#french government scholarship

[djuvlipen]

Hey

I know there are many, many things happening in the world right now and there is only so much time, energy and money people can invest in social justice but with the advance of fascism in Europe - 84 fascists from 12 different countries were elected to the European Parliament this year - and with the news of a 15yo Romani teenager dying during a police confrontation in England last week, I have compiled a list of different human rights organizations dedicated to helping Romani people in Europe.

Please donate if you can!

💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️

🇪🇺 Roma Education Fund

The Roma Education Fund (REF) is an international foundation established in 2005 and dedicated to closing the gap in educational outcomes between Roma and non-Roma. With an active and growing network of representative offices across Central, Eastern, South Eastern Europe and Turkey, REF provides grants and scholarships to entities and individuals who share its belief in quality, inclusive education and desegregated schools and classrooms. The Roma Education Fund is active in countries such as: Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Albania, Croatia, North Macedonia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Russia.

🇪🇺 European Roma Grassroots Organization (ERGO)

ERGO Network mobilizes and connects grassroots, national and international organisations and individuals who share a set of core values to create the courage, capacity and  opportunities to combat antigypsyism and Roma poverty; strengthen Roma civil society participation in decision-making at grassroots, national and European level and commit governments and European institutions to effective social inclusion and anti-discrimination policies, standards and funds for Roma.

🇪🇺 European Roma Rights Center (ERRC)

The ERRC is the largest transnational Romani rights organization in Europe. They provide judicial and financial help to Romani people facing poverty, police brutality and racist violence all across Europe

🇷🇴 Resource Center for Roma Communities Foundation (RCRC)

The operational activity of RCRC includes training programs, consultancy and comprehensive community development in Roma communities. The grantmaking activity of RCRC has involved managing grants and scholarship programs, including the administration of the European Union’s and EAA grants programs focused on health, vocational training, small infrastructure and income generating activities.

🇨🇿 Cesta Von

Cesta von (This Way Out) organization is based in Slovakia. Their Omama program works with the very youngest Romani children in particular. Their aim is a big and important one – extricating the inhabitants of the segregated settlements from the vicious circle of intergenerational poverty. The program targets the development of the intellect, motor skills and social skills in an attempt to increase the chances of children from socially excluded localities at living better adult lives. One of the main conditions for choosing the Omamas is that they must be Romani women who know the excluded locality well (source).

🇪🇸 La Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG)

The FSG develops all kinds of actions that contribute to achieving the full citizenship of Roma persons, improving their living conditions, promoting equal treatment and preventing all forms of discrimination, as well as promoting the recognition of the cultural identity of the Roma community.

🇪🇸 La Asociación Nacional Presencia Gitana

Presencia Gitana is dedicated to confronting and correcting negative opinions about Spanish Romani people. They promote all kinds of initiatives and projects to ensure that Spanish Romani people's basic needs and fundamental rights are met and guaranteed, work to promoting Romani culture and advocate for the providing of historical reparation for Spanish Romani people.

🇫🇷 ANGVC

The ANGVC (association nationale gens du voyage citoyens) is a French Romani-led organization whose goal is to fight anti-Romani racism and to improve the living conditions of French Romani people and travellers. They provide judicial help to Romani people victims of environmental racism and police brutality, organize workshops to raise awareness about anti-Romani racism and are now leading a project dedicated to educate people about the Romani genocide, which still hasn't been recognized by France.

🇬🇧 Roma Support Group

The Roma Support Group offers free advice for Roma communities on financial inclusion, debt, welfare benefits and housing. They promote Romani arts and culture, fight for the improvement of mental health within the Romani community and helps Romani people victims of racism.

🇬🇧 Romano Lav

Romano Lav is a grassroots Roma community organisation based in Govanhill, Glasgow. They organize youth-led events including artistic and cultural performances, workshops, exhibitions and educational events.

🇬🇧 Luton Roma Trust

The Luton Roma Trust provides advice to British Romani people about housing, employment and education, helps them find jobs and accessing healthcare.

💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️

[cartermagazine]

Today In History

Angela Davis, political activist, philosopher, academic, and author was born in Birmingham, AL, on this date January 26, 1944.

Davis knew about racial prejudice from a young age; her neighborhood in Birmingham was nicknamed “Dynamite Hill” for the number of homes targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. She also knew several of the young African American girls killed in the Birmingham church bombing of 1963.

Angela earned a scholarship to study French Literature at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. After graduation, she studied in Germany and completed a PhD in philosophy.

In 1969, Angela became a professor of philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles. Governor of California Ronald Reagan learned about Angela’s political connections and pressured the university to fire her. Angela fought back, and took her case to court. The Supreme Court of California ruled Angela could not be banned for party affiliation. However, several months later, the university found another reason to fire her. They claimed that her comments in recent speeches were too politically incendiary.

Around the same time that Angela lost her job, she became involved in the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee. On August 7, 1970, an armed gunman and brother of one of the Soledad Brothers entered a courtroom in California and took several people hostage. An investigation revealed that the gunman used a weapon Angela bought at a pawn shop several days earlier. Distrustful of the government, Angela went into hiding. During that time, the FBI added her to the “10 Most Wanted” list. In October, she was arrested in a hotel room in New York City. She was held in jail for 18 months.

On June 4, 1972, an all-white jury found Angela not guilty on all charges. Angela said it was the happiest day of her life.

“As a black woman, my politics and political affiliation are bound up with and flow from participation in my people’s struggle for liberation, and with the fight of oppressed people all over the world against American imperialism.”

CARTER Magazine

[deeptrashwitch]

Mario Jiménez

Name: Mario Antonio Jiménez Castro

Age: 52 (by 2025)

Birth date: August 30th of 1983, Ubaté, Boyacá, Colombia

Death date: January 12th of 2025, Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia

Nationality: Colombian

Residence (former): Camp General Pinilla, Colombia

Affiliations: Colombian National Army (formerly), Anti-federationists (formerly)

Rank: General

Nickname: My love (by Paula), Commander (by the Anti-federationists)

Occupation: General and consultant in the Congress (formerly), leader of the Anti-federationists (formerly)

Height: 1,85 m/ 6'0 ft

Weight: 82 Kg

Blood type: A+

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Languages: Spanish (native), english, french, quechua and chibcha

Affiliations:

Anti-federationists:

-Camilo Ortiz Álvarez (former right hand man/ current Commander)

Ghosts (temporary):

-Gabriel Rorke

-Elias Walker

-Thomas Merrick

-Keegan Russ

-Alex “Ajax” Johnson

Family:

-Father (redacteed) (deceased)

-Mother (redacteed) (deceased)

-Paula Rojas Vásquez (wife) (deceased)

-Juliana Jiménez Rojas (daughter)

Personality:

-Thoughtful man, charismatic and a born leader that can use a situation in his favor in a matter of minutes.

-Appears to be cold or even aggressive at first, but in reality he's a fun man, romantic husband and lovable and protective father.

-Quiet man unless someone won his trust or they’re planning something.

Biography:

He was born in Ubaté, Colombia, as the only son of a couple of farmers. For years he worked in his parents farm while going to school, but also aware that at some point…it might be taken away from them. It could be because of paramilitarism, the guerrillas, the narcos or even the government itself.

Despite that, he continued working and studying until he finished high school. Honestly he was ready to work with his parents without going to college…but as soon as the ICFES results came back, he won a scholarship. Mario was ready to deny it and stay with his parents, but his mother asked him to go and even his father gave him all their savings the day he was departing to Bogotá for college.

He studied law and worked at night to pay for his studies. It went well until his last year, when he got the notice that his parents died at the hands of the FARC. The day of his graduation…he was alone because of that.

After that he joined the Army, mostly for hunting down the guerrillas and narcos, and started his services and career there.

Some years later, he was sent to a conference in one university. There he met Paula Rojas Vásquez, a woman that was in her last year of International Studies, with who he started a long conversation after the conference. They started to speak and go for a walk every time Mario and Paula had a free day.

In the end they fell in love and married when Mario was 27, in 2000, and that same year Juliana was born. They lived in Bogotá due to their work until 2011, when Paula did some research with the university she worked at and they learnt about the Federation's real intentions. After that, hell broke loose.

The Feds attacked the universities as soon as they arrived in Bogotá. Paula died in one of those attacks, and Mario started to prepare the exodus along with many others.

Camilo and he ran away from Bogotá the night before the Feds conquered the presidential palace. They walked, with hundreds of thousands of people before parting ways with a part of them. Their group headed to the south of the country, to the rainforest.

There, they walked for even more days while Camilo, Mario and many other officers discussed what to do. In the end, despite Mario's hatred for the idea, they ended up joining the guerrillas for pure survival. And that lasted for a decade.

In 2015 he went to Caracas along with some volunteers to help killing General Almagro, where he met the Ghosts and befriended them as well.

He always stayed with the kids after their training, comforting them and distracting them from the terrified and pained screams of some women and men. And the tenth year, they had enough to take over, so he led the adults and took over the camp they were at to make it theirs.

Like that the Anti-federationists were founded with him as Commander, and for some years he was the leader and expanden their influence. Until one day in 2025, he was found and killed in Leticia by Rorke, a Ghost he once met.

Skills:

-Sniper and recon expert

-Knows guerrilla warfare and conventional tactics

-Adaptability at any environment

-Experience in urban warfare as well

-Leadership at high scale

Trivia:

-Before the Feds even existed, he loved to go and take a walk with Paula and Juliana. Mario always carried his daughter over his shoulders, teaching her some things every time she asked.

-During the years with the guerrillas, he played the guitar to calm the kids down. And even then, he was saddened when he saw the older kids looking at the door with a mix of fear, anger and disgust.

-He made the main links with people that escaped in South America during his days in the guerrillas and when they already were Anti-federationists, leaving everything ready for Camilo to start with what he planned when he replaced him.

Picrew:

Face claim:

Alejandro Aguilar

[nanshe-of-nina]

Favorite History Books || Triumph and Illusion: The Hundred Years War Volume 5 by Jonathan Sumption ★★★★☆

The wheel of fortune is one of the most ancient symbols of mankind, an image of capricious fate and the transience of human affairs. In the late middle ages it was everywhere, in illuminated manuscripts, in wall paintings and stained glass, in sermons and homilies, in poetry and prose. ‘The wheel of fortune turneth as a ball, sudden climbing axeth a sudden fall,’ wrote John Lydgate in The Fall of Princes, a work commissioned by one of the dominant figures in this history, Cardinal Henry Beaufort. The present volume traces the remarkable recovery of France in barely two decades from the lowest point of its fortunes to the dominant position in Europe which it had enjoyed before the wars with England. Sudden climbing axeth a sudden fall. These years saw the collapse of the English dream of conquest in France from the opening years of the reign of Henry VI, when the battles of Cravant and Verneuil consolidated their control of most of northern France, until the loss of all their continental dominions except Calais. This sudden reversal of fortune, inexplicable to many contemporary Englishmen, was a seminal event in the history of the two principal nation-states of western Europe. It brought an end to four centuries of the English dynasty’s presence in France, separating two countries whose fortunes had once been closely intertwined. It created a new sense of identity in both of them. In large measure, the divergent fortunes of the French and English states over the following centuries flowed from these events. The passions generated by ancient wars eventually fade, but those provoked by the wars of the English in fifteenth-century France have proved to be surprisingly durable. The foundations of scholarship on the period were laid by patriotic French historians of the nineteenth century, writing under the shadow of Waterloo and Sedan. The passage of the centuries did nothing nothing to soften their indignation about the fate of their country in the time of Henry VI and the Duke of Bedford. The extraordinary life and death of Joan of Arc defied historical objectivity until quite recently. Joan’s story became the focus of disparate but powerful political passions: nationalism, Catholicism, royalism and intermittent anglophobia. Much of what has been written falsifies history by attributing to medieval men and women the notions of another age. But myths are powerful agents of national identity. The great French historian Marc Bloch once wrote that no Frenchman could truly understand his country’s history unless he thrilled at the story of Charles VII’s coronation at Reims. Writing in the summer of 1940 in the aftermath of a terrible defeat, Bloch looked to an earlier recovery from the edge of disaster for reassurance about the survival of France. If there is a corresponding English myth, it is in the history plays of Shakespeare. The great speeches which he gave to John of Gaunt and Henry V belong to the classic canon of English patriotism. His three plays about Henry VI, a truncated story of discord at home and defeat abroad, never reach the same heights. Yet they serve to remind us that behind the clash of arms and principles were men and women of flesh and blood. I have tried at every page to remember that they were not cardboard cut-outs. They endured hunger, saddle-sores and toothache. They experienced fear and elation, joy and disappointment, shame and pride, ambition and exhaustion. At the level of government, they were trapped by the logic of war, lacking the resources to conquer or even to defend what they had, and yet unable to make peace. It was the tragedy of the English that, after an initial surge of optimism in the 1420s, they realised that the war could not be won, but were forced to fight on by the memory of Henry V’s triumphs and the incapacity of his son, until disaster finally engulfed them.

[lboogie1906]

Léon Damas (March 28, 1912 - April 22, 1978) was a poet, editor, diplomat, and cultural theorist who was born in Cayenne, French Guiana. He was the youngest of five children born to parents Ernest and Marie Aline Damas.

He left French Guiana to attend the prestigious Lycée Victor-Schœlcher. He attended the University of Paris. His scholarship was for the study of law, he developed an interest in the humanities and social sciences. Influenced by Andre Breton’s anti-colonial pamphlet Légitime Défense, by his encounters with the work of Harlem Renaissance poets like Claude McKay and Langston Hughes, and by the growing community of US Black expatriate writers and artists, he began to assert his identity as a poète Nègre.

He and Aimé Césaire met Léopold Sédar Senghor. The three founded the journal L’Étudiant Noir, called Négritude.

He was the first Black writer to address the impact of colonization on the psyche of the colonized. He introduced this colonial and postcolonial condition more than 20 years before philosopher Frantz Fanon would label such traits “the colonized personality”.

He was the author of nine other volumes, including five additional books of poetry, three essay collections, and one book of short stories. In addition to a writing career that spanned 40 years, he held several prominent and influential positions in military, diplomatic, and government organizations. He served in the French army during WWII. He was elected to the Chambre des Députés of the French National Assembly. He became the overseas editor for Radio France, a contributing editor on the board of the journal Presence Africaine, and a representative of the African Society of Culture for the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

He traveled extensively in Africa, Latin America, the US, and the Caribbean. He settled in DC, where he accepted a visiting professorship at Georgetown University. He was offered a permanent position at Howard University, where he remained on the faculty until his death. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[weepingwillow2000]

Hey

I know there are many, many things happening in the world right now and there is only so much time, energy and money people can invest in social justice but with the advance of fascism in Europe - 84 fascists from 12 different countries were elected to the European Parliament this year - and with the news of a 15yo Romani teenager dying during a police confrontation in England last week, I have compiled a list of different human rights organizations dedicated to helping Romani people in Europe.

Please donate if you can!

💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️

🇪🇺 Roma Education Fund

The Roma Education Fund (REF) is an international foundation established in 2005 and dedicated to closing the gap in educational outcomes between Roma and non-Roma. With an active and growing network of representative offices across Central, Eastern, South Eastern Europe and Turkey, REF provides grants and scholarships to entities and individuals who share its belief in quality, inclusive education and desegregated schools and classrooms. The Roma Education Fund is active in countries such as: Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Albania, Croatia, North Macedonia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Russia.

🇪🇺 European Roma Grassroots Organization (ERGO)

ERGO Network mobilizes and connects grassroots, national and international organisations and individuals who share a set of core values to create the courage, capacity and  opportunities to combat antigypsyism and Roma poverty; strengthen Roma civil society participation in decision-making at grassroots, national and European level and commit governments and European institutions to effective social inclusion and anti-discrimination policies, standards and funds for Roma.

🇪🇺 European Roma Rights Center (ERRC)

The ERRC is the largest transnational Romani rights organization in Europe. They provide judicial and financial help to Romani people facing poverty, police brutality and racist violence all across Europe

🇷🇴 Resource Center for Roma Communities Foundation (RCRC)

The operational activity of RCRC includes training programs, consultancy and comprehensive community development in Roma communities. The grantmaking activity of RCRC has involved managing grants and scholarship programs, including the administration of the European Union’s and EAA grants programs focused on health, vocational training, small infrastructure and income generating activities.

🇨🇿 Cesta Von

Cesta von (This Way Out) organization is based in Slovakia. Their Omama program works with the very youngest Romani children in particular. Their aim is a big and important one – extricating the inhabitants of the segregated settlements from the vicious circle of intergenerational poverty. The program targets the development of the intellect, motor skills and social skills in an attempt to increase the chances of children from socially excluded localities at living better adult lives. One of the main conditions for choosing the Omamas is that they must be Romani women who know the excluded locality well (source).

🇪🇸 La Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG)

The FSG develops all kinds of actions that contribute to achieving the full citizenship of Roma persons, improving their living conditions, promoting equal treatment and preventing all forms of discrimination, as well as promoting the recognition of the cultural identity of the Roma community.

🇪🇸 La Asociación Nacional Presencia Gitana

Presencia Gitana is dedicated to confronting and correcting negative opinions about Spanish Romani people. They promote all kinds of initiatives and projects to ensure that Spanish Romani people's basic needs and fundamental rights are met and guaranteed, work to promoting Romani culture and advocate for the providing of historical reparation for Spanish Romani people.

🇫🇷 ANGVC

The ANGVC (association nationale gens du voyage citoyens) is a French Romani-led organization whose goal is to fight anti-Romani racism and to improve the living conditions of French Romani people and travellers. They provide judicial help to Romani people victims of environmental racism and police brutality, organize workshops to raise awareness about anti-Romani racism and are now leading a project dedicated to educate people about the Romani genocide, which still hasn't been recognized by France.

🇬🇧 Roma Support Group

The Roma Support Group offers free advice for Roma communities on financial inclusion, debt, welfare benefits and housing. They promote Romani arts and culture, fight for the improvement of mental health within the Romani community and helps Romani people victims of racism.

🇬🇧 Romano Lav

Romano Lav is a grassroots Roma community organisation based in Govanhill, Glasgow. They organize youth-led events including artistic and cultural performances, workshops, exhibitions and educational events.

🇬🇧 Luton Roma Trust

The Luton Roma Trust provides advice to British Romani people about housing, employment and education, helps them find jobs and accessing healthcare.

💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️💚🦔💙❤️

(stole this post cause ops a terf)

[scotianostra]

On July 17th 1790 economist, philosopher and author Adam Smith, died in Edinburgh.

Smith attended the local school where he was bought up, in Kirkcaldy, Fife before enrolling, aged 14 at Glasgow University, then a central institution in the prevailing humanist and rationalist movement which later became known as the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith cites the lively discussions led by Professor of Moral Philosophy, Francis Hutcheson, as having a profound effect on his passion for liberty, free speech and reason.

In 1740, Smith was the recipient of the Snell Exhibition, an annual scholarship allowing Glasgow University students the opportunity to take up postgraduate study at Balliol College, Oxford.

Smith’s experiences at Glasgow and Oxford were completely different. While Hutcheson had prepared his students for vigorous debate through challenging new and old ideas, at Oxford, Smith believed “the greater part of the public professors [had] given up altogether even the pretence of teaching”.

Smith was also punished for reading A Treatise of Human Nature by his later friend David Hume. Smith quit Oxford before his scholarship ended and returned to Scotland.

On his return home Adam Smith became a professor at the University of Edinburgh. It was at Edinburgh that he met David Hume.who would become one of his best friends. Over the years, Smith and Hume would discuss economics and philosophy. During this time, Smith began to formulate the ideas that would make him famous.

In 1759, Smith published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He gained some fame for this work and was offered the job of tutor for young Duke Henry Scott. As tutor, Smith began to travel throughout much of Europe. He met many influential people including French economist Francois Quesnay and American diplomat Benjamin Franklin. Smith's theories on the economy continued to develop.

In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. This book became the foundation of modern economics. It introduced and explained many economic concepts that are still used today. The most important idea in the book is the idea of the free market economy. This is where he proposes that the most productive economy is one that is allowed to regulate itself without government intervention.

Adam Smith died in Edinburgh, on this day in 1790. Today, he is known as the father of modern economics. The Wealth of Nations is one of the most influential books in history. Most countries throughout the world today operate a mixed economy that combines the free market described by Adam Smith with some government intervention.

[horizon-verizon]

Anne Boleyn wasn’t exactly a Protestant as is often said but she was a Reformist. She still held on to some of the Catholic beliefs such as the doctrine of transubstantiation but rejected papal authority, promoted erastianism and worked on getting the Bible translated into vernacular English so the common people of England could read it and understand it (The Bible was released shortly after her death, with the dedication page hastily changed to Queen Jane’s name). She wanted to purify the Catholic church of things she saw as abuses (such as the extreme wealth of the Catholic Church, and excessive accumulation of wealth in general, selling salvation — literally!) and superstitions. She’s the one who introduced Henry VIII to the idea of becoming Head of the Church of England by giving him a book written by William Tyndale, Obedience of a Christian Man, with certain passages marked by the impression of her fingernail. It was a bold move because the book was banned and had been seized by the Church when they found it in her possession. Anne asked Henry to get it back for her and read it. (Anne’s brother, George Boleyn, smuggled banned religious texts for her, purchasing them on his travels to the Continent.)

Anne sheltered religious dissidents. She saved the life of the French reformer Nicolas Bourbon as she had appealed to the French royal family to spare his life as a favor to the English Queen. Nicolas Bourbon would later refer to Anne as “the queen whom God loves.” She restored Richard Herman to the membership of the English Society of Merchants, from which Cardinal Wolsey had expelled him for his involvement in translating the New Testament into English. Anne also offered safe passage to England to French humanist reformers. She paid for scholarships so Reformist scholars could attend the universities. (Many of them stayed after they graduated to teach the next generation and spread Reformist ideas.) She personally selected six of the nine bishops appointed during her reign. She was extremely charitable and generous and sew shirts for the poor. When monasteries were dissolved, Anne advocated the redistribution of their resources and wanted to use the money to fund educational programs and other charitable causes. On the other hand, Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s chief minister, wanted to transfer these funds to the king’s coffers.

In short, religious issues were the primary focus of the work she did during her reign. Her goal for the advancement of a more tolerant religious point of view was unusual in an age that favored rigid religious practice. It’s one of the reasons she was so deeply unpopular — she was seeding “heresy” in so many areas. Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador in England, regularly complained to his home government of “the concubine” being “the cause and nurse of the spread of Lutheranism in this country”. They were right to be alarmed; Anne Boleyn’s work helped lay the foundations of the Anglican church. It would later be expanded upon by Queen Kateryn Parr, who appointed two of Anne’s scholarship students to be the tutors of Edward VI, the first Protestant monarch.

Wow. Yeah, this is displays a lot more devotion to a certain mission and a desire to change a society or a generosity that some people tried to say Alicent displays--which was never actually spelled out or claimed even in F&B, btw!--as reason for them to believe that Alicent was a good Queen or just a good person. The whole Queens-as-leads-of-charity-and-alms thing. Can't find the post.

[fem-lit]

Women are poor; poorer than men. What is so important about 20 billion of our dollars a year (being spent on cosmetics)? It would buy us, trivially enough, each year, roughly three times the amount of day care offered by the U.S. government: or 2,000 women’s health clinics; or 75,000 women’s film, music, literature, or art festivals; or 50 women’s universities; or 1 million highly paid home support workers for the housebound elderly; or 1 million highly paid domestic or child care workers; or 33,000 battered-women’s shelters; or 2 billion tubes of contraceptive cream; or 200,000 vans for late-night safe transport; or 400,000 full four-year university scholarships for young women who cannot afford further education; or 20 million airplane tickets around the world; or 200 million five-course dinners in four-star French restaurants; or 40 million cases of Veuve Clicquot champagne. Women are poor; poor people need luxuries. Of course women should be free to buy whatever they want, but if we are going to spend our hard-earned cash, the luxuries should deliver what they promise, not simply leech guilt money. No one takes this fraud (the beauty industry shilling anti aging products) seriously because the alternative to it is the real social threat: that women will first accept their aging, then admire it, and finally enjoy it. Wasting women’s money is the calculable damage; but the damage this fraud does women through its legacy of the dread of aging is incalculable.

— Naomi Wolf (1990) The Beauty Myth

[girlactionfigure]

The Irish Schindler: Mary Elmes

Hid children in the trunk of her car.

Mary Elmes was an Irish aid worker who saved over 200 Jewish children during the Holocaust by smuggling them across the Pyrenees mountain range.

Born in Cork, Ireland in 1908, Mary was a talented student who studied French and Spanish Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. She received a scholarship to further her studies at the London School of Economics. In 1937, Mary gave up her promising career in academia to become a volunteer aid worker and help refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War. She traveled over the Pyrenee Mountains from Spain into France, and helped procure food and educational materials for homeless Spanish children. After the war, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker humanitarian group, sent Mary to Almeria, Spain to work in a children’s hospital there. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Mary was evacuated and sent to help out at the AFSC headquarters in Perpignan, France.

When the Nazis invaded France in 1940, Jews were targeted by the Gestapo and French police. Many of them fled to Southern France and Mary went with them and worked with the American Friends Service Committee caring for refugee children. In 1942, the Nazis started rounding up Jews en masse for deportation to Auschwitz. Mary immediately took action. She smuggled children in the trunk of her car to safety in the Pyrenees. From there, she connected them to an underground network that evacuated them to safety.

Making so many trips to and from the mountains, Mary came under suspicion, and in 1943 she was arrested by the Nazis and charged with espionage. Because Mary was an Irish citizen working for an American organization, the Irish consul in Washington intervened and was able to get her released. Her family begged her to leave France, but she refused to abandon the refugees who needed her help, and continued her aid work in France until the war ended.

Mary married a French man and had two children. She never told them of her wartime heroism. When asked about her imprisonment, she said, “Oh, we all had to suffer some inconveniences in those days!” The French government offered her its highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, but Mary humbly declined.

She died in 2002, at age 94, never having been publicly recognized for her bravery.

Mary’s incredible story only came to light in 2012, when Professor Ronald Friend, one of the hundreds of Jewish children Mary saved, nominated her as a Righteous Among the Nations. Her family was reluctant, as Mary never wanted any attention for her wartime activities, but they finally agreed. Mary is the only Irish person to be recognized as a Righteous Gentile by Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem.

For saving the lives of hundreds of Jewish children at great risk to herself, we honor Mary Elmes as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[ugisfeelings]

tbh I’m relatively new to francophone scholarship on the French Revolution and I unfortunately cannot read French-- but just from skimming the autotranslations of this article by Pascale Pellerin, Algeria writer Kateb Yacine’s 1984 play, Bourgeois sans-culotte ou le specter du parc Monceau, presents as possibly one of the most compelling dramaturgical interpretations of the French terror and Maximillien Robespierre’s historical memory imo and should honestly be considered a primary example of his radical influences. Yacine unfortunately died while revising the manuscript, so it was never published in the form he intended, but there have been partial translations online, and a clip from the posthumous 1988 Paris performance is on youtube as well.

The play on Robespierre was commissioned by and performed mostly in Arras, aka Robespierre’s hometown, but it would be remiss to shrug Yacine’s interpretation of the French Revolution as a provincial hagiography or redundant to previous French leftist nationalist discourses. Bourgeois sans-culotte is thoroughly a transnational story about revolutionary violence and freedom, and a critical recuperation of Robespierre’s legacy from the perspective of France’s former colonies. For Yacine especially, it was important to highlight the parallels in historiographic receptions of the “reign of terror” to colonial propaganda of the Algerian Revolution and other anticolonial guerilla struggles in Haiti, Vietnam, and Algeria

Posting my favorite sections from Pellerin’s analysis, translations provided by google lmfao; highlights & underline mine--

“Kateb Yacine's piece constitutes a circular vision of History of which Robespierre would be the centre. Whether one is in Indochina, in France, in Algeria, in the 18th century or during the Algerian war, the image of Robespierre speaks of the violence of History and its justification in the face of the violence of the oppressor, that of monarchical power, that of colonialism, that of Nazism. The representations of the guillotine, the Terror and Robespierre constitute a major ideological challenge for Kateb Yacine and take on a particular meaning depending on the place and the space.” (p4).

Note: Yacine’s conspicuous influences from Marx and direct homage to the opening line, “a spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of communism," from The Communist Manifesto.

Note: Yacine’s decision to weave his autographical self and experiences in colonial Algeria into re-telling the French Revolution.

Note: Yacine’s portrayal of the guillotine as indeed a “ambivalent tool”-- not as a post-Thermidorian carcicature of popular violence against the bourgeoise-- but due to its later mobilization by the French colonial government in the execution of over 2300 Algerian revolutionaries 1956-63.

Note: Yacine’s mediations on Francophone historiography and moralization of the “Reign of Terror”; direct resonances for Algerian revolutionaries on the role of terrorism in struggles for national indepedence from French colonialism

Note: Yacine’s explicit affirmation of Robespierre as the original and legitimate symbol of an enlightened French republic-yet-to-come, in spite of the revolution’s failure to manifest it.

Note: Robespierre attempting to reach Karl Marx prior to his confrontation with de Gaulle, the latter of whom mocks Robespierre as “[having] nothing of a man of action.” Empower by his meeting with Marx, Robespierre responds to this attempted demasculation [perhaps paralleling popular portrayals of his feud with Danton?] with, “And you, the great de Gaulle, you have subdued the generals, but you have not seen Second Lieutenant Le Pen, who is threatening to take power” (Yacine in Pellerin, pp27).

[film-classics]

Greta Garbo - The Face of the Century

Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden on 18 September 1905) was a Swedish-born actress who built her global appeal on a carefully maintained mystique during her short career. Called "The Face of the Century," she is regarded as one of the Hollywood's greatest beauties.

Garbo was born into a poor family and dropped out of school at 13 to take care of her father. His death deeply affected her and promised to make a life for herself that was void of financial hardship.

Following her father's death, Garbo worked as a salesperson at PUB department store.  After modeling for the store's catalogues, she earned a more lucrative job as a fashion model, which led to a role in her first film in 1922.

She then earned a scholarship at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy, where she met Finnish director Mauritz Stiller, who became her mentor.  Louis B. Mayer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wanted Stiller in Hollywood. The director agreed to a contract with one condition: Garbo. Reluctantly, Mayer inked her a deal, too.

She made her first MGM film in 1926, and by 1928, had become MGM's highest box-office star with A Woman of Affairs. She followed it up with several more hits, including Camille (1936). Her career slowed down in the 1940s and retired at 35.

After retiring, Garbo declined all opportunities to appear onscreen, shunned publicity, and led a private life. She died, aged 84, in a New York, as a result of pneumonia and renal failure.

Legacy:

Nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Romance (1930), Camille (1936), and Two-Faced Woman (1941)

Presented an Academy Honorary Award in 1955

Received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress twice: Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1936)

Won the National Board of Review Best Acting Award three times: Camille (1936), Ninotchka (1939), and Two-Faced Woman (1941)

Was the highest-paid star at MGM for most of her career

Won the Photoplay Awards - Best Performances of the Month for a record eight times: May and December 1926, February and November 1927, March and September 1928, and January and March 1929

Won Best Actress for Anna Christie (1930) and Queen Christina (1933) from Picturegoer Awards

Listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America’s top-10 box office draws from 1930 to 1932

Was one of the subjects of French composer Charles Koechlin's "Seven Stars Symphony" (1933)

Granted the Swedish royal medal Litteris et Artibus in 1937

Is one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the “Secret Annex” in 1942

Voted "Best Actress of the Half Century" in a 1950 Daily Variety opinion poll

Named “the most beautiful woman that ever lived” in 1954 by Guinness World Records

Given the George Eastman Award by George Eastman House in 1957

Has appeared on many postage stamps from, among others, Swedish Posten in 1980 and 2005, Correos de Cuba in 1995, Deutsche Post in 2001, US Postal Service in 2005, Poșta Română issue in 2005, and Australia Post in 2008,

Made a Commander of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star by order of King Carl XVI Gustaf in 1983

Depicted in the film Garbo Talks (1984)

Awarded the Illis Quorum by the government of Sweden in 1985

Had a star was named after her in 1985

Has appeared on commemorative coins from Germany in 1994, France in 1995, and Sweden in 2005

Listed 25th in Entertainment Weekly’s 100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in 1998

Ranked #38 in Empire's Top 100 Movie Stars in 1997

Has had a museum, the Garbosällskapet, dedicated to her in Högsby since 1998

Named the 5th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema in 1999 by the American Film Institute

Inducted in the Online Film and Television Association Hall of Fame in 2002

Ranked #8 in Premiere magazine’s 50 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in 2005 and #25 in 100 Greatest Performances of All Time in 2006 for Ninotchka (1939)

Honored by Stockholm City Council in 1992 with a square, Greta Garbos Torg, and a bust of her likeness in 2009

Honored by Norwegian Air Shuttle as its "Tail-fin Hero" on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner in 2016

Featured on 100-krona banknote by Sveriges Riksbank since 2018

Featured in an exhibit at the Postmuseum in 2005, the Belmacz in 2013, the Fotografiska in 2016, the Staley-Wise Gallery in 2016, and Galerie56 in 2023

Honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for April 2019

Honored with a statue of her, "Statue of Integrity," in 2016, located in the forest in Härjedalen

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard for motion picture

[siriusist]

+ I've been busy doing extra assignments and work for another job within the government to transfer to that is much more of a better fit- my next step is to take two forty-five minute French tests, so please light a candle that my French actually holds up in a workplace capacity. 🥲

(Also, I find out about scholarships on Monday, and get my tax return coming up next week hopefully <3)

[factorydefaultlu]

Character Bio

Demographics

Faceclaim: Zoe Colletti

Full name: Hope Nicole Jones

Birth date: June 16, 1999

Age: 25 years old

Zodiac: Gemini

Ethnicity: White

Nationality: American

Spoken Languages: English, non fluent French

Height: 5'3 / 160cm

Weight: 160 lbs/ 73 kilos

Eye Color: Hazel Green

Hair Color: Chestnut Brown

Identifying Marks: Freckles all over her body, most prominent on her face, arms and shoulders. A small black stick n poke butterfly tattoo on her left hip. Pierced ears.

Scars: A few she got on accident from falls and such, a large scar on her left calf from being tripped down the bleachers in high school. Small self harm scars on her thighs that have been healed for a few years. A long thin scar down her middle torso from her clavical to navel, as well as scars on her knees and elbows, courtesy of her kidnapper.

Occupation: Pharmacy Technician

Gender Identity/Pronouns: Female, she/her

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual, though she's on the ace spectrum due to trauma.

Backstory

Hope grew up in a small town in Indiana USA. Her father wasn't around much and her mom basically raised her on her own. Her brothers are both nearly a decade older than her and she was the only child in the house by the time she was 9.

She's always been interested in movies, theatre, musicals, and modeling. She'd beg her mother to buy her the magazines on the rack at the grocery store just so she could look at the pretty women.

Despite having such a high regard for herself at a young age, she was still relentlessly bullied in grade school. By the time she hit high school she became a bully herself, often talking down to others and developing a superiority complex.

Hope did have a few friends though, and doesn't consider her experience in school to be that awful. She says it could have always been worse.

She graduated on the honor roll and was class president of her senior year. Despite being able to get a free ride scholarship to Indiana University she turned it down to pursue acting. She tried online college but eventually dropped out.

She remained at her job at the local movie theatre and started to promote herself on social. This brought the attention of a Canadian man, Jonathan Weaver. Or at least that's what he called himself.

He easily manipulated her, making promises of getting her into a modeling career. He began teaching her French and would send her money to buy specific clothes to model for him. Eventually he convinced her to move to Canada.

Hope's mother begged her not to go, but of course Hope didn't listen.

When Hope stepped out of the release gate at the airport, she met the man she'd been talking to for nearly a year. He looked like how he did in the photos, and acted like how he did online.

Unfortunately for her, he drugged the bottle of water he handed to her. He led her back to his apartment, chained her to a radiator and held her captive for 2 weeks. Dressing her up, photographing her, and raping her.

Hope was able to break a pipe and get free one day while Jonathan was out of the apartment. She ran from the building begging for help, barefoot and half naked.

Something in her broke that day and while she was being questioned by police, she lied and gave them false information. Hope wanted revenge on Jonathan, and not the kind that jail time could provide.

Along the way, she started becoming interested in the websites and forums she was posted on while in captivity. Her mind further broke, and she wanted to inflict that kind of pain on others so she wouldn't have to feel it herself.

Hope began making her own content, with any poor girl she could find. She started branching out and soon began to kidnap men.

After some research and digging she found out that a man named Jonathan Weaver didn't exist; At least none that looked like the man that tortured her. The apartment she was held in was abandoned and owned by the local government. There was no trace of her kidnapper.

She remained in Canada and got her citizenship, hoping to one day run into 'Jonathan' and give him a taste of his own medicine.

She works at a shady pharmacy in a downtown area and gets away with stealing small amounts of narcotics. She's gotten good at drugging people inconspicuously and is very active in the nightlife of her city. She's a regular at most of the bars and clubs.

Personality

Good personality traits: Ambitious, confident, friendly, intelligent, loyal, persistent, imaginative, bubbly, cautious

Bad personality traits: argumentative, stubborn, perfectionist, obsessive, spoiled, deceitful, untrusting, anxious

Sense of humor: 'dark', sarcastic, and dry.

Character’s greatest fear: going through what she went through all over again.

Life philosophy: We cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever - Haruki Marukami

Greatest strength: Her intelligence and quick wit.

Greatest vulnerability or weakness: Her desire to be loved and her desire for revenge.

Biggest regret: Letting herself be manipulated by a man she'd met online and allowing herself to fall victim to him. She considers herself smart, and felt so stupid when she woke up in that apartment.

Character’s darkest secret: her apathy towards human life. She tries to seem compassionate but in reality she couldn't care less what happened to most people. Hope assisted her friend in committing suicide the summer before their freshman year of high school. She helped string the rope up, and pushed the bucket from under her friend's feet. Hope then cut her down and held her until she turned blue. She has had an odd relationship with death ever since.

MBTI: ENTJ (Commander) is a personality type with the Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging traits. They are decisive people who love momentum and accomplishment. They gather information to construct their creative visions but rarely hesitate for long before acting on them.

Character Alignment: Chaotic Neutral- A chaotic neutral character is an individualist who follows their own heart and generally shirks rules and traditions. Although chaotic neutral characters promote the ideals of freedom, it is their own freedom that comes first; good and evil come second to their need to be free.

Enneagram Type: Type 4 The Individualist- The Sensitive, Introspective Type; Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

Family and Friends

Hometown: Orleans, Indiana, USA

Current Residence: Canada

Pets: none but she'd love to have a cat, and maybe some chickens.

Mother/Relationship with her: Amazing when she was a child but once she hit high school it became somewhat strained. Hope always thought she knew what was best for herself and would ignore her mother or start small arguments over things.

Father/Relationship with him: Nonexistent. He was never around and eventually went missing. No negative feelings, just no feelings at all.

Siblings/Relationship with them: 2 brothers James and Brian, 8 and 10 years older than her. It's a pretty decent relationship with both but there's such a large age gap that they don't have much in common and don't talk outside of pleasantries and catch ups during holidays.

Spouse(s)/Relationship with them: N/A

Children/Relationship with them: N/A

Likes and Dislikes

Favorite Color: Pink, green and purple

Least favorite color: neon green

Favorite Music: pop, indie, and r&b

Least Favorite Music: Post modern country, dubstep

Favorite Food: strawberry cake, cheeseburgers, sesame chicken.

Least Favorite Food: any kind of leafy green. She is adament that she's not a rabbit. She tolerates spinach but only if it's in something like a dip or sandwich. Salads are off the table.

Favorite Genre: Romcoms, documentaries/nonfiction, horror/thriller

Least Favorite Genre: Action, sci-fi although there's exceptions to the rule. She enjoys Star Wars but doesn't like superhero movies.

Habits

Hobbies: reading, shopping, playing dress up, drawing/painting, dancing, jigsaw puzzles and watching movies

Smokes: She hates the smell of cigarettes and weed and is quick to preach the negative effects that smoking causes. She does smoke socially if it will get her close to a new victim though.

Drinks: Hope holds her alcohol well and it takes a few drinks for her to start feeling it. She really likes rum and coke, peach margaritas and lemon drop shots.

Other drugs: She steals half empty vials of morphine from her pharmacy and finds that's the only way she can sleep nowadays. She's done cocaine and molly on occasion with potential victims, but doesn't like that they skew her perception.

Nervous tics: Twirls her hair, bites her nails and picks at her skin when she's anxious or deep in thought. If she's wearing a long sleeve shirt or sweater she'll often pull the sleeves over her hands and pick at the threads.

Traits

Optimist or pessimist?: She tries to be optimistic, but sometimes all she can see is the negativities.

Introvert or extrovert?: Mostly extroverted, but she really likes her alone time too.

Daredevil or cautious?: She was always cautious, and then the one time she decided to take a risk it ended badly, so she's back to walking on eggshells again.

Logical or emotional?: She'd say that logic rules her, but she's quick to fly off the handle if she thinks someone is using her or making fun of her.

Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat?: There is a method to her chaos. It appears messy but it's definitely not dirty. She knows where everything is at and hates when people try to help her clean up.

Prefers working or relaxing?: Hates working unless it's something she wants to do. If it doesn't strike her interest then she wants no part in it.

Confident or unsure of himself/herself?: Acts confident, though there is a little insecurity deep down. Especially about her place in the world. She always trusts her intelligence though.

Animal lover?: Yes, she loves all animals especially cats.

[nanshe-of-nina]

Favorite History Books || Baldwin of Bourcq: Count of Edessa and King of Jerusalem (1100-1131) by Alan V. Murray ★★★★☆

Baldwin of Bourcq first entered the historical record in 1096, when he left his home in northeastern France to join the First Crusade, the great expedition summoned in late November 1095 by Pope Urban II for the liberation of the holy sites and Christian peoples of Syria and Palestine from the domination of the Muslim Turks. After the crusaders took Jerusalem on 15 July 1099 most of them returned to their homes in the West, but a minority remained in the newly founded principalities in the Near East which came to be collectively known as Outremer, an Old French name meaning ‘[the land] beyond the sea’. Baldwin was one of those crusaders who chose to seek their fortunes in the East. In 1100 he unexpectedly succeeded to the county of Edessa, a new Christian principality carved out of territories seized from Turkish control in north-eastern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now southeastern Turkey. There he ruled over a diverse population of Armenians, Syrian Christians and immigrant Europeans for almost two decades. In 1118 he was called to take up the succession in the kingdom of Jerusalem, where he ruled for over twelve years. By the time he had reached middle age, Baldwin had gone from being a minor nobleman in France to one of only a dozen kings in Western Christendom. Until now, Baldwin’s biography has never been written. In the Middle Ages it was Godfrey of Bouillon, the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, who rapidly came to be regarded as the great chivalric hero of the crusade, and his medieval reputation was reflected in modern historiography. Because Godfrey’s life before the crusade is reasonably well documented, it also attracted the attention of historians of Lotharingia as well as of the crusades and Outremer. By comparison his brother and successor King Baldwin I was neglected in modern scholarship, but recent research has established him as the real founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Whether as count of Edessa or king of Jerusalem, Baldwin II (as he is numbered in both cases) received less attention than either of his predecessors in historical research of the nineteenth and most of the twentieth centuries. However, three significant facets of his reign in Jerusalem have emerged in research of the last fifty years. Firstly, Hans Eberhard Mayer’s work on the royal chancery and the charters of the kings and queens of Jerusalem has not only provided a magnificent edition of Baldwin’s documents, but also shown how his tenure of the regency of the principality of Antioch caused significant problems for the government of his own kingdom. Secondly, prosopographical research has highlighted the importance of Baldwin’s family connections in France after he settled in the East. And thirdly, my own earlier work has made clear the importance of the attempt to depose Baldwin while he was a captive of the Turks in 1123, and the effect this had on his subsequent policies.

[scotianostra]

John Cairncross WWII intelligence officer and Soviet spy was born on 27th July 1913 in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire.

Cairncross was highly educated, attending Glasgow University and obtaining degrees in French and German at the Sorbonne in France before entering Cambridge University on scholarship to study modern languages.

Was introduced to Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess and soon became a Communist working with the Cambridge Spy Ring. Monitored by Soviet agent Samuel Cahan, he received a short course in espionage tactics before taking the Home Office and Foreign Office exams, receiving the highest scores on both.

Was assigned to the Foreign Office in 1936 where he worked briefly with Donald Maclean. Served as Served briefly as the personal secretary to Lord Maurice Hankey who oversaw Intelligence services in Britain. Moved on to the Bletchley Code and Cipher School. In the course of his job he passed intercepted messages and other classified information to his Soviet handler. He often delivered cases full of intercepted German messages int he back seat of his car which he drove to the Soviet embassy.

During World War II, worked for MI6 in its London headquarters. Smuggled plans for postwar Yugoslavia to the Soviets. After World War II, continued to pass information to Soviet agents, including Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess.

In 1951, sensitive documents in Cairncross’ handwriting were found in Burgess apartment after Burgess and Maclean fled to Russia. He was thus fired from his position in the British Treasury department, although he denied being a spy. He turned to scholarly activities and humanitarian efforts for the United Nations.

In 1964, Sir Anthony Blunt confessed to being a Soviet spy and in return for leniency identified Cairncross as another Soviet agent. When confronted with the evidence, Cairncross admitted to his espionage, explaining that he had not spied for several years, saying that he spied only during World War II, when Russia was a British ally.

Soviet defectors later disputed Cairncross statements about his limited involvement in espionage. They claimed that he had turned over countless reams of information.

Fearful of negative publicity and scandal, the British government hushed up his activities, declining to prosecute him for espionage or to expose him to the public. Cairncross, in fact, remained for a time in his job as with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

Cairncross was exposed in 1981 by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He continued his life in exile until 1995 when he moved to Britain and married American opera singer Gayle Brinkerhoff. Later that year he died after suffering a stroke.