#country humans Europe

[piowasthere]

my School's getting pissy about some contest about being European or something, to which i tried to explain to them that they got it wrong -i'm not European, i'm gay, but m'kay...

but since they already told me to do it, then fuck you, country humans EU.

[brieftimetravelwhispers]

On 26th October and even before that, Georgian Dream patry decided to steal elections in Georgia. The ruling party decided to strip us from our constitutional right to vote anonymously, they decided to steal our future and steer us back towards USSR, our dark past that promises us dark future.

In the last two years GD party has introduced at least two new laws that were used in Russia in past to solidify Putin's regime. Namely Law against foreign influence, that christens every NGO that is financed from abroad as an agent of foreign influence; and law regarding protecting family values and minors that forbids LGBTQ+ 'propaganda', meaning that symbolism associated to it, as well as literature, art or any kind of public expression that somehow informs about or includes non traditional family values, sexual orientation or gender identity is banned. We can no longer read Oedipus King in university, Sappho, Gilgamesh and many more starting from December, sections from cultural anthropology will be banned as well, and it's simply matter of time before critical skills and knowledge will no longer be reachable. This is authoritarian regime, where everything happens on a whim of one oligarch, what he says is a law for lawmakers, his slaves and he himself is subordinate of russian regiment.

Today, just several minutes ago, 'Parliament' declared itself legitimate, even though members of opposition are rejecting their seats, even though the President doesn't acknowledge fairness of elections, even though constitution clearly says that parliament needs at least 2/3 of deputies to do so. If that is not enough, constitutional court currently is discussing legitimacy of all 150 deputies per the Presidents suit, that automatically pauses working of the new parliament according to the constitution.

Georgia needs desperately to be in spotlight right now. Foreign support is all we have, as court, church, police is corrupt. Police keeps breaking up peaceful demonstations, beating up and jailing protesters, court keeps postponing their hearings as they know that the President, only pro-western institute right now, will use her right to pardon them and she wont be able to do that after her term is up in following months.

We've had painful past, full of protests, bloodshed and fighting for our nations survival. That's what being neighbour to Russia means for us. We won't stop fighting for our future and independence, won't let our ancestors sacrifice to be wasted.

20% of Georgia is occupied by Russia. And even today, there are some people, some georgians who prefer occupants claws, false sense of 'security' to fighting for our freedom.

This is not all, there's lot more that's impossible to fit in one post, for example GDPs pre election promises were pretty alarming, their rhetoric is horrendous, words they use are plain manipulative and dehumanising. They have their own pro government media that is brainwashing people and destroying every critical thinking brain cell. I am angry, I am disappointed and tired and so are hundreds of thousands.

Some sources about the situation:

[phantomeros]

Lion animal vs lion-transmuted human anatomical differences

[elexuscal]

so. June. Pride Month.

listen, i love pride month. obviously. but partly as a consequence of being Terminally Online, partly because my country's pride month is in July which means all the actual in-person events don't start for another 30 days, often my first association with it is All The Discourse Posts

which means every year i have to physically restrain myself from making in-universe Pride discourse for different fictional universes

[mxtxfanatic]

Have you ever read "The Shade of Old Trees" by Kryal on ao3?

I genuinely think you might enjoy it, the characterization is top tier and the author's notes go heavy into details on why they made this or that decision. It was all incredibly good, well thought out, well researched, and with not an ounce of fanon to find.

I’ve read it, and while I initially enjoyed the story and the long author’s notes, I found it very toothless in its critique of anything substantial despite the author bringing up major issues in the modern world, themself. It also felt like their understanding of China and its history came straight from one of those 5-minute info-videos that’s half American state propaganda and pretend like the history of modern China begins in 1949. Finally, they also fall into the trap of softening Jiang Cheng’s character in the final confrontation with the excuse that “jc wouldn’t actually want to kill wwx!” despite that being what he literally did and tried to do again in canon. I appreciate them writing through their logic, but that doesn’t mean I’ll agree with the leaps they take simply because they’ve explained why they’ve made them. Great start, weak finish.

[jonsieedgygirl]

The most humanized version of the EUROPEAN countries lineup I have ever made 🇪🇺

Also I haven’t started to humanized Asia and North America yet and so does Oceania and Africa…

[worstloki]

Loki surveilling the skyline of New York from the top of Stark Tower and clocking that his favorite paired set of buildings are gone. sad

[williammooreowo]

03.01.2024 - 21.06.2024

Humanization Germany

I really like to draw Germany. I love painting him in different poses, in different clothes and in different emotions. I constantly change its design, often the hair design. So far, I prefer to draw a square for him (he is literally meeeee QwQ)

[bluecookiesabi]

AH. I know why I'm going crazy rn

[unrealcities]

Apropos of absolutely nothing*: there should be more calls to cancel and/or boycott the 2026 World Cup, all things considered.

*By which I mean: apropos of so many things I cannot even count them, much less detail them.

[epsilonnot]

mind boggling to realize that the US is actually comparatively normal about adderall

[coochiequeens]

The politicians who made this possible have the suffering of womrn and minors on their hands

Germany considers ban on buying sex as the country is dubbed 'the brothel of Europe'

Germany is considering partially re-criminalising the sex work industry 

Buying sex is currently legal and legislation aims to give sex workers more rights 

But opponents say that the current laws benefit pimps and human traffickers 

By PERKIN AMALARAJ

PUBLISHED: 11:34 EST, 21 November 2023 | UPDATED: 23:23 EST, 21 November 2023

German politicians are pushing to ban prostitution, more than two decades after it was legalised, amid harsh warnings that the nation is quickly becoming the 'brothel of Europe.'

The centre-right CDU party is among those calling for the practice to be partially re-criminalised, claiming that the 2002 legalisaion failed in its aims of giving sex workers more rights and recognition under German law. 

Selling sex was legalised in 2002 by a previous centre-left government, with the aim of giving the now-250,000 sex workers working in Germany employment rights, access to welfare benefits and the right to sue clients who refuse to pay for services. 

But leading politicians have claimed that in practice, the vast majority of sex workers in Germany are not afforded these increased rights and protections. 

Dorothee Bär, the deputy leader of the parliamentary group for Germany's two main Christian Democratic parties, the CDU and the CSU, said that almost all of the country's sex workers are from abroad and do not have documents, and are therefore at the mercy of exploitative human traffickers and pimps. 

Selling sex was legalised in 2002, with the aim of giving the now-250,000 sex workers working in Germany employment rights, access to welfare benefits and the right to sue clients who refuse to pay for services (File image)

'There can be no real equality as long as we accept that hundreds of thousands of women are treated like slaves. It is an offence against human dignity that we urgently need to end,' Bär told Bild. 

She said that pimps and human traffickers have been the biggest beneficiaries of the legalised sex industry. 

'Germany has become the brothel of Europe. The women are mistreated in the worst possible way by their clients and pimps' she warned. 

The CDU, Germany's opposition party, wants to adopt what is known as the Nordic model, whereby customers can be prosecuted for buying sex, but sex workers are not penalised. 

It was first enacted by Sweden in 1999. Following a government appointed special committee into the effects of the partial decriminalisation of sex work which found that between 1999 and 2008, street prostitution was reduced by half. 

Shortly after this, a string of countries, including Norway, Iceland, Canada and Northern Ireland, adopted some form of Nordic-modelled legislation to partially decriminalise sex work. 

The CDU's proposed legislation would see brothels being shut down, and the renting of apartments to sex workers being outlawed.

These measures, Bär claims, would reduce but not eradicate sex work in Germany. 

The proposal has been gaining traction with Germany's ruling party, the Social Democrats. Leni Breymaier, an SD MP, called the opposition's proposal 'a step in the right direction.'

Leading politicians claim the legalisation of sex work in Germany has largely benefitted pimps and human traffickers

It appears to have made a significant impact on Germany's top political echelons, with the country's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, claiming last week that he has always been 'morally outraged' by men purchasing sex.

The government later backpedalled, with Germany's families minister Lisa Paus saying that there were no plans to change the current laws. 

Organisations representing sex workers aren't happy with the proposals, claiming that there is no evidence that Nordic-modelled legislation helps women or lowers sex work.  

The Professional Association for Erotic and Sexual Services, which represents brothels and independent prostitutes, said punishing clients would only make the work more dangerous.

It said: 'Since Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce a sex purchase ban 25 years ago, there have been no studies to suggest that the Nordic model has been a success.

'It is always remarkable to see the means by which the opponents of procuring sex try to realise their moral ideas — at the expense of the rights of sex workers, customers and brothel operators and ultimately at the expense of a tolerant, free and rights-based society.' 

OK let's compare human trafficking into Sweden v Germany

"in 2020, police investigated 191 trafficking cases (109 sex trafficking, 41 labor trafficking, 41 uncategorized) and 80 human exploitation cases, compared with 272 and 47, respectively, in 2019. Authorities prosecuted 21 traffickers (seven sex trafficking, 14 labor trafficking) and convicted 12 traffickers (seven sex trafficking, five labor trafficking), a significant increase from four prosecutions and convictions in 2019. Of the 12 convicted traffickers, seven received sentences ranging from two to six years’ imprisonment; three received fines; and two received suspended sentences.

State law enforcement completed 335 pre-trial trafficking investigations of 470 suspects in 2021, the most recent year for which the government had comprehensive statistics; this was similar to 325 investigations into 421 suspects in 2020 and 313 investigations into 472 suspects in 2019, but less than 386 investigations into 602 suspects in 2018.  Of the investigations in 2021, 44 were for labor trafficking (compared with 34 in 2020), including six for forced begging and 10 for forced criminality, and 291 were for sex trafficking, including 55 investigations for child sex trafficking, compared with the same number of overall sex trafficking investigations, 291, in 2020.  Authorities attributed the recent increase in labor trafficking investigations to the 2019 extended mandate of the Federal Customs Financial Control of Illegal Work Directorate (FKS), which was expanded to include human trafficking.  In 2021, law enforcement initiated investigations into 16 organized crime groups (10 for sex trafficking and six for labor trafficking).  In 2021, German law enforcement and international partners (including EUROPOL and Slovakia) conducted at least six targeted operations against Vietnamese criminal organizations involved in human trafficking and smuggling, resulting in the arrest of at least six suspects and identification of at least 13 victims.  Police in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) continued to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in the Wermelskirchen child sex trafficking case and investigated 73 suspects in 14 states, identifying 33 victims.

[mirrorofliterature]

when people complain about the un and international law being useless... look

I don't think (many) people fundamentally understand what the UN is, what international law is, and what they can and cannot do

the UN and international law in general are... quite imperfect and bureaucratic systems which are heavily politicised but it's like. a better world to be in where they do exist than one where there is not. I like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights! I love the self-determination article in the subsequent human rights treaties and how decolonising countries in the 1940s-1970s played a crucial role in shaping the current system.

international law gives us benchmarks, lines in the sand to point out and articulate why someone something did was illegal without running into the issue of ex post facto law, which was an issue in the nuremberg trials, but I digress.

the UN is not a governing body. it has no independent political power.

international law, at the end of the day, is based on the consent of states. whether you like it or not, international law is a horizontal system.

most people are much more familiar with domestic law which is vertical and has clear enforcement mechanisms. international law, particularly international human rights law, has fucking shit enforcement mechanisms. it's all consent based, it's heavily politicised and it's woefully underfunded. sanctions are terrible. humanitarian interventions often go terribly wrong.

but they give structure, and guidelines, and things for civil society to point at and say: you have fucked up. you have breached xyz treaty article, as seen in abc treaty body decision or general comment.

I guess I'm real tired of people acting like international law and the UN are useless or a net negative. like. there are a lot of issues. but it's more complex than 'good' versus 'bad'.

the power imbalance between countries and the veto power of the security un council in particular are stupid but products of historical reality and compromise. international law is built on compromise.

anyway keep on holding the west accountable for the treaties they helped create and signed. unfortunately the united states is weak and has not ratified as many treaties as it should have but what state has ratified which treaty is publicly available information and so are the treaties.

[major-enbydyke]

everytime i see someone say stuff like "why should we help underdeveloped countries? they got like that themselves" the rage I feel literally like almost kills me.

how stupid are u...

to just ignore colonialism and like the blatant thievery, genocide, and like other horrible shit other countries have done to them to have them be that way.

like think about all the beautiful Indian jewelry and resources stolen by Britian, the stealing of resources from the African continent, the Berlin conference, fucking slavery (and not just African slavery brought to the Americas), the "white man's burden", AND SO MUCH MORE SHIT that has negatively affected the lives of people living in these 'third world countries' like hmm maybe they're having a hard time providing for their people because the thriving countries stole a lot of their shit!!!

like how gross can you be??!!

also feel like this needs to be said, but a lot of what ppl consider "underdeveloped" works for the people that live there. and when I say this, I mean villages where ppl have everything they need to live and thrive that preserves their tradition, but isn't what we are used to. and Africa is a big continent many of those countries are thriving economically.

but anyways my post is talking about those countries that are actually struggling to provide their citizens their basic needs and rights.

[williammooreowo]

humanization of Germany

He looks a little old, but I like him OwO

[marvelsmostwanted]

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)