#east india states list

[outdoorkeedanorthstate]

Discover the Rich Heritage and Diversity of East India | Outdoorkeeda

[girlactionfigure]

HERE is the list of the 134 countries that are NOT supporting South Africa's 🇿🇦 claims of genocide against Israel 🇮🇱:

🇦🇩 Andorra 

🇦🇴 Angola 

🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda 

🇦🇷 Argentina 

🇦🇲 Armenia 

🇦🇺 Australia 

🇦🇹 Austria 

🇧🇸 Bahamas 

🇧🇧 Barbados 

🇧🇾 Belarus 

🇧🇿 Belize 

🇧🇹 Bhutan 

🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 

🇧🇼 Botswana 

🇧🇬 Bulgaria 

🇧🇮 Burundi 

🇨🇻 Cabo Verde 

🇰🇭 Cambodia 

🇨🇦 Canada 

🇨🇫 Central African Republic 

🇨🇱 Chile 

🇨🇳 China 

🇰🇲 Comoros 

🇨🇬 Congo 

🇨🇷 Costa Rica 

🇭🇷 Croatia 

🇨🇺 Cuba 

🇨🇾 Cyprus 

🇨🇿 Czech Republic 

🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo 

🇩🇰 Denmark 

🇩🇲 Dominica 

🇩🇴 Dominican Republic 

🇹🇱 East Timor (Timor-Leste) 

🇪🇨 Ecuador 

🇸🇻 El Salvador 

🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea 

🇪🇷 Eritrea 

🇪🇪 Estonia 

🇸🇿 Eswatini 

🇪🇹 Ethiopia 

🇫🇯 Fiji 

🇫🇮 Finland 

🇫🇷 France 

🇬🇪 Georgia 

🇩🇪 Germany 

🇬🇭 Ghana 

🇬🇷 Greece 

🇬🇩 Grenada 

🇬🇹 Guatemala 

🇭🇹 Haiti 

🇭🇳 Honduras 

🇭🇺 Hungary 

🇮🇸 Iceland 

🇮🇳 India 

🇮🇪 Ireland 

🇮🇹 Italy 

🇯🇲 Jamaica 

🇯🇵 Japan 

🇰🇪 Kenya 

🇰🇮 Kiribati 

🇰🇵 Korea, North (North Korea) 

🇰🇷 Korea, South (South Korea) 

🇽🇰 Kosovo 

🇱🇦 Laos 

🇱🇻 Latvia 

🇱🇸 Lesotho 

🇱🇷 Liberia 

🇱🇮 Liechtenstein 

🇱🇹 Lithuania 

🇱🇺 Luxembourg 

🇲🇬 Madagascar 

🇲🇼 Malawi

🇲🇹 Malta 

🇲🇭 Marshall Islands 

🇲🇺 Mauritius 

🇲🇽 Mexico 

🇫🇲 Micronesia 

🇲🇩 Moldova 

🇲🇨 Monaco 

🇲🇳 Mongolia 

🇲🇪 Montenegro 

🇲🇲 Myanmar (Burma) 

🇳🇷 Nauru 

🇳🇵 Nepal 

🇳🇱 Netherlands 

🇳🇿 New Zealand 

🇳🇮 Nicaragua 

🇲🇰 North Macedonia (Macedonia) 

🇳🇴 Norway 

🇵🇼 Palau 

🇵🇦 Panama 

🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea 

🇵🇾 Paraguay 

🇵🇪 Peru 

🇵🇭 Philippines 

🇵🇱 Poland 

🇵🇹 Portugal 

🇷🇴 Romania 

🇷🇺 Russia 

🇷🇼 Rwanda 

🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis 

🇱🇨 Saint Lucia 

🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 

🇼🇸 Samoa 

🇸🇲 San Marino 

🇸🇹 Sao Tome and Principe 

🇷🇸 Serbia 

🇸🇨 Seychelles 

🇸🇱 Sierra Leone 

🇸🇬 Singapore 

🇸🇰 Slovakia 

🇸🇮 Slovenia 

🇸🇧 Solomon Islands 

🇪🇸 Spain 

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka 

🇸🇪 Sweden

🇨🇭 Switzerland 

🇹🇼 Taiwan 

🇹🇿 Tanzania 

🇹🇭 Thailand 

🇹🇴 Tonga 

🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago 

🇹🇳 Tunisia 

🇹🇲 Turkmenistan 

🇹🇻 Tuvalu 

🇺🇦 Ukraine 

🇬🇧 United Kingdom (UK) 

🇺🇸 United States of America (USA) 

🇺🇾 Uruguay 

🇻🇺 Vanuatu 

🇻🇦 Vatican City 

🇻🇳 Vietnam 

🇿🇲 Zambia 

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe

[probablyasocialecologist]

Captivity is a constitutive part of Palestinian life under occupation. Prior to Hamas’s attack on October 7th, Israel incarcerated more than 5,200 Palestinians—most of them residents of the West Bank and East Jerusalem—across two dozen prisons and detention centers. Some West Bank residents are incarcerated due to a still-operant military order issued following the 1967 War that effectively criminalized civic activities (e.g. gatherings of more than ten people without a permit, distributing political materials, displaying flags) as “incitement and hostile propaganda actions.” There are currently hundreds of such military orders, which criminalize anything that might be construed as resistance to the occupation. This surfeit of activities made illegal for Palestinians authorizes mass imprisonment: According to a recent estimate by the United Nations, one million Palestinians have at one time been incarcerated by Israel, “including tens of thousands of children.” One in five Palestinians, and two in five Palestinian men, have been arrested at some point in their lives, and, as of 2021, more than 100 Palestinian children faced up to 20 years in prison for throwing stones.

Not all who are arrested face charges. Israel often and increasingly makes use of “administrative detention,” a relic of the British Mandate era, which allows for indefinite incarceration without a charge or trial, ostensibly for the purpose of gathering evidence. It was a hallmark of apartheid South Africa and has been used to repress opposition in Egypt, England, India, the United States, and elsewhere, especially in the context of anti-immigration and “counter-terrorism” programs. “Since March 2002, not a single month has gone by without Israel holding at least 100 Palestinians in administrative detention,” the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem notes; often the number is much higher. Prior to October 7th, more than 20% of Palestinian prisoners were administrative detainees; 233 of the 300 Palestinians on Israel’s release list negotiated last week were administrative detainees, Al Jazeera noted. According to the Palestinian prisoner organization Addameer, imprisoned Palestinians report being beaten, threatened, strip searched, and denied healthcare and contact with their families. Palestinians currently incarcerated, as well as those freed in recent days, report that conditions have worsened since October 7th. Meanwhile, even as this prisoner release proceeds, Israel continues to ramp up arrests: As of Tuesday, 180 Palestinian prisoners have been released as part of the ceasefire exchange, but during the same period, it arrested Palestinians at nearly the same rate. Today, more than 7,000 Palestinians are incarcerated in Israeli prisons.

Nowhere is Israel’s carceral regime clearer than in Gaza, the 140-square-mile area often described as an “open-air prison.” Gaza’s residents, now an estimated 2.2 million people—80% of whom are refugees or descendents of refugees forced to flee in the mass expulsions surrounding the founding of the State of Israel that Palestinians call the Nakba—have been hemmed in by a land, air, and sea blockade since 2006. As with Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons, who for years have waged hunger strikes, protested, and written about the horrors of incarceration, Gazans have struggled mightily against their confinement. In 2018–19, they held weekly nonviolent protests at the border under the name Great March of Return. Israel responded with brutal violence, killing 260 people and wounding 20,000 others, many of whom were permanently disabled. A week into Israel’s current assault on Gaza, Ahmed Abu Artema, one of the co-founders of the Great March of Return, wrote an impassioned plea in The Nation, calling for the world to “help us tear down the wall, end our imprisonment, and fulfill our dreams of liberation.” On October 24th, an Israeli airstrike severely wounded Artema and killed five members of his family, including his 13-year-old son.

It is precisely in such contexts of radical asymmetry that we find the history of hostage-taking: In the last half-century, under-resourced combatants from Palestine to Brazil to the United States and beyond have used hostages to gain political leverage. Militants, whose own lives are not valued by the powers they face, capture those whose lives they assume are deemed more valuable. This strategy often succeeds in shifting the terms of the conversation—asserting the previously dismissed hostage-takers as political actors whose demands must be negotiated. But the same dynamic that leads militants to take hostages is why the tactic so often fails: The prison state fundamentally devalues life, and ultimately may sacrifice hostages to preserve its rule. Israeli officials have said as much. “We have to be cruel now and not think too much about the hostages,” finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a cabinet meeting as Israel launched its war.

[mariacallous]

From Taiwan and Finland in January to Croatia and Ghana in December, one of the largest combined electorates in history will vote for new governments in 2024. This should be a cause of celebration and a vindication of the power of the ballot box. Yet this coming year is likely to see one of the starkest erosions of liberal democracy since the end of the Cold War. At their worst, the overall results could end up as a bloodbath or, marginally less bleakly, as a series of setbacks.

At first glance, the stats are impressive. Forty national elections will take place, representing 41 percent of the world’s population and 42 percent of its gross domestic product. Some will be more consequential than others. Some will be more unpredictable than others. (You can strike Russia and Belarus from that list.) One or two may produce uplifting results.

However, in the United States and Europe, the two regions that are the cradles of democracy—or at least, that used to project themselves as such—the year ahead is set to be bracing.

It is no exaggeration to say that the structures established after World War II, and which have underpinned the Western world for eight decades, will be under threat if former U.S. President Donald Trump wins a second term in November. Whereas his first period in the White House might be regarded as a psychodrama, culminating in the paramilitary assault on Congress shortly after his defeat, this time around, his menace will be far more professional and penetrating.

European diplomats in Washington fear a multiplicity of threats—the imposition of blanket tariffs, also known as a trade war; the sacking of thousands of public officials and their replacement with politicized loyalists; and the withdrawal of remaining support for Ukraine and the undermining of NATO. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the return of Trump would be manna from heaven. Expect some form of provocation from the Kremlin in the Baltic states or another state bordering Russia to test the strength of Article 5, the mutual defense clause of the Western alliance.

More broadly, a Trump victory would arguably mark the final dismantling of the credibility of Western liberal democracies. From India to South Africa and from Brazil to Indonesia, countries variously called middle powers, pivot countries, multi-aligned states—or, now less fashionably, the global south—will continue the trend of picking and choosing their alliances, seeing moral equivalence in the competitive bids on offer.

The greatest effect that a Trump return could have would be on Europe, accelerating the onward march of the alt right or far right across the continent. Yet that trend will have gained momentum long before Americans go to the polls. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are looking over their shoulders as the second wave of populism affects the conduct of government.

The wedge issue that is threatening all moderate parties is immigration, just as it did in 2015, when former German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed in more than 1 million refugees from the Middle East in what is now seen as the first wave of Europe’s immigration crisis. This time around, the arguments propagated by the AfD (the far-right Alternative for Germany party), Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, and similar groups across the continent have permeated the political mainstream.

The past 12 months have seen European Union decision-making constantly undermined by Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary, particularly further support for Ukraine. For the moment, he stands alone, but he is likely to be joined by others, starting with the newly returned Prime Minister Robert Fico in Slovakia. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has struck a tacit deal with Brussels, remaining loyal on supporting Ukraine (against her instincts and previous statements) in return for effectively being given carte blanche in Italy’s domestic politics.

In September, Austria seems almost certain to vote in a coalition of the far right and the conservatives. A country that has (ever since the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1955) prized its neutrality and been keen to ingratiate itself with Moscow has already been uncomfortable giving full-scale support to Kyiv. We can expect that support to soon be scaled back.

One of the few countries with a center-left administration, Portugal, will see it join the pack of the right and far right when snap elections are held in March. The previous incumbent, the Socialist Party’s outgoing Prime Minister Antonio Costa, was forced to quit amid a corruption investigation.

The most explosive moment is likely to occur in June, with the elections to the European Parliament. This reshuffling of the Euro-pack, which happens once every four years, was always seen in the United Kingdom as an opportunity to behave even more frivolously than usual. In 2014, the British electorate, in its inestimable wisdom, put Nigel Farage and his U.K. Independence Party in first place, setting in train a series of events that, two years later, led to the referendum to leave the EU.

Having seen the damage wrought by Brexit, voters in the remaining 27 EU member states are not angling for their countries to go it alone. However, many will use the opportunity to express their antipathy to mainstream politics by opting for a populist alternative. Some might see it as a low-risk option, believing that the European parliament does not count for much.

In so doing, they would be deluding themselves. It is entirely possible that the various forces of the far right could emerge as the single biggest bloc. This might not lead to a change in the composition of the European Commission (the diminished mainstream groupings would still collectively hold a majority), but any such extremist upsurge will change the overall dynamics across Europe.

Far-right parties in charge of governments will see themselves emboldened to pursue ever more radical nativist policies. In countries in where they are junior members of ruling coalitions (such as in Sweden), they will apply further pressure on their more mainstream conservative partners to move in their direction.

Conversely, countries that saw a surprising resurgence of the mainstream in national elections this year are unlikely to see that trend maintained. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s success in staving off the right was achieved only by cutting a deal with Catalan separatists. This led to protests by Spanish nationalists and a situation that is anything but stable.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s victory in Poland was at least as remarkable because the far-right Law and Justice party (PiS) government had used its years in government to try to skew the media and the courts in its direction. Expect PiS gains in June.

The most alarming result of 2023 was the return to prominence, and the verge of power, of Geert Wilders. The Dutch elections provide a how-not-to guide for mainstream politicians. The willingness of the center-right party of the outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte to contemplate a coalition with Wilders’s Party for Freedom emboldened many voters who had assumed their vote would be disregarded.

In Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, the so-called firewall established by the main parties to refuse to govern with the AfD is beginning to fray. Already, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is working with them in small municipalities. Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader, has dropped hints that such an option might not be out of the question at the regional level.

If the AfD gains the largest number of seats in the June European Parliament elections (opinion polls currently put it only marginally behind the CDU and ahead of all three parties in Scholz’s so-called traffic light coalition), then the momentum will change rapidly. It could go on to win three of the states in the former communist east—Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg—next autumn. Germany would enter unchartered territory.

These dire predictions could end up being overblown. Mainstream parties in several countries may defy the doom merchants and emerge less badly than forecast. Given recent trends, however, optimism is thin on the ground.

There is one election, however, due to take place in the latter part of 2024 that could produce not just a centrist outcome, but one with a strong majority in its parliament. Britain, the country that left the heart of Europe, the island that until recently was run by a clown, could emerge as the lodestar for modern social democracy. The irony would be lost on no one.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 24, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 25, 2024

This morning, President Joe Biden spoke to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Earlier in the day, Secretary General António Guterres of Portugal warned that “our world is in a whirlwind” and, having lost the “hot lines, red lines and guard rails” of the Cold War, is dangerous and adrift. In contrast, Biden in his final speech before the body offered optimism.

The president noted that when he first was elected U.S. senator in 1972, the world was also in a time of “tension and uncertainty.” The Cold War simmered, the Middle East was headed toward war, and the U.S. was in one in Vietnam. The United States was “divided and angry, and there were questions about our staying power and our future.” The U.S. and the world made it through that moment, he recalled, but it “wasn’t easy or simple or without significant setbacks.” Nonetheless, the world went on to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, end the Cold War, forge a historic peace between Israel and Egypt, and end the war in Vietnam.

Last year, Biden noted, the U.S. and Vietnam elevated their partnership to the highest level, “a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity for reconciliation…proof that even from the horrors of war there is a way forward,” he said.

Biden’s message continued to be one of optimism as he recalled the world history he has seen. In the 1980s, he said, the racist regime of apartheid in South Africa fell; in the 1990s, Serbian president Slobodan Milošević was prosecuted for war crimes after presiding over chaos and mass murder in southeastern Europe. At home, Biden recalled, although there is more to do, he “wrote and passed the Violence Against Women Act to end the scourge of violence against women and girls not only in America but across the world.” Then, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. brought the attack’s mastermind, Osama bin Laden, to justice.

Turning to his own presidency, Biden noted that it, too, began in “crisis and uncertainty.” Afghanistan had replaced Vietnam as America’s longest war, and after four American presidents had had to decide whether to withdraw, Biden “was determined not to leave it to the fifth.” Biden said he thinks every day of the 13 Americans who lost their lives along with hundreds of Afghans in a suicide bombing, the 2,461 U.S. military deaths and 20,744 American personnel wounded over the 20 years of that war, and the service personnel of other countries who died there.

Biden said that he came to office determined to rebuild the alliances and partnerships of the U.S. He worked to rebuild the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and NATO allies and partners in more than 50 nations supported Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Now NATO is “bigger, stronger, and more united than ever with two new members, Finland and Sweden,” he noted. Biden also worked to strengthen new partnerships like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as the Quad, which brings together the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India, and whose leaders met last weekend in Delaware to affirm their commitment to the partnership. 

Biden listed the many crises around the world today. “[F]rom Ukraine to Gaza to Sudan and beyond,” he said, we see “war, hunger, terrorism, brutality, record displacement of people, a climate crisis, democracy at risk, strains within our societies, the promise of artificial intelligence and its significant risks.”

In 1919, Biden recalled, Irish poet William Butler Yeats described a world where “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” But, Biden said, “[i]n our time, the center has held.” Leaders and people around the world have stood together to turn the page on Covid, defend the charter of the United Nations, and ensure the survival of Ukraine in the face of the 2022 Russian invasion. 

“There will always be forces that pull our countries apart and the world apart: aggression, extremism, chaos, and cynicism, a desire to retreat from the world and go it alone,” Biden said. “Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart, that the principles of partnership that we came here each year to uphold can withstand the challenges, that the center holds once again.”  

Biden reiterated the themes of his administration’s foreign policy, urging the countries in the United Nations to continue to stand with Ukraine and to manage competition with China responsibly so that competition does not become conflict. He noted that the U.S. and China are working together to combat the flow of deadly synthetic narcotics around the world, but said the U.S. will continue to push back against unfair economic competition and the military coercion of other nations in the South China Sea, while strengthening a network of alliances and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific. 

Turning to the Middle East, Biden reiterated the horrors of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and killed more than 1,200 people—including 46 Americans—and pointed out that “[i]nnocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell. Thousands and thousands killed, including aid workers. Too many families dislocated, crowding into tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation. They didn’t ask for this war that Hamas started.”

Biden noted that the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt have put forward a ceasefire and hostage deal that was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, and urged Israel and Hamas to finalize it. “Even as the situation has escalated,” Biden said, “a diplomatic solution is still possible.” Indeed, he said, “a two-state solution…where Israel enjoys security and peace and full recognition and normalized relations with all its neighbors, where Palestinians live in security, dignity, and self-determination in a state of their own,” remains “the only path to lasting security.”

Progress toward peace in the Middle East will put countries “in a stronger position to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Iran,” Biden said, to deny oxygen to the terrorists Iran supports and to “ensure that Iran will never, ever obtain a nuclear weapon.” 

“Gaza is not the only conflict that deserves our outrage,” Biden said. In Sudan, a bloody civil war has put eight million people on the brink of famine, and caused death and atrocities. The U.S. has led the world in providing humanitarian aid, Biden said, and is leading diplomatic talks to avert a wider famine.    

The U.S. stands behind the idea that people “need the chance to live in dignity,... protected from the ravages of climate change, hunger, and disease,” Biden said, and he noted that during his presidency the U.S. has invested more than $150 billion in sustainable development—including $20 billion for food security and more than $50 billion for global health—and has mobilized billions in private-sector investment. These principles were laid down in the 1950s by Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who feared that impoverished populations would be easy prey for religious or political demagogues who could use them to start wars. Biden did not acknowledge that a Trump presidency, devoted to isolationism, would almost certainly abandon them. 

Biden did note that the U.S. worked to repair the damage of Trump’s administration by rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change. It also passed the most ambitious climate legislation in history, is on track to cut emission in half by 2030, and has promised to quadruple climate financing to developing nations, investing $11 billion so far this year. The U.S. also rejoined the World Health Organization and donated almost 700 million doses of Covid vaccine to 117 countries. Biden vowed to address the outbreak of mpox in Africa and urged other countries to join the effort. He noted that the U.S., the Group of Seven industrialized democracies (G7), and partners have launched an initiative to finance infrastructure in the developing world.

Biden took office warning that the international institutions set up after World War II had concentrated wealth and power among the hands of a few and thus people left behind around the globe were losing faith in democracy. That sentiment is shared at the U.N, and today he sided with those countries calling for an expanded U.N. Security Council, greater youth engagement, and stronger measures against climate change. 

At length, Biden urged the U.N to take advantage of the possibilities and manage the risks of artificial intelligence (AI), which can both usher in scientific progress and push disinformation and create bioweapons. “We must make certain that the awesome capabilities of AI will be used to uplift and empower everyday people, not to give dictators more powerful shackles on…the human spirit,” he said.

So far, Biden’s speech was a retrospective of the changes he had seen in the world in more than 50 years in public service, and how he had tried to approach present-day changes by reinforcing and expanding America’s engagement with the world. But in his last address to the United Nations, he also had something personal to say. 

“Even as we navigate so much change,” he said, “[w]e must never forget who we’re here to represent.”

“‘We the People,’” he said, the first words of the U.S. Constitution, and the words that inspired the opening words of the U.N. Charter, which begins: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war….”  

Biden noted that he “made the preservation of democracy the central cause of my presidency.” He recalled the difficulty of deciding to step away, concluding that “as much as I love the job, I love my country more.”

“My fellow leaders, let us never forget, some things are more important than staying in power.  It’s your people…that matter the most. Never forget, we are here to serve the people, not the other way around. Because the future will be…won by those who unleash the full potential of their people to breathe free, to think freely, to innovate, to educate, to live and love openly without fear. That’s the soul of democracy. It does not belong to any one country.”

It lives in “the brave men and women who ended apartheid, brought down the Berlin Wall, fight today for freedom and justice and dignity,” he said. It’s in Venezuela, where millions voted for change; in Uganda, where LGBTQ activists demand safety and recognition of their humanity; in citizens from Ghana to India to South Korea peacefully choosing their leaders. 

“Every age faces its challenges,” Biden said. “I saw it as a young man. I see it today. But we are stronger than we think. We’re stronger together than alone. And what the people call ‘impossible’ is just an illusion. [As] Nelson Mandela taught us…: ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[stephensmithuk]

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Three Broken Threads

Hat tip to @myemuisemo for another excellent post that covers much of what I was planning together:

Data protection was not really a thing back in 1889. However, paper hotel registers would be something filled in by the front desk staff, not the guest. They would contain details of extra charges incurred as well, all stuff generally done by computer, but you can still buy paper copies today. Particularly for the Indian market, where less than half the population have Internet access. These registers are generally mandatory and in some countries, the data will still be passed to the police when it concerns newly arrived foreigners. That's why they ask for your passport.

Newcastle upon Tyne, the one people generally talk about as opposed to Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, was at the centre of a major coal mining area in North-East England, the Durham and Northumberland coalfields being in close proximity. The industry was still employing children - boys as young as 12 could work in mines - and was still a pretty dangerous, not to mention unhealthy industry.

The British economy was heavily reliant on coal, especially the newly built electric power stations. While the railways had a big coal trade for internal transport for domestic purposes, boats also played a big role, either going via canal or down the East Coast of Great Britain to the London Docks. This route would become vulnerable to German attack in the World Wars, particularly in the second war from fast torpedo boats known to the British as "E-boats"; the East Coast convoys are a lesser-known part of the naval war, with Patrick Troughton having served with Coastal Force Command.

The Mayor of Gloucester, like most civic mayors in England, is the chair of the council, elected to a one-year term by their fellow councillors. The current holder is Conservative councillor Lorraine Campbell. It's a mostly ceremonial role involving going to various events while wearing a red cloak and a big hat:

Gloucester's Deputy Mayor is called the Sheriff of Gloucester. There is still a Sheriff of Nottingham, by the way.

The Anglophone Canadian accent was historically noticeably different to an American one and of course had its own varieties. They've gotten closer over the decades, especially due to television.

Sir Henry would have limited luggage space on the ship over, so three pairs of boots would be reasonable. He'd have to ship over anything else at further cost, so it could be cheaper to buy new in London.

Deliveries of telegrams that weren't in the immediate area of the office cost extra. Bradshaw's Guide for Tourists in Great Britain and Ireland would state the nearest telegraph office for a town, as the 1866 edition demonstrates:

Sir Charles' estate was worth around £80m in today's money, but that would not even get him onto The Sunday Times Rich List, which starts at £350m (Sir Lewis Hamilton, i.e. the F1 driver). It tops out with Gopichand Hinduja and his family at an estimated £37.2 billion, whose conglomerate is many focussed on India, but also are the biggest shareholders in US chemical company Quaker Houghton.

Westmoreland was a historical county in Northern England; it was absorbed into Cumbria in 1974, but its area became part of the Westmoreland and Furness unitary authority in 2023.

"Entailed" means that Sir Charles has stipulated in a legal document that the Baskerville estate would have to pass to Sir Henry's heir intact. This was a feudal era practice that has now been abolished in most jurisdictions, with limited remaining use in England and Wales. Simply put Sir Henry is not allowed to sell the house or the land, even part of it. He can do what he likes with the cash and probably the chattels, the movable property like the candlesticks and the toasting forks.

This page covers it in relation to the works of Jane Austen with relevant spoilers:

Borough is another name for the area of Southwark. It got a Tube station in 1890, when the City and South London Railway opened, now the Bank branch of the Northern line. It also is famous for Borough Market, then a wholesale food market under cover of buildings from the 1850s. Today it is a retail market for specialty food; kind of like a farmers' market.

In 1888, the 10:30 from Paddington would get to Exeter at 15:35, a journey of five hours. @myemuisemo provides route maps. I would add at this point, GWR services to SW England went via Bristol, adding a lot of time to the journey, while the LSWR route from Waterloo was a lot more direct. Wags dubbed the former "the Great Way Round". The construction of two cut-off lines allowed the GWR to go via Westbury and Castle Cary.

I will cover the modern day condition of the route in my Chapter 6 post.

The GWR still had some broad-gauge track at 2,140 mm(7 ft 1⁄4 in) left that Brunel had favoured, but this would be finally eliminated in 1892.

Finally, Holmes is referencing the sport of fencing when he learns the cabbie has been given his name. The foil is the lightest of the three swords used in competitive fencing, such as the Olympics.

In an age before electronic fencing equipment, point scoring relied on the eyesight of the umpire... and the honesty of the competitions.

I was in my fencing club at university. I can't say I was that great. I preferred the epee, which doesn't have the priority rules...

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Been thinking of putting Pavitr into different regional clothing…. couldn’t decide which area I should tackle first, so I’m leaving that up to you :)

Feel free to send this post around and tell me what type of traditional wear you want to see Pavitr in!!! List of states in the zonal regions below if you want to double check!

NORTHERN INDIA (Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan)

NORTH EASTERN INDIA (comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim State, Tripura)

CENTRAL INDIA (States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh)

EASTERN INDIA (Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal)

WESTERN INDIA (Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra)

SOUTHERN INDIA (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Telangana)

[aroacegarlicbreadlover]

name every country

Ok here’s a list of every country that I totally wrote all by myself (Totally not copy pasted don’t worry about it):

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of The Congo, Denmark (We are coming for you Denmark. We will win. Do not try to fight back), Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Ironland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Legoland, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria,North Korea, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of The Congo, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sanlow, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Fire Nation, The Gambia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Note: This is not technically every country because a lot of different countries have different definitions of what a country is and I’m not including every single micro nation ever created (I may or may not have included one though, as well as a few other Easter eggs which ones may it be?)

Also I realize this will take up a lot of space and probably be annoying so uh, sorry about that anyone else who’s reading this. Blame anon. We should all blame anon for everything bad that ever happens in our lives from now on. (Don’t ask why I wrote this last part I just want there to be some content worth anything in this post)

Also just so this is something about aspec which is this blogs main purpose: Aroace people exist. There you go

[nuagederose]

following up to my original post for “vostok” (the antarctic mermaid and the pinned post—the dtiys for that goes all the way to may 1, too!), i give you my prompts for mermay around the world. i tried to get all the continents—it’s tricky here with the states because we’re such a melting pot of cultures and dialects, so i picked two of the cities i can readily represent through art (i was going to use new orleans or nashville but i’m slightly more drawn to vegas and hawai’i).

this is inspired by three things:

planetary coalition (the obvious one).

some time ago, i was looking into art of the middle east, namely israel and iran (before the revolution of 1979, of course) and feeling enamored by it all.

the third thing that inspired it was thinking about east asian art and how i’ve always been drawn to it. i don’t know how my mind jumped to it but i thought about angkor wat and block paintings of temples in southeast asia, and my mind being the rocket it is went from there.

***i also don’t want to hear any objections to tel aviv and kiev being on here. if you don’t like it, do your own or use someone else’s list.

i’m dropping these now to give plenty of time to study the art and culture of each city. i’d rather let people be influenced and inspired than appropriate 😉

Kingston (Jamaica) 🇯🇲

Las Vegas (United States) 🇺🇸

Mexico City (Mexico) 🇲🇽

Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 🇧🇷

Santiago (Chile) 🇨🇱

Honolulu (United States) 🇺🇸

Manila (Philippines) 🇵🇭

Tokyo (Japan) 🇯🇵

Shanghai (China) 🇨🇳

Phnom Penh (Cambodia) 🇰🇭

Auckland (New Zealand) 🇳🇿

Sydney (Australia) 🇦🇺

Suva (Fiji) 🇫🇯

New Delhi (India) 🇮🇳

Kathmandu (Nepal) 🇳🇵

Istanbul (Turkey) 🇹🇷

Tel Aviv (Israel) 🇮🇱

Cairo (Egypt) 🇪🇬

Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast) 🇨🇮

Freetown (Liberia) 🇱🇷

Fez (Morocco) 🇲🇦

Porto (Portugal) 🇵🇹

Monte Carlo (Monaco/the French Riviera) 🇲🇨

Geneva (Switzerland) 🇨🇭

Athens (Greece) 🇬🇷

Kiev (Ukraine) 🇺🇦

Prague (the Czech Republic) 🇨🇿

Brussels (Belgium) 🇧🇪

Helsinki (Finland) 🇫🇮

Vilnius (Lithuania) 🇱🇹

Dublin (Ireland) 🇮🇪

[max1461]

I recently made the claim that the phrase "the West" was incredibly overloaded, and some people were skeptical. In an effort to demonstrate this, and also just because I enjoy list-making as an activity, here is a list of East/West dichotomies that are or have been prominent in various discourses:

"The West" as the Western Roman Empire, "the East" as the Eastern Roman Empire. This is, as far as I can tell, the chronologically original sense of the dichotomy.

"The West" and "the East" as the Latin West and the Greek East in medieval Europe, entrenched by the East-West Schism between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This is essentially a continuation of the former usage.

"The West" as Europe and its American colonies, "the East" as Asia. In this sense synonymous with "the Occident" and "the Orient", respectively. This dichotomy in itself is ambiguous, with "the Orient" principally referring to the Middle East and India or principally referring to East Asia depending on time and place.

Related to the above, "the West" as Europe and its colonial outposts, vs. everybody else (usually not called "the East" in this usage).

"The West" as the American frontier, "back East" as the US East coast. Cowboys, man.

"The West" as the Western bloc, i.e. the liberal world, and "the East" as the Eastern bloc, i.e. the socialist world.

"The West" as rich countries in general, vs. everybody else.

The ambiguity is increased by the fact that each of these terms can either A.) be purely geographical, or B.) denote a broader cultural traditional which is assumed to characterize the given region.

I've mentioned before that I am extremely dubious of the idea that there is some kind of unified "Western culture" which includes everybody from the Ancient Greeks up through the modern US, but people's usage of "the West" tends to take the existence of such a culture as presupposition.

Anyway, the point is that if you say "the West", you may or may not be including historical Greece (1-2 vs. 3-7), may or may not be including Japan and Korea (1-5 vs. 6-7), may or may not be including Eastern Europe (3-4 vs. 1, 2, 5, 6, and maybe 7, depending on time period and worldview), and may or may not be including anywhere in Latin America (4? vs. others), and may or may not be talking about cowboys (just for fun). You also may be speaking purely geographically, or using the term "Western" as synonymous with democratic and/or capitalist (6), Catholic (2), having "Enlightenment values" (3, 4), being evil (4), being rich (7), or, you know, wild cowboy ruggedness (5).

And my point is, no matter your political persuasion... do you really want all this baggage in your terminology? Do you really want to outsource your categorization scheme, your thinking, to 2000 years of telephone? I don't. That's why I don't like this term. Thankfully "the East" has mostly dropped out of usage in all the senses above—and indeed, it was always the worse of the two terms—but "the West" sadly sticks around.

Yes, I know there is no better term in many cases. There is, in particular, no word for "the set of regions including Europe and those former and current European colonies whose populations are in the majority of European descent". It would be good to have a word for this. But we don't. And thus we should come up with one.

However, we do have unambiguous terms for many of the other characteristics on this list. We have for instance:

Latin Christian and (Eastern) Orthodox Christian,

Europe, North America, South America, and Asia, and Africa. Also Western Europe, Eastern Europe, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and others,

Colonial, as an adjective, as in "colonial states",

the Western bloc, the Eastern bloc, also individual adjectives like democratic, liberal, socialist, etc.

rich economies and poor economies, also adjectives like industrialized, agrarian, technicalized, etc.

And as far as I'm concerned, we should toss out the notion of "Western culture" as a coherent entity all together, because I really don't think such a thing can be shown to exist. Or rather, insofar as you believe it's a coherent entity, you have to demonstrate that. I am rather tired of the onus being placed on people who are skeptical of this notion to demonstrate that it is (at best) very slippery, rather than being placed on the people who invoke this notion to justify that it is sensible and useful.

In summary: say what you mean! Don't use polysemous terminology to package together many qualities which you have not justified as principally or necessarily co-occurring!

[outdoorkeedanorthstate]

Discover the Rich Heritage and Diversity of East India | Outdoorkeeda

East India is a region rich in cultural diversity, historical significance, and natural beauty. Comprising states like West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand, this region offers a unique blend of traditions, cuisine, and architecture. Whether it's exploring the tea gardens of Darjeeling, tasting delicious Bengali sweets, or delving into the spiritual depth of Bodh Gaya, East India promises an unforgettable journey through its cultural and natural treasures.

[nakibistan]

People often say that LGBTQIA+ people doesn't exists in Muslim/Islamic World. Nowdays many muslims argued that LGBTQI+ rights are contrary to their traditional beliefs, homosexuality shouldn't be decriminalized in their native countries,because it goes against their moral values,cultural norms & social mores,[...].

But previous Islamic history & muslim traditions had wide range of acceptance of sexual & gender diversity.In those days Muslim communities weren't so bigotted, heterosexist,homophobic/transphobic, heteropatriarchal.Colonialism,communism,dictatorship,islamist regime justified the prejudices against queer folks in Muslim world, not Islam itself.

In 1854, Ottoman empire legalised consensual homosexuality in parts of Middle East,North Africa,Eastern Europe & West Asia.Notably Mughal,Mamluk,Khilji,Sayyid, Pathan,Lodi,Abbasid,Safavid,Qajar,Ottoman empire gave privileges to gender variants and eunuchs.Even it is also said that Aghawas (a designation for trans feminine, effeminate,agender/eunuch & intersex) were served as guardian of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)'s mosque & tomb.There had been numerous homoerotic paintings & same sex romantic poetries in medieval islamic era.In pre-modern muslim societies ghazals (sufi spiritual song) has direct references with queerness.In some sufi traditions cross-dressing, gender fluidity was considered as sacred.

Since 18th & 19th century almost all muslim countries were colonized or being influenced by European Orthodox Christians.Europeans pushed their moral codes,heteropatriarchal system & gender roles upon muslim communities.But western colonialism was unable to erase queerness & love from asia.In Pakistan,Bangladesh,India & some parts of Afghanistan, Hijras (designation term for trans feminine,trans woman,gender diverse,intersex) are still exists.Hijras has recognition of third gender in Pakistan,India & Bangladesh.They have some civil rights in those countries mentioned.But Transgender people's livelihood in Afghanistan is very worst.Some Afghan trans people's lifestyles are very similar to Hijra/Khawaja Sara subculture. In central-asian muslim cultures gender vice-versa or variance are not uncommon.Bacha bazi or Bacha-bozi is practice where adult men get sexual services from young crossdressers and effeminates.

Waria, another transgender muslim community can be found in Indonesia.Waria transgenders has very limited rights comparing to Hijras.In South Sulawesi, Indonesia Bugis (a muslim tribe) recognized 5 genders: Oroané(masculine men), makkunrai (feminine women), Calalai (trans-masculine or masculine women), Calabai (trans-feminine or feminine male), Bissu (androgynous or non-binary).The classification of the calabai,calalai, & bissu as third genders is disputed.These roles can also be seen as fundamental occupational and spiritual callings, which are not as directly involved in designations such as male and female.In pre-Islamic culture, Bissu were seen as intermediaries between the people and the gods.The Bissu are closely associated with the female yet androgynous moon goddess, as her spiritual offspring.Up until the 1940s, the Bissu were still central to keeping ancient palace rites alive, including coronations of kings & queens. Historically, Bissu have played an important role in other ceremonies as well,particularly in weddings and childbirth events.However today Bissu & Waria faces marginalization in their homeland due to rise of Political Islamism & Islamic Extremism .

Here is a list of Muslim/Islamic nations where homosexuality is not a criminal offense (technically):

Albania - Legal since Ottoman period.

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Legal since Ottoman period.

Kosovo - Legal since Ottoman period.

Azerbaijan - Legal since 1918 or 2000 (not sure).But state often arrests LGBTQ community members.

Northern Cyprus - Legal since Ottoman period,legal in modern northern cyprus since 2015.

Turkey - Legal since Ottoman period, legal in modern turkey since 1923.

Jordan - Legal since Ottoman period,legal in hashemite kingdom of jordan since 1951.

Bahrain - Legal since Ottoman period.

West Bank (Palestine) - Female homosexuality always been legal,male homosexuality is legal since 1951.

Gaza (Palestine) -Female homosexuality always been legal.

Lebanon - Legal since Ottoman period, legal in modern lebanon since 2018 (however the legal status of homosexuality is vogue)

Kazakhstan - Legal since 1997 (de facto),nationwide legal since 1998 (de jure).

Kyrgyzstan - Legal since 1998.

Egypt - Legal since Ottoman period.Although private consensual homosexuality is not criminalized by domestic laws.Commercial & adult consensual homosexuality is de-facto illegal since 1961.

Kuwait -Female homosexuality always been legal.

UAE - There's no explicit federal law against homosexuality.But commercial & non-commercial homosexuality is de-facto illegal.

Burkina Faso - always legal

Djibouti - always legal

Mali - legal since 1961

Mayotte - always legal

Niger - always legal

Guinea Bissau - legal since 1993.

Sierra Leone -Female homosexuality always been legal.

Uzbekistan - Female homosexuality always been legal in federal law.

Turkmenistan - Female homosexuality always been legal in federal law.

Tajikistan - legal since 1998.

Indonesia - Homosexuality never been a criminal offense until 2022.LGBTQI+ people often faced persecution by state & harassment.In 2022, Indonesian parliament passed a bill that outlaws all types of sexual relationships outside the traditional marriage.

Here is a list of Muslim/Islamic nations,where transgender & gender diverse people has rights:

Iran - Transgender individuals were officially recognized by the government, under condition of undergoing sex reassignment surgery, with some financial assistance being provided by the govt. for the costs of surgery, and with a change of sex marker on birth certificates available post-surgery since early 1980s. However, substantial legal and societal barriers still exist in Iran. Trans individuals who do not undergo surgery have no legal recognition and those that do are first submitted to a long and invasive process (including virginity tests, parental approval, psychological counseling that reinforces feelings of shame & inspection by the Family Court).

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Trans people may change their legal gender in Bosnia & Herzegovina after a sex reassignment surgery & other medical treatments.

Pakistan - Pakistan recognized Hijras as third gender in 2009. In 2018 Pakistan's parliament passed “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act” which provides fundamental rights in health, education, government and security.

Lebanon - In late 1990s Lebanon allow sex reassignment surgery.In 2016 Lebanon court legally recognized a trans man as man.

Turkey - Transgender individuals were allowed to change their gender since 1988.However later Turkey adopted harsh policies for transgenders,required many pre–requisutes in order to be able to receive gender-affirming surgery. Transgender persons had to ask & be granted permission for the surgery,be at least 18 years of age,unmarried, & sterilized in order to receive gender-affirming surgery.

Jordan - Since 2014 jordan allow trans people to change their gender after a sex change operation.

Bahrain -Since 2008 Bahrain allow trans people to change their gender after a sex change operation.

Bangladesh - since 2013 Bangladesh recognized hijras & eunuchs as third gender.In 1975 Dr. Hosne Ara Begum became the first transsexual woman to be recognised as woman in Bangladesh.

Indonesia - Indonesia allows sex change operation for Warias & give limited rights for transgenders.

Kazakhstan - Since 2003, trans people allowed to change legal gender following sex change surgery,medical examinations, & sterilisation.

Kyrgyzstan -Transgender people allowed to change legal gender following sex reassigment surgery, medical treatments,sterilisation since 2014.

Tajikistan -Under Tajik law, trans people may change their legal gender on their passport if they provide a medical statement that they have undergone sex reassignment surgery. There has been 2 sex-change operations performed – the first one in 2001 and the second one in 2014.

UAE- allows intersex persons to undergoes a sex change surgery & change their gender.

Egypt - In 1988, a sunni Islamic Fatwa by Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy grants legal permission to perform gender affirming surgery.In Egypt, those who want to undergo the surgery must seek an approval from a gender reassignment review committee at the Medical Syndicate of Al-Azhar. But the committee has not convened since 2013, when Al-Azhar withdrew its member from the ccommission.

[ukrfeminism]

5 minute read

On 1st May this year, Johanita Dogbey, a 31-year-old Ghanaian British woman, was killed in broad daylight in Brixton, London. The man accused of attacking her, Mohamed Nur, a 33-year-old Somali British man, is currently in police custody and awaiting trial. Her death adds to a long list of Black women who have been found dead due to or under the suspicion of foul play in recent years: Darrell Buchanan, Blessing Olusegun and Valerie Forde, to name a few. With growing discourse surrounding the prevalence of Black femicide in the United States, following shocking revelations like the fact that Black women are four times as likely as white or Hispanic women to die a violent death, it’s time Britain recognised its own epidemic. On the surface, the data indicate no apparent racial disparities but a deeper look into the context of how these figures are produced points to a more complex and even dangerous reality for Black women in the UK. 

Understanding Black femicide

The World Health Organization (WHO) generally defines femicide as the “intentional murder of women and girls because they are women” but allows for broader definitions encompassing any killings of women and girls. The vast majority of women’s murderers are men, with ‘intimate femicide’ (i.e. intimate partner violence) being the most typical form. Worldwide, over 35% of all women’s murders are reported to have been committed by a former or current husband or boyfriend. Conversely, just 5% of male homicides are committed by a current or former intimate partner (this includes gay and bisexual men). Other common types of femicide comprise honour killings (occurring mainly in the Middle East, South Asia and their respective diasporas), dowry deaths (most prevalent in India) and non-intimate femicide — often with a sexual motivation. Accordingly, Black femicide can be understood as the intentional killing of Black women and girls on the basis of their race, gender or both; it can also include any Black female homicide victims. 

Looking at the global stats, we can see that in the US, Black women’s risk of homicide rivals that of Black men, with one dying on average every six hours in 2020. In South Africa, an average of nine women are killed every day, making it one of the most dangerous places in the world to live as a woman, particularly a Black woman. Predominantly Black Caribbean countries Antigua & Barbuda and Jamaica have the second and third highest femicide rates in the world, respectively, with El Salvador topping the list. 

I n the UK, we know that a woman is killed on average every three days but the frequency of said violence happening to Black women is unclear, given a dearth of intersectional reporting on the issue. For example, the 2020 Femicide Census, an archive of the “women who have been killed by men in the UK and the men who have killed them”, records the ethnicity of just 22 out of 110 victims. Of this figure, 16 were white and six were Asian. Without further context, the takeaway here would be that no Black women (or at least a much smaller proportion) were killed by men within this dataset, which could then be extrapolated to apply to Britain’s population as a whole. When speaking about this to a representative of nia, the anti-violence against women and girls (VAWG) charity that oversees The Femicide Census, they acknowledged this is a problematic conclusion: “The lack of meaningful, verified (i.e. official public record material) data on ethnicity is an ongoing problem. Data on race and ethnicity is drawn from police responses to Freedom of Information requests (FoIs). Ethnicity was provided in only one-fifth of police FoIs, and even then, the terms used are inconsistent, arbitrary, sometimes meaningless, archaic or downright offensive, for example, ‘Dark European’ or ‘Oriental’.”

‘Global majority’ is used as a collective term to describe those racialised as non-white, who make up approximately 85% of the world’s population. Anecdotal evidence and interpersonal experiences from anti-VAWG service providers and service users alike suggest femicide disproportionately impacts global majority women in the UK, including Black women, according to nia. However, without more precise figures to back up these ideas, the ability to identify culture-specific risk factors, barriers to access and best methods of providing support is limited. “Without such data, there will be no evidence base for the need for specialist by and for organisations, additional targeted resources and overhauling practice and policy which may reflect racist and sexist attitudes or institutional racism and sexism,” nia concludes. 

Inter-community issues present overlooked risk factors

Like other forms of violence against socially minoritised people, the line between what is and what isn’t an act of discrimination is often ambiguous. Dogbey’s death, for instance, has been framed as a completely “random attack” by media reports. Perhaps it simply was a case of wrong place, wrong time; perhaps not. Latoya Dennis, the founder of Black Femicide UK, thinks not, believing Dogbey’s killing to have been influenced by an underground culture of online inceldom and inter-community tensions between Somali and non-Somali Black groups. “I think there’s a strong incel community and I believe that a lot of Somali men are a part of that, from what I’ve seen online. I wouldn’t be surprised if the man who killed Johanita was a part of that community,” she tells us. Nur is reported to have (non-fatally) assaulted two other women and a man on 29th April, showing a gender bias in his crimes. When asked to expand, Dennis references hostile online encounters with Somali men on her platform after profiling the story of a Somali Bolt driver allegedly attempting to abduct a young, non-Somali Black woman. “That was the most backlash I’ve received through my work. I received a lot of threats and harassment, and I was also doxxed,” she explains. 

Sistah space

W hether or not this sentiment is correct, it highlights a valid sense of intra-racial rift within Black Britain that the media and institutions alike fail to interrogate in depth, leaving Black women at risk. Unbothered Editor L’Oréal Blackett speaks to an overreliance on the UK’s few Black journalists to cover Black stories as a partial factor in these gaps in mainstream coverage: “When I’ve worked at major publications, these kinds of stories are looked at as an inter-community issue. There’s a sense of ‘we can’t touch that’ within these white (and male)-dominated newsrooms.” She continues: “UK media is relying on a handful of Black journalists to cover everything that goes on in our communities.”

Sistah Space, a domestic violence charity advocating and campaigning for Black and mixed-race British women of African and Caribbean descent, also cites racial and cultural prejudices as major reasons why Black British women’s deaths don’t receive as much attention as the deaths of white British women: “The media categorically does not give Black women and domestic abuse enough attention. For example, media coverage of the Sarah Everard case was on every news source for a period of time. Can you name any Black women who have had the same amount of coverage or outcry?” 

It’s not just the media at fault here. As detailed above, there is an oversight when it comes to the interrogation and provision of race and ethnicity-specific insights from the government and police that potentially reflects apathetic and even racist (and sexist) attitudes towards female global majority concerns in this country. In March 2014, Valerie Forde, 45, and her 22-month-old baby were brutally murdered by Valerie’s ex-partner after her cries for help had been either downplayed or ignored by the authorities, exemplifying such failings. Six weeks prior to her death, Forde had told police that the then 53-year-old Roland McKoy had threatened to burn down her house with her and her baby inside. Instead of Forde’s warning being recorded as a threat to life, which would have required much closer monitoring, it was deemed a threat to property — a serious but far less urgent risk. Furthermore, BBC News reports that a civilian call handler failed to fully record and communicate critical information in the 999 call from one of Forde’s daughters on the day of the crime. Were it not for the “inaction” of authorities, Forde may have been alive today. 

Sistah Space believes this to be the case and is advocating for Valerie’s Law, a proposal which would implement “mandatory cultural competency training that accounts for the cultural nuances and barriers, colloquialisms, languages and customs that make up the diverse Black community”. In 2021, the organisation launched a video campaign to illustrate the unequal treatment of Black and white female domestic abuse victims by law enforcement. Research conducted by Sistah Space reveals that in the UK, 86% of women of African and/or Caribbean heritage have either been a victim of domestic abuse or know a family member who has been assaulted. Only 57% of victims, however, said they would report the abuse to the police, likely due to a historic lack of confidence in law enforcement among Black Britons. Meanwhile, March 2020 to June 2021 figures from Refuge, the country’s largest specialist domestic abuse organisation, show that Black women were 14% less likely than white survivors of domestic abuse to be referred to Refuge for support. 

Implementing meaningful change 

The man accused of killing Johanita Dogbey will not be standing trial until 29th April 2024, joining tens of thousands of backlogged cases in London alone that will not be fully reviewed for an average of over a year. With Dogbey’s story falling out of the mainstream news cycle just over a week after her death, it’s hard to imagine a society where Black femicide is given the consideration it deserves. As things stand, we rely on specialist media platforms like Unbothered to do the work in platforming these narratives and organisations like nia and Sistah Space to push for more comprehensive statistics and cultural awareness among governing bodies. A greater emphasis on Afrofeminist data will ultimately be the building block for more informed insights into the realities and concerns of Black women in the UK. We must continue striving to make this issue a top priority, not just for us but for everyone. 

[mariacallous]

Hello, this is Kostyantyn Nechyporenko. I’m a researcher at the Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigations Unit.

In this issue of The Witness, our newsletter about Russian war crimes, I’ll talk about how Russia exploits poverty in Asian and African countries to recruit soldiers for its war against Ukraine.

On Aug. 1, 2024, the Indian government told its parliament that it knew of eight Indian citizens who died in Ukraine while serving in the Russian army. The exact number of Indians serving in the Russian military is unknown, but the government knows of 63 Indian nationals who "have sought early discharge" from the Russian army.

At the first glance, this news may seem strange. Russia’s population is almost three times bigger than Ukraine’s – why would Russia look for soldiers abroad?

Moreover, why would it recruit soldiers from the other side of the continent and spend resources on logistics instead of finding "volunteers" nearby, from the countries that are culturally closer, where people may speak Russian and have even served in an army that is similar to that of Russia?

Russia doesn’t limit itself with India. In June, the Kyiv Independent published a video of a questioning of a Nepali POW who fought for Russia in Ukraine. Russian special services send hundreds of people to conduct secret or semi-secret recruitment in dozens of countries. Ukrainian military intelligence has said that Russians are recruiting citizens of at least 21 countries for the war in Ukraine.

The list includes post-Soviet countries, as well as Serbia, and a number of countries in South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. This list is probably not exhaustive, as videos and photos of alleged citizens of Somalia, China, Vietnam, Cameroon, and Ghana participating in the war on the side of the Russians have surfaced.

What do we know about Russia’s international recruitment and why it’s conducting it?

The recruitment is active in the countries where Russia can afford to not care about locals’ discontent, where there won't be even a diplomatic note of protest or condemnation.

It is telling that the reaction of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to Russian recruitment of its citizens was to propose to set up a "joint committee" with Russia to address the following issues: "payment of compensation for the deceased and the wounded, the plight of the uncontactable Sri Lankans, and the possibility of voluntary returns." Despite the obviously abusive attitude towards the Sri Lankans in the Russian military, the statement has no hint of resentment or dissatisfaction.

One might think that the point of international recruitment is to give the impression that Russia’s war is supported by a large number of countries. However, there seems to be not enough publicity to support this version. There is no evidence of a systematic public campaign by the Russian state and Kremlin-controlled media that would highlight that volunteers from around the world are joining their fight.

From what I've seen, most videos and photos of foreigners in the Russian army show that Russian recruiters tend to target poor and embattled countries.

Syria is the most appalling example. After years of brutal campaigns in support of the Assad regime, Russia is taking advantage of the country’s dire economic situation, lack of essential goods and staple foods, and many Syrians struggling to provide for their families. Some public sector employees, for example, can earn as little as $20 a month. For many Syrians, the promise of a soldier’s wage of $300 to $3,000 per month is very tempting. In addition, recruiters often promise non-combat roles, "work in the rear," or even "guarding facilities" thousands of miles away from the combat zones. Often, it’s deliberate deception.

Those who accept the offers risk ending up in so-called "meat assaults" – this is what Ukrainians call Russian tactics in which waves of infantry with little or no mechanized support attempt to wear down the defenders of Ukrainian fortified positions with continuous attacks. Such tactics are not uncommon in the Russian army, known for its blatant disregard for casualties.

This is exactly what happened to one of the Syrians who was lured to Russia with the promise of "guarding gold mines in eastern Siberia" and a tempting salary, where he quickly found himself in the ranks of the Russian army. In an audio message to his uncle, he describes how he was forced to walk over the bodies of killed soldiers and how horrified he was to see scorched earth and burned trees on battlefields.

Technically, such recruitment isn’t a war crime. But if you ask me, exploiting poverty, dire living conditions, and unemployment to send people far from home to die in an unprovoked and ill-motivated war is not just predatory recruitment. It is a crime.

Still, Russia needs more people to fight. Their tactics and strategy require many troops, no regard for casualties, and treating soldiers as “expendables.” Therefore, the search for new soldiers never stops.

One of the recruitment ads got a lot of attention on Ukrainian social media because of its somewhat comical wording and lack of consistency. It begins with the words “Contract work for real men in Moscow” and ends with “The women are back in action! Recruitment in Rostov-on-Don has opened for you!” However, those who mocked the ad missed a very important part: the ad promised a one-time bonus of 2.3 million rubles (about $25,000, a great deal of money for Russia) for signing the contract. This shows how much the Russian army needs more recruits and how unwilling the Russian leadership is to intensify the mobilization at home. Foreign mercenaries are a different case — they can be paid less, and there are no political consequences at home if they die or get seriously wounded.

As I was writing this newsletter, the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali sent a letter to the UN Security Council condemning Ukraine's alleged support for rebels in the Sahel. Following the successes of the Tuareg rebels in their battles against the Wagner, many Ukrainian military bloggers have speculated that they are being supported and perhaps even trained by the Ukrainian special services. Whether this is true or not is hard to say now. But Mali and Burkina Faso are definitely on the list of countries where Russians actively recruit soldiers.

This war may be taking place on the territory of just two countries in Eastern Europe, but it has truly global implications.

[pokemonbiologyirlthetabletop]

Pokemon League Foundation's Certified Starter Pokemon

Here in this world, there is a wide range of available starter Pokémon that may not be considered in the main series videogames. Of course, no one is beholden to the below list, as this is simply the PLF's list of suggested starters, and in practice many municipalities, breeders, parents, and cultures have their own notions of what is and is not acceptable to give to a new trainer. And trainers may find their first Pokémon by their own means.

With that said, here are some guidelines to consider when establishing your municipality’s starter Pokémon:

They must be able to evolve across all genders. This means Pokémon that can only evolve if they are female (Combee, Salandit) do not make suitable starter Pokémon.

They must be appropriate to the surrounding environment. Example: Littens are not acceptable starter Pokémon in the United States, but they are in India, Siberia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Conversely, a city such as Oshkosh, WI, which is famous for its airshows and wind turbines surrounded by farmland as well as being along the Fox River, would have starters such as Squirtle, Ducklett, Hoppip, Electrike, and Mareep.  

They must be temperamentally and biologically safe for even a 10-year-old. While many trainers acquire their first Pokémon at older and younger ages than that, the Pokémon League Foundation insists that 10 years old is a good beginner age.

Exceptions exist: Pokémon that are a part of 3-stage evolutionary lines are allowed to have temperamental and finicky personalities and needs in the final stage (such as Charizard) since the trainer will inevitably be of an older, more appropriate age, to handle these needs.

To this end, almost all ghost-types are considered unsuitable for beginner trainers.

Pokémon must also have species-wide behavioral patterns that are appropriate for a 10-year-old. To this end, Pokémon like Purrloin and Nickit are seen as unsuitable starter Pokémon because of their proclivities toward theft.

Pokémon with extreme needs somewhere in its evolutionary line, such as Munchlax & Snorlax, are considered unsuitable starter Pokémon.

 The Pokémon must have an established domesticated stock in captivity with needs that are achievable to even poor newbie trainers.

Because of this requirement, only two dragon-types are approved starter Pokémon: Applin and Noibat. Dragons are rare, temperamental, finicky, and downright dangerous creatures in almost all circumstances. While there are other dragons, such as Goomy, that may be suitable, they do not have suitably domesticated stock in captivity nor are their specific biological needs achievable to the average low-income new trainer.

 While traditional videogame starters are truly excellent choices, consider utilizing less conventional starters such as Poliwag, Ralts, or Eevee, since these Pokémon have split evolutions that allow for a greater variety of fully-evolved starters amongst the local trainers.

There must always be at least 3 starter Pokémon available, but no more than 7. Locations that are so large that they feel that they can justify more than 7 starter Pokémon should consider sub-dividing into sub-regions. For example, New York City is home to millions of people; rather than have a uniform 7 starters for the entire city, consider separate groupings for Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and so forth.

 Starter Pokémon are available from every Pokémon Center. They are acquired through partnership with Certified Breeders in the area. Anyone who is at least 10 years old may go to any Pokémon Center of choice and seek an available starter Pokémon. Everyone is granted 1 government-issued (Pokémon Center) starter Pokémon, no matter what stage in their Pokémon journey that they’re in.

Mechanics: Pokémon Center Issued Starter Pokémon always have at least 70% domesticity and at least 70% handleability. Roll a d30 (or a d10 and a d20) to determine the specifics. They are free of most poor health defects, for starter Pokémon Breeders are tasked with breeding healthy & amicable individuals rather than ones that meet the breed standard. Because of this, the individual breed standard is anywhere from 1-100. Roll accordingly.

For a written list of the above chart, read below!

Normal: (A) Rattata, (OG) Meowth, (OG) Rattata, (OG) Zigzagoon, Azurill, Bidoof, Buneary, Bunnelby, Deerling, Dunsparce, Eevee, Fletchling, Glameow, Happiny, Helioptile, Hoothoot, Igglybuff, Lechonk, Lillipup, Litleo, Minccino, Patrat, Pidgey, Pidove, Pikipek, Porygon, Rufflet, Sentret, Shroodle, Skitty, Smoliv, Stantler, Starly, Taillow, Whismur, Wooloo.

Fighting: (G) Farfetch'd, (H) Sneasel, Clobbopus, Croagunk, Machop, Makuhita, Meditite, Mienfoo, Pancham, Riolu, Scraggy, Timburr, Tyrogue.

Flying: Ducklett, Fletchling, Gligar, Hoothoot, Hoppip, Ledyba, Mantyke, Murkrow, Natu, Noibat, Pidgey, Pidove, Pikipek, Rookidee, Rowlet, Rufflet, Taillow, Wattrel, Wingull, Woobat, Yanma, Zubat

Grass: Applin, Bellsprout, Bounsweet, Budew, Bulbasaur, Cacnea, Cherubi, Chespin, Chikorita, Cottonee, Deerling, Exeggcute, Ferroseed, Foongus, Gossifleur, Grookey, Hoppip, Lotad, Morelull, Oddish, Pansage, Rowlet, Seedot, Sewaddle, Shroomish, Skiddo, Smoliv, Snivy, Snover, Sprigatito, Sunkern, Tangela, Toedscool, Treecko, Turtwig.

Water: (OG) Wooper, Barboach, Binacle, Buizel, Clauncher, Corphish, Dewpider, Ducklett, Feebas, Finneon, Froakie, Goldeen, Horsea, Lotad, Magikarp, Mudkip, Oshawott, Panpour, Piplup, Poliwag, Popplio, Psyduck, Quaxley, Remoraid, Seel, Shellos, Slowpoke, Sobble, Spheal, Squirtle, Staryu, Surskit, Totodile, Tympole, Wimpod, Wingull.

Fire: (OG) Growlithe, (OG) Ponyta, (OG) Vulpix, Charcadet, Charmander, Chimchar, Cyndaquil, Fennekin, Fuecoco, Larvesta, Litleo, Litten, Magby, Numel, Pansear, Scorbunny, Tepig, Torchic.

Electric: (A) Geodude, Charjabug, Electrike, Elekid, Helioptile, Magnemite, Mareep, Pawmi, Pichu, Shinx, Tadbulb, Toxel, Tynamo, Wattrel, Yamper.

Bug: Burmy, Caterpie, Cutiefly, Dewpider, Dwebble, Grubbin, Karrablast, Kricketot, Larvesta, Ledyba, Nymble, Pineco, Scatterbug, Sewaddle, Shelmet, Snom, Surskit, Tarountula, Venipede, Venonat, Wimpod, Wurmple, Yanma.

Poison: (H) Sneasel, (P) Wooper, Bellsprout, Budew, Bulbasaur, Croagunk, Foongus, Gulpin, Nidoran, Oddish, Poipole, Shroodle, Toxel, Trubbish, Venipede, Venonat, Zubat.

Ground: (OG) Geodude, (OG) Sandshrew, (OG) Wooper, (P) Wooper, Baltoy, Barboach, Cubone, Drilbur, Gligar, Golett, Larvitar, Mudbray, Numel, Phanpy, Swinub, Toedscool, Trapinch.

Rock: (A) Geodude, (OG) Geodude, Aron, Binacle, Bonsly, Dwebble, Larvitar, Nacli, Rockruff, Roggenrola, Rolycoly.

Ice: (A) Sandshrew, (A) Vulpix, Smoochum, Snom, Snorunt, Snover, Spheal, Swinub, Vanillite.

Psychic: (G) Ponyta, (G) Slowpoke, Abra, Baltoy, Beldum, Bronzor, Chingling, Espurr, Exeggcute, Flittle, Gothita, Meditite, Mime Jr., Natu, Ralts, Smoochum, Solosis, Spoink, Staryu, Woobat, Wynaut.

Dark: (A) Meowth, (A) Rattata, (OG) Zorua, Maschiff, Pawniard.

Ghost: Golett.

Steel: (G) Meowth, Aron, Beldum, Bronzor, Ferroseed, Klink, Magnemite, Pawniard, Tinkatink.

Fairy: Azurill, Cleffa, Cottonee, Cutiefly, Fidough, Flabebe, Igglybuff, Milcery, Mime Jr., Morelull, Ralts, Snubbull, Spritzee, Swirlix, Tinkatink, Togepi.

Dragon: Applin, Noibat

(check back on the original post for hyperlink updates periodically!)

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Hey guess what, if you like my stuff, this is my website where you can find other Pokémon I've written on and more information about the game that I’m slowly making! Check it out! I write books sometimes too.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I'm an escapist. I'm not a planner; I've never made a decision about anything in my life. The good thing about Africa is that you can escape forever. You can do what you want without someone looking over your shoulder.

- Peter Beard, photographer

Surviving a shipwreck in Lake Rudolf, being crushed by an elephant & an encounter with a lion in the middle of the night, Peter Beard wld have been 85 this week. Beard was heir to 2 fortunes - railways & tobacco - a child of privilege: Upper East Side, Buckley and Yale. Africa and its wildlife.

In the late 50s, he bought Hog Ranch, near the Ngong Hills & adjacent to his friend Karen Blixen’s coffee farm. In 1972 he acquired an estate at Montauk Point near Andy Warhol.

Explosive, collagist, his works combine his photographs with his diaries - paper clippings, dried leaves, insects, old sepia photos, phone messages, India ink marginalia, quotes. Blood from the nearest butcher - and his own. Photographing wildlife, wild personalities and living an extravagant, untamed, life, Peter Beard was the personification of the word “Wild.” Baptised “the last of the adventurers,” Beard is as famous for his very public private life as he is for his idiosyncratic collage diaries and assemblages. Bringing together found objects, contact sheets, literary text and photographs from Tsavo, Kenya, his work subverts craft, control, and intentionality, typically associated with conventional artistic practice.

‘I’m an expert on futility and I like the futility and the pettiness of my diaries. It's a sort of laundry list of the day.’ It began when Jacqueline Kennedy gave him a leather-bound journal. He collaborated with Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Karen Blixen, Truman Capote, and Salvador Dalí. He also became a portraitist. In the jungle that is Manhattan & in Kenya (clad only in a kikoi) he proved as irresistible as he was insatiable. He was the great passion in the passionate life of Lee Radziwill. He would say sleep was such a waste of time.

Beard himself referred to his devotion to photography as something to be taken not too seriously, introducing himself as “a dilettante,” or amateur. However, the artist played an undisputed role in portraying an impeccable artistic vision of Africa to the West, although many accused him of offering a slanted and idealised perception of the continent - the only lover he remained loyal to until the end.

After once finding a big game poacher on his property, “Hog Ranch,” famously next to Karen Blixen ́s (author of “Out of Africa") coffee plantation, Beard tied the man up in wires, stuffed a glove in his mouth and left him there. Although this cost the artist a week in African jail and a few more of press and rumors in NewYork, these solitary but outrageous acts of protest slowly but surely granted Beard an environmentalist status within Western and African preservationist circles. Ultimately, the artist was years ahead of his time in his efforts to sound the alarm about environmental damage, and became a walking symbol for a future generation of artists who would use their art to send urgent social messages to the public. “The deeper the white man went into Africa, the faster the life flowed out of it,” Beard wrote in his most critically acclaimed book, “The End of the Game.”

He had two failed marriages before a third to a Kenyan Muslim, Nejma Khanum, brought him a measure of peace and stability with the birth of a daughter, Zara. But he remained untamed. One time, in the Sth of France, he sold off a valuable photo to pay off a $20,000 bar bill. His long suffering wife, Nejma, sought to regain the art he had given away or loaned in a haze of drink and drugs.

Peter Beard, who lived in Montauk, on the eastern end of Long Island, New York, disappeared on 31 March 2020 and was found dead in Camp Hero State Park, not far from his home, after a 19-day search on 19 April. He was 82. His family wrote on his website, “He died where he lived: in nature.”