t really even know their history until one scholar was “like hey they got some Indian words in here” and launched a whole study into it which is rad as hell but we’re gonna save that for another episode. BUT YES CULTURE IS CONTINGENT ON THE INTERACTION OR LACK OF INTERACTION WITH OTHER CULTURES, THIS IS A THING AND WE’RE GONNA BE TALKING ABOUT IT A LOT.

SO we were with settlers from the British Isles and they came to north america and then their music changed!

In Canada and Louisianna we also have the addition of the French colonies which make our music a little different. In Canada those colonies would be Acadia in what is now the province of Nova Scotia (established in 1604), Montreal (established in 1642), Quebec (established in 1608), and Trois Riviers (established in 1634)  along the Saint Lawrence River with the voyageurs or courier de bois who were fur traders dealing primarily in beaver. In the southern US it’s the colony of Louisianna in the states which is much larger than what is currently the state of Louisianna. All of these colonies together formed one mega colony commonly referred to as New France. Differences between the musics performed by French colonists vs. English colonists was, well first of all the language, obviously French colonists sang more often in French, due to them being… French. But there were also differences in content too. In Canada especially many settlements were originally set up with the intention of converting native populations to Christianity which is a form of cultural genocide by the way. Thus, Jesuit populations often brough a lot of religious music into the area. Sometimes it would be mixed with musical and cultural traditions of the native populations but often it would just be very Christian. An example from the area I grew up in would be the Huron carol which blends native cultural heritage from the area with Christianity. It sounds something like this.

As French populations began intermarrying into native populations this became a more common sonic combination to hear. In Canada we also have a larger amount of music based on or around or deriving from sea shanties due to the fishing populations that settles in East originally as fishing colonies. As I plan to do a whole episode on sea shanties one day I don’t want to go too much into them but quickly speaking sea shanties tend to be broken down into categories based on the task they were performed around. So there were three principal types of shanties: short-haul shanties, which were simple songs sung for short tasks where only a little work was needed, halyard shanties, for jobs such as hoisting sail, in which a certain rhythm was required to signal when it was time to exert effort and when it was time to rest (often referred to as a pull and relax rhythm), and windlass shanties, which synchronized footsteps. I find them incredibly infectious, which is probably intentional because they’re meant to kinda keep spirits up as well as set a pace for work, but I’ll try and sell ya more on that when the time comes. In the meantime you can content yourself with singing drunken sailor to yourself, probably one of the most well known shanties.

French Canadian music also has some very fun additions to it that come from the body itself, like ur own dang body. The first one is a singing technique but also song style. It’s technically a form of non-lexical vocable which is a fancy way of saying “sounds that comes from ur mouth in music that aren’t necessarily words.” In fact sometimes it’s also just referred to as French Canadian mouth music. This specific one I’m talking about kinda, lord how do you describe this, it’s like a scatting but much slower, less bombastic, and more rhythmic. I’m gonna fuck up the pronunciation because, again, even though I have a French Canadian background and had to take it from grade 4 to grade 9 in school I remember it about as well as one might remember an event they’ve never been to, that is to say not at all. The form is called a turlutte (ter-lute) which uses a lot of D, T, and M sounds to kinda fit the sound that ur looking for in a song. It sounds something like this!

French Canadian music also has the real fun addition of podorythmie or foot rhythms which are complex rhythms that people keep with their feet. For those who don’t know what a rhythm is, it is defined as a strong, regular, repeated pattern sound so lets say that you start clapping, and each clap is spaced exactly by one second, now on the first and third claps you clap a little harder, that would be a rhythm. Rhythms can be incredibly simple like that one or they can be really complex and the ones that you will hear in French Canadian music are of the more complex variety. Usually if the person performing them is also playing an instrument they’ll often sit in a chair with a little wood box or hard surface underneath which they will use to tap their feet on. Sometimes they will wear special hard bottomed shoes made with leather or wood to do this in order to accentuate the sound. Less commonly people can also stand while performing a podorythmie turning it into a kind of dance. Here’s my favorite example of what that sounds like.

Some of this style was eventually transported to Louisianna when the Acadians were eventually pushed out of Canada by the English in 1755, many of them ended up actually settling in Louisiana forming the ethnically Cajun population, Cajun deriving from the word Acadian. Not to say that life wasn’t hard for damn near everybody who wasn’t nobility in the 1700s, but the dramatic shift for Acadians made it particularly hard for a long time. People had trouble adjusting to their new way of life at first, coming from a mostly trading based economy to agrarian based was hard on the population, not to mention the massive change in climate that came with moving all the way from what would now be modern nova scotia all the way down to Louisiana. To give a real succinct idea of where exactly they were moving imma quote Loyola university in New Orleans that have done a really good succinct history on the Cajuns of Louisianna ”Few Acadians stayed in the port of arrival, New Orleans. Some settled in the regions south and northwest of New Orleans and along the Teche, Lafourche and Vermilion Bayous. Far more went further west to the marshes and prairies of south central Louisiana. They became hunters and trappers and farmers. It is a popular misconception that most Cajuns live on the bayous and in the marshes, poling their pirogues and hunting alligators. Far more became farmers in the grand triangular prairie that stretches from Lafayette north to Ville Platte and west to Lake Charles.” Like shit man, my giant canadian ass if forced to live in Louisiana would probably catch fire as soon as I got there let alone back then with no air conditioning and what have you. Their music also then changed to reflect their new way of life, not that the music was about catching fire in a corn field (although that would fucking slap), music was written and sung about hard times and hard livin’.

From the same Loyola University document: The music these people brought was simple. It was made by singing, humming, and rhythmic clapping and stamping. Instruments were brought to the colony, with a violinist's death recorded in 1782. Early instrumental music was played primarily on violins, singularily or in pairs. One violin played lead and the second a backing rhythm. A simple rhythm instrument was created out of bent metal bars from hay or rice rakes: the triangle or 'tit fer, meaning little iron. Musicians wrote original songs telling of their life in the new world. The song J'ai passe devant ta porte tells of the suddenness of death from accident and disease. The singer tells of passing by his beloved's door and hearing no answer to his call. Going inside he sees the candles burning around his love's corpse.

In the south they would have been influenced by other settlers in the area, more scotts and irish of course but also eventually African descended peoples. Some were brought as slaves during the French and Spanish colonial period or brought in by settlers after the Louisiana Purchase. Under Spanish rule, slaves were allowed to buy their freedom (which I cannot emphasize entirely how fucking difficult that would have been), leading to an early population of free Blacks in southern Louisiana. People of African descent also came from the Caribbean, including the colonized French-speaking islands. During the revolution in Haiti between 1789 and 1791, French-speaking Haitians who fled the violence often chose the Louisiana coast as a destination due to having a familiar linguistic population and ease of access. These populations would become to be known as creole. The term Creole comes originally from the Spanish criollo, for a child born of Spanish parents in the New World. The French borrowed it as Creole. Creole could refer to anyone of European parentage born in Louisiana. Over two centuries it began to be used to mean a person of mixed foreign and local parentage. One use today is to refer to someone entirely or partly of African descent.

Now, it’s incredibly important that we don’t discount the influence of slaves and former slaves in the creation and dissemination of creole musics because they are absolutely integral to the process. Creole songs originated in the French and Spanish slave plantations in Louisianna and thus contain tonnes of African musical elements from the instruments they used to the syncopated rhythms. For example, original instruments you would have heard could have been percussion instruments made out of gourds, known as shak-shak which would be shaken to create a rhythm, the mouth harp, a type of metal instrument that one holds in place in the mouth and plucks with their finger opening and closing their mouth hole to create different pitches and textures of sound, the bamboula, tambou, or tombou lay lay which are types of drums; and as I mentioned before, a type of banjo known as a banza might have been played if someone could fashion one. Because that in essence is what we’re talking about, when we talk about Creole music we’re talking about music slaves could make with the limited resources that were available to them, in order to make the music they wanted to hear. This is why overtime we also see the addition of the washboard as an instrument because it was something that would have been available to them. A washboard for those who don’t know is most literally a board, usually made out of ridged wood or metal that one would put into a source of water, either a basin or a river, and methodically rub the dirt and stains out of your dirty clothes as well as you could with soap if you could access it, believe me it’s about as fun as it sounds.

So what was this music they were playing? What did it sounds like? Well as I already mentioned there was a lot of African influence to the music. One of the most prominent features of this influence is the syncopated rhythm. A syncopated rhythm is a rhythm that is built so that the strong beats eventually become the weak beats. So if we continue our example from before, where we clap harder on the first beat and third beat, a syncopated rhythm would move to become the opposite of it on the 2nd and 4th beats or the off beats, like this. Don’t be worried if that’s something you can’t do yourself, I still find it hard to switch between.

As no type of culture exists independently of time or location though, the type of music they played was also influenced by the culture of their oppressors. While there was music that existed independently that slaves brought from their Native African groups such as the Bamboula, Calinda, Congo, Carabine and Juba, over time, a lot of their music also began to incorporate French and Spanish influence. A type of French dance called a quadrille for example was worked into the repertoire, a Spanish dance called the contradanza or the habanera actually became some of the first written music to incorporate the aforementioned African rhythms. Even the language used in these musics grew and changed. For the slaves, and even free black folk coming from the Caribbean, they would bring with them what is now known as patois, a language that is a combination of English, French, Spanish, and African languages. So when we think of what creole music is, it really then is a patchwork of different cultures mainly driven and compounded by the efforts of African slaves.

Now I will say before I play this example here that it is difficult when looking for early musics belonging to oppressed peoples because 1. It wasn’t written down for the most part, at least not in the way it would have been originally performed, 2. Pieces that were written down, recorded, or coopted were often done by white people looking to profit off of African music (which we’ll see way too fucking much of as we continue our north American music excursion), which seems like a rather disingenuous way to present it to you, and 3. Because music recording as far as actually recording audio didn’t exist until 1860. So if we’re looking for songs from the periods that they were written or invented we still have to find people who are alive that remember them. Even as I was researching this I was trying to look for recordings that would make it easier to hear the differences between the dance genres I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately there isn’t much in the way of albums or popular bands dedicated to these types of genres, so instead I’m going to play a clip of a bamboula rhythm being played by some students at the Asheh Cultural Arts Center's Kuumba Institute in New Orleans, and then a clip of another group performing a Calinda.

From where we’re currently standing in the year 2020 there is still Creole and Cajun distinct musics but they also created a fusion genre which has become it’s own thing, this genre is called Zydeco. Zydeco developed out of both the Cajun and Creole though (hard core purists will insist that it is a mostly creole development) which then further changed when German Immigrants started moving into the area. The accordion, which was invented in Vienna about 1828, was brought to Louisiana by the German immigrants many of whom lived adjacent to or among the Cajuns. Though it arrived in Louisiana as early as 1884, it was not immediately incorporated into Cajun music. This is because where fiddles were tuned differently than the accordions coming into the country. What I mean by that is that some instruments have pitches they’re better at playing naturally. So for example, you’re standard run of the mill trumpet, like if u look up a trumpet on google, well they’re most suited to play in the key of B flat because the sound that you get when you blow into one without putting any of your fingers on the buttons is B flat. For the accordions that were coming with the Germans, they were tuned to the keys of A and F, so it wasn’t till much later in 1925 that accordions tuned to C and D started appearing and thus started to be better incorporated into the music around it. The guitar was also added pretty late coming in in around 1920ish. The word Zydeco itself is actually derived from the title of a French song Les haricots sont pas sale or The snap beans are not salty! You can hear in the French if you put a little punchiness into it, the transition between the les and haricot sounds like a Z (yes I’m a Canadian that says Zee, I blame it on my American mother, plus it just sounds better, zed sounds like a bee flew into a hard surface). So because of the Z sound it became abbreviated to zarico and through time morphed into Zydeco! We got BEAN music.

And how does this bean music sound, well I personally think it sounds pretty fucking rad, kinda like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kPztofSd5Y

fun fact about that one, I’ve known this song for roughly 5 years I knew it I definitely just thought these dudes were scattin, like WHOA BA BA WHOA BA BA WHA BA PA BYE BYE DOO DOO, I did not realize until roughly 2 years until after I heard it that it had lyrics…

Now you may have noticed I haven’t touched on Appalachian folk music yet and I’ve done it very strategically for 2 reasons. One is just simply because if I had put it any earlier yall would have been like HUEHUEHUE I HAVE HEARD ALL I NEED and then absconded into the night like a raccoon after finding half a cheeseburger in the trash. The second was because Appalachian folk music and next week’s episode are gonna be pretty instrumental in the episode after that, so to keep it popping freesh in ur brain bits I figured I’d stick it at the end of the episode.

So appalaichan music turns out is actually a really tricky genre of music, if we wanna go by the United States Library of Congress introduction to Appalaichan music: The term "Appalachian music" is in truth an artificial category, created and defined by a small group of scholars in the early twentieth century, but bearing only a limited relationship to the actual musical activity of people living in the Appalachian mountains. Since the region is not only geographically, but also ethnically and musically diverse (and has been since the early days of European settlement there), music of the Appalachian mountains is as difficult to define as is American music in general. I should also probably say before we get too far that like the Appalachian mountains (which first of all that I pronounce incorrectly because it’s pronounces with a CHian not Shan) but the appalachian mountains are the mountain range that run through a lot of the eastern United States, so like Appalachian Mountains extend 1,500 miles (or 2414 km for everyone else) from Maine to Georgia. They pass through 18 states and encompass the Green Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, the Berkshires of Connecticut, New York's Catskills, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The region known as the Southern Highlands, or Upland South, covers most of West Virginia and parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Virginia. In colonial times, this area was known as the "Back Country."

It was in these areas that Cherokee and Algonquin people already existed but then colonists would come from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales and eventually from other parts of Europe came the Germans, French Huguenots, Polish, and Czechians. So we’ve already looked at the influence from the British Isles before (the jigs and reels and English folk music) but these would evolve into Square dances with a little help from French influences as well. A square dance for those who don’t know is a dance usually with 8 sets of partners who perform steps that are either established and vary based on song or thencaller which then the dancers perform. But just as we saw with instruments and musics being carried by free or escaped slaves to different parts of the southern united states and being integrated into the musical cannon of the area, the same thing happened in this area by the other people settling here as well. For example, the hammered dulcimer I told y’all about earlier (which if you haven’t seen one I would recommend lookin one up they can come in really fun shapes, ) but yeah those same hammered dulcimers were not an invention of the British isles carried over by those settlers but it is almost a direct descendant of a German instrument (the Germans btw came in a couple different waves the first big one being in 1670) so this instrument they brought was called the Scheitholt. Even African American instruments entered the scene in around the 1840s just in time for minstrel shows to start travelling around the country which I will be doing an episode on by the way because you can’t talk about American music without talking about the fucking disaster that is minstrel shows. It was these same free black peoples that also really popularized the call and response type of vocals which is pretty much just what it sounds like. The main singer will call out a line of lyrics sometimes as a holler, sometimes more musically, and other singers will answer it by doing it right back at them. This can be found in all sorts of music but just for the kicks of it here’s an example of it in gospel music.

But we’re gonna back track a little bit back to the Germans because we really haven’t talked about them enough and have left out one of their biggest influences on developing Appalachian folk music which is yodelling. If you’re from the states you’ll probably know yodelling from that kid that got famous a couple years ago and was in a Walmart commercial or something but for those of you who don’t know or people who do know that kid and are just curious about the mechanics of yodelling: The main components of a human singing voice are the head voice and the chest voice which I CAN and will demonstrate but to explain first, the head voice and chest voice are the two registers humans typically have. There’s also falsetto which is slightly different as it is kinda a pushing of the voice to a place it isn’t really supposed to be but I digress. So the head voice is where we get all our higher notes where the chest voice is where we get all out low notes. This is mainly due to the resonators we are using in creating these sounds as well as how tense or thick or thin and how long or short your vocal chords are. Resonators are simply just the air passages and open spaces in your body that sound resonates through. So for head voice you’re pushing the sound up and into the head using like ur nasal passages and all ur skull space for the sound to vibrate through which are all really small so you get a higher often sharper sound and chest voice mainly resonates in the chest (or ur LUNGS) which is a lot more space and so more low and rumbly. You can tell the difference between the two by putting a hand on ur chest while you’re singing, start with your lowest note you can comfortably reach and just start ascending, eventually you will feel your chest vibrate less and less and should be able to feel the switch into head voice. I’ll just give you a quick demonstration as to how different they are. Please bear in mind I am a natural soprano so my low range isn’t incredibly low but here it goes so the head voice “as I don’t do remembering, can’t give this song a ghost of past, I wander, I ponder, why there is weight in time” and again the same line but in chest voice “as I don’t do remembering, can’t give this song a ghost of past, I wander, I ponder, why there is weight in time.”

So if you tried it yourself you’ll notice that there’s a little, what vocalists call, break between where ur chest register is and where ur head voice is, it happens for everyone don’t worry. What yodelling does then is fluctuates between the head and the chest voice really fast and most importantly smoothly like this:

ahh shit man, the sounds of my ancestors, you can almost smell the leiderhosen, taste the octoberfest, YOU CAN ALMOST SEE THE SCHUPLATTING. But yes so Germans brought this with them from their homelands along with their accordions and it established itself the Appalachian folk tradition. Now it’ll probably interest you to know that yodelling isn’t a genre without purpose, as I’d like to do a whole episode on it though at some point I don’t wanna spoil too much but it is good for communicating across mountain ranges because of how it echoes and the types of inflection you can put into it. This makes it easier to understand why it survived the shift from the mountains in Germany all the way to the mountains of America. The Germans also brought something else with them, but it wasn’t just Germans, the Polish, and Czechian influences also brought it with them too! And what is it that they brought? The waltz of course! The waltz is a type of dance that focusses on a ¾ time signature, and has one heavy beat on the front and two lighter beats after. For any of you who’ve ever seen the musical Oliver, this is precisely the type of song Oom Pah Pah is.

So these collections of music and the things they developed into can be called Appalachian folk musics. It’s hard to pin down precisely what Appalachian music then sounds like at times because of all the different influences depending on place that you were living in, if you had to pick out a few things though you would head that firstly you get a lot of stringed instruments like guitars, fiddles and banjos. Secondly  the themes were often similar and reflected day to day life living in the region such as mining or logging, there’s the fun little genre of murder ballads which I wanna do a whole episode on some day, and after the civil war we also get the addition of a lot of war songs. Thirdly this music would vary depending on purpose but would definitely include dances, campfire songs. So Imma play you a few samples then, first we just have a good old mountain song

if these sound familiar to other genres of music like bluegrass and country that’s because Appalachian folk music was the predecessor for both genres but those I’m gonna save for their own episode sometime in the future. It might be a part of the north American genre business it might be just another nebulous episode I do in the future at some point. But for now at least you know the history of some of the biggest Genres of American folk music. BUT WHAT ABOUT FOLK MUSIC TODAY, LAURA, WHAT ABOUT MUMFORD AND SONS, HOZIER, FUIMADANE, AND KORPIKLAAN? And I know, they’re ALL fantastic acts and I’ll get to people like them eventually, but for now at least you know where it all started.

So with that, hat’s all for just a music podcast this week, I hope you’ve heard something new, and I hope you’ve heard something that you like. If you haven’t there’s always next week where we’ll be getting heavy with slave and gospel music. In the meantime, though if one of y’all would like to suggest a topic I would love nothing more than to answer your musical question or talk about topics that interest you guys in music. Feel free to drop me a line at justamusicpodcast@gmail.com

Bye!

1.   Over the Hills and Far Away - 17th Century English Traditional - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MR7VihPm2E

2.   Woodsong Wanderlust Solo Hammered Dulcimer by Joshua Messick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayAvzVdOJJY&list=RDfD0rNyjDAa0&index=13

3.   Out on the Ocean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynKDggMtMww

4.   Rakish Paddy & Braes of Busby (Reels) Uilleann pipes Chris McMullan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0umOtiKyUc

5.   A Quick Lesson on Southern Linguistics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNqY6ftqGq0

6.   Huron Carol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgPeEvUl06Y

7.   La Bolduc - Reel Turluté https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASW3Cejl5oc

8.   Le Lys Vert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASW3Cejl5oc

9.   J'ai passe devant ta porte https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtchvhughFw

10.New Orleans Kuumba camp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItRuHjjGMhg

11. Calinda (Stickfight) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaM0PI3T1s8

12. Bye, Bye Boozoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kPztofSd5Y

13. Call and Response in Gospel Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMgNTwZW5gY

14. Underthing Solstice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anMKMu9Tpoc

15. Yodelling Franzl Lang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQhqikWnQCU

16. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles – Ost – Maggie is Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fn1Pw-LxU8&

17. Ola Belle Reed High on the Mountain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsRRY5k5Psg

18. Traditional Tennessee Square Dance Caller Gerald Young of Pulaski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7-DWvegcL8

[walkingshcdow-a]

One of the things that has plagued me since seeing the 2015 film is how little we know about Finnegan. This has, of course, allowed me plenty of liberty in my portrayal of him. However, the following things have plagued me since seeing the film: why is Finnegan’s family the third richest family in England, why does he own a castle, why is his castle in Scotland, but his last name is Irish, and his accent is painfully posh?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have finally found an answer.

I long ago reasoned that if Finnegan/his family owns a castle in Scotland - Castle Erskine - they must be nobility. Today, it occurred to me to actually Google ‘Castle Erskine’ to see if such a place existed. (Strangely, I Googled Erskine long before this and found out that it is near Glasgow, but I digress).

Castle Erskine is fictional; however, the Clan Erskine is a very real and prominent family in the Scottish peerage. To this day, the Erskines have several castle holdings throughout the UK - predominantly Scotland and England - but that their biggest claim to fame is the Earldom of Mar. Mar is a province in northeastern Scotland. The Earldom of Mar is actually thought to be the oldest peerage in Great Britain. This accounts for both Finnegan having a castle and vast sums of wealth… If he is an Erskine, he is definitely from a very powerful family.

His supreme Britishness can easily be attributed to an upbringing and education in London - never mind the pressure for members of the Scottish peerage (and Irish peerage, but I’ll get to that in a second) to conform to British culture.

Now, to address Finnegan’s Irish last name… And make no mistake, “Finnegan” is his last name, not his first name. How do we know this? Because the name “Finnegan” is always attributed to a family by other characters. Inspector Turpin recognizes the crest upon Finnegan’s coach - the one Victor and Igor escape to - as “a Finnegan family coach.” Not as one man’s coach, but a family’s. This is further reinforced when the chief of Scotland Yard asks Turpin about “conspiracies involving one of England’s richest families”. Where, then, would an Irish family have a (maternal) claim to such a prestigious Scottish title?

When I was getting my undergraduate degree, I had to read a book called “The Absentee” by Maria Edgeworth. The novel is all about absentee-landlords, social (in)justice, and true love. It’s really not my favorite book ever, but I’m grateful I read it because it taught me that there were Irish peers - or, more specifically Anglo-Irish peers - who traded their loyalty from Ireland to the British crown and during the 19th century, made a lot of money off their landholdings in Ireland. Many of them seldom traveled to Ireland and assimilated to English culture and to the ways of the English peerage. Which means, then, that if Finnegan’s father was an Anglo-Irish peer, he could easily marry into the Erskine Clan. I do not yet have any inkling as to what his actual rank is. He could be an Earl… or he could be something even higher, which is entirely possible.

What, then, is Finnegan’s title?

Due to complicated politics, there are two Earls of Mar at any given time - something that actually happened in 1875. Although it is never explicitly stated in the film, the costume designer of the 2015 film has been quoted in the special features as saying that it takes place in 1861 - before the legal division of the title, but during its dispute. I cannot find as much as I’d like about the dispute if I wanted to incorporate real historical figures…

So this is the part where I make up something.

It is my belief that Finnegan’s mother is or was styled as the Countess of Mar and that his father must have been of equal or higher rank. This means that it is entirely possible Finnegan had/has a claim to an Earldom (two, if we situate him on the side that became Earl of Kellie and of Mar) through his mother’s bloodline.

This means that Finnegan - if he was the oldest son or the only son - would have been a viscount at the outset… which makes his attendance at medical school puzzling. Therefore, he must not have been the oldest son.

Here’s where we veer totally into the land of headcanons and parallelism. Buckle up, if you haven’t already, and keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle.

I believe that canon-era Finnegan must have - at some point - had an older brother. However, from what we’ve seen of Finnegan, he has no loyalty to anyone but himself and his predominant trait is ambition. We know that he is a ruthless man and has no qualms about attempting to drown someone in the Thames in broad daylight.

So imagine instead Finnegan as a second son. Imagine Finnegan beginning life desperate to rise above his station and prove that he is as worthy or worthier than his brother. Imagine him being indulged materially but with distant, even somewhat neglectful, parents and imagine him getting the notion that if he attended medical school, he could commit the perfect murder. Imagine Finnegan literally going to medical school with the intent to kill his brother in an undetectable manner so he could inherit the earldom. Imagine him pitching the idea to his parents that the future lies in scientific innovation and as he will never be more than The Honorable Michael Finnegan, he might as well carve his own path. Imagine him receiving an expensive, comprehensive education. Imagine him killing his brother in a way that looks like an accident or an illness and feeling no remorse.

Now, compare that to Victor Frankenstein, who believes his brother’s death is all his fault when in reality it wasn’t.

Whether Finnegan pulls of this crime before canon or not is up for debate. I imagine that he did not since the Earldom survives to this day  (The current Countess of Mar seems super cool; she’s all about medical reform, incidentally). It seems unlikely that he has since no one is referring to him as if he were a viscount (or higher, since his father’s title is uncertain), but it certainly is possible that he has killed his brother and has inherited a title if you adhere to my (erroneous) headcanon that Victor’s father is a baron. Two sons of noblemen would probably refer to one another by last name (or first, if they’re friends, but lbr… Victor and Finnegan are not friends).

So at the end of the day, in verses that adhere to canon, Finnegan would be addressed as “The Honorable Michael Finnegan”.

In verses where he survived his fall - or the fall does not exist - and he succeeds in murdering the competition, his title would be Michael Finnegan of Mar, Viscount of Mar. (I think) and then, later, Michael Finnegan of Mar, Earl of Mar. Judging by the timeline of the actual family line, Finnegan would be the 27th Earl of Mar in the 19th century.

And this, of course, is only taking his mother’s heritage into consideration. Who knows what holdings his father has in England and Ireland?

Now, most of you will know this by now, but I play Finnegan predominantly in his modern-verse. Presuming that his family still holds a peerage, with the knowledge that his parents have died and that his unmarried, childless aunt holds the title of Countess of Mar, she’d be (approximately) the 30th/31st Countess of Mar (in real life, the 31st Countess of Mar holds the title). This means that when Finnegan’s aunt dies and Finnegan inherits the earldom, he will become Lord Michael Finnegan, 32nd Earl of Mar. Which is pretty rad, if you ask me.  

[waterchestnut123]

CH 9 | To Catch A Turtle Dove

Fandom: One Piece Setting: Victorian AU Genre: Action, Adventure, Humor, Friendship, Romance. Pairings: Law/Nami Rating: M - Mature (for language, drinking and alcohol, death and some moderate gore, other adult themes)

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Chapter 9: The Earring

Panic rose like a tide in her breast, her flight response kicking in—hard. The muscles of her legs screamed at her to flee, but she forced herself to remain composed—and unmoving.

The flood of Adrenalin had her brain working overtime to piece together the situation as fast as possible—all of the risks, and all of the variables. If she ran at the first sight of him, she would not only give herself away but she risked implicating Robin—or at the least putting her in a difficult situation. She couldn’t do that to her closest friend, not after the older woman had finally found peace and stability in Flevance after fleeing Alabasta.

More than that—she didn’t know whether or not he’d brought the authorities with him on this impromptu “visit”. If she ran blindly, she may well end up caught anyway. And, though infinitesimally slim, there was a chance he wasn’t here because of her thefts at all; or at least, that he wasn’t certain of her guilt. Running would only cement existing suspicions.

Ultimately, whether she ran, played it cool, or talked her way out of this—she needed more information. She would have to feel out the situation first before taking action.

Her eyes darted quickly, subtly, towards Robin. She sat in her usual kitchen chair, leaning back, hands resting comfortably in her lap and looking for all the world utterly at ease; but upon closer inspection, Nami could see her cool exterior was little more than a convincing ruse. There was a coiled tension in her shoulders, her gaze unusually sharp and analytical, and her expression just that little bit too controlled. She was on edge—wary and uncertain; and Nami now felt like the biggest damned fool for not realizing the sign on the shop front door had been Robin’s subtle attempt at a warning:

 Stay away, at all costs.

“Yes,” Robin interrupted her racing thoughts, tone mild and expression pleasant. “You had an unexpected visitor, and since you weren’t due to return for some time, it seemed rather improper of me to keep him waiting in the shop.”

It took her a moment to remember the question she’d asked upon entering the apartment. Slowly and with growing dread she turned to face the Lord and offer him a forced smile, fingers twitching with the restrained desire to wipe her sweating palms on her skirt. Sharp golden eyes met her browns, expression pleasantly neutral, and yet there was an undercurrent of cold, analytic scrutiny. As a small, pleased smile grew on his face, she knew without a shadow of a doubt he recognized her.

Her heart skipped a beat.

As if he could sense her rising panic, his unnerving smile grew ever so slightly before he turned a friendly eye to Robin.

“I apologize for keeping you from work; thank you for your hospitality. Please feel free to return—your friend and I can chat up here.”

Nami was distinctly reminded of his sister that night at the ball—for though his words were friendly and his tone light, there was something sinister underlying his pleasantry; it was not a suggestion, it was a honeyed command.

Robin hesitated a moment, and a part of Nami wondered if the Lord saw how his host’s smile faltered, brief as it was. But then she rose from her seat, inclining her head politely with all the grace and ease in the world.

“Of course. I hope you enjoyed the tea, My Lord,” she said with a smile. “Good evening.”

She crossed the room quietly, almost regretfully, gently bumping into Nami on her way through the hall. Her fingertips brushed hers as she passed, offering what little reassurance she could before she entered into the living room. And soon, with a light click of the door, she exited the apartment and descended the stairs to the street.

Silence, and the faint sound of the crackling log filled the room. Nami returned her gaze to the Lord whose eyes had, if possible, darkened with a sinister sort of pleasure—like a hawk who had cornered its prey. She didn’t know how in blazes he managed to find her—track her to the bookstore no less, but it was clear now that he was, in fact, here for her; and it seemed all but certain he knew who she was and what she had done.

Despite the panicked fog that was her mind, she couldn’t help but find it odd he had taken such a polite and unusually personal approach to apprehend her, instead of simply sending the authorities to drag her off to jail. She didn’t know why and couldn’t begin to guess; it was possible he wanted to confirm her identity, or perhaps he simply wanted to hear her side of the story before clapping her in cuffs. Either way, she could use this to her advantage. There were too many unknown variables for anything she did now to have a chance at working. She needed to buy herself time to come up with an escape plan—to find a way to make him show his hand.

“I don’t know what I’ve done to merit a personal visit from the Lord, but I am honored by your presence,” she demured quietly, modulating her voice carefully to hide her breathless anxiety. She grabbed two fistfuls of her dress to offer him a curtsy and polite tilt of her head, but jerked her head up in surprise when she heard him laugh quietly in response.

“There’s no need for theatrics. You’ve done quite enough of that already.”

She slowly straightened, watching him carefully, heart beating hard. He gestured to the seat opposite his own that Robin had only minutes ago vacated.

”Please, sit.”

Another command. She did not question it, and doubted she could. Forcing her trembling legs to move, she walked into the small dining area and crossed the space to the empty chair, noticing for the first time the items arrayed across the table.

Robin had offered the Lord a proper afternoon tea. Their best ceramic teapot was steaming on a trivet, beside which sat their pathetically modest jar of honey and a petite pitcher of milk. Apple slices and blueberries filled a small bowl, and a section of baguette sat sliced atop a bread board next to several large slices of cheddar and a small, pointed cheese knife.

She felt hope blossom weakly in her chest. Oh, she could kiss Robin.

Her attention was pulled abruptly from the table when she heard the Lord shift in his seat, sliding a hand smoothly into his coat’s breast pocket.

“Miss Bellemére—or should I say, Miss Nami—I believe… you asked me to let you know if I found your earring,” he said, tone low and smooth and all together too self-assured as he dangled the sparkling item from between gloved fingers. A smirk rose to his lips—that same devilish smirk he had given from the balcony that had caused all the ladies to swoon. But this time, it was very far from charming.

She stared, dumbfounded, at the glittering item hanging from his hand. She didn’t speak—couldn’t think of what to say. Any hope of talking her way out of this immediately dissipated like steam floating up from the teapot’s spout.

He carefully raised his hand to hold the earring within a shaft of sunlight coming from the window, causing it to glitter and sparkle brilliantly in the amber light. Glancing at it thoughtfully a moment, he returned his gaze to her, looking wholly satisfied as he took in her expression.

“I found it in the most unexpected of places,” he commented breezily, bright eyes practically glowing in the dimly lit room.

“Inside of my study.”

Her heart pounded hard against her ribcage. God, how could she be so careless? By the time she had gotten back to Sanji’s she’d completely forgotten about her missing earring. How could she forget such an important detail?!

Too tongue tied and too overwhelmed with the gravity of her mistake, she was unable to think of anything to say to rebuke him.

“Now…” he continued, lowering his arm to rest his elbow on the table. “I distinctly remember locking my study before the gala began—and I remember it being locked when I returned to it later that evening. Except something was missing—from my hidden safe, which was also locked. Given that I found your earring so close by, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

He leaned forward and she felt her heart skip a beat, breathing growing increasingly labored as her flight response kicked up again, screaming at her to run; but he had asked her a direct question, and she needed to come up with an answer before she truly dug her own grave.

“I—I’m terribly sorry,” she stuttered, “But I… I think you must have me confused with someone else.”

Denial; she would just… deny everything, and hope it forced him to give something, anything, away…

He laughed, leaning back in his chair as he returned the earring to his breast pocket.

“Somehow, I expected more.”

“Truly, my Lord,” she insisted, desperation fueling her act, “I am sorry if you lost something of value, but I was not at your gala. As you can see,” she said, gesturing to the shabby room, “I am hardly a woman of means or title.”

He eyed her hard, humor fading; and she briefly debated if that was the wrong thing to say.

“Do you know what the penalty for theft of the magnitude you committed is?” he inquired, tone steely.

She remained silent, hands fisting her skirt in her lap in a desperate attempt to stay a whimper. When she didn’t answer, his lips curled into a wicked smile.

“Death. By. Hanging.”

Her heart skipped several beats.

“And do you know who it is that holds ultimate authority over all criminal proceedings in the Province?”

Again, she remained silent. His eyes positively glimmered with sadistic glee.

“Me.”

Despite herself, a choking sound escaped. His lips briefly lifted into a smirk and he leaned back, looking utterly satisfied.

“Stationed outside your friend’s bookstore I have five of my best men,” he said smoothly. “Tell me—If I bring them up to search this apartment, will I find the the match to this earring? Or the items you stole from my guests?”

Her mouth went dry, but that weak hope in her chest flared brighter. He had unwittingly given her a crucial piece of information; he had brought men with him—and now she knew where they were: out front, on the street. Few except residents and city service workers knew these buildings had a narrow alley behind them—and residential windows which looked out onto them. Her mind began racing as an escape plan slowly formed.

“Deny all you like,” he said lowly, the glint of victory already in his eyes, “But the only person you need to convince of your innocence is me, and I am quite certain of your guilt.”

Though his words threatened to overturn her tenuous calm, she forced herself steady with her last dregs of self-possession. She had a plan now, and she was ready to execute it. Clenching her fists in her lap beneath the table, she willed her heart to slow and her limbs to still their trembling. She took a breath, rising slowly from her seat and smiling coyly at him as she sauntered slowly around the table, hips noticeably swaying.

“Surely, a man of your… discerning quality and immense power could find it in his heart to look the other way?” she crooned, voice low and sultry, batting her lashes over half-lidded eyes. Stopping before him, she leaned forward languidly, affording him an excellent view of her cleavage as she tossed her hair over one shoulder. She set one hand on the table, the other gently resting a fingertip upon his sternum and slowly, teasingly, trailing it down his vest, weaving in between buttons. His eyes, she noted with relief, were wholly distracted from the table, gazing at her with disdain and impatience.

“You will find I am not a man easily swayed by such cheap tactics,” he commented with irritation, eyes never once lowering to her ample bosom. A man of restraint too, apparently.

Her fingers were inching across the table—she could feel the handle at her fingertips. She lifted her other hand on his torso, trailing it back up to his collar where her fingers splayed gently, teasingly across his neck, pushing his jacket collar away.

“Oh, but surely we could work something out,” she insisted smoothly, lowering her lips to his ear and blocking his view of the table all together. Her fingers finally wrapped around the handle and she firmed her grip, her other spreading the collar of his jacket further away from his neck. “You seem like a… reasonable man,” she whispered, lips brushing the shell of his ear.

He leaned back in an attempt to put distance between them, and she seized the opportunity. As quickly and suddenly as she could, she struck, driving the cheese knife through his jacket collar and into the back of the chair, pinning him in place and knocking him backward onto the floor with the force of her thrust.

She didn’t wait around to watch him flail. With every ounce of strength and speed she possessed she turned and ran down the short hall, yanking open her bedroom door and slamming it shut on the sound of his furious cursing echoing from the kitchen floor. With trembling hands she shoved her low dresser against the door, bolting for the small window behind her bed which looked out onto the back alley below.

He had said his men were stationed out in the street—which meant if she really ran for it, she might have a chance to escape through the winding back alleys before they could catch up.

She yanked the window open and began wriggling through as a thud came at her bedroom door. A startled scream tore from her throat, but she didn’t stop, pulling and ripping at her skirts to get them through the window’s small confines. After several seconds of frantic effort and violent banging—was he trying to knock down the door?!—she managed to fit through, the toes of her boots balancing precariously on the uneven brickwork of the building’s exterior. She glanced down, noting fretfully nothing with which to cushion her fall; but as she heard the door finally slam open inside her room, dresser toppling, she took a breath and forced herself to jump anyway.

Vertigo and the sensation of falling struck her at once, and as she braced her legs to absorb the hard impact of the sodden ground, she suddenly saw a strange blue light expand around her—and then, far before she should have, she hit the ground with a tremendous thump, back-first, winded and wheezing. Though breathless and disoriented, one thought rang like a warning bell through her panic-addled mind: hadn’t she been falling feet-first? And the ground hadn’t hit hard as it should have—it was soft, and the ceiling of her room was above her instead of the overcast sky. She—was she was back in her room? But that wasn’t possible—!

Suddenly she was being hauled up and thrown against the wall, an arm across her neck pinning her to the wooden panels. She wheezed, still gasping for breath, blinking rapidly as her vision filled with stars from the force of the impact. It took a moment, but as her vision resolved clearly before her eyes, she was met with the Lord’s feral grin inches from her face, his jacket now long gone.

“I underestimated you,” he growled, an undertone of genuine applaud in his words. “That’s twice now you’ve fooled me.”

She blinked in confusion, heart racing and breathing labored, struggling to piece together the past thirty seconds. How the hell did she end up back in her room?! She was quite sure of her sanity, and she had most certainly been falling from her third floor window, when—

Suddenly, it hit her like a sack of bricks. She’d seen the impossible before.

“You’re—you’re a power user—!” she choked out in stunned surprise between gasping breaths.

His grin grew, but he did not respond. His lack of answer was answer enough.

“I’ve been playing nice, but I can see now that was a mistake.”

“Just take your stupid rings back and leave me the hell alone!” she bit out, struggling desperately against his grip, hands clawing uselessly at his arm. He pressed harder against her windpipe and she stilled.

“Oh, but I’m here for much more than just the rings. What I’m really here for… is you,” he said lowly, that gleeful glint returning to his eyes. “You see, Nami-ya, you’re quite right—I am a reasonable man, and I’d be very willing to commute your sentence. But in exchange for clemency, I will need… something in return.”

This did not sound good.

She stopped her struggling all together and fell still, eying him with no small amount of suspicion. Deals like this were always too good to be true—and the catch usually too high to pay. But currently she was pinned to a wall by a very, very strong devil fruit user, on the third floor of a building surrounded by his goons. She didn’t exactly have a lot of cards to play.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she let out a wheezing breath.

“…What—what exactly is it you want?”

His lips curled into an unsettling smile, golden eyes bright on hers.

“Your services.”

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[outlanderalien]

Who can stop Boris Johnson?

Boris Johnson is planning to spend millions on a No-Deal preparation campaign, aimed at informing Brits on how to prepare for No-Deal over the course of the next 3 months.

Meanwhile, his opponents are also planning a campaign. After Boris became PM, several Torys resigned because they were fundamentally opposed to No-Deal, including high profile cabinet ministers.

These rebel Torys have been in talks with Labour MPs and LibDem MPs about creating a cross-party alliance to stop a No-Deal Brexit. This includes starting a massive national campaign, expected to be called "No to No-Deal".

And it is rumoured that Rory Stewart will be leading the charge.

Rory Stewart was one of the Tory leadership candidates who had mass appeal and gained huge momentum during his leadership bid. He didn’t make it to the final 2 however, because MPs worried he wouldn’t appeal to The Brexit Party voters.

But i personally believe he might be Boris’ biggest threat.

So, who is Rory Stewart?

A privileged Etonian, yes. But that does not define him the same way it defines the likes of Boris Johnson.

Let’s start from the beginning of his career:

Prior to becoming a politician, Rory was a Civil Servant who served as a foreign Diplomat. In 2001, when he was 29, Rory took 2 years off to begin a 6000 mile trek from Turkey to Bangladesh.

In particular, his 600 mile walk across Afghanistan took place during a very tense and delicate time. 9/11 had just happened and the Taliban were around. As he traveled he spoke to various people in small villages or towns to greater understand the culture and people. 

In 2003 after the invasion of Iraq, he returned to Civil Service and governed 2 provinces in Iraq, which involved holding elections, resolving tribal disputes, and implementing development projects.

Rory published his book “The Places In Between” which was about his walk in Afghanistan. He then began to campaign strongly for the US government to stop military intervention in Afghanistan. 

His book became a best-seller and in 2006-8 he moved to Afghanistan to set up a charity called Turquoise Mountain. In 2009 he got a job teaching at Harvard, which he later left in 2010 to become a UK politician.

Rory’s experience in diplomatic work: Resolving tribal disputes, easing tensions, reaching out and understanding different cultures and belief systems, and finding the best compromise, means that Rory might be exactly the Prime Minister the UK needs.

As a politician, he has taken his diplomatic philosophy of walking, talking, listening and understanding to the British people. His leadership bid was characterised by his #RoryWalks twitter tag, where he would walk up and down the country and speak to anyone who had an opinion on Brexit or other government policy. 

He was, after all, a former diplomat and it shows. He wanted to best understand public opinion and concerns to inform his position and his approach to best benefit the British public, and he came up with a fascinating and diplomatic solution to Brexit.

No-Deal for obvious reasons is vastly damaging. 

But a 2nd referendum is also damaging unfortunately. Public discourse is so divided and aggressive currently, that holding a second referendum would deepen divides and cause Brexiteers to double-down and even triple-down on their position. It won’t take long for calls for a 3rd referendum to surface and riots to begin.

The least damaging of the options is the current Withdrawal Agreement, which is considered too soft a divorce for hard-line Brexiters, but also not a close enough agreement for Remainers. It was rejected on the basis that it was a compromise deal that tried to appease both sides.

But Rory had an interesting idea:

He suggested a Citizens Assembly, in which hundreds of randomly selected people from all across the UK, from every town, city and village would be brought to meet and discuss Brexit regularly until they come to a consensus. That consensus will then be presented to the government and they can use that as a public mandate to inform their decision.

The problem with Brexit isn’t that the government is divided, it’s that the people are divided. As long as no one is willing to compromise, as long as no one is willing to have an open discussion, then we face chaos no matter what choice we make.

With a citizens assembly, it means the public will feel listened to. It means they will have an active role to play. It will also mean having open discussions and debates on Brexit, which will facilitate an appetite for compromise and understanding. It’s the most diplomatic approach. It would heal divides within the country and facilitate open discussions that involve everyone until a consensus is reached and the country can be more united behind a common goal. This will stop the Parliament deadlock and will allow for Brexit to continue in whatever way the majority of the country decided, unimpeded by protest, chaos or riots.

Now, learning that Rory could possibly be the face of a “No to No-Deal” campaign, he really could be the biggest threat Boris will face. He is essentially the Anti-Boris. He may be the key to dethroning him before he inflicts No-Deal onto the country, and he’d have powerful public backing as well.

As usual, only time will tell. 

[newstfionline]

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Study: Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in US West (AP) Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening. The most dramatic changes were recorded in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between rainstorms grew from about 30 days in the 1970s to 45 days between storms now, said Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. The consequences of the intense dry periods that pummeled areas of the West in recent years were severe—more intense and dangerous wildfires, parched croplands and not enough vegetation to support livestock and wildlife. The study comes with almost two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. beset by abnormally dry conditions. Warm temperatures forecast for the next several months could make it the worst spring drought in almost a decade, affecting roughly 74 million people across the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Survey: Even as schools reopen, many students learn remotely (AP) Large numbers of students are not returning to the classroom even as more schools reopen for full-time, in-person learning, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Biden administration. The findings reflect a nation that has been locked in debate over the safety of reopening schools. Even as national COVID-19 rates continued to ebb in February, key measures around reopening schools barely budged. Nearly 46% of public schools offered five days a week of in-person to all students in February, according to the survey, but just 34% of students were learning full-time in the classroom. The gap was most pronounced among older K-12 students, with just 29% of eighth graders getting five days a week of learning at school. With the new findings, President Joe Biden came no closer to meeting his goal of having most elementary schools open five days a week in his first 100 days. Just shy of half the nation’s schools offered full-time learning in February, roughly the same share as the previous month.

Off Grid (Pew Research Center) Despite increasing access across the country, still 7 percent of U.S. adults say they do not use the internet, according to the latest survey from the Pew Research Center. This includes about 25 percent of people aged 65 and up, about 14 percent of people in households earning less than $30,000 per year and about 10 percent of rural households. In 2000, 48 percent of Americans said they didn’t use the internet, which fell to 32 percent in 2005, 24 percent in 2010 and 15 percent by 2015.

Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses 3 million amid new infections resurgence (Reuters) Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of COVID-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe. Worldwide COVID-19 deaths are rising once again, especially in Brazil and India. Health officials blame more infectious variants that were first detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, along with public fatigue with lockdowns and other restrictions.

Devastation From Storms Fuels Migration in Honduras (NYT) Children pry at the dirt with sticks, trying to dig out parts of homes that have sunk below ground. Their parents, unable to feed them, scavenge the rubble for remnants of roofs to sell for scrap metal. They live on top of the mud that swallowed fridges, stoves, beds—their entire lives buried beneath them. “We are doomed here,” said Magdalena Flores, a mother of seven, standing on a mattress that peeked out from the dirt where her house used to be. “The desperation, the sadness, that’s what makes you migrate.” People have long left Honduras for the United States, fleeing gang violence, economic misery and the indifference of a government run by a president accused of ties to drug traffickers. Then last fall, two hurricanes hit impoverished areas of Honduras in rapid succession, striking more than four million people across the nation—nearly half the population—and leveling entire neighborhoods. “People aren’t migrating; they’re fleeing,” said César Ramos, of the Mennonite Social Action Commission, a group providing aid to people affected by the storms. “These people have lost everything, even their hope.”

Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips (AP) They’re not leaders for life—not technically, at least. But in political reality, the powerful tenures of China’s Xi Jinping and, as of this week, Russia’s Vladimir Putin are looking as if they will extend much deeper into the 21st century—even as the two superpowers whose destinies they steer gather more clout with each passing year. What’s more, as they consolidate political control at home, sometimes with harsh measures, they’re working together more substantively than ever in a growing challenge to the West and the world’s other superpower, the United States. This week, Putin signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036. The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power for more than two decades—longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin—pushed through a constitutional vote last year allowing him to run again in 2024 when his current six-year term ends. He has overseen a systematic crackdown on dissent. In China, Xi, who came to power in 2012, has imposed even tighter controls on the already repressive political scene, emerging as one of his nation’s most powerful leaders in the seven decades of Communist Party rule that began with Mao Zedong’s often-brutal regime. Under Xi, the government has rounded up, imprisoned or silenced intellectuals, legal activists and other voices, cracked down on Hong Kong’s opposition and used security forces to suppress calls for minority rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

US military cites rising risk of Chinese move against Taiwan (AP) The American military is warning that China is probably accelerating its timetable for capturing control of Taiwan, the island democracy that has been the chief source of tension between Washington and Beijing for decades and is widely seen as the most likely trigger for a potentially catastrophic U.S.-China war. The worry about Taiwan comes as China wields new strength from years of military buildup. It has become more aggressive with Taiwan and more assertive in sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea. Beijing also has become more confrontational with Washington; senior Chinese officials traded sharp and unusually public barbs with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in talks in Alaska last month. A military move against Taiwan, however, would be a test of U.S. support for the island that Beijing views as a breakaway province. For the Biden administration, it could present the choice of abandoning a friendly, democratic entity or risking what could become an all-out war over a cause that is not on the radar of most Americans. The United States has long pledged to help Taiwan defend itself, but it has deliberately left unclear how far it would go in response to a Chinese attack.

Myanmar teeters toward state collapse and civil war (Washington Post) On Tuesday, protesters spilled metaphorical blood on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. They sprayed and splashed red paint on roads, pavement and bus stops across town to mark the death toll exacted by security forces on demonstrators standing against the Feb. 1 coup carried out by the country’s junta. At least 570 people, including more than 40 children, have been killed in two months of unrest. More than 2,720 politicians, activists and civil society figures have been detained by authorities. At least 25 journalists are in detention, while others covering protests have been brutalized by state forces. On Tuesday, police and soldiers in Yangon carted off Zarganar, the country’s most well-known comedian, in an army vehicle on unspecified charges.      Last week, authorities further tightened curbs on broadband access, ordering private providers to suspend wireless data services. According to one research firm, Internet shutdowns over recent months in Myanmar may have already cost the local economy close to $1 billion. That’s a price the regime appears happy to pay to deter protesters from coordinating their actions and disseminating further information. Undaunted, dissidents have taken to older forms of communication, launching rogue radio stations and spreading leaflets urging a national boycott of next week’s official state celebration of Thingyan, Myanmar’s traditional new year.      Still, the resilience and determination of the protesters “is not unambiguously good news, because the military junta also will not give up, no matter the cost, leaving little hope of salvaging Myanmar’s political liberalization, economic reform, and development progress during a decade of civilian rule,” wrote Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an esteemed political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “Instead, the country faces the imminent threat of economic collapse, state implosion, and internal strife—perhaps even full-fledged civil war.”

A Murky, Violent Limbo in Syria (NYT) Among the millions of Syrians who fled as the government bombed their towns, destroyed their homes and killed their loved ones are 150 families squatting in a soccer stadium in the northwestern city of Idlib, sheltering in rickety tents under the stands or in the rocky courtyard. More than 1,300 similar camps dot Syria’s last bastions under rebel control, eating up farmland, stretching along irrigation canals and filling lots next to apartment buildings where refugee families squat in damaged units with no windows. On a rare visit to Idlib Province, examples abounded of shocked and impoverished people trapped in a murky and often violent limbo. Stuck between a wall to prevent them from fleeing across the nearby border with Turkey and a hostile government that could attack at any moment, they struggle to secure basic needs in a territory controlled by a militant group formerly linked to Al Qaeda. Few of them are likely to return as long as Assad remains in power, making the fate of the displaced one of the thorniest pieces of the war’s unfinished business. “The question is: What is the future for these people?” said Mark Cutts, the United Nations deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria. “They can’t continue living forever in muddy fields under olive trees by the side of the road.”

Israel hits Iranian ship (Foreign Policy) An Iranian military vessel in the Red Sea was damaged by an Israeli mine on Tuesday in the latest naval confrontation involving the two countries. The incident follows a number of attacks against Iranian vessels suspected of shipping oil to Syria. Iran has responded with strikes of its own, hitting an Israeli container ship in March. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the ship struck in Tuesday’s attack had been stationed in the Red Sea to combat pirates in the area.

[kerahlekung]

Watch Out Trump...

Watch Out Trump...

China May Weaponize “Rare Earth” To Retaliate Against U.S.’ Ban On Huawei...

In what appears to be a hit below the belt and a coordinate attacks against China in the second phase of a trade war between the Middle Kingdom and the U.S., Trump has banned Huawei. The U.S. president’s executive order effectively prohibits U.S. companies from selling semiconductors to (or buying technological equipment from) the China’s largest technology company. By adding Huawei to the so-called Entity List, American firms are essentially disallowed from selling technology to the Chinese company without first obtaining a license from the U.S. government. Washington claimed that the ban on Huawei was due to “national security”. But every Tom, Dick and Harry knew Huawei is targeted due to the ongoing US-China trade war. Last year, Huawei purchased a whopping US$11 billion worth of computer chips and other components from American tech firms. That speaks volumes about how much the company depends on American chipmakers, the same way the U.S. companies rely on the Chinese tech giant for access to the nation’s market share. However, considering that Huawei successfully sold 200 million smartphones and hit 721.2 billion Yuan (US$107.45 billion; £82.38 billion; RM438.67 billion) in sales last year, it would take more than just an executive order from President Trump to exterminate the Chinese giant. David Wang, Huawei’s executive director, said that new U.S. restrictions would have little effect on the tech giant’s business prospects. Similarly, Huawei Technologies’ founder and chief executive, Ren Zhengfei, blasted the Trump administration’s decision and insists the Chinese telecom equipment maker has done nothing illegal. Mr. Ren also said the impact of the U.S. ban on Huawei’s business will be limited, and expressed confidence in its longer-term outlook. But the fact remains that over 30 American companies supply core components to Huawei, including Qualcomm, Broadcom and Intel. Huawei, in its attempt to calm the business community, said it actually has been preparing for exactly the situation it now faces. Huawei’s fully-owned HiSilicon Technologies, which designs core processor chips, has made plans to deal with a potential disruption in supply.

Huawei Android Chipsets

Hardware disruption is just one area which Huawei might be affected. In a stunning move that could threaten Huawei’s global ambitions to take over from Samsung as the world’s biggest smartphone maker, Google has dropped a bombshell when it announced its decision to stop licensing its Android operating system for the Chinese telecommunications firm – in order to comply with a U.S. trade blacklist. What that means is Huawei will no longer enjoy access to Android updates. It also means Huawei will only be able to use a public version of Google’s operating system through the Android Open Source Project. A new purchase of Huawei’s phone will also lose access to proprietary apps like the Google Play app store, Gmail and YouTube. Google, however, assures people with existing Huawei devices that they will still be able to use Google apps and download updates for them. Interestingly, the havoc of not being able to run Google apps only confined to international consumers. In China, it’s a totally different story as Huawei uses a modified version of Android that doesn’t have Google apps pre-installed, thanks to Google service blockage. Because international shipments accounted for almost half of Huawei’s overall smartphone sales in markets outside of China, the impact could be huge in the long term. In March, Huawei revealed that it had developed its own operating system for its consumer products if there came a time it was not able to use Google’s or Microsoft’s. So, as early as 2 months ago, Huawei already knew their gadgets would probably be targeted by Trump administration. What is unknown is whether consumers can accept the Chinese tech giant’s own developed operating system. Days ago, Nikkei Asian Review reported that Huawei told global suppliers 6 months ago that it wanted to build up a year of crucial components to prepare for trade wars. That means Huawei may have stockpiled components to produce up to 200 million of smartphones. Knowing China, they probably have also figured out the workaround – probably via a third party – to download Android apps or services. But Beijing probably isn’t impressed with Trump’s little dirty trick of forcing American technology companies to suspend business ties with Huawei.

Huawei - 5G Technology Advertisement

When the official Xinhua news agency deliberately reported President Xi Jinping’s visit to the country’s rare earth mining base in Jiangxi province on Monday, it raises eyebrows. Chinese leaders have a habit of not trumpeting what they plan to do next, but would instead let its news media do the talking. Hence, speculations that Beijing could consider weaponize minerals such as rare earth against the U.S. Accompanied by Vice-Premier Liu He, Xi’s most trusted adviser whom was appointed as a special envoy with authority to negotiate directly on trade matters with the U.S. recently, the Chinese president’s visit to one of the nation’s major rare earths mining and processing facilities can be interpreted as sending a strong message of China’s determination and defiance against the U.S. Rare earth is a group of metals and alloys that contain a set of 17 chemical elements that have magnetic and optical properties useful for making electronic components like computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, catalytic converters, magnets and whatnot. Although not as rare as gold or silver, extraction and refinement of rare earth are costly and dangerous, not to mention “environment dirty”. For example, the Asian Rare Earth factory built in Bukit Merah, Perak, Malaysia in 1982 has seen radioactive pollution and health problems – infant deaths, congenital disease, leukemia and lead poisoning – even decades after it was closed in 1992. An estimated RM100 million was required to clean up the factory and dump site in Bukit Merah. As the world’s biggest producer – about 90% of rare earth elements of the global supply – the U.S. depended on China for about four of every five tons of rare-earths imports between 2014 and 2017. The lack of domestic rare earth supplies would undermine a competitive modern economy and a strong military for the U.S. Yes, as it turned out, rare earth is a critical component to make weapons.

Rare Earth Metal Alloy Components

Terbium, dysprosium, samarium, praseodymium and neodymium are some high-tech names of rare earth exotic elements critical in making missiles and bombs, as well as electric motors and batteries for U.S. Navy’s destroyers. Rare earth element rhenium is a key component of jet engines for U.S. Air Force’s F-15, F-16, F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike FIghters. Sure, the U.S. can build their own plants to produce rare earth, if they don’t mind the environmental issues. But that would take years. Blue Line Corporation, a US company, and Lynas Corp., an Australian miner propose to build the first rare-earths plant in the U.S. in years. Lynas, the world’s only major producer of rare earth minerals outside China, faces regulatory issues at its processing plant in Malaysia. The strategic importance of rare earth in the present US-China trade war can be seen when President Trump exempted U.S. imports of rare earths from the latest round of tariffs imposed on Chinese goods. In 2017 alone, China mined 105,000 metric tons of rare earth metals, while the U.S. has only produced about 43,000 metric tons in the last 20 years combined. Hence, the visit to a rare earth plant by President Xi sends a message to President Trump – the U.S. may lose 80% of the supply of its rare earth imports anytime from China. The issue here isn’t about the value of the rare earth imports by the U.S., but rather the supply chain. After all, the U.S. imported only US$160 million worth of rare earth from China last year. Clearly, losing the US$160 million business is just s drop in the ocean for China. So, to retaliate against the U.S.’ ban on Huawei, China can easily deliver a deadly punch – bans export of rare earth to America. Beijing has actually weaponized rare earth before when it banned rare earth exports to Japan during a diplomatic standoff between the two countries in 2010. - FT

Story kat SINI dan SINI

Bersediakah Najib debat 

tentang kleptokrasi?...

Adakah Najib seorang yang mempunyai penyakit suka berbohong atau sememangnya seorang kaki pembohong? Adakah dia bersedia untuk berdebat mengenai topik “Bagaimana Malaysia terjerumus menjadi sebuah kleptokrasi global dan bagaimana kita boleh kembali menjadi sebuah negara terulung yang berintegriti”? Adakah bekas Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak seorang yang mempunyai penyakit suka berbohong atau sememangnya seorang kaki pembohong? Dalam wawancara dengan Free Malaysia Today hari ini pun, tidak ada lain yang dibuatnya selain berbohong. Najib mendakwa beliau telah menjawab segala persoalan yang dibangkitkan saya dalam kenyataan media saya, yang mana adalah pembohongan yang nyata. Adakah beliau sudah menjawab persoalan saya, antaranya yang telah dibangkitkan saya dalam kenyataan saya di Sandakan pada 8 Mei lalu mengenai sama ada lawatan kempen “Malu Apa Bossku” beliau untuk membantu kempen PBS dalam Pilihan Raya Kecil Sandakan adalah wadah terbaik untuk beliau menjelaskan mengapa beliau masih terus-menerus menafikan kewujudan skandal 1MDB, meskipun sejak empat tahun lalu, begitu banyak laporan berita mengenainya dikeluarkan oleh media antarabangsa, pelbagai buku dan filem telah diterbitkan mengenai skandal 1MDB sementara 10 negara lain telah melancarkan siasatan ke atas skandal terbabit?

Dia sepatutnya menjelaskan mengenai skandal 1MDB serta skandal rasuah mega yang lain yang berlaku di bawah pentadbirannya selaku perdana menteri sebelum ini, terutamanya tiga isu yang berbangkit sejak dua hari lalu, iaitu: 1. Ucapan ulang tahun pertama 509 oleh Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad di mana perdana menteri itu berkata beliau amat “pelik” melihat Najib masih berlagak seperti orang tidak bersalah meskipun sedang disiasat berhubung skandal 1MDB dan pihak berkuasa US dan Singapura telah memulangkan sebahagian RM1.5 billion wang yang diselewengkan dari 1MDB serta siasatan pengubahan wang haram dijalankan oleh 10 negara. 2. Pendedahan oleh bekas ahli Panel Penilaian Operasi SPRM, Datuk Lim Chee Wee bahawa Najib tidak disiasat atas kesalahan rasuah ketika beliau masih memegang jawatan perdana menteri kerana beliau memecat Tan Sri Gani Patail selaku Peguam Negara, menggantikan Gani dengan Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali, yang hanya mempunyai satu utama agenda selaku Peguam Negara, iaitu untuk melindungi Najib daripada siasatan rasuah. 3. Pendedahan oleh Deepak Jaikishan dalam sebuah wawancara dengan Al Jazeera bahawa isteri Najib, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor adalah “perdana menteri de facto” semasa Barisan Nasional masih berkuasa.

Najib tuduh saya obses dengannya. Beliau salah besar. Saya tidak berminat langsung dengan beliau jika beliau tidak melakukan kerosakan besar terhadap negara serta generasi masa kini dan akan datang dengan legasi kleptokrasi yang ditinggalkannya. Malah, beliau telah membawa malu kepada nama baik serta legasi arwah bapanya, Tun Razak. Mengambil kira semua ini, wajarkah seseorang masuk gelanggang dan berdebat dengan seorang kleptokrat, seorang yang mempunyai penyakit suka berbohong atau seorang kaki pembohong? Mungkin, subjek terbaik bagi sesi perdebatan tersebut adalah: “Bagaimana Malaysia terjerumus menjadi sebuah kleptokrasi global dan bagaimana kita boleh kembali menjadi sebuah negara terulung yang berintegriti”? Giliran Najib pula untuk menjawab. - LKS

Sejarah debat Malaysia...

Shabery Cheek(BN) vs Anwar Ibrahim(PKR) - keputusan - Shabery Cheek tewas mulut berbuih. Program 'nothing to hide' untuk debat Najib(BN) vs Dr.M(PPBM)  - keputusan - Najib cabut lari batang hidung pun tak nampak. Dengan perempuan Al-Jazeera pun dia nyaris2 nak cabut lari.  Pokoknya Najib hanya mahu mencari publisiti murahan di kala popularitinya makin menurun. - f/bk Debate on kleptocracy,let’s do it after Raya - Najib

1. R Rajagopal, pengarah urusan Golden Mineral Sdn Bhd (GMSB) sebuah syarikat perlombongan hari ini mendakwa MB Terengganu berbohong kepada media berkenaan status sebuah GLC apabila mengatakan Permint Mineral Sdn Bhd (PMSB) telah dibubarkan. 2. Baru-baru ini beliau menang saman terhadap PMSB. Jika sebuah syarikat ditutup, mana mungkin kes boleh dibawa ke mahkamah terhadapnya. 3. PMSB masih wujud dan media boleh periksa statusnya dengan SSM. 4. Pada 15 Mei lalu dan disiarkan oleh Berita Harian, Samsuri mengatakan kerajaan negeri menyerahkan soal melunaskan pampasan RM15.3 juta kepada GMSB kepada proses undang-undang. Kerajaan negeri tidak boleh berbuat apa-apa kerana syarikat itu telah dibubarkan, dan soal perundangan itu antara dua syarikat tersebut.

5. Samsuri berkata demikian ketika mengulas dakwaan Rajagopal sebelum itu bahawa kerajaan negeri menganiaya GMSB apabila PMSB enggan membayar RM15.3 juta ke atas kehilangan keuntungan GMSB seperti yang diarahkan Mahkamah Rayuan. 6. PMSB dimiliki Perbadanan Memajukan Iktisad Negeri Terengganu (Permint) dan ianya adalah sebahagian daripada tanggungjawab kerajaan negeri. 7. Mahkamah Rayuan pada September 2018 mengarahkan PSMB membayar pampasan RM15.3 juta kepada GMSB untuk 20 bulan - antara Ogos 2010 hingga Mac 2012 - ketika GMSB tidak dapat menjalankan kegiatan perlombongan di Kemaman, Terengganu ekoran pertikaian kontrak antara kedua-dua pihak. 8. Mahkamah Persekutuan mengekalkan keputusan Mahkamah Rayuan pada 14 Mac lalu.

Bos Yapeim digantung 

Tahniah Pak Jokowi...

cheers.

Credit: http://alditta.blogspot.com/2019/05/watch-out-trump.html Baca selebihnya di Watch Out Trump...

[kayla1993-world]

With official targets unchanged, temporary immigration soars in Quebec

While Quebec’s official immigration targets have remained largely stable in recent years, the real number of newcomers in the province has increased due to an increased reliance on temporary workers, who often face more precarious working conditions and long waits for permanent residency.

From 2012 to 2016, non-permanent residents accounted for 9 percent of international immigration to the province; by 2019, that figure had risen to 64 percent.

Temporary immigration is on the rise, which can help businesses meet their needs in a tightening labour market, but the province must do more to adapt to the new reality to better serve both newcomers and its own objectives.

In Quebec, there were nearly 177K “temporary" workers, including international students with work permits, temporary foreign workers and skilled workers. Permanent immigration levels have been capped at 40,000 to 50,000 people per year for the past four years.

Temporary immigration is on the rise, owing to a labour shortage and an increase in the number of international students.

Temporary immigrants haven't been a big part of the immigration debate in Quebec in the past, probably because they make up such a small percentage of the population.

The increase in temporary immigration is beneficial to the province because it allows businesses to fill needed positions, particularly in the province's rural areas. It can also benefit workers by allowing them to gain work experience and putting them on a path to permanent residency.

Many of them, however, have closed permits, which means they are tied to a single employer, "making their working conditions more precarious," she said.

Permanent immigrants do not face the same challenges as temporary immigrants. Lower salaries, poorer working conditions and a lack of knowledge about their rights as workers are just a few examples.

She and other organizations have been working for years to abolish closed work permits, which can make it more difficult for workers to resist abuse and "lead to exploitation."

The biggest issue for Homsy is the long wait times that temporary immigrants face obtaining permanent residency. She claims that the current wait time is 31 months, even for those who have already received a Quebec selection certificate, which can take years.

Carlo Garcia, a 38-year-old Filipino worker, says his immigration experience in Canada has been relatively straightforward so far. Garcia, who is on a skilled worker visa in Sherbrooke, Que., and works in information technology, said he is slowly learning French and hopes to become a permanent resident one day.

While he is pleased with the company that hired him, he wishes he could have an open permit so that he could take on additional work from other clients and earn more money to help his wife and two young children immigrate to Canada.

He said he’s considered moving to another province in the future because learning French, his third language, is difficult. However, his gratitude to his employer and the city encourages him to stay.

Homsy and Garnier both claim that the Quebec government has been hesitant to have an open conversation about temporary immigration. 

While temporary immigration has the advantage of being “relatively politically invisible” for a Coalition Avenir Québec government that campaigned on limiting immigration, Garnier claims that it means Quebec isn’t accounting for newcomers when calculating demand for services like public transportation, education and health.

She also believes the government should recognize that temporary immigration is not going away anytime soon. “What concerns me is the politics of burying their heads in the sand and pretending that this is a passing phase," Garnier said.

While Quebec has taken steps to make their arrival easier, such as easing restrictions on the number of temporary foreign workers a company can hire, temporary workers are chosen by the federal government and are less likely to arrive speaking French. Quebec hopes to gain control of the temporary worker program in the end "to exercise greater control over this program and better respond to the needs of Quebec and its regions."

The province should make a greater effort to ensure that workers who wish to stay are given early access to French classes and that their employment conditions allow them to do so.

They also recommend that the province increase its immigration targets, which would reduce permanent residency wait times and give businesses and workers more certainty. The increase could come from a special program to expedite applications from Quebec's labour-scarce regions, which could accept a few thousand immigrants per year in addition to the 50,000 annual caps.

Quebec Immigration Minister Jean Boulet has dismissed the idea of increasing the immigration target for 2022 beyond the current 50,000, which he believes is the maximum the province can properly integrate.

The next year's thresholds will be set around the time of the provincial election campaign in the fall.

[eagle-eyez]

Sunday saw events in Afghanistan unfold with lightning speed with reports that President Ashraf Ghani had left Afghanistan with his top advisers in tow after resigning and the Taliban had entered the capital of Kabul.

From the US secretary of state insisting that a repeat of Saigon was not occurring to Pakistan's foreign office expressing hope for a political settlement,  here's how the world reacted to Sunday's events:

'This is not Saigon', says US secretary of State

US secretary of state Antony Blinken flat out rejected Sunday comparisons between Washington's Kabul pullout and the chaotic American departure from Saigon in 1975.

"This is not Saigon," he told ABC. "The fact of the matter is this: We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind. That was to deal with the people that attacked us on 9/11. That mission has been successful."

Follow all LIVE updates on Afghanistan crisis here

Blinken further blamed the defence forces for not being able to defend Afghanistan and issued a warning to the Taliban.

Blinken, defending the Biden administration, told CNN, "The idea that the status quo could have been maintained by keeping our forces there, I think, is simply wrong."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken defends the Biden administration's decision to pull US forces out of Afghanistan: "The idea that the status quo could have been maintained by keeping our forces there, I think, is simply wrong." #CNNSOTU https://t.co/5uk1k2vMbY pic.twitter.com/qlX6LU7BTB

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 15, 2021

 “We haven’t asked the Taliban for anything," Blinken further said. "We’ve told the Taliban that if they interfere with our personnel, with our operations as we’re proceeding with this drawdown, there will be a swift and decisive response."

'Hope all sides will work together': Pakistan

Pakistan said on Sunday that it was closely watching the evolving situation in neighbouring Afghanistan while making efforts for a political settlement, as the Taliban insurgents entered Kabul and moved closer to retaking full control of the war-torn country. Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri issued a statement about the current situation in Afghanistan where the Taliban control large areas of the country,

“Pakistan is closely following the unfolding situation in Afghanistan. Pakistan will continue to support the efforts for a political settlement. We hope all Afghan sides will work together to resolve this internal political crisis,” he said. Chaudhri said the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul was extending necessary assistance to Pakistanis, Afghan nationals and the diplomatic and international community for consular work and coordination of the Pakistan International Airlines flights.

He said a special inter-ministerial cell has been established in the Ministry of Interior to facilitate visa/arrival matters for diplomatic personnel, UN agencies, international organisations, the media, and others.

'Closely monitoring fast-changing situation', says MEA

Sources told ANI that India is closely monitoring the fast-changing situation in Afghanistan to decide on the evacuation of diplomatic personnel from Kabul.

People familiar with the development said the government will not put the lives of its staffers at the Indian embassy and Indian citizens in Kabul at any risk and plans have already been finalised in case they require emergency evacuation. "The government is closely monitoring the fast-paced developments in Afghanistan. We will not put the lives of our staff at the Indian embassy in Kabul at any risk," said one of the persons cited above.

Specifically asked when the Indian staffers and citizens in Kabul will be evacuated, they said decisions will depend on the ground situation. It is learnt that a fleet of the C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force is kept on standby to undertake evacuation missions.

'Biggest disaster since Suez', says Tory MP

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was on Sunday to hold further crisis talks on Afghanistan, his office said, as he recalled Parliament from its summer break. A Downing Street spokesperson said Johnson had called a meeting of the COBR emergencies committee to discuss the situation, which follows the withdrawal of US-led forces, the second such meeting in three days.

Parliament on Sunday said it had approved Johnson's request to call back MPs on Wednesday for an urgent debate on what Britain, which lost 457 troops in the two-decade-long war, should do next. Taliban fighters were on the outskirts of Kabul on Sunday and on the brink of a complete military takeover of Afghanistan, leading British politicians to call for a last-ditch intervention. Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, urged Johnson to "think again" about stepping in.

"We have an ever-shrinking window of opportunity to recognise where this country is going as a failed state," he told Times Radio. "Just because the Americans won't, does not mean to say that we should be tied to the thinking, the political judgement, particularly when it is so wrong, of our closest security ally.

"We could prevent this, otherwise history will judge us very, very harshly in not stepping in," he warned. Ellwood said the government could deploy the Royal Navy's HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group to provide air support. He called the crisis "the biggest single policy disaster since Suez".

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace defended Britain’s move to pull troops out of the country. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said “we have not betrayed Afghanistan.” He wrote that the UK could not “go it alone” after the US announced its plans to withdraw. “It would be arrogant to think we could solve Afghanistan unilaterally,” he said.

Johnson vowed on Friday that Britain will not "turn our backs" on Afghanistan, even as he confirmed the imminent withdrawal of most embassy staff in the face of a rapid Taliban onslaught.

However, he said that those calling for an intervention "have got to be realistic about the power of the UK or any power to impose a military solution -- a combat solution -- in Afghanistan". With the Islamists seizing control of more Afghan cities, Britain is deploying around 600 troops to help evacuate its roughly 3,000 nationals from the country, and Johnson said the "vast bulk" of remaining embassy staff in Kabul would return to the UK.

The Foreign Office said on Sunday that Britain had "temporarily suspended most operations" at its embassy in Kabul and was doing "all we can to enable remaining British nationals, and those Afghans who have worked for us and who are eligible for relocation, to leave Afghanistan". Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer backed the move to recall parliament, saying in a statement: "The situation in Afghanistan is deeply shocking and seems to be worsening by the hour.

"The government has been silent while Afghanistan collapses, which let's be clear will have ramifications for us here in the UK. "We need parliament recalled so the government can update MPs on how it plans to work with allies to avoid a humanitarian crisis and a return to the days of Afghanistan being a base for extremists."

Most of the remaining British troops assigned to the NATO mission in Afghanistan left last month, according to Johnson. As well as the fallen troops, the conflict has cost Britain around £40 billion ($55 billion).

In 2014, the British mission in Afghanistan, centred on the restive southern province of Helmand, shifted from a combat operation to one focused on supporting Afghan national forces, with the help of around 750 troops.

'Will work for stability', vows Erdogan

Turkey’s president says his country will work for stability in Afghanistan along with Pakistan, in order to stem a growing migration wave amid the Taliban's countrywide offensive. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Afghans were increasingly attempting to migrate to Turkey via Iran, urging an international effort to bring stability to the country and prevent mass migration.

Erdogan was speaking at a naval ceremony with Pakistan’s president. He said Pakistan had a “vital task” to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, where clashes have intensified. Turkish-Pakistani cooperation would be needed for this, and Turkey would use all possibilities to do so, Erdogan added. Erdogan did not mention any changes to a proposal for Turkey to secure and operate the airport in Kabul.

'Share unanimous concern', says Pope

Pope Francis said Sunday that he shares “the unanimous concern for the situation in Afghanistan" as Taliban fighters sweep across the war-torn country. He spoke as the Taliban entered the outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan capital, and said they were awaiting a “peaceful transfer” of the city. From a window overlooking St. Peter's Square, the pope asked for prayers “so that the clamor of weapons may cease and solutions may be found at the negotiating table.”

He added that “only in this way, may the battered population of the country -- men and women, elderly and children -- return to their homes and live in peace and safety, with full mutual respect.”

'Shall not say no,' says Albania's PM

Albania's prime minister says his country will temporarily shelter hundreds of Afghans who worked with the Western peacekeeping military forces and are now threatened by the Taliban. On his Facebook page, Edi Rama said the US.government had asked Albania to serve as a “transit place for a certain number of Afghan political emigrants who have the United States as their final destination.”

“No doubt we shall not say no,” he said.

He added that the Albanian government has also responded positively to requests from two US NGOs to shelter hundreds of Afghan intellectuals and women activists who have been threatened with execution by the Taliban.

The Albanian prime minister said that his country stands alongside the United States “not only when we need them for our problems ... but even when they need us, any time.”

  from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3AMVM4r

[politicoscope]

Ebrahim Raisi Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/ebrahim-raisi-biography-and-profile/

Ebrahim Raisi Biography and Profile

Ebrahim Raisi was born on 14 December 1960, Mashhad. Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric who is frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Khamenei. He owes his prominence today to a campaign – seemingly being driven by the highest centers of power in Iran – that has aimed over the past six or so years to portray him as a humble, anti-corruption, and decisive figure.

In 2016, Khamenei appointed Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi as the custodian of Astan-e Qods-e Razavi, a multi-billion dollar religious conglomerate encompassing businesses and endowments that oversees the holy Shia shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, the home city of both Khamenei and Raisi. Raisi then ran for president in 2017, losing to Rouhani. But the pro-Raisi campaign did not end there.

In 2019, Khamenei appointed Raisi head of the judiciary, one of the most powerful positions within the Iranian establishment. Since then, state media has incessantly portrayed Raisi as an anti-corruption crusader.

Who is Ebrahim Raisi? Ebrahim Raeisi Biography

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi was born in 1960 to a religious family. Raisi grew up in the northeastern city of Mashhad, an important religious centre for Shia Muslims where Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam, is buried. Raeisi claims a lineage tracing back to the prophet Muhammad, which enables him to wear a black turban.

Raisi was active in the 1979 revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah and continues to proclaim his fidelity to the “fundamental values” of Khamenei.

“The deep state is willing to go as far as undermining one of its pillars of legitimacy to ensure that Ayatollah Khamenei’s vision for the revolution’s future survives him when Raisi takes over the Supreme Leader’s mantle,” said Vaez.

Vaez was referring to the republican pillar of Iran’s dual system of clerical and republican rule. Critics say a hardline election body’s rejection of leading moderate and conservative hopefuls to enter the election race has cleared the way for tyranny, a charge Iranian authorities deny.

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi is fiercely loyal to Iran’s ruling clerics, and has even been seen as a possible successor to Ayatollah Khamenei as the country’s supreme leader.

Ebrahim Raisi Career As A Prosecutor

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, a young Raisi joined the prosecutor’s office in Masjed Soleyman in southwestern Iran, and later became the prosecutor for several jurisdictions. In 1981, he was appointed as Iran’s Karaj city prosecutor. After four months, he was appointed as Prosecutor of Hamadan Province. In 1985 he was appointed as Tehran’s deputy prosecutor.

Three years later, he received special provisions from the late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to address legal issues in provinces like Lorestan, Semnan and Kermanshah.

Following Khomeini’s death and election of Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader, Raisi was appointed as Tehran’s prosecutor. He held the office for five years from 1989 to 1994 and in 1994, while still Tehran’s prosecutor, he was appointed as head of the General Inspection Office.

From 2004 until 2014, Raisi served as Iran’s first deputy chief of justice. He was later appointed as Iran’s Attorney-General in 2014, a post he served in until 2016.

Ebrahim Raisi Education

Ebrahim Raisi attended the seminary in Qom and studied under some of Iran’s most prominent clerics. His education was a point of contention in the debates, where he said he holds a doctorate in law and denied having only six grades of formal education.

Ebrahim Raisi Controversies

Activists hold a far different view of Raisi over his involvement in the 1988 mass execution of prisoners at the end of Iran’s long war with Iraq. After Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini accepted a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, heavily armed by Saddam Hussein, stormed across the Iranian border in a surprise attack.

Iran ultimately blunted their assault, but the attack set the stage for the sham retrials of political prisoners, militants and others that would become known as “death commissions.” Some who appeared were asked to identify themselves. Those who responded “mujahedeen” were sent to their deaths, while others were questioned about their willingness to “clear minefields for the army of the Islamic Republic,” according to a 1990 Amnesty International report.

International rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed, while the MEK puts the number at 30,000. Iran has never fully acknowledged the executions, apparently carried out on Khomeini’s orders, though some argue that other top officials were effectively in charge in the months before his 1989 death. Raisi reportedly served on a panel involved in sentencing the prisoners to death.

In 2016, members of the late Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri’s family put out an audio recording of him criticizing the executions as “the biggest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic.”

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi has never publicly acknowledged his role in the executions, even while campaigning for president.

Given that his predecessor Larijani was named to a U.S. sanctions list, Raisi likely can expect the same. He also takes over a judiciary widely criticized by international rights groups for being one of the world’s top executioners, as well as conducting closed-door trials of those with Western ties.

“Raisi should be prosecuted, not head of Iran’s judiciary,” said Hadi Ghaemi, head of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. “The selection of Raisi to serve as head of the judiciary will send a clear message: The rule of law has no meaning in Iran, and those who participated in mass murder will be rewarded.”

Ebrahim Raisi would be the first serving Iranian president sanctioned by the U.S. government even before entering office over his involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, as well as his time as the head of Iran’s internationally criticized judiciary — one of the world’s top executioners.

Ebrahim Raisi Ran the Imam Reza Charity Foundation

In 2016, Khamenei appointed Raisi to run the Imam Reza charity foundation, which manages a vast conglomerate of businesses and endowments in Iran. It is one of many bonyads, or charitable foundations, fueled by donations or assets seized after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. These foundations offer no public accounting of their spending and answer only to Iran’s supreme leader. The Imam Reza charity, known as “Astan-e Quds-e Razavi” in Farsi, is believed to be one of the biggest in the country. Analysts estimate its worth at tens of billions of dollars as it owns almost half the land in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.

At Raisi’s appointment to the foundation in 2016, Khamenei called him a “trustworthy person with high-profile experience.” That led to analyst speculation that Khamenei could be grooming Raisi as a possible candidate to be Iran’s third-ever supreme leader, a Shiite cleric who has final say on all state matters and serves as the country’s commander-in-chief.

Ebrahim Raisi Political Career

Ebrahim Raisi can fairly be described as a “hardliner,” one of those Iranian officials who is openly hostile to the idea of deeper engagement with Western governments and who favors the strict application of Islamic law at the expense of personal freedom.

Raisi is a supporter of a “state-led” vision is not expected to advocate opening up the Iranian economy to foreign investors. “Iran under Raisi is most likely to continue to invest in infrastructure, water, electricity and health, with an economy dominated by the foundations he knows well and the Revolutionary Guards [who also own many companies],” says economist and Iran specialist Thierry Coville

In 2017, Mr Raisi surprised observers by standing for the presidency.

Mr Rouhani, a fellow cleric, won a second term by a landslide in the election’s first round, receiving 57% of the vote. Mr Raisi, who presented himself as an anti-corruption fighter but was accused by the president of doing little to tackle graft as deputy judiciary chief, came second with 38%.

The loss did not tarnish Mr Raisi’s image and in 2019 Ayatollah Khamenei named him to the powerful position of head of the judiciary. The following week, he was also elected as deputy chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the 88-member clerical body responsible for electing the next Supreme Leader.

When Mr Raisi announced his candidacy for the 2021 presidential election, he declared that he had “come as an independent to the stage to make changes in the executive management of the country and to fight poverty, corruption, humiliation and discrimination”.

Little is known about Mr Raisi’s private life except that his wife, Jamileh, teaches at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, and that they have two children. His father-in-law is Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, the hardline Friday prayer leader in Mashhad.

After winning the 2021 Iran’s Presidential Election, Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi will have significant influence over Iran’s domestic policy and foreign affairs. But in Iran’s political system it is the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top religious cleric, who has the final say on all state matters.

The election was engineered to pave the way for Mr Raisi to win. This has alienated a good number of Iranians already deeply discontented with their living conditions in an economy that is crippled by US sanctions but also mismanagement.

The result of the election will not help with their concerns and may even lead to more instability at home. In the past few years Iran has witnessed at least two rounds of serious nationwide protests – with hundreds, some say thousands, killed.

With Mr Raisi taking the presidency the hardliners will have taken all the centres of power: the executive branch as well as the legislative and the judiciary. Iran will be a more closed society. Freedoms will likely be curtailed even more than before.

The regime will look to China to help the economy out of deep crisis. There will be more tension with the West. Indirect talks between Iran and the US in Vienna over reviving the nuclear deal may face more uncertainty. There are already reports that the talks will now break up for a few weeks, allowing all sides to take stock of the new reality in Iran.

Ebrahim Raeisi Wins 2021 Iran’s Presidential Elections

Iranians voted Friday 18 June 2021 in a presidential election dominated by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s hard-line protege after the disqualification of his strongest competition, fueling apathy that left some polling places largely deserted despite pleas to support the Islamic Republic at the ballot box.

Hard-line judiciary chief Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election by a landslide, according to preliminary results by the Interior Ministry. Raeisi, Mohsen Rezaei, Abdolnasser Hemmati, and Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi were competing in the Friday elections.

Qazizadeh congratulated Raeisi. “While supporting the votes of the people, I congratulate Hazrat Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi as the people’s” elected president, Qazizadeh stated. Qazizadeh also wished success for Raeisi for being granted the honor by the electorate to serve the “great Iranian nation”. 90 percent of the total 28,600,000 ballots have been counted so far and Raeisi has succeeded to win 17,800,000 votes, the Interior Ministry election headquarters said.

Rezaei, Hemmati, and Qazizadeh have also won 3,300,000 votes, 2,400,000 votes, and 1,000,000 votes, respectively. The three losers of the presidential race issued separate messages congratulating Raeisi for winning the presidential post. Later in the day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani turned up at the campaign HQ of Raeisi to congratulate him in person.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf also sent a congratulatory note to Raeisi and said the legislative branch stood fully ready to cooperate with the president-elect’s administration.

The Parliament, he said, announces its readiness for all-out cooperation with the elected administration, and truly hopes for the opening of a new chapter in revolutionary and Jahadi (arduous) management toward the resolution of the people’s problems through congruence between the executive and legislative branches.”

Raisi has promised to create a “people’s government” and a “strong Iran,” while highlighting his humble origins and the death of his father when he was only 5 years old.

“I have tasted poverty, not merely heard about it,” says one of his campaign’s posters.

“Dear youth, if for any reason you are frustrated, you should know that with an active presence in the [election] arena, a powerful people’s government can be formed,” he said in a campaign video posted online.

During a recent visit to a cemetery to pay his respects to martyrs, Raisi was interviewed by a reporter with the state television controlled by hard-liners who addressed him as if he had been already elected.

“God willing, we’re on the verge of a people’s government,” said the reporter, prompting online criticism and accusations that Raisi had been already “appointed” as president and that the regime was dropping any pretense about the upcoming vote being democratic.

Ebrahim Raisi Potential Successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Raisa is even being considered as a likely successor to the supreme leader. He was recently elected vice-president of the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for proposing a new supreme leader in the event of the death of Khamenei.

All he needs now is a place at the head of the executive to have completed the tour of Iranian institutions. If he wins this presidential election, he will acquire the popular legitimacy that he still lacks. It’s worth remembering that Khamenei was himself President of Iran when he was called to occupy the post of supreme leader in 1989, after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Given Khamenei’s age – as at 2021, he’s 82 – and questions about his health, there are very real suggestions that the next president could indeed be his successor. This election could be Raisi’s springboard to the position of supreme leader.

“Raisi is someone that Khamenei trusts … Raisi can protect the supreme leader’s legacy,” said Sanam Vakil, deputy director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program.

“Raisi is someone that Khamenei trusts … Raisi can protect the supreme leader’s legacy,” said Sanam Vakil, deputy director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program.

US Sanctions

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, a close Khamenei ally who vows to fight corruption, is under U.S. sanctions for alleged involvement in executions of political prisoners decades ago.

Iran Nuclear Deal

Ebrahim Raisi 2021 Iran Election win put hard-liners firmly in control across the government as the Iran Nuclear Deal negotiations in Vienna continue to try to save a tattered deal meant to limit Iran’s nuclear program at a time when Tehran is enriching uranium at its highest levels ever, though it still remains short of weapons-grade levels.

Tensions remain high with both the U.S. and Israel, which is believed to have carried out a series of attacks targeting Iranian nuclear sites as well as assassinating the scientist who created its military atomic program decades earlier.

Ebrahim Raisi Family

Ebrahim Raisi’s father, who was a cleric, died when he was five years old. Mr Raisi, who wears a black turban identifying him in Shia tradition as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, followed his father’s footsteps and started attending a Shia seminary in the holy city of Qom at the age of 15.

Ebrahim Raeisi Wife

Jamileh Alamolhoda, the wife of Ebrahim Raisi & daughter of Ahmad Alamolhoda, hardline Mashhad Friday prayer leader. She holds a Ph.D.

Biography Tags:

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Ebrahim Raisi Biography and Profile

[southeastasianists]

Against a backdrop of widening religious fault lines and concerns over freedom of speech, a group of fearless Indonesian comics is using the power of laughter to tackle society’s ills

Cheers, whoops and enthusiastic applause accompany Iqbal Muzakki as he shuffles off stage. The night’s MC bounds onto the platform in his place, keeping the energy of the show high: “How about Muzakki, everyone? He killed it, right?” There’s a strong “yes” from the audience. “And you know what?” the MC continues, “This is the only place where a Muslim can kill successfully… and nobody actually dies.”

This is Keminggris, a live, English-language, stand-up comedy show in Malang, the second-largest city in Indonesia’s East Java province. In a modern, open-air bar, the show’s eight performers deliver two hours of very funny, but often brutal, material that holds nothing sacred. From Chinese parents to Indian farmers; Indonesian politicians to Zumba-loving pensioners, nobody is safe from ridicule.

But in the world’s most-populous Muslim country, it is the religious jokes that stand out from the rest. Indonesia’s reputation as a moderate, secular democracy has taken a bit of a battering in recent times. Religious intolerance is on the rise, and many in the country feel free speech is under threat. For the past two years, the national debate has become increasingly dominated by the right-wing Islamist group, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). FPI members have been accused of violent attacks on religious minorities, intimidation of journalists and targeted online abuse.

There have been many calls for the group to be banned as the country’s religious fault lines widen, but a number of young Indonesians are attempting to fight back and help heal the damage through comedy. Muzakki, a student at the Islamic University in Malang, filled his set with jokes about a failed attempt to turn him into a suicide bomber at school and his mistaken belief that he could buy halal beer. He says he wants to “fix” how Islam is increasingly portrayed in the country.

“[The idea] that Islam is a strict authority – it’s not like that, you can have a sense of humour like me,” he says. “I just want to show that to other people, especially non- Muslims. Islam is not dangerous.”

The use of comedy to help effect social or political change is not a new idea, but it’s still at a fledgling stage in Indonesia. In fact, stand-up comedy itself has a relatively short history in the country. Indonesian humour had long tended to favour comedy troupes performing sketches and physical comedy skits; it wasn’t until the mid-2000s that a few pioneering stand-ups began to make some headway, first in Jakarta and then at national level.

The scene exploded in 2011, when two television channels ran stand-up comedy talent shows that garnered a big national audience. One of those shows, Stand Up Comedy Indonesia, on Kompas TV, is still running and still popular. Most of Indonesian comedy’s biggest names have won or appeared on the show.

Despite its popularity, many comedians have found television a difficult medium for pursuing edgier social and political comedy. “In TV shows, the censorship is quite severe,” says Reggy Hasibuan, the organiser and MC of Keminggris. “No political jokes, no ethnicity jokes and especially no religious jokes. I think personally that has reduced the quality of [Indonesian] comedy because only safe material goes through.”

Is it going to be dangerous? Is it offensive? I think before I go to the stage. But why should I feel afraid of it? My religion is funny

Under an umbrella organisation known as Stand Up Indo, there are now more than 30 stand-up comedy ‘communities’ across Indonesia. Many comics are students or part-time performers, but while the audiences are generally good, the money generally isn’t. Despite the financial restraints, it is live shows where comedians can hone their craft and, more importantly, really get their teeth into risky material.

In Malang, Fajar Ardiansyah says he doesn’t set out to deliberately offend anyone, but he believes the best way to deal with social problems is through comedy. “I never touch any kind of personal belief,” he says. “I make sure that everything I deliver is being considered by my comic friends. Is it going to be dangerous? Is it offensive? I think before I go to the stage. I consider everything. But why should I feel afraid of it? My religion is funny.”

“We need to be honest,” says Hasibuan. “If you’re living in this country and you don’t have any problems with religion, then you’re a liar, because it’s everywhere. We’re just wrapping that up in a funny way, so it’s easier to accept. Religion is not absolute; you can make fun of it and it’s OK. We have always had a problem with extremism; it’s always there. But I think what’s hopeful is that now we see people fighting back. They’ve had enough; they’ve arrived at that boiling point at which they think something must be done.”

The comics admit they still have a long way to go before their dissent drowns out the voices of Indonesia’s emboldened hardline Islamic groups. They also think that what they are doing carries a risk far greater than just causing offence. The current climate in Indonesia does not easily allow for anybody to speak out about tense religious issues, particularly non-Muslims.

A survey earlier this year by the Wahid Foundation found that nearly 40% of respondents from across Indonesia were “intolerant” towards non-Muslims. In May, this intolerance reached fever pitch when, after weeks of FPI mass rallies demanding his arrest, the ethnic Chinese and Christian governor of Jakarta was found guilty of violating Indonesia’s strict blasphemy law. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as ‘Ahok’, was sentenced to two years in prison after he referred to a Qur’anic verse in one of his speeches. His conviction followed a bitter gubernatorial election campaign in which religious identity was a major issue. Human Rights Watch called the verdict a “frightening future” for moderates and non-Muslims.

Hasibuan is himself half-Chinese and from a Christian family, though he now considers himself an atheist. He has been subjected to abuse and violent threats online after he posted a promotional flyer for a show he called Halal Christmas. Nothing happened, but he was concerned enough to put security on the door of the show, something he hadn’t done before. He is also well aware of the potential legal risks.

“Its an absolute no-no in this country to speak, make fun of, or ridicule people from different religions,” he says. “If a Christian makes a joke about Muslims, that will go bad very fast.”

Doing the shows in English helps protect him and the other performers, “because bigots are generally stupid and don’t understand English, right?” he says with a laugh.

But he also closes the show by imploring the audience not to post any videos online – “or we’ll all end up in jail!”

It’s difficult for performers to balance risk versus reward. Posting material online exposes them, but it’s also one of the few ways to gain national and international attention outside the constraints of television.

One of the most high-profile comedians in Indonesia is Sakdiyah Ma’ruf. She is one of the few comics who have gained international recognition and also one of a limited number of women on the standup comedy circuit.

Ma’ruf grew up in a very conservative Muslim family of Arab descent in northern Java. She says she was expected to grow up as a “decent Muslim girl” and eventually be married off to an older man. Much of her comedy focuses on her upbringing and the treatment of women in conservative Muslim families. Some of her most provocative material is easy to find online. During a TED Talk in Bali last year she told her audience: “In my community, people work fucking hard to pretend they still live in the desert.”

In 2015, Ma’ruf was awarded the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in Oslo – previous winners include Ai Weiwei and Aung San Suu Kyi – but her profile has also attracted vitriol from inside Indonesia.

“I cannot have that in the back of my mind if I want to continue working,” she says. “I know that there’s a danger. I don’t want to go to jail or receive death threats. I cannot allow myself to get scared of that. It’s hard enough to write jokes that work; it’s going to be even harder if I have to self-censor.”

Though Ma’ruf describes herself purely as a comedian, she, like the others, feels a greater purpose in what she is trying to do. “Comedy has the potential to combat extremism because it creates a safe space for everyone to discuss their issues. But, for me personally, the most important thing is to be able to talk honestly about how human we are, that we are all flawed.”

Recalling her last television appearance a few years ago, Ma’ruf says she was repeatedly reminded that the programme was live. The warning being: don’t say anything controversial.

“What am I going to say?” she laughs. “What are they so worried about? I’m just a girl in a hijab. It’s not that dangerous.”