#fire and sword in the sudan
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Fuck the rich who do nothing but horde their wealth.
Fuck Zionists.
Fuck Nazis.
Fuck radfems.
Free Palastine, Sudan, The Congo, and the millions of others that are under the thumbs of Greed.
Free women.
Free the crop tops.
Free the hjiabs.
Free the burkas.
Protect our children.
Protect our bodies.
Protect our souls.
We will make these monsters fall on the swords of their own hatred and hypocrisy.
We will rise. We will win.
We are the force of nature and nature always comes out victorious.
Even if the fields are scorched, a flower always finds a way to bloom.
We are the hydras with a thousand heads. We are the Medusas that never were found.
Hear us. Fight with us. Or become the ashes of the fires we set.
#brian thompson#deny defend depose. you're next.#deny defend depose#the congo#sudan#Palestine#free palestine#free gaza#free sudan#free congo#protect women#protest#fight#We are hydras#fuck israel#fuck zionazis#united healthcare
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rules: shuffle your ‘on repeat’ playlist and post the first 10 tracks, then list 10 songs you really like, each by a different artist. then tag 10 people to do the same thing.
Thank you @amethystsoda 💕
The shuffles:
1. Talk that Talk - Rihanna
2. Sea, Swallow Me - Cocteau Twins, Harold Budd
3 The Place I left Behind - The Deep Dark Woods
4. Fire for You - cannons
5. Love it if we made it - The 1975
6. XCT - Che Ecru
7. AUHEJA - Martin Kohlstadt, Sudan Archives
8. Gold Dust Woman - Fleetwood Mac
9. The Weight of Gold - Forest Swords
10. Cococure - Maxwell
10 that I like:
1. Love you to death - Type O Negative (thanks zell)
2. Get to Me - Amber DeLaRosa
3. Warm Winds -SZA, Isaiah Rashad
4. Belong - Washed Out
5. All The Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun - Mind Cinema
6. Lamp Lady - Sevdaliza
7. Save room for Us - Tinashe, MAKJ
8. American Teenager - Ethel Cain
9. Us - NAVVI
10. Addicted to Love - Florence + the Machine
No pressure tags of course:
@brujaovermoxy @islandofangels @deliriovs @p00pdev1l @touyangel @miamisa101 @cyancherub @oh-katsuki @helenas-revenge @onecelestialbeing @phen0l @alekstraszas @existentialisttrashh !
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Holidays 7.8
Holidays
Air Force and Air Defense Forces Day (Ukraine)
Arafat Day (Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, UAE)
ASB & Health Day (UK)
Be a Kid Again Day
Carver Day (Missouri)
Child Honoring Day (Raffi Foundation)
Constitution Day (Palau)
Corban Bairam Day (Sudan)
Family Day (Ukraine)
Gospel Day (Kiribati)
Hajj Day (Maldives)
Hamburg Massacre Anniversary Day
Historic Places Day (Canada)
International Body Painting Day
International Paramedics Day
Killer Joke Day
Kurban Bayramı Eve (Turkey)
Liberty Bell Crack Day
Math 2.0 Day
Mediterranean International Day
National Day of Righteous Outrage
National Denise Day
National Kathryn Day
National Love Your Skin Day
National Scince Day (Brazil)
National Videogame Day
Old Crafts Day
Olive Branch Petition Day
Oneofusismissing Day
Park Day (French Republic)
Picking Up Women Day (Japan)
SCUD Day (Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama)
Soapy Smith Wake (Alaska)
There Has Always Been Something Day
Video Games Day
World Day of Allergies
Ziegfeld Follies Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Coca-Cola Day
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Omelette Day
National Blueberry Day
National Freezer Pop Day
National Ice Cream Sundae Day
National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day
World Tea Party Day (SPANA or Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad)
2nd Saturday in July
Bald In / Bald Out Day [2nd Saturday]
Blissfest begins (Michigan) [2nd Saturday]
Bohemian Club Rites begin (California) [2nd Saturday]
Bon Odori (Festival of the Lanterns; Japan) [2nd Saturday]
Carver Day (Missouri) [2nd Saturday]
Grange Day [2nd Saturday]
International Brick & Rolling Pin Throwing Contest (Stroud; Australia, Canada, UK, US) [2nd Saturday]
International Skinny Dip Day [2nd Saturday]
Lindenfest begins (Rhineland, Germany) [2nd Saturday]
The Mooning of the Amtrak (Laguna Niguel, California) [2nd Saturday]
Stone House Day (New York) [2nd Saturday]
World Rum Day [2nd Saturday]
Independence Days
Empire of Pavlov (Declared; 2012) [unrecognized]
Kingdom of Beaver Island (Declared; 1850) [unrecognized]
Feast Days
Abda and Sabas (Christian; Saint)
Artemisia Gentileschi (Artology)
Auspicius of Trier (Christian; Saint)
Charlotte the Penguin (Muppetism)
Eid al Adha (Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (Christian; Saint)
Feast of Sunniva (Norse Goddess of the Sun)
Grimbald (Christian; Confessor)
Innocent III (Positivist; Saint)
Itchy (Muppetism)
Justica II: Day of Dike (Pagan)
Kilian, Totnan, and Colman (Christian; Saints) [Kilian: Bavaria, Austria]
Meatball Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)
Nummius (Christian; Confessor)
Peter and Fevronia Day (Russian Orthodox)
Procopius of Scythopolis (Christian; Saint)
Sunniva and companions (Norse Solar Maidens)
Theobald of Marly (Christian; Saint)
Vitulatio (Ancient Roman Fruits of the Earth celebration)
Withburge of Norfolk (Christian; Saint)
Zorak Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]
Premieres
Batman: Gotham Knight (WB Animated Film; 2008)
Beauty and the Beat, by The Go-Go’s (Album; 1981)
8 Ball Bunny (WB LT Cartoon; 1950)
Fantastic Four (Film; 2005)
The Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 2000) [Harry Potter #4]
Having a Wild Weekend (Film; 1965)
Horrible Bosses (Film; 2011)
How to Have an Accident in the Home (Disney Cartoon; 1956)
Inception (Film; 2010)
Melrose Place (TV Series; 1992)
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Film; 2016)
Murderball (Film; 2005)
Nowhere Man, by The Beatles (4-Track EP; 1966)
The Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 1999) [Harry Potter #3]
Radio Free Europe, by R.E.M. (Song; 1981)
The Sea Beast (Animated Film; 2022)
The Secret Life of Pets (Animated Film; 2016)
Shuffle Off to Buffalo (WB MM Cartoon; 1933)
Sword Art Online (Anime Series; 2012)
Thor: Love and Thunder (Film; 2022)
Wannabe, by the Spice Girls (Album; 1996)
You Better Run, by Pat Benatar (Song; 1980)
Today’s Name Days
Amalia, Edgar, Kilian (Austria)
Akvila, Eugen, Hadrijan, Priscila (Croatia)
Nora (Czech Republic)
Kjeld (Denmark)
Eleonoora, Ellinor, Leonoora, Loora, Loore, Noora, Nora (Estonia)
Turkka, Turo (Finland)
Edgar, Killian, Priscillia, Thibault (France)
Kilian, Amalia, Edgar (Germany)
Prokopios, Theofilos (Greece)
Ellák (Hungary)
Domenica (Italy)
Ada, Adele, Adeline, Antra (Latvia)
Arnoldas, Elžbieta, Elzė, Vaitautas, Valmantė, Virga, Virginija (Lithuania)
Sunniva, Synne, Synnøve (Norway)
Adrian, Adrianna, Chwalimir, Edgar, Elżbieta, Eugeniusz, Kilian, Prokop, Wirginia (Poland)
Astion, Epictet (România)
Ivan (Slovakia)
Adrián, Adriano, Priscila (Spain)
Kjell (Sweden)
Prokip, Prokop (Ukraine)
Aquila, Aquiline, Easton, Kilian (USA)
Thibaut (Universal)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 189 of 2024; 176 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 6 of week 27 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Duir (Oak) [Day 27 of 28]
Chinese: Month 5 (Wu-Wu), Day 21 (Ding-Mao)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 19 Tammuz 5783
Islamic: 19 Dhu al-Hijjah 1444
J Cal: 9 Lux; Twosday [9 of 30]
Julian: 25 June 2023
Moon: 65%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 21 Charlemagne (7th Month) [Innocent III]
Runic Half Month: Feoh (Wealth) [Day 10 of 15]
Season: Summer (Day 18 of 94)
Zodiac: Cancer (Day 18 of 31)
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Pokémon Players that I interacted with in Pokémon Sword/Shield in the Wild Area, Isle of Armor, and Crown Tundra on February 22, 2024!
I will be putting the name shown to me in game, and only put names in English so I apologize to any foreign Trainers I had to leave out due to unable to write your name in your language, but I love you all the same! Names have been wrote down EXACTLY as I saw them in game, so yes, these are what people names themselves. Enjoy! ✨
Max
Shorty
Gloria
alex
cal
Kenny
william
brun0
Gwen
Emma
Vincent
Angel
Travis
dt2blue
Matt
Red
em
shey
Kale
???????
Liam
Victor
xDead
MaliBunty
Yixii
Silkh
loïk
Ash
Ciuffola
God
.com
Da Villian
DragonGaming
Riley
wanne
bob
what the poo
kamille
demon child
Xain
Linoux
Rusher
meg*
Javi
Amy
Lenny
izza241
Chester
maxx
Ghost
Brian
nathan
Connor
mikey
Kosmikaze
kylian
RYDER METZ
KMG
Edgy
josh
Emmett
BEE
Dario
Dexter_Stone
Slick
shadow
isabel
Belial
Erika
Liam
Xande26
trisy
Rodders83
Lumiere
Allura
MaHo
Steven
ash
dany
Brian
Allison
Sven
Viper
Rika
G.Warren
Kolten
BEAR!!
Seda
Roman
Zoey
Luna
Set24
TakasuNight
Finkie
Mikan
peter
Rocky
Rubyheart
Luke
shadow fox!!
fire
myla
Darky
Fox
Kyle
Alpacalpacas
Lucas
Gloria
Tammy
lee
Matthew
log
lex
trey
Héo
ash
N
mr beastfinn
Frank
garrett
cayden
Fwip
exell
Jslick
Cassi
jakjak
Jay
jacks
stinky
Jordin
Felipe-A2k
Miles
Adrian
Please don't forget the people in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo who are persecuted for being alive and believing certain ways in their homes. Don't forget the Hawaiian natives who have no say in their own land and homes, and that they also deserve their independence from the forced colonization they are under. We will never stop bringing awareness and hope you keep them in mind and support them all one day being Happy, Safe, and Healthy. 💖
#enjoy#pokemon#pokemon shield#pokemon sword#pokemon sword and shield#free hawaii#free palestine#free sudan#free gaza#pokémon#pokéblogging
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Holidays 7.8
Holidays
Air Force and Air Defense Forces Day (Ukraine)
Arafat Day (Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, UAE)
ASB & Health Day (UK)
Be a Kid Again Day
Carver Day (Missouri)
Child Honoring Day (Raffi Foundation)
Constitution Day (Palau)
Corban Bairam Day (Sudan)
Family Day (Ukraine)
Gospel Day (Kiribati)
Hajj Day (Maldives)
Hamburg Massacre Anniversary Day
Historic Places Day (Canada)
International Body Painting Day
International Paramedics Day
Killer Joke Day
Kurban Bayramı Eve (Turkey)
Liberty Bell Crack Day
Math 2.0 Day
Mediterranean International Day
National Day of Righteous Outrage
National Denise Day
National Kathryn Day
National Love Your Skin Day
National Scince Day (Brazil)
National Videogame Day
Old Crafts Day
Olive Branch Petition Day
Oneofusismissing Day
Park Day (French Republic)
Picking Up Women Day (Japan)
SCUD Day (Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama)
Soapy Smith Wake (Alaska)
There Has Always Been Something Day
Video Games Day
World Day of Allergies
Ziegfeld Follies Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Coca-Cola Day
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Omelette Day
National Blueberry Day
National Freezer Pop Day
National Ice Cream Sundae Day
National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day
World Tea Party Day (SPANA or Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad)
2nd Saturday in July
Bald In / Bald Out Day [2nd Saturday]
Blissfest begins (Michigan) [2nd Saturday]
Bohemian Club Rites begin (California) [2nd Saturday]
Bon Odori (Festival of the Lanterns; Japan) [2nd Saturday]
Carver Day (Missouri) [2nd Saturday]
Grange Day [2nd Saturday]
International Brick & Rolling Pin Throwing Contest (Stroud; Australia, Canada, UK, US) [2nd Saturday]
International Skinny Dip Day [2nd Saturday]
Lindenfest begins (Rhineland, Germany) [2nd Saturday]
The Mooning of the Amtrak (Laguna Niguel, California) [2nd Saturday]
Stone House Day (New York) [2nd Saturday]
World Rum Day [2nd Saturday]
Independence Days
Empire of Pavlov (Declared; 2012) [unrecognized]
Kingdom of Beaver Island (Declared; 1850) [unrecognized]
Feast Days
Abda and Sabas (Christian; Saint)
Artemisia Gentileschi (Artology)
Auspicius of Trier (Christian; Saint)
Charlotte the Penguin (Muppetism)
Eid al Adha (Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (Christian; Saint)
Feast of Sunniva (Norse Goddess of the Sun)
Grimbald (Christian; Confessor)
Innocent III (Positivist; Saint)
Itchy (Muppetism)
Justica II: Day of Dike (Pagan)
Kilian, Totnan, and Colman (Christian; Saints) [Kilian: Bavaria, Austria]
Meatball Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)
Nummius (Christian; Confessor)
Peter and Fevronia Day (Russian Orthodox)
Procopius of Scythopolis (Christian; Saint)
Sunniva and companions (Norse Solar Maidens)
Theobald of Marly (Christian; Saint)
Vitulatio (Ancient Roman Fruits of the Earth celebration)
Withburge of Norfolk (Christian; Saint)
Zorak Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]
Premieres
Batman: Gotham Knight (WB Animated Film; 2008)
Beauty and the Beat, by The Go-Go’s (Album; 1981)
8 Ball Bunny (WB LT Cartoon; 1950)
Fantastic Four (Film; 2005)
The Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 2000) [Harry Potter #4]
Having a Wild Weekend (Film; 1965)
Horrible Bosses (Film; 2011)
How to Have an Accident in the Home (Disney Cartoon; 1956)
Inception (Film; 2010)
Melrose Place (TV Series; 1992)
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Film; 2016)
Murderball (Film; 2005)
Nowhere Man, by The Beatles (4-Track EP; 1966)
The Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 1999) [Harry Potter #3]
Radio Free Europe, by R.E.M. (Song; 1981)
The Sea Beast (Animated Film; 2022)
The Secret Life of Pets (Animated Film; 2016)
Shuffle Off to Buffalo (WB MM Cartoon; 1933)
Sword Art Online (Anime Series; 2012)
Thor: Love and Thunder (Film; 2022)
Wannabe, by the Spice Girls (Album; 1996)
You Better Run, by Pat Benatar (Song; 1980)
Today’s Name Days
Amalia, Edgar, Kilian (Austria)
Akvila, Eugen, Hadrijan, Priscila (Croatia)
Nora (Czech Republic)
Kjeld (Denmark)
Eleonoora, Ellinor, Leonoora, Loora, Loore, Noora, Nora (Estonia)
Turkka, Turo (Finland)
Edgar, Killian, Priscillia, Thibault (France)
Kilian, Amalia, Edgar (Germany)
Prokopios, Theofilos (Greece)
Ellák (Hungary)
Domenica (Italy)
Ada, Adele, Adeline, Antra (Latvia)
Arnoldas, Elžbieta, Elzė, Vaitautas, Valmantė, Virga, Virginija (Lithuania)
Sunniva, Synne, Synnøve (Norway)
Adrian, Adrianna, Chwalimir, Edgar, Elżbieta, Eugeniusz, Kilian, Prokop, Wirginia (Poland)
Astion, Epictet (România)
Ivan (Slovakia)
Adrián, Adriano, Priscila (Spain)
Kjell (Sweden)
Prokip, Prokop (Ukraine)
Aquila, Aquiline, Easton, Kilian (USA)
Thibaut (Universal)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 189 of 2024; 176 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 6 of week 27 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Duir (Oak) [Day 27 of 28]
Chinese: Month 5 (Wu-Wu), Day 21 (Ding-Mao)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 19 Tammuz 5783
Islamic: 19 Dhu al-Hijjah 1444
J Cal: 9 Lux; Twosday [9 of 30]
Julian: 25 June 2023
Moon: 65%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 21 Charlemagne (7th Month) [Innocent III]
Runic Half Month: Feoh (Wealth) [Day 10 of 15]
Season: Summer (Day 18 of 94)
Zodiac: Cancer (Day 18 of 31)
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One key point that should be very strongly stated before getting into the Songhai and the Saadi and Tondibi:
Before getting into the Saadis, the Battle of Tondibi, and all the conditions that made the arrival of Portuguese merchants and their guns such a desirable thing to the African nations that enter the historical written record seemingly ex nihilo (seemingly not being factual but this is again about the written military history of African states, hence the more sporadic leaping around a huge continent) one key point should be noted. Kanem-Bornu, the thousand-year state destroyed by the French in the late 19th Century, adapted to firearms as soon as they reached them and more importantly developed their own manufacture and sources of their own gunpowder. This was distinctly not the pattern followed in the Sahel, and the differences here reflect both different cultures and understandings of the nature and limits of technology.
I make this point precisely because it's sometimes indicated in an absolution of racism that African cultures were not capable of making their own guns or gunpowder, and that introducing it to elsewhere marks them as 'primitive.' The Mongols invented Guns in the 1200s by modifying the Chinese fire-lance, and as such guns and gunpowder were introduced everywhere, and it was a specific pattern of adapting them or not and the ones that never quite solved how to make their own found fatal weaknesses in this.
That difference is also one of the reasons, along with being located in the interior and not on the coast or with centers of power near the Atlantic, that Kanem-Bornu outlasted the Sahelian states that decided to take guns and gunpowder but for a great many reasons never tried to make their own and not be reliant on the double-edged swords of European gifts.
#lightdancer comments on history#black history month#military history#against eurocentrism#gunpowder age#kanem-bornu#yes Black societies were perfectly capable of making both guns and gunpowder had they wished to#the Sahelian societies did not#eventually they would very profoundly regret that they did not
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Swords
She takes her request to Nicky who, she thinks, will be the least likely to laugh in her face at the ridiculousness of the matter as Andy is probably prone to do, won't even smirk or give her that raised eye-brow Joe has perfected. No, she asks Nicky because she has spent days tossing and turning, thinking about it and coming to a conclusion and he is the one who will take it seriously.
"Can you teach me how to use a sword?"
She is sitting on the roof of the small cabin in the woods they are at, there is a plate of biscuits next to her and Nicky has thrown her a Thermos with coffee, too, before climbing up himself. Andy and Joe went into the next town to get groceries some hours ago and it is likely to take them some more, leaving them to whatever they can come up with. Nile has settled on taking one of the books from the shelf to read.
"You want to learn how to use a sword? Why? It's not very practical and you are very good in hand to hand combat. With a bit of training, you'll only get better."
She sighs, steeling herself to list off all the arguments she has come up with, "I need something else, in case I can reach or shoot someone for whatever reason. The sword gives you more range, doesn't it? It's just as lethal but quicker and quieter, doesn't draw too much attention -"
Nicky scoffs at that but there's no venom behind it, it's a good-natured scoff that is closer to a chuckle. Nile decides not to count it as laughing at her.
"Try walking through 21st century Sudan with it on your belt. People only don't ask because they are afraid."
"I don't know, we might have a mission at a Ren faire or medieval market someday," she knows it's a risk to bring those up, both Nicky and Joe feel strongly about the historical inaccuracies.
He doesn't say anything, just takes the biscuit plate away from her and that's as bad as Nicky's disapproval for her words can get. She returns her gaze out into the woods, trying to ignore the urge to press and ask again.
Nicky finishes off the biscuits to teach her a lesson but there were only two left and he hasn't had any before. He slides down from the roof, lands on the ground and disappears out of her line of sight. Nile hears him rummage around for a bit and settles into her spot in the setting sun again.
At least she tries.
"Are you coming?" Nicky yells up at her and her eyes snap back open.
He stands in the middle of the clearing, two swords in his hands. She knows one of them, it's the one they went back to Paris for, the one he carries on missions. The other one looks similar but not quite. She can't pin-point the difference.
"What?"
"You said you wanted to learn," Nicky twirls his sword in one hand and Nile feels her face heat up at the ease with which he moves, "come down here and I'll show you a few moves."
She has never moved so fast in her life.
By the time the car pulls back into the clearing, Nicky has shown her how to hold and lift the sword and which stance to take. It's heavy and hard work, and Nile isn't doing half as well as she'd wanted to do but Nicky is a patient teacher and waits for her to adjust her grip every time she slips. He has explained the different directions a strike can go, has named them "dwarf," "giant," and "boar," and called some out for her to take.
When Andy and Joe get out of the car, they are already laughing and Nile wants to drop the sword and run inside before they can tell her how silly she is being for wanting to learn swordfighting. She stays, though, lowering the weapon instead of dropping it, watching instead of running. Joe howls with laughter and says something in one of the many languages they share that she doesn't understand and Andy doubles over, holding her middle as she tries to keep from falling. Nile thinks it must have been quite a joke for her to lose control that much.
She looks over to Nicky, ready to tell him to forget it, she can stick to firearms. The man has lowered the sword he used to show her the moves and scowls, almost pouts at the two others still busy gasping for air. Maybe it's not her after all, she thinks.
"Oh come on, I just asked him to show me how to use a sword," she sees the way Andy is holding onto Joe for stability and wishes they would stop.
"That's not it," Joe pants, eyes trained on Nicky, "it's that he thought the bloody long sword would be a good idea for you!"
"It's a perfectly fine and noble weapon, we used these for hundreds of years -"
Andy interrupts him, tears streaming over her face, "Noble, you say? Fucking clumsy and barbaric!"
She has to sit down after that and Joe bangs his head on the car, shaking it in disbelief. Nile doesn't understand the hurt flickering across Nicky's face, doesn't get the joke.
Joe manages to stand up straight and look at her out of wet eyes, "I'm sorry, Nile, it's just - the fucking long sword? Nothing could be less graceful, less suited for you to use! The long sword is no sword for you, it relies on strength and momentum, the wielder hurls it, rather than swings it, its cuts are chops, it's hacking, rather than cutting."
He needs to take a deep breath, his lips twitch as if he could still break into laughter again if prompted a bit. Nicky scoffs and this time, Nile hears the disapproval.
"What do you suggest then; a scimitar?" The air between them is charged, the challenge undeniable, "Nile asked me to show her and I did. The sword is a perfectly fine weapon and effective in what it's supposed to do. We don't all have the grace of a Yusuf al-Kaysani, to start dancing in the middle of a fight."
"No," Joe shakes his head, serious now, "no, Nile neither needs the graceless convulsions of a swordfighter, nor the embellishments and flourishes of a scimitar. You need something you can handle as a side arm, along the fire arm you carry."
He looks at her, eyes enquiring as if she can tell him. Every now and then, he makes sure Nicky is still there but he lets him work it out, doesn't interrupt his train of thought. Joe says a few words in an old language and Nile sees Nicky roll his eyes, hears him huff out a breath.
"900 years," he says quietly, "900 years and he still calls me uncivilised!"
She knows this kind of teasing between them and continues to watch Joe, unsure of what to expect from him once he has an idea. She is no longer sure what it is about, anymore and leaves the sword to sit down in front of the house.
It takes Joe a few minutes of hushed discussions with Nicky but then, he points at her, "You need a Dirk."
"A what now?"
Something is dropped into her lap as Andy stalks past her. She disappeared without anyone noticing before but turns to look at her, now with what seems to be a sheathed dagger in her hands.
"A Dirk," she says, "they used it for drummers and officers who didn't have their hands free. Long dagger that damages a lot when your gun doesn't cut it, easily wielded with one hand and able to defeat someone using a slow long sword, too."
Nile thinks Nicky might be close to cursing.
"You can learn how to use it," Andy nods at her, "and once you can do that, wielding a long sword is child's play."
Nicky doesn't disagree.
#the old guard#nicolo di genova#nile freeman#yusuf al kaysani#andromache the scythian#andy#joe#nicky#tog#i love the swords#joe x nicky#immortal husbands#give nile a sword
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all bullshit aside, he’s all that and more
image description in alt text and under the cut
image description: four images of Nicky from The Old Guard with lyrics from “All Than and More (Sailboat)” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise centered over each image in all caps in dark red.
1: Nicky with his head bowed in a black hoodie and camouflage bulletproof vest, sitting next to Joe on the plane to South Sudan. text reads “my baby’s a saint”
2: Nicky sitting up after having been killed in the machine gun fire. his face is bloody and he has bloody bullet holes in his sweatshirt and vest. his sword is on his hip in the far right of the image. text reads “just like an Old George”
3: a close-up of Nicky’s sword in its scabbard on his hip in the plane. text reads “good with a dagger”
4: the team just after having killed all the mercenaries in Sudan; Nicky is bent over, holding a bloody sword. the floor is covered in bodies. text reads “and skilled with a sword.” end ID.
#nicolò di genova#yusuf x nicolò#joe x nicky#the old guard#kaysanova#togedit#theoldguardedit#image described#my edit#blood#i wanted to get an action shot with the sword but i can't make gifs and it proved way too difficult#also the color is probably too dark but i couldn't use white on the first image because of the window so here we are
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The Sinner’s Edge Episode 1
The sun gleamed violently upon the city, invading even the narrowest of twist or turn. Sweat poured from her brow as she scurried through a large market. Her breaths were shallow and frantic as she spun this way and that, trying to avoid the masses of people. But there were so many of them, and they had no idea what had just happened. Oblivious, they just kept buying, selling, and trading food, livestock, and clothing. The sea of clattering voices rang through her but could not overcome her own intrusive thoughts.
“What have I done?” She asked herself. “What have I done? What have I done?”
She repeated the phrase endlessly. Sometimes just in her head. Other times she found herself muttering under her breath. It wasn’t like her to abandon her own dig. She just took the relic and ran. It wasn’t like her to take artifacts for herself before her the dig and following analysis was completed. But this was different.
The dreams. The voices. They had plagued her sleep since the moment she set foot on the site. A skeptic, she first thought it was just jetlag. With each passing night however, the images became clearer. The voices grew louder. And then she saw it. The relic that resonated in her arms as it was lifted from a collapsed temple that had been buried under centuries of sand and decay.
A nervous, trembling hand reached down to wrap her trench coat tighter around her to obscure what she was hiding, clutched at her breast. Her financiers had paid her handsomely to secure the artifact. The moment that her hands wrapped around it however, she saw a terrifying stream of images. She saw war, death, and calamity. All over the world, people would suffer and die. She knew she couldn’t give it back to her employers. She had to get it as far away as possible.
Finally emerging from the crowd, she nearly fell off the curb as she crossed a busy intersection. Letting out a stifled screech, she managed to scurry and dart between cars and carts that refused to stop for even a moment. From all directions, drivers gave her nasty glares and shouted curses without even slowing down.
Tufts of her jet-black hair had slipped out from under the floral print silk scarf tied loosely under her chin. Looking over her shoulder, she had to be sure that no one was following her. Between the speeding cars, she couldn’t see anything suspicious, but she needed to keep moving.
Where had they even started following her? Was it back at the plaza? It didn’t matter. She had seen them before, or at least people like them, at previous digs. The suits were always loafing around, poking their nose over the shoulders of any researcher in their sights.
Gasping for air, she nearly threw herself into the narrow alley. She turned a corner and propped herself up against a sandstone wall. Nearly doubled over, the sweat poured down her face, pooling on her chin and running into her eyes. She wiped her face with her sleeve and gave a quick cough. Pulling her scarf down around her neck, tendrils of coal-black hair wafted down to just past the tops of her shoulders.
“What do they want with this?” She asked herself, staring at the wrapped sheet in her arms. The visions whose shockwaves still bounced around in her head showed her that they meant harm. Those men only wanted to destroy. They wanted to use it to exploit others and to keep people under their control. It was always the same. Her home in Japan was no different. She couldn’t escape it when she moved to the United States either. And sure enough, exploitation and the appetite for destruction found her once more, this time in Sudan.
She wondered aloud, “What do I do?” Her eyes panned the skies. They swept in all directions around the alley. Just twenty feet from her, life was going on with no regard to her plight.
“Dr. Igarashi,” a voice came from the entrance to the alley.
She spun around and saw two men in suits slowly entering the narrow passage. They were quite some distance from her still, but close enough to speak without raising their voices. They were clearly in no hurry as they slowly approached.
The one in the back was younger with short, light brown to blonde. He had a round, young face, but his gait said he had something to prove. The man in front was at least a decade his senior. His reddish-brown hair had been buzzed nearly to the scalp and the hairline had escaped several inches from his forehead.
The older man spoke once again. “Dr. Igarashi, we don’t want any trouble. We just want the relic and we’ll be on our way.”
She didn’t say anything. She tried to steady her breath while alternating her gaze from the two men to artifact in her hands. Looking at the sheet still bundled in her arms, she could hear the voices from somewhere unseen. The visions flashed like brilliant explosions behind her eyes over and over again. Letting out a trembling breath, she took a small step backwards.
The men responded by taking a much more aggressive and authoritative step forward. Holding his hand out, the man declared, “We can do this the easy way, Dr. Igarashi. Or we can do this the hard way. Please don’t make us do this the hard way.”
The woman shook her head, taking another step back. Once again, the men took a step forward. “Come on, doctor. Such a pretty woman such as yourself…we’d hate to injure that cute face of yours.”
She shook her head once more, her eyes narrowing and her lip curling. She took a deep breath and tried to tell them no, but there was no noise. But the glare told the men all they needed to know.
“Alright, doctor, you leave me no choice,” he sighed. Pulling back the flap of his crisp suit jacket, she saw a handgun tucked into his waist.
She watched him cock the weapon and lift it to eye-level. His jaw tightened as both sides waited for the other to relent. Dr. Igarashi, however, wasn’t going to give them anything. She shook her head once more and opened her trench coat. In a matter of seconds, she unwrapped the sheet, revealing the object she had been carrying since leaving the dig site.
In her hands was a four-and-a-half-foot long sword. Its blade was double-edged and so black that all the light seemed to just be absorbed into it. Even the air seemed to be drawn to the black matte blade. The handle and hilt were made of an intricate and ornate black and purple metal lattice. Gripped in her palms were the bands of iron darkness that twisted into a concentrated helix of what felt like cast iron.
She could see the man’s jaw tighten even further. It was a wonder he didn’t crack a tooth. A single trickle of sweat traveled down the side of his face, dripping onto his spotless white collar. “Hold on, doctor. We don’t want to do anything that anyone is going to regret.”
“Put down the gun,” she timidly commanded.
With a grin, the man answered, “Come on, now, Dr. Igarashi, there’s no way you’re leaving here with that sword. Now just gently put it on the ground and then walk away.”
“And then what,” she asked, shielding part of her face behind the thin blade.
“And then you go home. We take the sword back to our boss and he puts the $5 million in your bank account. And then we never see each other again.”
She paused, thinking about it for just a few seconds, but shook her head and tightened her grip on the weapon. “No,” she firmly replied. “I won’t do it.”
“Alright, have it your way,” he sighed. “Just know that we tried.”
Dr. Igarashi pulled the blade into a combat ready position. She knew her way around weapons, but it had been a long time since she used a sword in any serious capacity. The younger man finally withdrew his handgun as well, but with a great deal more hesitation.
“What do you expect to do with that, doctor?” the man in front laughed. “We’ll pump you full of lead before you even take a swing.” He looked back at his partner who forced a crooked smile. Still looking at his partner, he called to the doctor, “Sure you can’t be serious-,”
His words were cut off by a blinding purple flash of white-hot light. The man felt the wave of warmth engulf his entire body. In an instant, the light grew unbearably hot and then a deep, cold, silent darkness.
A wide swath of purple light and fire raged down the alley, branching off into small bolts that danced up the walls of the alley, chipping away at the stone as they bounced around. The roar of the fire and light grew louder and louder before the explosion. An explosion that cracked nearby buildings and cut a fissure into the street, throwing cars on their sides, and turning wooden carts to splinters.
The color drained from her face, Dr. Igarashi could hear the people yelling in anger, fear, and agony from the street. All that remained of her assailants however were two pairs of shoes, still on fire. Part of her was frozen to the spot she stood. However, another part of her screamed inside of her head to leave. She couldn’t be seen at the other end of the destruction. She looked down at the pair of smoldering shoes, thinking about the men that they once belonged to. Dr. Igarashi could still see the man’s smug smile. She heard his voice a couple times in her mind before shaking him off.
Turning to run, she couldn’t help but keep looking back. She no longer felt followed. She couldn’t explain it. There were no words. Even the voices inside her head had gone silent.
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Twitter is not a good place and I have opinions.
Okay so, just visited Twitter to see how they like The Old Guard and please remind to never go there for anything more than artist’s posts and memes.
(This is more of a rant than a cohesive explanation of my thoughts but I won’t lose my time on Twitter for that and I still need to talk about it, so we’re here. Okay, here goes-)
Of course spoiler warning for the whole movie.
"it's bad, it's not creative, it's boring, there's no story apart from bad guys pharma and good guys mercenaries."
Did we watch the same movie?? It's like those Mad Max Fury Road reviews who kept saying "they leave and come back, no plot har har I’m very funny" when the whole point of the movie is about staying where you live and make this place better, not abandoning it because you risk abandoning your true self with the land (amongst other things the movies tries to say).
Yeah maybe the story is a bit seen, pharma and all. But the whole plot revolve around the Old Guards and their emotions. It's about a tired warrior finding hope, and a young immortal finding her place, and how to deal with loss and grief and solitude, it's about finding purpose in helping other because that's what human do, help each other. It's a lot more than fight scenes and bad pharma (which, maybe it's an old trope but it's still very true to this day, please keep portraying pharma CEO as comically bad because they are!)
It's like men can't understand a story unless there's lots of death and unnecessary trauma. Can't you enjoy a story about found family and hope and kindness for one another like everyone else?
Here are the critics I saw, and why I think it’s bullshit, point by point because I’m petty like that:
The characters are flat and two dimensional: I mean, no? Sure, Joe and Nicky are not the center of attention, and we see Booker tired and a traitor, and the human ones are bit glossed over (though we see enough to understand them, Copley and his wife, the scientist that thinks she’s helping humanity, etc.), but Andy and Nile are fully developed? What else do you need?
Andy is a very old, very tired immortal that has a very complicated past (that we see a lot of) and her motivations, state of mind and thoughts are well explained (they all say she’s old, and tired, we know about Quynh; hell, Andy’s first line is about that) and we know she lost purpose, and she finds it within the film! She changes! Her character evolves in interactions to other but mostly Nile. Speaking of her- i know I’m repeating myself but what else do you need to consider a character not flat? She loves her family but doesn’t run to them because she’s not an idiot. She’s a fighter, a marine, a very competent one at that, but she still gets scared by being an immortal, she asks questions, she’s compassionate, she feels! All while being a bad ass fighter. She has agency, makes her own choices and choose her way, she has motivation and she know what she brings to the team and is not afraid of saying her thoughts and needs.
And even Booker and Nicky and Joe have full character, even if shown less. We have Booker’s back story, and we know he cares a lot despite all his hurt (he says he did it to help Andy die, which was still wrong and selfish, but he was genuinely trying to do something because he hurt so much). Nicky and Joe have a softer side, and sure it’s mostly conveyed through their own love story but they hug the other Guards and Nicky brings food for Andy and Joe jokes around (still thinking about that “faster than the elevator” line). Yeah it’s not a deep character study but it’s more than about half action movies today, and it’s enough in the story to make me care about all of them, even Copley. Although a lot of that may come form the actors too.
The fights scenes are bad: apparently they’re boring and do not do justice to the comics. I can’t speak for the last one, but boring? Again, did we watch the same movie? Yeah, there’s no big explosions and fire everywhere and collapsing buildings, but they’re not boring. I’m sorry my tastes are superior but I’d rather be shown the talents of a covert team of immortal warriors though discretion and efficiency. Why would they need explosions when they can juggle swords, axes, rifles and guns so smoothly you don’t even see a shift in their stance? See first fight in South Sudan. Why would I need collapsing buildings when I can have a team of fighters swapping weapons together like nothing? That scene at Merricks’s building where they all reload and change guns and the camera turns around and panel over all of them? That was dope and a very creative way to show how smooth they work together (with Nile added! So way to go to show the new group dynamics.) through a smooth and continuous camera movement. I could go on, but where did you see the boring fight scene. Yes there’s no cool lights and tricks a la John Wick, but if it did they would have complained it was a rip off, so...
The cinematography is bad: Just because it’s more understated doesn’t mean it’s bad. Yes, there’s no neon lights or cool shots like other might have (looking at you John Wick, since everyone seems to compare the two movie) but it serves the story. It’s because it’s so simple visually that you can get into the feelings and story. You don’t look at the light, you look at the actions and the faces. And honestly, I think it suits the Guards better. They look timeless, they fit in everywhere. A photography that’s striped down to the necessary only serves the story. I don’t see them in safe houses with a bunch of lights and modern furniture, just like I don’t see expensive shots and over the top choreography for them. As I said, they’re a covert team, they’re smooth and efficient, I like that the photography align on that and show them in simple shots.
tl;dr: Just because it’s simple doesn't mean it’s bad, sometimes that's what you need to work with the story and its characters and themes.
Not enough story and too much nothing to fill in: I mean, they die 12 minutes in, you get all the stakes, antagonist and themes in like 20 minutes, what else do you need? There’s break in the actions to expose plot and concept, but it never feels wrong or too much of a info dump, it’s fluid and natural because we’re following Nile into the immortal world.
Bad Pharma is Bad: Yeah, let’s talk about that. (Cautions, purely opinions, no real arguments to change someone’s mind here) I don’t care if it’s cliché, not when pharma in the US keep rising the price of Insulin every month, not when pharma all over the world send their faulty medicine to third world country because there’s no one that cares enough there, not when you know they purposefully don’t finance HIV researches because triple therapy gets them a lot of money, not when you hear about the experimentation and how they get their resources and literally everything that I’m not getting into right now. Who cares if they’re show as bad people once again, they are! You think CEO care about anything but money? If it feels wrong in the movie it’s because it is wrong.
Tell me no one in our world would kidnap and torture immortals to find their power. And don’t talk to me about bad representation of CEO and exceptions, I don’t care. One exception doesn’t make all the other suddenly better or worth the wrong they’re doing. So yeah, give me more cliché good guys fight bad CEO, I love it.
They did not use their concept enough: Again, where? To me, they did all they could with that concept, you get all the things you can only get with the concept, interesting and fun one. They are still afraid of dying one day, and even if they’re not (i.e. Andy or Booker) their brand of immortality doesn’t mean they’re not afraid of being captured: the Quynh scene happens literally just before Nicky and Joe are kidnapped exposing us the stake of being immortal, talk about good script work, right? Talking about fun trope: you have the millennium old couple that use to kill each other but now love each other, the classic ennemies to lovers we all love, you have the strategy of using your immortality to your advantage and destabilize your opponent: Nile walking into Merrick’s building and getting herself killed on purpose only to stand again and use the guard’s shock and lack of preparation against them, you have the fun references to real historical figures that comes with immortality: Rodin, Napoleon, etc...
I’ll link to this video I found that talks about this better than me, but basically, they did use their concept, a lot, and well.
The music: I can’t really say anything about that one. Maybe you don’t like the style they used, and that’s fair. To each their own. But it wasn’t too much like other Netflix’s movie (Looking at you 6 Underground. Four (4) song of the same artist in one movie?) but again, it’s Netflix, they use modern songs in their soudtracks, you should expect it. I didn’t bother with the lyrics accuracy to the actions, but each time the music fit well in tune and mood of the scene. And the actual score made for the movie was really good, not too much but still supported the actions and dialogues on screen like it should.
And my favorite yet, we’ve already seen it. I don’t have any smart answer to that apart from I’m sorry you’re a cishet, but found family is the superior trope and I hope you can one day see it too. Who cares if we’ve already seen it, it’s a different flavor! It’s no X-Men flavor, it’s Old Guard flavor and I love it. Have you heard of the Hero’s Journey? How Lord of the Ring, Star Wars and Harry Potter all have the basic same plot? And yet you can like all three of them for different reasons? Because they’re not the same flavors? Well, apply that to the immortal group of fighters and enjoy it.
Okay, that’s most of my thoughts on the film for now, but to make it short: it’s good and those people can’t appreciate good things that are more feelings and humanity than fist fights and nihilism. How dare a movie say we’re good and need each other and not end in a pathetic discovery that all the word deserves to burn.
#tog#nile freeman#andromache the scythian#quynh#yusuf al-kaysani#nicolo di genova#sebastian le livre#kaysanova#andromaquynh#yeah most of the critics were form old dude that can't fathom why someone would feel emotions and seek help#and want to have good people around and help the rest of the world#can you tell i'm salty this fine evening?#it doesn't have to be bourne or james bound or john wick or whatever to be meaninful stfu#em speaks#I have opinions okay and I keep forgetting that Twitter is the sewer of the internet
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He Simply “Hates Christians”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, January 2020
By Raymond Ibrahim
The following are some of the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians, categorized by theme, throughout the month of January, 2020:
The Slaughter of Christians in Nigeria
During several separate incidents, militant Muslims—whether Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, or generic terrorists—continued to attack and massacre several Christians.
As one example, on Friday, January 17, Muslim Fulani tribesmen on motorbikes raided a Christian village at a time they knew people were congregating at the village square where Christian fellowship often took pace. They opened fire. “As the people fled into nearby bushes to take cover, the attackers retreated and left,” an area resident explained. “We are sad about these attacks on our people, which seem to be unending.” Two young Christian girls—Briget Philip, 18, and Priscilla David, 19—were killed, and at least three other teenagers were seriously wounded.
In another incident, “[a]t least 32 people [including a pregnant woman] were killed and a pastor’s house and church building were burned down in two nights of attacks [on predominantly Christian regions] this week by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Plateau state,” a January 30 report noted.
In the early hours of January 20, gunmen invaded the Lutheran Church of Christ, where its pastor, the Rev. Dennis Bagauri, lived; they opened fire on “and shot him dead at night when all persons in the area had gone to sleep,” a local confirmed.
Boko Haram (whose name roughly means “Western education is a sin”) released another execution video. In it, a masked Muslim child holding a pistol appears standing behind a bound and kneeling hostage, later identified as Ropvil Daciya Dalep, a 22-year-old Christian and member of the Church of Christ in Nations, who was kidnapped on January 9 while traveling to his university, where he majored in biology. After chanting in Arabic and launching into an anti-Christian diatribe, the Muslim child proceeds to shoot Ropvil several times in the back of the head.
Execution of Ropvil Daciya Dalep.
On January 2, Islamic gunmen abducted Reverend Lawan Andimi, a pastor and district chairman of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria. After the terrorists demanded an exorbitant ransom for his release—two million Euros, which his church and family simply could not raise—they beheaded the married father-of-nine on January 20. Earlier, in a January 5 video that his abductors released, Pastor Lawan had said that he hoped to be reunited with his wife and children; however, “[i]f the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God. I want all people close and far, colleagues, to be patient. Don’t cry, don’t worry, but thank God for everything.”
In a statement prompted by all these unchecked killing of Christians, Kwamkur Vondip, the director of legal and public affairs of the Christian Association of Nigeria, blasted the Muslim-led government of Nigeria of “colluding” with the Islamic terrorists:
In the light of the current developments and the circumstantial facts surrounding the prevailing upsurge of attacks against the church, it will be difficult for us to believe that the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari is not colluding with the insurgents to exterminate Christians in Nigeria, bearing in mind the very questionable leadership of the security sector that has been skewed towards a religion and region. Is that lopsidedness not a cover-up for the operation of the insurgency?.… Since the government and its apologists are claiming the killings have no religious undertones, why are the terrorists and herdsmen targeting the predominantly Christian communities and Christian leaders?
The nonstop massacres of Christians which are met with impunity from the Nigerian government also prompted Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto to express his disgust with the government in a January 3 report: “The only difference between the government and Boko Haram,” he said, “is that Boko Haram is holding a bomb.” The Nigerian government is “using the levers of power to secure the supremacy of Islam, which then gives more weight to the idea that it can be achieved by violence.”
The Slaughter of Christians Elsewhere in Africa
Kenya: Armed Muslims connected with neighboring Somalia’s terrorist group, Al Shabaab (“the youth”), murdered three Christian teachers during a raid on a primary school in the early hours of January 13; a fourth victim managed to survive.
Another local teacher said “We are sad and at the same time scared because we are targeted for being non-local government workers that belong to the Christian faith.” While discussing this incident, a separate report adds that
Today’s attack comes against the backdrop of a series of attacks from the terrorist group in the last five weeks, leading to the loss of 25 people total … On December 6, 2019, four teachers were among the 11 non-local Christian passengers killed … when al-Shabaab flagged down the bus they were traveling in. The militants separated the passengers and killed those on the spot who failed to recite the Islamic Shahada.
Central African Republic: Militant Muslims shot and killed two Christian pastors as they travelled together by car after having conducted a Christmas Day church service. According to the January 6 report, after murdering the Christians, the “jihadists” continued “shooting, preventing efforts to recover the bodies. The men had to be buried later at the scene of the attack.” The report adds that the “Christian-majority Central African Republic has been blighted by violence since 2013, when the Seleka Islamist armed group briefly overthrew the government…. Christian communities continue to be the targets of attacks…. In November 2018, more than 40 people were killed and many were forced to flee when members of an Islamist militia attacked a Christian mission in Alindao.
Cameroon: “Not a day passes without attacks on the villages on Cameroon’s frontier with Nigeria,” lamented Bishop Bruno Ateba in reference to the Islamic terror group, Boko Haram’s increased incursions into Christian villages in a January 24 report: “Boko Haram is like the beast of the Apocalypse, or a many-headed Hydra—whenever you cut off one of its heads, it seems simply to grow another…. Within my own diocese there have been 13 attacks in the last weeks.” One of those attacks saw a church torched on the feast of the Epiphany. “We are still investigating who was behind the incident, but everything points to the fact that it was a terrorist attack.” Bishop Barthélemy also shared his experiences: “My birthplace, the village of Blablim, no longer exists. The terrorists have murdered a young man of my family and totally devastated the entire village, including the house I was born in. Everybody, with the exception of the sick and elderly, was forced to flee to Mora, 10 miles away. It will be impossible now to gather in the cotton harvest.”
Egypt: On January 12, a Muslim man crept up behind a Christian woman walking home with groceries, pulled her head back with a hand full of hair, and slit her throat with a knife in the other hand. Nearby people restrained the man in al-Wariq, Giza, where the incident took place. Catherine Ramzi was rushed to a nearby medical center, where her throat was sewn with 63 stitches; despite initial heavy bleeding, she managed to survive. The doctor told her that had the knife penetrated one millimeter more—her now mangled sweatshirt had provided some buffering against the knife—it would have reached her jugulars and killed her. During an interview, she explained that she had never before seen the man. All she heard him say during the assault is that she “deserved it” because her “hair was exposed.” He may have also identified her as a Christian because, like many Copts, Catherine bears a visible tattoo of the cross on her hand.
Separately, on January 14, in the region of al-Maraj, another Muslim man tried to slaughter a Christian man with a sharp box-cutter in a public space. He managed only to slice off a portion of the Copt’s ear. After Muhammad ‘Awad, 32, was arrested and questioned as to why he tried to murder Rafiq Karam, 56, he confessed that he did not know him, but that he simply “hates Christians.”
Attacks on Christian Churches
Sudan: Three churches—a Sudan Internal church, a Catholic church and an Orthodox church—were simultaneously burnt down twice over the course of three weeks in the Blue Nile state. The arsonists are suspected to be area Muslims. According to a January 20 statement from a human rights group published in the Sudan Tribune,
On the evening of 28th December 2019, three churches in three different neighbourhoods … were set on fire (burnt) at the same time by arsonists. The worshipers quickly rebuild the three churches using the local materials as it was before. However, for the second time, on the evening of 16th January, the arsonists burnt down the three churches,” said the group…. [L]ocal authorities did not take any measure to protect the churches or to investigate the attacks.
“This incident is true, the three churches were set on fire twice in less than a month,” a local pastor confirmed, adding that “area Muslims were upset about the presence of the churches there, and they are suspected in the fires.”
Philippines: On January 19, police arrested two Muslim men from the Islamic terror group Abu Sayyaf (“the sword-forger”) before they could carry out a planned bomb attack on a Catholic cathedral in Basilan, which both men confessed to. Explosive materials—including more than 3 kilos (6.6 pounds) of assorted nails, blasting caps, 1.5-volt batteries, and wires—were recovered from their hideout. Abu Sayyaf earlier “masterminded a twin bombing at a church on southern Jolo island in January 2019 that left more than 20 people dead.”
Egypt: “The security apparatus prevented Copts in Faw Bahri … from holding the New Year’s Eve prayer on Tuesday, 31 December, in the home of a local Copt. Several Copts gathered in the building and complained about being prohibited from completing the prayer,” the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo based think tank with an emphasis on human rights, said in a January 6 press release:
The building that security shut down and prevented prayer inside of is owned by a village Copt and has been used for worship services for four months [and apparently set on fire before for this reason]. Security promised to rapidly secure a building permit for a new church on a 460-meter tract of land purchased by the church a while back. All the necessary surveys have been conducted by official bodies and a wall was built around the plot. All that is needed to start construction is the permits. The closest church to the village is 10 km away…. 3,000 Christians live in the village and used to pray at the house that was shuttered by security. They are all waiting for security to keep its promise to issue permits for the construction of a new church.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) further criticized the “glacial pace” of the Sisi-government’s hitherto much lauded church construction law adopted in September 2016. More than “three years after its adoption, the church construction law has failed to end violations of Christians’ right to worship and address related sectarian tensions…. [T]he process to regularize the legal status of churches is moving at a glacial pace and lacks transparency,” the press release added:
The EIPR has documented at least 36 cases of sectarian tension and violence since the church construction law went into effect and through the end of 2019, all of them associated with the worship practices. In the same period, interventions by various state institutions led to the closure of 25 churches and the prohibition of collective worship services in the areas in question. In many of these cases, customary reconciliation sessions were convened that concluded with agreements to shut down the church while promising to grant the necessary permits when papers were officially filed. Yet, when church officials applied for official permits, state agencies refused to grant permits or allow them to organize religious services or mass.
Indonesia: Construction of the Bethel Church of Indonesia (GBI) My Home church, plans for which began in 2016, was “abruptly halted” after its building permit was revoked. The church would have served 1,200 registered congregants. In response, on January 16, Amnesty International Indonesia in a statement urged the authorities to annul their decision to revoke the permit:
This is a clear case of persecution and discrimination against a religious minority. The authorities in Tanjungpinang have failed to provide any legal justification for denying this permit and blatantly disregarded the Constitution and their obligations to respect the right to religious freedom and ensure equal enjoyment of human rights.
In a separate case in the same in the region, Muslims halted construction of another church. According to the January 24 report,
Built in 1928, St Joseph’s Catholic Church needs to be renovated and enlarged. Originally it could accommodate 100 people, but now it has more than 700 members. Despite having all the permits, the project is opposed by a small group of young Muslims who threaten action against public order…. Local Catholics are critical of Karimun district chief who, bowing to extremists, has turned against the project even though it has all the required permits.
Although area Christians had “explained to Karimun officials [that] there will be no symbol or ornament outside the church; no cross, no statue, no image of Mary will be displayed visible outside the church”; and although this decision by the Christians was taken reluctantly, as it would make the building look like “a gym or a conference hall”—Muslims still rejected the church.
France: A suspected Muslim man was arrested for desecrating a church, including by writing Koran verses on its walls. According to the January 16 report,
The arrest comes just under a year after another church in Toulouse, the Notre-Dame du Taur, was vandalised by an individual who wrote “Allah u Akbar” on the doors of the building…. Church attacks in France have become a major issue in the last several years, with a report from March of last year claiming that there are as many as three attacks on churches or graveyards per day on average, with a total of 1,063 cases in 2018.
One recent attack “saw human faeces smeared into prayer books at a church in the commune of Tarbes.”
Sweden: After a series of arson attacks on St. Maria Syrian Orthodox Church—one of which was started by someone pouring and lighting gasoline to its exterior—church members have begun to patrol its premises at night in the hopes of preventing further attacks. The January 10 report adds that, “Church attacks in Sweden are relatively uncommon in general but attacks on communities targetted by radical Islamic Sunni extremists, such as Syrian Christians and Shi’ite Muslims, are a concern in the country.”
Attacks on Apostates and Blasphemers
Iran: A court sentenced Ismaeil Maghrebinejad, 65, a Muslim convert to Christianity, to three years imprisonment on the charge of “insulting Islamic sacred beliefs,” said human rights group Middle East Concern in a January 22 report. The Christian was initially charged with “propaganda against the state and insulting the sacred Iranian establishment,” but during “a hearing on 22 October, the judge further accused Ismaeil of apostasy [that is, turning away from Islam, which is a capital crime according to some interpretations of Islamic law] and increased bail demands from 10 million to 100 million tomans (US$9000). Friends provided pledges to cover the bail demands. There were further hearings in November (when the apostasy charge was dropped), December and January.” On January 8, he was found guilty of “insulting Islamic sacred beliefs in cyberspace”—a reference to the claim that “Ismaeil had forwarded a message sent to his phone that was deemed to be insulting to the ruling Iranian clerics”—and sentenced to three year imprisonment. According to a human rights activist associated with the case, the sentence is “a disproportionate reaction to something so ordinary. The other charges that Ismaeil is facing, as well as the quashed charge of apostasy, (are) related to his conversion to Christianity. This may reveal the real reason why he’s been charged with something that most ordinary Iranians do on a daily basis.”
Pakistan: Muslims beat and falsely accused a Christian man, Shahbaz Masih, 40, of blasphemy, which led to his and his friend’s arrest. According to the January 14 report,
His [Muslim] accusers, Shahzaib and Ahmad, hold a grudge against him for being a Christian. On 27 December the two surrounded him at the market, dragged him to a nearby landfill where children collect paper, and beat [him there]. His screams drew the attention of his friend Ishaq [a moderate Muslim], who came to his aid. At that point, the attackers accused both of blasphemy, of burning pages of the Qurʼān. A riot followed, with a nearby mosque calling on Muslims to kill both men. When police arrived, it took the two friends to a police station, questioned them and moved them to a prison, where they are still being held. Human rights groups slam the cops for giving in to extremist pressure and formally recording the case. For their part, radicals threatened to burn the homes of Christians as well as that of the Muslim man, “guilty” of being friends with the Christian. For this reason, the families of the accused went into hiding at an unknown location.
Generic Hate for and Violence against Christians
Egypt: Muslim students at a Minya school “rejected” Mervat Seifein, a school teacher, “for the explicit reason that she is Copt,” that is, a Christian, a report noted. After “a routine promotion in which she replaced the previous school director who is a Muslim,” both boy and girl “students protested and held a sit-in in the school courtyard asking for her removal.” “We don’t want a Copt!” they cried. Some Muslim teachers joined in the protests. Police were unable to disperse the boys’ demonstration in the courtyard. “The girls who demonstrated against me don’t know me,” Mervat responded, “so why the antagonism? Simply because I am Coptic? The only explanation I can fathom is there has been fanatic incitement going on against my promotion, possibly by persons who are purely extremist or who have an interest in keeping me out of that post.” Ezzat Ibrahim, a human rights activist, added that a prompt official investigation should be conducted into the matter:
This is flagrant religious discrimination. It brings to mind the incident in the southern province of Qena when the Islamists rose against the appointment of a Coptic governor in the past-Arab Spring weeks in 2011, and the State gave in and went back on the appointment. It is catastrophic that some 50 or 100 teenage girls or boys should impose their will on the State. And it is equally disastrous that these students were pushed to do so by a group of fanatic Islamists. The positive official response to their preposterous demands amounts to an invitation for religious discrimination. The deputy minister who did that must be dismissed.
Bangladesh: Twelve Christian Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were attacked and injured by Muslim Rohingya “due to their faith.” (Rohingya are overwhelmingly Muslim). “[E]arly Monday [January 27, they] attacked us, the Christians. They looted our houses, and beat up many Christian members. At least 12 Christians have been undergoing treatment at different hospitals and clinics,” a Christian named Saiful reported. “We came under attack due to our faith,” he insisted. “On May 10, 11, and 13 last year, this same group of terrorists attacked us. They want us to leave this camp. They have been attacking us systematically.” Although official Bangladeshi reports denied or underplayed the religious dimension of the attacks, other sources, such as the Rohingya Christian Assembly from India, confirmed them: Muslim Rohingya “attacked the whole Christian community in Kutupalong Camp,” the group said. “Approximately 25 Christian families are displaced. It is winter and very cold, the victims have many minor children with them.” The group added that mobs armed with machetes—“hundreds in many groups”—invaded and destroyed every Christian home at night.
Iraq: Four Christian humanitarian aid workers—three French, one Iraqi—were kidnapped in Baghdad on January 20. No ransom demands were made. According to the report, “The four went missing during a time of heightened tensions in Iraq after a U.S. drone strike on Baghdad airport that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and a senior Iraqi militia commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The attack has drawn anger from Iraqi officials from across the political divide …. Iran-backed militia groups have also sworn to avenge the killings.”
Iran: Authorities demolished the grave of the only Christian to be officially executed for apostasy in the Islamic republic. A born Muslim, Pastor Soodmand converted to Christianity before the 1979 revolution. He was arrested, tortured, and eventually executed for apostatizing from Islam to Christianity in December 1990. Now, thirty years later, “all that remains of the pastor’s unmarked grave is the soil under which he was once buried.” His daughter, Rashin Soodmand, who now lives in Europe, gave her reaction:
As a member of the family of this martyred pastor, I can say that the recent disrespect shown to our father’s grave wounded our hearts yet again. Our father was killed cruelly and contrary to the law. They buried him in a place they called la’anatabad [accursed place], without our knowledge, and did not even give our family the opportunity to say goodbye to him, or to see his lifeless body. For years we had to travel to this remote place to visit his unmarked grave, and we were not even allowed to construct a gravestone bearing his name…. We will take our appeal to any relevant national or international institution about this disrespect and cruelty.
The report adds that,
Rev Soodmand remains the only Iranian Christian to have been executed for apostasy following an official court order, although others have been sentenced to death including Rev Mehdi Dibaj and Yousef Nadarkhani. Rev Dibaj was eventually acquitted after nine years in prison but then killed in suspicious circumstances five months later. His body was found days after his disappearance, in a park in a suburb of Tehran, with multiple stab wounds to his chest. Yousef Nadarkhani was also eventually acquitted of the charge but later rearrested on the now much more common charge of ‘actions against national security.’ He is now serving a ten-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
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The Best of 2019 and Beyond | Staff Picks
It’s the end of 2019. The world is on fire. You inhale your mango-flavored juul pod. The most pivotal figure in the world is a 16-year-old Swedish girl. Your Amazon Alexa listens intently in the corner of your bedroom. What I’m trying to say is that it has been an absolutely crazy year and an equally mind-blowing year for music. And what better way to cap the end of a year, an end of a decade than to perform a mandated survey on the entire Ones To Watch staff in the hopes of gathering their thoughts on the music that shaped their 2019, their 2010s, and their predictions for this brave new decade.
Maxamillion Polo
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: An honest toss-up between keshi and Aries. Believe 2020 belongs to them.
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Lizzo, who is finally getting the recognition she’s deserved for years.
Best Music Video of 2019: BTS - “Boy With Luv”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Carly Rae Jepsen, this year and every year.
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Childish Gambino at The Forum. Felt like church.
Favorite 2019 trend: stan and cancel culture. Live by the sword; die by the sword.
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Naruto-running through Area 51.
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Conan Gray is going to be absolutely massive come this time next year.
Favorite Song of 2019: Dominic Fike, Kenny Beats - “Phone Numbers”
Favorite Album of 2019: Tyler, the Creator - IGOR
Favorite Artist of 2019: Lil Nas X, if only for his Twitter presence.
wow thanks u guys pic.twitter.com/CetLFOKP41
— nope (@LilNasX)
December 6, 2019
Favorite Song of the Decade: Grimes - “Oblivion.” Honorable mention goes to Mitski’s “Nobody.”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Childish Gambino, an unmatched creative.
New Year’s Resolution?: Take more pictures, edit more videos, cook more, and discover more artists.
Green Lee
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Arin Ray
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Kenny Beats
Best Music Video of 2019: TOSS UP BETWEEN GINGER ROOT’S “WEATHER” & “B4” BOTH FIRE. HUGE FAN. CAMERON LEW, YOU’RE THE MAN.
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: BENEE
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: SLOWTHAI AT THE ECHO WITH DAVID O’ CONNOR. HOW MANY OF YOU CAN SAY THAT YOU’VE MOSHED WITH YOUR BOSS? HUH!?
Favorite 2019 trend: @foosgonewild
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Game of Thrones’ trash ass ending.
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: BENEE
Favorite Song of 2019: Monsune - “Outta My Mind”
Favorite Album of 2019: MAGGIE ROGERS – HEARD IT IN A PAST LIFE
Favorite Artist of 2019: Channel Tres
Favorite Song of the Decade: Tyler The Creator ft. Frank Ocean - “She”
Favorite Album of the Decade: SHIT. This is hard. Majid Jordan by Majid Jordan or Whack World by Tierra Whack.
Favorite Artist of the Decade: BROCKHAMPTON.
New Year’s Resolution?: To be a better son and take better care of my body. Your health is your wealth.
Jenna Singer
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Huron John
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Johnny Utah
Best Music Video of 2019: Loved ROLE MODEL’s newest lyric video for “that’s just how it goes” – super simple and done very well.
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: I don’t typically crush on artists, but seeing Jeremy Zucker perform live was a momementttttt
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Polo & Pan – they are incredible, such a party
Favorite 2019 trend: Loose jeans lol – may low rise skinny jeans burn in the past forever
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Diplo playing Stagecoach – still confused, slightly jealous I missed it
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Ahhhhh! This is so hard to tell, the ability to make it big has been redefined with the ability to make music in your room. Really digging Gracie Abrams right now!
Favorite Song of 2019: I have the worst memory, but “Hit the Back” by King Princess is a whole jam and has been on repeat
Favorite Album of 2019: Again, worst memory but LOVING Immunity by Clairo right now
Favorite Artist of 2019: Clairo
Favorite Song of the Decade: i. have. the. worst. memory. I’m going to go with “Stolen Dance” by Milky Chance
Favorite Album of the Decade: Sadnecessary by Milky Chance – a go to
Favorite Artist of the Decade: … Justin Bieber. Not for necessarily for his music, he’s withstood well against a lot of pressures from being such a world famous artist
New Year’s Resolution?: MAKE BIG CAREER MOVES – also carve out more time to relax. You are your best when you’re rested and clear-minded!
David O’ Connor
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Sam Fender. So much more to come from him, can’t wait.
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Clairo, built her own queendom of timely perception.
Best Music Video of 2019: “CRYABY” by Dijon. Visually tackles an emotion that’s hard not to look at.
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Lauren Sanderson. She may not care but I do enough for the both of us.
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Wednesday, June 19, 2019. Sir SlowThai @The Echo w/ @fuqgreen.
Favorite 2019 trend: Flood-prepped pants
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Lizzo memeing and melting the internet at every occasion.
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Arlo Parks, Deb Never, Dijon, Arizona Zervas, Audrey Mika, Alaina Castillo, Garçons, Sam Fender.
Favorite Song of 2019: “CHA” by LAUNDRY DAY. I am equally nostalgic and envious to write so honestly about teenage angst.
Favorite Album of 2019: slowthai - Nothing Great about Britain
Favorite Artist of 2019: slowthai
Favorite Song of the Decade: ANHONI - “Drone Bomb Me.” If you know me well, maybe too well, I’ll sing this song happily and loudly.
Favorite Album of the Decade: Intuitively obvious but My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was the decade’s benchmark
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Kanye. Defending him became my protagonist social calendar.
New Year’s Resolution?: Work with more diehards before I die.
Malcolm Gray
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Sudan Archives
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Channel Tres
Best Music Video of 2019: Solange - “Almeda”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Green Leef
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Channel Tres at The Moroccan Lounge
Favorite 2019 trend: Creatives demanding ownership
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: The last season of Game of Thrones being so mid
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Baby Keem
Favorite Song of 2019: Tyler, The Creator - “I Think”
Favorite Album of 2019: Toro y Moi - Outer Peace
Favorite Artist of 2019: Toro y Moi
Favorite Song of the Decade: Darius - “Hot Hands”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Kanye West - Yeezus
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Frank Ocean
New Year’s Resolution?: Listen to more music and make some music
Jimmy Smith
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Can't Swim
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Grayscale and Angel Du$t
Best Music Video of 2019: Blink-182 - “Not Another Christmas Song”
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Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Vans Warped Tour 25 Year Anniversary Festival
Favorite 2019 trend: TikTok, all of it.
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: The Chats
Favorite Song of 2019: Bring Me The Horizon - “Sugar Honey Ice & Tea”
Favorite Album of 2019: Issues - Beautiful Oblivion
Favorite Artist of 2019: Waterparks
Favorite Song of the Decade: Angel Du$t - “Toxic Boombox”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Every Time I Die - Low Teens
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Every Time I Die
New Year’s Resolution?: Meet My Chemical Romance
Alec Wing
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Little Simz
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Billie Eilish
Best Music Video of 2019: FKA twigs - “Cellophane”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: UMI
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: James Blake / The Strokes / The Who
Favorite 2019 trend: IGOR Wig
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Drake Getting Booed off stage at Camp Flog Gnaw
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Aldous Harding
Favorite Song of 2019: YBN Cordae ft. Anderson .Paak - “RNP”
Favorite Album of 2019: JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs
Favorite Artist of 2019: James Blake
Favorite Song of the Decade: Frank Ocean – “Self Control”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Kendrick Lamar
New Year’s Resolution?: To build something and be proud of it.
Precious Kato
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Monsune
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: BENEE
Best Music Video of 2019: Jungle - "Casio"
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Oscar Jerome
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: The 1975 at The Roxy
Favorite 2019 trend: Wearing your jacket draped over your shoulders. It feels badass!
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Having not one but two Fyre Festival documentaries.
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: DVNA
Favorite Song of 2019: Friendly Fires - “Offline"
Favorite Album of 2019: Loyle Carner - Not Waving But Drowning
Favorite Artist of 2019: Hablot Brown
Favorite Song of the Decade: HONNE - “Take You High"
Favorite Album of the Decade: Mac Miller - The Divine Feminine
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Tom Misch
New Year’s Resolution?: Learn how to separate hope and naiveté.
Alexa Schoenfeld
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Hamzaa, Jean Dawson.
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Baby Rose, slowthai
Best Music Video of 2019: UMI ft. YEEK – “RUNNIN (EP. 3)”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: FKA Twigs, Pell
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: PVRIS at The El REY
Favorite 2019 trend: Millenial app astrology – have you entered the Co-Star universe?
What cultural moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: No genre boundaries, no gender boundaries
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Remi Wolf, Peach Tree Rascals
Favorite Song of 2019: Jacob Collier ft. Daniel Caesar - “Time Alone With You”
Favorite Album of 2019: The Menzingers - Hello Exile
Favorite Artist of 2019: UMI
Favorite Song of the Decade: The 1975 – “SOMEBODY ELSE”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Childish Gambino – “Awaken, My Love!”
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Kanye West
New Year’s Resolution?: EXHALE DEEPER
Brooke Pohle
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Briston Maroney
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Summer Walker
Best Music Video of 2019: Jadu Heart - “Purity”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: I would end it all for A$AP Rocky this year and every year
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Maggie Rogers at the Greek Theatre
Favorite 2019 trend: Reflective 3M jackets
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: The mess of Area 51
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Patrick Martin
Favorite Song of 2019: Maggie Rogers - “Light On”
Favorite Album of 2019: Billie Eilish - When we all fall asleep where do we go?
Favorite Artist of 2019: Briston Maroney
Favorite Song of the Decade: Rihanna - “Stay”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Lorde - Pure Heroine
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Rainbow Kitten Surprise
New Year’s Resolution?: Put my mental health first!!!
Jess Chung
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Rosemary Fairweather
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: BENEE
Best Music Video of 2019: Crumb - “M.R.”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Pedro Sampaio
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Dominic Fike
Favorite 2019 trend: fanny packs !
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: the reappearance of Keanu Reeves on social media / memes / movies / games
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Clairo
Favorite Song of 2019: Rex Orange County - “10/10”
Favorite Album of 2019: BROCKHAMPTON - Ginger
Favorite Artist of 2019: BROCKHAMPTON
Favorite Song of the Decade: Dominic Fike - “King of Everything”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Tyler, the Creator
New Year’s Resolution?: Do more hikes !
Jessica Thomas
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Hope Tala
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Rosalia
Best Music Video of 2019: Ashnikko - “Hi It’s Me”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: ROSALÍA
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: BANKS at the Palladium
Favorite 2019 trend: Not sure if this counts but this dude is my hero… (editor’s note: totally doesn’t but I’ll accept cause same)
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Juice WRLD’s tragic passing and the effect it will have on generations of creatives to come.
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Boy in Space (!!!)
Favorite Song of 2019: YBN Cordae ft. Anderson. Paak - “RNP“
Favorite Album of 2019: Matthew Chaim - The Mathematics of Nature
Favorite Artist of 2019: Lolo Zouaï
Favorite Song of the Decade: BANKS - "Gemini Feed"
Favorite Album of the Decade: SZA - Ctrl
Joey Legittino
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: BabyJake
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Aries
Best Music Video of 2019: Supa Bwe ft. Qari - “LOOK”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Kailee Morgue
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Beck, Cage the Elephant, and Spoon at FivePoint Ampitheatre
Favorite 2019 trend:Cowboy culture hitting the mainstream. Yee Yee!
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Eating tide pods
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Ant Saunders
Favorite Song of 2019: Augustine - “Guts”
Favorite Album of 2019: Cage the Elephant - “Social Cues”
Favorite Artist of 2019: BabyJake
Favorite Song of the Decade: Mac Miller - “Self Care”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Blink-182 - “Neighborhoods”
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Mac Miller forever
New Year’s Resolution?: To not wait until New Years to make new resolutions for myself.
Chase Nathan
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: EARTHGANG
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: JID
Best Music Video of 2019: DaBaby - “BOP”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Dominic Fike :)
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: slowthai at Flog Gnaw
Favorite 2019 trend: Baggy Pants - no more of that cuffed pant look
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Being 10th row at Flog Gnaw for Drake
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Bakar, Guapdad 4000, Kent Jamz, Grip, KEY!, Mez
Favorite Song of 2019: Tyler, The Creator - “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?”
Favorite Album of 2019: Dreamville - Revenge Of The Dreamers III
Favorite Artist of 2019: Tyler, The Creator
Favorite Song of the Decade: Mac Miller ft. Anderson .Paak - “Dang!”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Anderson .Paak - “Malibu”
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Tie between Anderson .Paak and Pusha T
What Is Your New Year’s Resolution?: Be more positive!
George Schaefer
Most Underrated Artist of 2019: Pi'erre Bourne
Best Breakout Artist of 2019: Baby Keem
Best Music Video of 2019: Octavian ft. Skepta & Michael Phantom - “Bet”
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Biggest Artist Crush of 2019: Summer Walker, Jhene Aiko
Best Concert You Attended in 2019: Baby Keem at The Roxy
Favorite 2019 trend: Igor Wig
What moment of 2019 will you not be forgetting anytime soon?: Watching Drake get boo'ed off stage
Who is poised to be the breakout artist(s) of 2020: Jean Dawson
Favorite Song of 2019: Pi'erre Bourne - “Guillotine”
Favorite Album of 2019: Baby Keem - DIE FOR MY BITCH
Favorite Artist of 2019: Toro y Moi
Favorite Song of the Decade: Kanye West ft. Pusha T - “Runaway”
Favorite Album of the Decade: Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Favorite Artist of the Decade: Frank Ocean
New Year’s Resolution?: Get a job.
#staff picks#slowthai#billie eilish#aries#keshi#benee#clairo#tyler the creator#kanye west#maggie rogers#dominic fike#channel tres#umi#2019
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On 30 November [2007] approximately 10,000 protesters took to the streets in Khartoum, some of them waving swords and machetes, demanding [Gillian] Gibbons's execution after imams denounced her during Friday prayers. During the march, chants of "Shame, shame on the UK", "No tolerance – execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad" were heard. Witnesses reported that government employees were involved in inciting the protests. Gibbons was then moved to a secret location because of fears for her safety.
What horrible, despicable crime had Ms. Gibbons perpetrated?
Teaching in a school in Sudan, she was arrested for allegedly insulting Islam by allowing her class of six-year-olds to name a teddy bear "Muhammad"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudanese_teddy_bear_blasphemy_case
Religion of Peace Lunacy.
#this isn't a joke#religion#anti religion#antireligion#islam#anti islam#antiislam#islamophobia#muhammad#prophet muhammad#religion is a mental illness#atheism#atheist#religious lunacy#islamic violence#religion of war#religion of violence#religion of peace#religion of lunacy#blasphemy#blasphemy laws#sharia#sharia law#I wish I was kidding#religious stupidity#you can't make this shit up
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Holidays 7.8
Holidays
Air Force and Air Defense Forces Day (Ukraine)
Arafat Day (Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, UAE)
Be a Kid Again Day
Carver Day (Missouri)
Constitution Day (Palau)
Corban Bairam Day (Sudan)
Family Day (Ukraine)
Gospel Day (Kiribati)
Hajj Day (Maldives)
Killer Joke Day
Kurban Bayramı Eve (Turkey)
Liberty Bell Crack Day
Math 2.0 Day
National Love Your Skin Day
National Videogame Day
Old Crafts Day
Olive Branch Petition Day
Oneofusismissing Day
SCUD Day (Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama)
Soapy Smith Wake
Video Games Day
Ziegfeld Follies Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Coca-Cola Day
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Omelette Day
National Blueberry Day
National Freezer Pop Day
National Ice Cream Sundae Day
National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day
Second Friday in July
Collector Car Appreciation Day [2nd Friday]
Kilburn Feast begins (Yorkshire, England) [2nd Friday thru Sunday]
National Motorcycle Day [2nd Friday]
Sea Festival begins (Jūras Svētki Sākas; Latvia) [2nd Friday]
Wayne Chicken Show begins [2nd Friday thru Sunday]
White Cloud’s Birthday & Tatanka (Bison) Festival begins (North Dakota) [2nd Friday thru Sunday]
World Kebab Day [2nd Friday]
Worldwide Art Day [2nd Friday]
Feast Days
Abda and Sabas (Christian; Saint)
Auspicius of Trier (Christian; Saint)
Eid al Adha (Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (Christian; Saint)
Feast of Sunniva (Norse Goddess of the Sun)
Grimbald (Christian; Saint)
Innocent III (Positivist; Saint)
Itchy (Muppetism)
Kilian, Totnan, and Colman (Christian; Saint) [Kilian: Bavaria, Austria]
Meatball Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)
Peter and Fevronia Day (Russian Orthodox)
Procopius of Scythopolis (Christian; Saint)
Sunniva and companions (Norse Solar Maiden)
Theobald of Marly (Christian; Saint)
Vitulatio (Ancient Roman Fruits of the Earth celebration)
Withburge of Norfolk (Christian; Saint)
St. Zorak Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]
Premieres
Beauty and the Beat, by The Go-Go’s (Album; 1981)
Fantastic Four (Film; 2005)
The Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 2000) [Harry Potter #4]
Melrose Place (TV Series; 1992)
Nowhere Man, by The Beatles (4-Track EP; 1966)
The Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 1999) [Harry Potter #3]
The Sea Beast (Animated Film; 2022)
The Secret Life of Pets (Animated Film; 2016)
Sword Art Online (Anime Series; 2012)
Thor: Love and Thunder (Film; 2022)
Wannabe, by the Spice Girls (Album; 1996)
Today’s Name Days
Eugen, Edgar (Austria)
Akvila, Eugen, Hadrijan, Priscila (Croatia)
Nora (Czech Republic)
Kjeld (Denmark)
Eleonoora, Ellinor, Leonoora, Loora, Loore, Noora, Nora (Estonia)
Turkka, Turo (Finland)
Edgar, Killian, Priscillia, Thibault (France)
Kilian, Amalia, Edgar (Germany)
Prokopios, Theofilos (Greece)
Ellák (Hungary)
Domenica (Italy)
Ada, Adele, Adeline, Antra (Latvia)
Arnoldas, Elžbieta, Elzė, Vaitautas, Valmantė, Virga, Virginija (Lithuania)
Sunniva, Synne, Synnøve (Norway)
Adrian, Adrianna, Chwalimir, Edgar, Elżbieta, Eugeniusz, Kilian, Prokop, Wirginia (Poland)
Ivan (Slovakia)
Adrián, Adriano, Priscila (Spain)
Kjell (Sweden)
Prokip, Prokop (Ukraine)
Aquila, Aquiline, Easton, Kilian (USA)
Thibaut (Universal)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 189 of 2022; 176 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 5 of week 27 of 2022
Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 1 of 28]
Chinese: Month 6 (Héyuè), Day 10 (Red-Xu)
Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)
Hebrew: 9 Tammuz 5782
Islamic: 8 Ḏū al-Ḥijjah 1443
J Cal: 9 Lux; Oneday [9 of 30]
Julian: 25 June 2022
Moon: 67% Waxing Crescent
Positivist: 21 Charlemagne (7th Month) [Innocent III]
Runic Half Month: Foeh (Wealth) [Day 12 of 15]
Season: Summer (Day 18 of 90)
Zodiac: Cancer (Day 18 of 30)
Calendar Changes
Tinne (Holly) [Celtic Tree Calendar; Month 7 of 13]
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The Odyssey of the Sword of Rudolph Carl von Slatin
Reading 'Fire and Sword in the Sudan' I came across an interesting anecdote which shows the travels an individual sword could take in the late-19th century. The book is a first hand account by Austrian officer Rudolf Slatin, who under British service was made the governor of Darfur in the Sudan. During the Mahdist uprising he was taken prisoner, but managed to save his own life by pretending to serve the Mahdi. He lived as a captive for 12 years and eventually managed to gain his freedom and return to Britain.
--Matt Easton, Schola Gladiatoria
**Slatin Pasha’s sword would have been an Austrian M1861 Infantry Officer’s Sword.
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Holidays 7.8
Holidays
Air Force and Air Defense Forces Day (Ukraine)
Arafat Day (Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, UAE)
Be a Kid Again Day
Carver Day (Missouri)
Constitution Day (Palau)
Corban Bairam Day (Sudan)
Family Day (Ukraine)
Gospel Day (Kiribati)
Hajj Day (Maldives)
Killer Joke Day
Kurban Bayramı Eve (Turkey)
Liberty Bell Crack Day
Math 2.0 Day
National Love Your Skin Day
National Videogame Day
Old Crafts Day
Olive Branch Petition Day
Oneofusismissing Day
SCUD Day (Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama)
Soapy Smith Wake
Video Games Day
Ziegfeld Follies Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Coca-Cola Day
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Omelette Day
National Blueberry Day
National Freezer Pop Day
National Ice Cream Sundae Day
National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day
Second Friday in July
Collector Car Appreciation Day [2nd Friday]
Kilburn Feast begins (Yorkshire, England) [2nd Friday thru Sunday]
National Motorcycle Day [2nd Friday]
Sea Festival begins (Jūras Svētki Sākas; Latvia) [2nd Friday]
Wayne Chicken Show begins [2nd Friday thru Sunday]
White Cloud’s Birthday & Tatanka (Bison) Festival begins (North Dakota) [2nd Friday thru Sunday]
World Kebab Day [2nd Friday]
Worldwide Art Day [2nd Friday]
Feast Days
Abda and Sabas (Christian; Saint)
Auspicius of Trier (Christian; Saint)
Eid al Adha (Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (Christian; Saint)
Feast of Sunniva (Norse Goddess of the Sun)
Grimbald (Christian; Saint)
Innocent III (Positivist; Saint)
Itchy (Muppetism)
Kilian, Totnan, and Colman (Christian; Saint) [Kilian: Bavaria, Austria]
Meatball Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)
Peter and Fevronia Day (Russian Orthodox)
Procopius of Scythopolis (Christian; Saint)
Sunniva and companions (Norse Solar Maiden)
Theobald of Marly (Christian; Saint)
Vitulatio (Ancient Roman Fruits of the Earth celebration)
Withburge of Norfolk (Christian; Saint)
St. Zorak Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]
Premieres
Beauty and the Beat, by The Go-Go’s (Album; 1981)
Fantastic Four (Film; 2005)
The Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 2000) [Harry Potter #4]
Melrose Place (TV Series; 1992)
Nowhere Man, by The Beatles (4-Track EP; 1966)
The Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling (Novel; 1999) [Harry Potter #3]
The Sea Beast (Animated Film; 2022)
The Secret Life of Pets (Animated Film; 2016)
Sword Art Online (Anime Series; 2012)
Thor: Love and Thunder (Film; 2022)
Wannabe, by the Spice Girls (Album; 1996)
Today’s Name Days
Eugen, Edgar (Austria)
Akvila, Eugen, Hadrijan, Priscila (Croatia)
Nora (Czech Republic)
Kjeld (Denmark)
Eleonoora, Ellinor, Leonoora, Loora, Loore, Noora, Nora (Estonia)
Turkka, Turo (Finland)
Edgar, Killian, Priscillia, Thibault (France)
Kilian, Amalia, Edgar (Germany)
Prokopios, Theofilos (Greece)
Ellák (Hungary)
Domenica (Italy)
Ada, Adele, Adeline, Antra (Latvia)
Arnoldas, Elžbieta, Elzė, Vaitautas, Valmantė, Virga, Virginija (Lithuania)
Sunniva, Synne, Synnøve (Norway)
Adrian, Adrianna, Chwalimir, Edgar, Elżbieta, Eugeniusz, Kilian, Prokop, Wirginia (Poland)
Ivan (Slovakia)
Adrián, Adriano, Priscila (Spain)
Kjell (Sweden)
Prokip, Prokop (Ukraine)
Aquila, Aquiline, Easton, Kilian (USA)
Thibaut (Universal)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 189 of 2022; 176 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 5 of week 27 of 2022
Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 1 of 28]
Chinese: Month 6 (Héyuè), Day 10 (Red-Xu)
Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)
Hebrew: 9 Tammuz 5782
Islamic: 8 Ḏū al-Ḥijjah 1443
J Cal: 9 Lux; Oneday [9 of 30]
Julian: 25 June 2022
Moon: 67% Waxing Crescent
Positivist: 21 Charlemagne (7th Month) [Innocent III]
Runic Half Month: Foeh (Wealth) [Day 12 of 15]
Season: Summer (Day 18 of 90)
Zodiac: Cancer (Day 18 of 30)
Calendar Changes
Tinne (Holly) [Celtic Tree Calendar; Month 7 of 13]
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