#lateral hiring in India

[trufynd01]

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[insanityclause]

EXCLUSIVE: One year ago we told you that a second season of John le Carré adaptation The Night Manager was quietly being developed under the codename Steelworks.

Now, Deadline can reveal that the BBC and new co-pro partner Amazon have gone big on a supercharged two-season order of the thriller, with Tom Hiddleston returning to lead, Hugh Laurie coming back as EP and with a new director in I Hate Suzie’s Georgi Banks-Davies. A third season has also been greenlit. David Farr returns as writer and Stephen Garrett is showrunner.

The Night Manager Season 2 will begin filming later this year and will pick up with Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine eight years after the explosive finale of Season 1, going beyond the original book, which was written by the celebrated British writer in 1993. Additional plot details are being kept under wraps and there is not yet confirmation as to whether EP Laurie’s Richard Roper, who was last seen in the back of a paddy wagon driven by arms buyers who were not best pleased with him, will return to star. Hiddleston will also EP and will discuss in more depth on tonight’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Produced by The Ink Factory in association with Character 7, Demarest Films and 127 Wall, and in co-production with Spanish partner Nostromo Pictures, The Night Manager Season 2 was sold to Amazon by Fifth Season. The first was co-produced with AMC.

New director Banks-Davies, a BAFTA-nominee who takes over from Susanne Bier, has credits including I Hate Suzie, Garfield and upcoming Netflix series Kaos.

The Night Manager Season 1 was a huge success, watched by millions and winning multiple BAFTAs, Emmys and Golden Globes including best actor for Hiddleston. Also starring Tom Hollander, Olivia Colman and Elizabeth Debicki, it followed Pine – who ran a luxury hotel in Cairo – as he attempted to infiltrate the inner circle of Roper’s crime syndicate after being hired by Foreign Office task force manager Angela Burr.

The first season was commissioned more than 10 years ago and the show has since been remade in India, lapping the UK version by swiftly having a Season 2 greenlit for Disney+ Hotstar in May last year.

Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell, le Carré’s sons who run The Ink Factory, said Season 1 proved “a landmark moment for the golden era of television – uniting on-screen and behind-the-camera talent at the top of their game – and an audience reception which was beyond our wildest imagining.”

They added: “Revisiting the story of Pine also means going beyond the events of John le Carré’s original work: that is a decision we have not taken lightly, but his compelling characters and the vision David has for their next chapter were irresistible.”

Amazon MGM Studios Head of Television Vernon Sanders said: “We are elated to bring additional seasons of The Night Manager to our Prime Video customers. The combination of terrific source material, the wonderful team at The Ink Factory, a great writer in David Farr, an award-winning director in Georgi Banks-Davies, as well as the talented cast truly make the series the full package.”

Hiddleston said: “The first series of The Night Manager was one of the most creatively fulfilling projects I have ever worked on. The depth, range and complexity of Jonathan Pine was, and remains, a thrilling prospect.”

BBC content boss Charlotte Moore added: “After years of fervent speculation I’m incredibly excited to confirm that The Night Manager is returning to the BBC for two more series.”

The Night Manager series two is created and executive produced by Farr, based on the characters created by le Carré. Additional executive producers include Garrett for Character 7, Banks-Davies, Laurie and Hiddleston; Joe Tsai and Arthur Wang for 127 Wall; Stephen and Simon Cornwell, Michele Wolkoff, and Tessa Inkelaar for The Ink Factory; Adrián Guerra for Nostromo Pictures; William D. Johnson for Demarest Films, Nick Cornwell, Susanne Bier, Chris Rice for Fifth Season and Gaynor Holmes for the BBC.

[whencyclopedia]

Battle of Plassey

The Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 saw Robert Clive's East India Company army defeat a larger force of the Nawab of Bengal. Victory brought the Company new wealth and marked the beginning of its territorial expansion in the subcontinent. Not much more than a skirmish, Plassey has often been cited as the beginning of British rule in India.

Clive & the Expansion of the EIC

The East India Company (EIC) was founded in 1600, and by the mid-18th century, it was benefiting from its trade monopoly in India to make its shareholders immensely rich. The Company was effectively the colonial arm of the British government in India, but it protected its interests using its own private army and hired troops from the regular British army. By the 1750s, the Company was keen to expand its trade network and begin a more active territorial control in the subcontinent.

Robert Clive (1725-1774) had already distinguished himself in the Company service at Arcot in August 1751 where he had led his troops to withstand a 52-day siege. This was followed by a victory at Arni in December 1751. Clive then commanded the EIC artillery at Trichinopoly in June 1752. By 1755, Clive was a lieutenant colonel in the EIC army, and his name was under consideration to become the next Governor of Madras, but Bengal was the real trouble spot for the East India Company.

There was a new ruler of Bengal, Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah (b. 1733). Only assuming the role in April 1756, Siraj ud-Daulah, was in his early twenties and was something of a reckless youth. He was a surprising choice to inherit the nawab role from his grandfather Ali Vardi Khan. The decision to make Siraj ud-Daualah the crown prince four years earlier had already split the Bengal royal court just when unity was required to face its greatest challenge.

The new nawab took exception to the EIC presence in the region and marched on Calcutta in June 1756. Siraj ud-Daualah was particularly angry that the EIC had added to the fortifications of Calcutta without permission and had not responded favourably to his request to remove them. Arriving in the city with his army, a short siege followed, and Calcutta fell. The EIC was already obliged to respond to the loss of one of its most important trading centres but a curious incident then occurred which stiffened the resolve of the militarists in the Company and weakened the position of those who wished for the EIC to remain a purely trading body. After the fall of Calcutta, a number of military personnel and civilians who had been in the city's fort were taken prisoner and held in a small, poorly lit, and badly ventilated prison cell locally known as the Black Hole of Calcutta. According to one prisoner, only 23 men of the original 146 male and female prisoners survived the confinement, all the others died of extreme dehydration in the terrible heat of the packed cell. The effect of the Black Hole story was to galvanise the military response from the EIC.

Robert Clive was dispatched with an army to re-establish the EIC's trading presence in Calcutta. Sailing in five ships and with an army of some 1,500 men, Clive succeeded in recapturing Calcutta in January 1757, but Siraj ud-Daulah still had a massive army at large. What is more, the rival French East India Company was in control of Chandernagore just up the coast. Clive was determined on a decisive military action. He captured the fort of Hughli later in January, which was then destroyed by cannon fire from the EIC fleet. An attack on the nawab's army outside Calcutta was less successful and obliged Clive to retreat. Both sides became wary of the other and the heavy casualties any future confrontation would bring, but the control of Bengal was now at stake. A peace treaty was agreed upon, although both sides knew this was but a temporary pause. In the interim, Clive could now deal with the threatening French presence in the region. In March 1757, Clive attacked and captured Chandernagore, bringing an end to any remaining ambitions the French had in Bengal. When the Hindu Seths of Murshidabad, a dynasty of financiers worried at the demise in European trade any wider conflict would bring, withdrew their support of the now isolated nawab, Clive seized the moment.

Continue reading...

[silverfoxstole]

Just been thinking (again) about Charley being called an ‘Edwardian Adventuress’ and how much it annoys me (yes, I know they fudged an explanation in a later audio that I haven’t heard; it still bugs me).

I’m glad India didn’t go and hire a ‘nice Edwardian outfit’ for the live show as putting Charley in that sort of costume would have looked ridiculous given the massive change in fashion after the death of Edward VII in 1910 (the end of the Edwardian era) and the First World War that followed four years later. Though I’m sure a lot of older women like Lady Louisa would have taken a while to adapt to the new styles and doubtless disapproved of rising hemlines and flapper dresses, Charley was born in 1912 so has grown up during that era of change and I have no doubt that she would embrace such fashions with gusto. I mean, just look:

Here we have some Edwardian dresses, the kind of thing that would have been worn by Charley’s mother before Charley was born and were two decades out of date by the time she stowed away on the R101:

1910s, as thing start to change more:

1920s fashions, when Charley would have entered her teens:

And finally the early 1930s, around the time she left in the TARDIS:

As you can see, there’s a huge difference! India could have quite easily found an appropriate costume that didn’t rustle if not for that erroneous ‘Edwardian’ tag.

[elxgantcaptain]

SOOOOO, potentially a new hc backstory to Hook based on chats with a friend and more research cause HISTORY~

Posting under the cut first just to make sure it makes sense and to get peoples thoughts (those who know the OG story I went for)

83

Raised in a noble, rich household, James Francis Bartholomew Jackson was set to inherit his father’s business as a London Merchant, who owned three merchant vessels and a grand wealth and home. In reality, James senior, his father, was not really his father. James was bore from his mother’s love to a lowly footman in their home and despite keeping it secret, the truth was known after James’s mother passed away at age 4 and to keep the scandal secret, his father sent James’s real father to his death.

No one else knew. Any confession his wife had written was thrown in the fire, his anger towards his wife and her lover extended to young James and yet without this boy, his wealth would dwindle to nothing and his legacy for nought and by now he could not rid himself of the bastard child. Especially he had built himself up to be the boy’s father. 

James would never remember his mother well and he would never know the truth about his real father until much later in his life. He never saw his real father. 

In 1664 a young 12 year old James went to sea, working as an apprentice to the quartermaster on board an East India Trading Company vessel. He sailed with the promise and a contract to the ship, to return home in no more than a years time to take on more of his duties as a heir to his father’s fortune and business (as well as to confirm his betrothal to a gentry girl.) 

However, he never returned to England. 

After sailing on the merchant ship for a year, James was called to enlist into the navy as part of the second anglo-dutch war, he took part in a battle against Dutch ships and saw many deaths and sinking from the mere age of 14 as an apprentice officer. 

As the Plague of London erupted, followed by the Great Fire of London, he was taken out of the navy along with many others as a means for the government to save money and soon rejoined another merchant ship. 

Hook sailed on a total of 5 different merchant ships for a grand total of 13 years after leaving the navy. The truth of his birthright came about through a letter. The letter stated that Hook was not set to inherit his father’s title, business or money, he was bankrupt and cast aside after the death of his father who confessed before death that James was not his son and he kept it secret to avoid the scandal.

The blow of the news was only overshadowed by the Officers and Captain on the ship he served who took it as a ‘kindness’ to not throw him overboard and stripped him of all rank, titles and honours. Treating him with evil distain for the rest of his voyage.

Until the year 1703, where at the age of 27, James took part in the mutiny of the ship and became a pirate Captain.

For 10 years, James was known as both ‘Mutiny Red’ and ‘Scarlet Jim’ (Jas to his friends) and sailed across the world plundering, stealing and ransacking other ships, getting away with it at times for being hired as Privateers, escaping or disguising themselves. 

Then, one day, himself and his crew were struck by an horrendous and strange storm. When Hook awoke, he was amongst the wreckage of his ship in a new world, where the sky, the sea and the people were so different and magical…. The Never Realm.

Rescued and taken in by a man named Mr Smee, James and the members of his surviving crew rebuilt the ship and discovered the island ‘Neverland’ where he came across an orphan boy who didn’t seem to age…

The rest is history.

[outhaulscheme]

24?

24. Attempting to find out if they are single/available

Gregory sat alone at a bar, the name of which he had already forgotten, drinking cheap bourbon and feeling sorry for himself. Wallowing in self-pity was an unnecessary indulgence, of course. A complete waste of time. But, Gregory reflected, maybe he deserved a moment just to feel miserable.

He had uprooted his life for a new job position as the principal of an elementary school. He had bid farewell to his family and friends in Baltimore and moved into an apartment in the unfamiliar city of Philadelphia, fully prepared to start putting his degree to good use. And then, in the final moments, the rug was pulled out from under him.

We regret to inform you that we have chosen to move forward with another candidate...

The bourbon burned on the way down. Gregory welcomed the feeling. Something must have happened after he accepted the job offer. Maybe a higher-up had decided last-minute that Gregory didn't make enough eye contact during the interview, that his demeanor was too stoic and off-putting, that he wouldn't have been a good fit. Or, maybe, Gregory's job offer had been revoked in favor of a nepotism hire, or...

Gregory's train of thought was interrupted by a voice that seemingly materialized from somewhere near his left shoulder. "Hey! I saw you were sitting alone and I thought, whoa, what a coincidence, I'm also by myself."

Alarmed, Gregory turned to see a white guy wearing a blue plaid shirt in the seat next to his. Plaid Shirt held out his phone, grinning. On his phone screen was the webpage for The Washington Post's online Saturday crossword; in his other hand was a half-empty margarita. Gregory disliked him immediately in the same way he disliked car crashes and slightly asymmetrical flowerbeds — despite his best efforts, Gregory could not take his eyes off him.

"You seem like a big crosswords guy," said Plaid Shirt, completely ignoring the less-than-thrilled expression on Gregory's face. "I already did The New York Times crossword this morning, but we've still got The Washington Post."

Leave me alone, Gregory wanted to say — but Gregory did in fact enjoy a good crossword, and there was something about the well-meaning naivete written across the guy's face that made Gregory want to buy him a drink. "Okay," he said, instead. A thought occurred to him. "If you're hitting on me —"

"Oh, no, no!" Plaid Shirt said, his face pink. He set his phone on the table, angling it toward Gregory, and took a sip of his margarita. "I was actually on a date with someone earlier, but he left after we got into an argument about the electoral college. Pretty sure he's gonna ghost me later. Honestly, it just looked like you needed a friend. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Gregory prompted, although a part of him knew where this was heading. He glanced at Plaid Shirt's phone and tapped SIAM into 26-across ("India's neighbor on a Risk board").

"Well," Plaid Shirt said, hesitantly, "I did say that guy was gonna ghost me later. So, um, is there someone waiting for you at home, or..."

"No," Gregory said. "No, I just moved here."

"Oh." A small, hopeful smile. "I'm Jacob, by the way."

"Gregory," Gregory said. And then, because alcohol had made him bolder — or maybe because Jacob was weird in a way that put Gregory at ease somehow, like he didn't have to worry about eye contact with this guy who thought doing crosswords with strangers at bars was normal — Gregory added, "Can I get your number?"

[mickstart]

wait they managed not to broadcast any force india cars for a weekend?? when and why did this happen??

Oh this is a severely fucked up occurrence that I will try to stay brief about but. Basically in 2012 formula one raced in Bahrain as a pretty much implicit sportswashing measure (I'm wary of throwing the term around but f1 had cancelled the race in 2011 due to 'political unrest' aka mass protests from a civilian population that were being violently put down, and in 2012 were explicitly asked to return in what was seen by most as the Bahrain government trying to show they had returned to normal and there were definitely no more human rights abuses happening.) This was widely condemned by both international charities and local activists but Bernie insisted it was all good and they would race no matter what. To put into perspective how fucked the situation was, a protester was killed the weekend of the race.

(side note if you look into this deeper and actually investigate the politics going on behind a Motorsport pov a lot of drivers showed their asses here in their response and it's interesting especially in the case of Sebastian and Lewis how they reacted here VS how they would probably have reacted today.)

So that's. The background. Now here's the insane part. Obviously there were local protests against this, a lot of them. But only one incident really seemed to rattle f1 and that was a hire car of Force India mechanics had a petrol bomb thrown at it. Nobody was hurt but subsequently Force India decided not to participate in the later practice session so the staff could all return to their hotels before it got dark outside.

F1 was. Pissed. How dare you ruin our messaging. There is nothing wrong here, we're all having a great time here, there is no unrest whatsoever the government and their money are doing a great job. Also, this was back when news breaking on twitter was a fairly new concept so the process of these rumours coming out via twitter were very very messy and drew more attention to the sport.

So in what was probably an effort to avoid this online speculation and people demanding answers, during the first practice session, f1 decided the world was populated entirely by toddlers with no object permanence, and if they just didn't SHOW force india, nobody would remember to ask them about the force india petrol bomb rumours. So you had one session where every single team was getting screen time EXCEPT force india - like, I remember it being commented on as odd at the time - and a weekend where the camera kept cutting away from force india cars jarringly as much as it could.

[youremyheaven]

there’s a super rich indian couple that is going to get married or maybe they already did, cus it’s been 2 weeks ppl are talking about it 😭😭😭😭

i have no idea who they are but i don’t think they’re celebrities…they are heirs of something🫢

👀👀👀what does the indian media say about them?

it’s anant ambani and radhika merchant 👀👀👀👀

Mukesh Ambani is the richest person in Asia with a net worth of $113 billion 💀

Anant Ambani is his youngest child

Obviously the whole family is famous for being rich but in the last decade or so, they've attracted more attention in the media for their extravagant parties, weddings etc and their tendency to bring out celebrities from India and abroad for these things (Beyonce performed at his daughter's wedding, Rihanna at his son's pre wedding ceremony etc)

Nita Ambani, Mukesh Ambani's wife is thought to be the mastermind behind this (she's Swati Moon and def lovesssss to be immersed in the material world). She was an ordinary school teacher when she married Mukesh in the 80s. The Ambanis are kinda like the Rockefellers of India but they weren't as rich in the 80s as they are today, with major stakes in every industry (esp telecom). Nita was strictly middle class and unused to living a life of luxury. Mukesh's younger brother Anil Ambani, who at the time was more successful and married to a Bollywood actress, Tina Munim (now Tina Ambani) would throw these parties with Tina and invite all these celebrities since those were Tina's friends and colleagues and Nita (according to popular lore) would get very jealous because she wasn't as glamorous as Tina and being a school teacher, she felt out of place etc at these functions. Moreover being the elder daughter in law meant she had more responsibilities esp since her marriage was an arranged one and Tina & Anil had a love marriage.

Cut to a few decades later. Her father in law passed away. Anil Ambani went bankrupt and Mukesh got richer and richer 🤑🤑🤑and finally Nita could shine. There began all this tacky extravaganza. She's just making up in old age for all the partying and celebrity shoulder brushing that she didn't get to do when she was younger. She was once an out of place school teacher but now she's the wife of the richest man in Asia, so she can pull her weight differently.

All of these media shenanigans are said to be her idea as Mukesh is known for being a very simple guy (he's Ashwini Moon) who's obsessed with his wife and will do anything for her.

Since this is the last Ambani wedding of this generation, they're kinda going all out for it. For the last 6 months they've been hosting various "pre-wedding rituals" and now last week, they finally got married.

The name Ambani in India is synonymous with wealth, we just think they're crazy rich people with nothing better to do than hire celebs as their show monkeys lol

[demigod-of-the-agni]

any cool desi books/media to recommend??

Okay to be fair I am not the biggest consumer of desi media HOWEVER. I have a few niche favourites (some of them come from my research for my Major Work in my final year in high school but here's a quick list):

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri - god this entire book changed me fundamentally. It was like watching my own life play in fast-forward and getting hit in places I didn't want to be hit. if you are a first-generation desi in a western country, you will be on the ground sobbing

If You See Me, Don't Say Hi by Neel Patel - a collection of short stories that methodically break down some of the most subtle and pervasive stereotypes within desi cultures. I've only ever had time to read the first two stories but I'm hoping to get the full book someday

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhump Lahiri - an anthology I read for my senior year as well. Another one of this heart-wrenching pieces that just resonate with me like damn.

The Aru Shah series by Roshani Chokshi - it's Percy Jackson But Make It Desi and honestly such a fun read!! Reading about the Potatoes (this is what the reincarnated Pandavas call themselves not joking) is always bound to make my day

The Age of Kalki series by Vishwas Mudagal - I read this purely for inspiration on my own original novel, and it was fun to use for comparisons for research and my writing. Also, spy stuff and action and all that

The Spider-Man: India comics - hey, desi stuff is desi stuff, and I enjoy anything that has my boy Pavitr in it (I'll enjoy it even more when @/marvelentertainment hires me to write him a book)

The Ms. Marvel show and comics - in Iman Vellani we trust 🙏 also my girl has such a wonderful variety of comics like. she's so cool. i love her. hoping that Iman does a masterful job as she writes Kamala's newest comic

18 Days by Grant Morrison - listen. there is a 2015 graphic novel and there is a 2010 artbook for the 2015 book. They are both the same thing: a retelling of the Mahabharata but make it electronic/futuristic. Read the graphic novel for the story, but I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the 2010 artbook as well because my god the ART is just gorgeous. It obviously provides insight on the creation of Morrison's 2015 book but god it is just. so so sooooo good. Mukesh Singh is a beautiful artist I need to have his art tattooed on me

Any desi movies from the 90s-00s - my experience with tamil movies in that time period have always been good ones!! They're chill, they're funny, they're silly, they're romantic, they're thrilling. literally all of my favourite song come from this period (don't disregard movies from later periods either, I watched Brahmastra a few months back and it was lit as fuck).

English translations of popular desi stories - and these stories can be anything. from ye old prevailing Ramayana and Mahabharata to anything written by contemporary desi authors. They've got a lot to share

On a side note me complaining to my desi friends that I want good tamil representation in western media often led to me getting smacked in the face with Never Have I Ever (by my DESI friends! who say it is very good!!) and i just want to say no. don't watch that. as a tamil person living in a western country, i apologise for who Devi Vishwakumar is as a person. i will personally pay for your therapy (has only watched two episodes and was immediately turned off)

I'm giving y'all a whole day to ask me whatever

[beasiannow]

Meanwhile, in an upscale suburb of Seattle, Washington, the Sharma Sisters from Hyderabad are still running their successful line of clothing stores.

At first, a small affair known as The Sharma Sisters' Indian Apparel Boutique sold sarees, where they sold sarees, dhoti kurta, salwar suits, and other items of Indian apparel.

Not a business fated for grand success in your average upscale Seattle suburb.

Then, as fate or karma would have it, they came into possession of something they came to call The Threads of Karma Cloth.

This, though super-science they didn’t understand, caused those who wore it (picked from a selected few) to become physically and psychologically attuned to the land of India. This, in turn, led to a much larger clientele in search of other less “esoteric” Indian apparel.

That's why they renamed their shops, which now had four in Washington state, to “You Are What You Wear Fine Indian Apparel.”

Which at last led them to branch out again with the opening of a shop in Boise City, Idaho.

To run it, they hired experienced local sales manager Pamela Sheridan, whom they insisted she and everyone she employed in their name dress in East-Indian style while doing so.

Pamela played along, being a go-along-to-get-along sort of person; plus she really needed the job. However, she had to ask.

“I’m sorry, but isn’t this cultural appropriation?” “Not to worry,” said the Sharma sister, who had helped her get dressed in her first saree. Trust me, wear what I’ve given you, and things will work themselves out before you know it.”

A week later, Pamela Sheridan was surprised to find this to be more true than she could have imagined.

A month later, Pamvati Shiravadan was reassuring her four new Western women hired for the coming opening day that they, too, would soon be as comfortable in their new free sarees as she was.

The four young ladies just hired, Vivian, Chloe, Lydia, and Willow, did not greet this news with much excitement.

However, a year later, the four, now known as Veha, Kavuri, Lakshmi, and Wishi, were more than happy on winning the outstanding sales team with accompanying big bonuses.

[trufynd01]

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[fibula-rasa]

Lost, but Not Forgotten: The Madness of Youth (1923)

Direction: Jerome Storm

Scenario: Joseph Franklin Poland

Original Story: George F. Worts

Camera: Joseph August

Studio: First National Fox (production) & (distribution)

Performers: John Gilbert, Billie Dove, Wilton Taylor, George K. Arthur, Ruth Boyd, Julanne Johnston, Donald Hatswell, Luke Lucas, Dorothy Manners (potentially miscredited as Louise/The Dancer)

Premiere: 8 April 1923

Status: presumed entirely lost

Length: 4,719 feet, or roughly 51 minutes.

Synopsis (synthesized from magazine summaries of the plot)

A sophisticated, young gentleman, Jaca Javalie (Gilbert), is travelling on a cross-country train to California. As Javalie traverses the smoking car, it’s apparent he’s being tailed by a detective. However, somewhere between the smoker and the pullman, the detective loses the trail—as if Javalie had disappeared into thin air. 

Later, out from the ditch beside the railroad, Javalie emerges—dressed now in tatters, a bindle stick slung over his shoulder. Javalie makes his way on foot to the California mansion of the Banning family. 

Within the estate, the patriarch, Theodore P. Banning (Taylor), has built a private vault to secure his millions after being burned by bank failures in the past. 

Banning’s children, Ted (Arthur) and Nanette, a.k.a. Nan (Dove), are now young adults and, though he loves them, he knows they’ve been spoiled rotten. Ted is selfish and unfeeling. He had brought home from France a wife, Jeanne (Boyd), but has since made her life miserable. Nan spends every night out gallivanting with the caddish mooch, Pete Reynolds (Hatswell), currently staying at the Banning’s as a guest.

Banning found comfort only in spiritualism—often communing from beyond the grave with his wife.

Javalie makes his entrance in the middle of another family quarrel. He presents himself to Banning, Sr. as a man with mystical powers, which he learned in India. He claims that has come to the Banning home after visions of their familial strife, sure that he can bring them peace. Banning agrees to let Javalie stay a while. Something about Javalie’s manner has a quick effect on the younger Bannings, who begin acting with a bit more reverence and grace. At dinner, Javalie lays his mysticism spiel on a receptive audience, save for the guest, Reynolds. 

George K. Arthur, John Gilbert, Billie Dove, Ruth Boyd, and Wilton Taylor in The Madness of Youth from Motion Picture Classic, June 1923

Later, the Bannings throw a lavish masquerade ball with the theme “winter frolic.” At the ball, Nan gets Javalie alone and says she doubts his supernatural gifts. He assures her he isn’t trying to fool her, and she takes that as flirting. The gentleman thief Javalie is softening. 

Next, Jeanne approaches Javalie and pleads with him to save her husband from the temptation of a dancer hired for the ball, who has a reputation as a vampire.

Ruth Boyd, George K. Arthur, John Gilbert, and Julanne Johnston in The Madness of Youth from Motion Picture Classic, June 1923

Javalie and Nan take a walk through the garden and she teasingly goads him into an embrace. Pleased with her machinations, Nan flutters away. 

Now left alone in the garden, Javalie is greeted by the dancer. Under her mask is a familiar face, Louise (Johnston), Javalie’s ex-girlfriend. Louise threatens to expose him to the Bannings. Javalie reveals that he’s been planning to rob the Banning vault for three years. Louise agrees to publicly play-act that Javalie has saved her soul in exchange for a cut of the loot and Javalie’s hand in marriage. Javalie preaches to the crowd of attendees and, on cue, Louise repents. Jeanne and Ted reconcile.

After the party, Javalie finds Banning alone in his library. Javalie hypnotizes Banning and gets him to reveal the location of and combination for the vault. The two men were not alone however: Reynolds had been eavesdropping. Reynolds confronts Javalie and extorts him.

John Gilbert and Wilton Taylor in The Madness of Youth from Motion Picture Classic, June 1923

The next day, inspired by Javalie’s preaching, Ted and Jeanne decide to start again on their own. Banning happily offers to build them a home. Javalie is shaken by a note from Louise saying that his preaching worked better than expected and she did, in fact, feel reformed and was off to make amends with her family.

Disturbed by Louise’s actions, Javalie defiantly steels himself and heads to the vault, combination in hand. However, when Javalie reaches the vault door, he’s overwhelmed and faints. When he comes to, Javalie is surrounded by the Bannings. Ted plans to call the police. Nan holds Javalie close and begs for mercy through tears, claiming that Javalie must have had a change of heart just as they all had. Jeanne backs her up. Seeing Nan and Javalie together, Banning says he understands and the police are not called.

John Gilbert, Billie Dove, and Wilton Taylor in The Madness of Youth from Motion Picture Classic, June 1923

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Points of Interest:

John Gilbert appeared in an astounding 90 silent films in his career from bit roles to starring roles and he even dabbled in writing and directing. While Gilbert had already worked on over 60 films by the time Madness of Youth came around, he was newly minted as a star just two years prior when he signed with Fox Film Corp. Gilbert would truly break out as a star when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924. Of those 90 silent films, 58 are considered lost films, which means that only 35% of Gilbert’s film work is known to survive today.

Madness of Youth is one of many films believed to be lost after the 1937 Fox vault fire. In the summer of 1937 at the Fox vault in Little Ferry, NJ a fire broke out that destroyed a majority of films produced by Fox before 1932 as well as films from other studios, most notably Educational Pictures. The fire also killed a child in a neighboring building. All in one night, thousands of films were lost, leaving a gaping hole in our film heritage.

from Motion Picture News, 7 April 1923 and Exhibitors Trade Review, 28 April 1923

☕ Buy me a coffee! ☕

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Transcribed Sources & Annotations over on the WMM Blog!

[dailyanarchistposts]

Footnotes, 101-150

[101] Gill, quoted in Gerland and Waitz’s Anthropologie, v. 641. See also pp. 636–640, where many facts of parental and filial love are quoted.

[102] Primitive Folk, London, 1891.

[103] Gerland, loc. cit. v. 636.

[104] Erskine, quoted in Gerland and Waitz’s Anthropologie, v. 640.

[105] W.T. Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences, London, 1866, p. 363.

[106] It is remarkable, however, that in case of a sentence of death, nobody will take upon himself to be the executioner. Every one throws his stone, or gives his blow with the hatchet, carefully avoiding to give a mortal blow. At a later epoch, the priest will stab the victim with a sacred knife. Still later, it will be the king, until civilization invents the hired hangman. See Bastian’s deep remarks upon this subject in Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. Die Blutrache, pp. 1–36. A remainder of this tribal habit, I am told by Professor E. Nys, has survived in military executions till our own times. In the middle portion of the nineteenth century it was the habit to load the rifles of the twelve soldiers called out for shooting the condemned victim, with eleven ball-cartridges and one blank cartridge. As the soldiers never knew who of them had the latter, each one could console his disturbed conscience by thinking that he was not one of the murderers.

[107] In Africa, and elsewhere too, it is a widely-spread habit, that if a theft has been committed, the next clan has to restore the equivalent of the stolen thing, and then look itself for the thief. A. H. Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, Leipzig, 1887, vol. i. p. 77.

[108] See Prof. M. Kovalevsky’s Modern Customs and Ancient Law (Russian), Moscow, 1886, vol. ii., which contains many important considerations upon this subject.

[109] See Carl Bock, The Head Hunters of Borneo, London, 1881. I am told, however, by Sir Hugh Law, who was for a long time Governor of Borneo, that the “head-hunting” described in this book is grossly exaggerated. Altogether, my informant speaks of the Dayaks in exactly the same sympathetic terms as Ida Pfeiffer. Let me add that Mary Kingsley speaks in her book on West Africa in the same sympathetic terms of the Fans, who had been represented formerly as the most “terrible cannibals.”

[110] Ida Pfeiffer, Meine zweite Weltrieze, Wien, 1856, vol. i. pp. 116 seq. See also Müller and Temminch’s Dutch Possessions in Archipelagic India, quoted by Elisée Reclus, in Géographie Universelle, xiii.

[111] Descent of Man, second ed., pp. 63, 64.

[112] See Bastian’s Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. p. 7. Also Gray, loc. cit. ii. p. 238.

[113] Miklukho-Maclay, loc. cit. Same habit with the Hottentots.

[114] Numberless traces of post-pliocene lakes, now disappeared, are found over Central, West, and North Asia. Shells of the same species as those now found in the Caspian Sea are scattered over the surface of the soil as far East as half-way to Lake Aral, and are found in recent deposits as far north as Kazan. Traces of Caspian Gulfs, formerly taken for old beds of the Amu, intersect the Turcoman territory. Deduction must surely be made for temporary, periodical oscillations. But with all that, desiccation is evident, and it progresses at a formerly unexpected speed. Even in the relatively wet parts of South-West Siberia, the succession of reliable surveys, recently published by Yadrintseff, shows that villages have grown up on what was, eighty years ago, the bottom of one of the lakes of the Tchany group; while the other lakes of the same group, which covered hundreds of square miles some fifty years ago, are now mere ponds. In short, the desiccation of North-West Asia goes on at a rate which must be measured by centuries, instead of by the geological units of time of which we formerly used to speak.

[115] Whole civilizations had thus disappeared, as is proved now by the remarkable discoveries in Mongolia on the Orkhon and in the Lukchun depression (by Dmitri Clements).

[116] If I follow the opinions of (to name modern specialists only) Nasse, Kovalevsky, and Vinogradov, and not those of Mr. Seebohm (Mr. Denman Ross can only be named for the sake of completeness), it is not only because of the deep knowledge and concordance of views of these three writers, but also on account of their perfect knowledge of the village community altogether — a knowledge the want of which is much felt in the otherwise remarkable work of Mr. Seebohm. The same remark applies, in a still higher degree, to the most elegant writings of Fustel de Coulanges, whose opinions and passionate interpretations of old texts are confined to himself.

[117] The literature of the village community is so vast that but a few works can be named. Those of Sir Henry Maine, Mr. Seebohm, and Walter’s Das alte Wallis (Bonn, 1859), are well-known popular sources of information about Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. For France, P. Viollet, Précis de l’histoire du droit français. Droit privé, 1886, and several of his monographs in Bibl. de l’Ecole des Chartes; Babeau, Le Village sous l’ancien régime (the mir in the eighteenth century), third edition, 1887; Bonnemère, Doniol, etc. For Italy and Scandinavia, the chief works are named in Laveleye’s Primitive Property, German version by K. Bücher. For the Finns, Rein’s Föreläsningar, i. 16; Koskinen, Finnische Geschichte, 1874, and various monographs. For the Lives and Coures, Prof. Lutchitzky in Severnyi Vestnil, 1891. For the Teutons, besides the well-known works of Maurer, Sohm (Altdeutsche Reichs- und Gerichts- Verfassung), also Dahn (Urzeit, Völkerwanderung, Langobardische Studien), Janssen, Wilh. Arnold, etc. For India, besides H. Maine and the works he names, Sir John Phear’s Aryan Village. For Russia and South Slavonians, see Kavelin, Posnikoff, Sokolovsky, Kovalevsky, Efimenko, Ivanisheff, Klaus, etc. (copious bibliographical index up to 1880 in the Sbornik svedeniy ob obschinye of the Russ. Geog. Soc.). For general conclusions, besides Laveleye’s Propriété, Morgan’s Ancient Society, Lippert’s Kulturgeschichte, Post, Dargun, etc., also the lectures of M. Kovalevsky (Tableau des origines et de l’évolution de la famille et de la propriété, Stockholm, 1890). Many special monographs ought to be mentioned; their titles may be found in the excellent lists given by P. Viollet in Droit privé and Droit public. For other races, see subsequent notes.

[118] Several authorities are inclined to consider the joint household as an intermediate stage between the clan and the village community; and there is no doubt that in very many cases village communities have grown up out of undivided families. Nevertheless, I consider the joint household as a fact of a different order. We find it within the gentes; on the other hand, we cannot affirm that joint families have existed at any period without belonging either to a gens or to a village community, or to a Gau. I conceive the early village communities as slowly originating directly from the gentes, and consisting, according to racial and local circumstances, either of several joint families, or of both joint and simple families, or (especially in the case of new settlements) of simple families only. If this view be correct, we should not have the right of establishing the series: gens, compound family, village community — the second member of the series having not the same ethnological value as the two others. See Appendix IX.

[119] Stobbe, Beiträg zur Geschichte des deutschen Rechtes, p. 62.

[120] The few traces of private property in land which are met with in the early barbarian period are found with such stems (the Batavians, the Franks in Gaul) as have been for a time under the influence of Imperial Rome. See Inama-Sternegg’s Die Ausbildung der grossen Grundherrschaften in Deutschland, Bd. i. 1878. Also, Besseler, Neubruch nach dem älteren deutschen Recht, pp. 11–12, quoted by Kovalevsky, Modern Custom and Ancient Law, Moscow, 1886, i. 134.

[121] Maurer’s Markgenossenschaft; Lamprecht’s “Wirthschaft und Recht der Franken zur Zeit der Volksrechte,” in Histor. Taschenbuch, 1883; Seebohm’s The English Village Community, ch. vi, vii, and ix.

[122] Letourneau, in Bulletin de la Soc. d’Anthropologie, 1888, vol. xi. p. 476.

[123] Walter, Das alte Wallis, p. 323; Dm. Bakradze and N. Khoudadoff in Russian Zapiski of the Caucasian Geogr. Society, xiv. Part I.

[124] Bancroft’s Native Races; Waitz, Anthropologie, iii. 423; Montrozier, in Bull. Soc. d’Anthropologie, 1870; Post’s Studien, etc.

[125] A number of works, by Ory, Luro, Laudes, and Sylvestre, on the village community in Annam, proving that it has had there the same forms as in Germany or Russia, is mentioned in a review of these works by Jobbé-Duval, in Nouvelle Revue historique de droit français et étranger, October and December, 1896. A good study of the village community of Peru, before the establishment of the power of the Incas, has been brought out by Heinrich Cunow (Die Soziale Verfassung des Inka-Reichs, Stuttgart, 1896. The communal possession of land and communal culture are described in that work.

[126] Kovalevsky, Modern Custom and Ancient Law, i. 115.

[127] Palfrey, History of New England, ii. 13; quoted in Maine’s Village Communities, New York, 1876, p. 201.

[128] Königswarter, Études sur le développement des sociétés humaines, Paris, 1850.

[129] This is, at least, the law of the Kalmucks, whose customary law bears the closest resemblance to the laws of the Teutons, the old Slavonians, etc.

[130] The habit is in force still with many African and other tribes.

[131] Village Communities, pp. 65–68 and 199.

[132] Maurer (Gesch. der Markverfassung, sections 29, 97) is quite decisive upon this subject. He maintains that “All members of the community... the laic and clerical lords as well, often also the partial co-possessors (Markberechtigte), and even strangers to the Mark, were submitted to its jurisdiction” (p. 312). This conception remained locally in force up to the fifteenth century.

[133] Königswarter, loc. cit. p. 50; J. Thrupp, Historical Law Tracts, London, 1843, p. 106.

[134] Königswarter has shown that the ferd originated from an offering which had to be made to appease the ancestors. Later on, it was paid to the community, for the breach of peace; and still later to the judge, or king, or lord, when they had appropriated to themselves the rights of the community.

[135] Post’s Bausteine and Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, Oldenburg, 1887, vol. i. pp. 64 seq.; Kovalevsky, loc. cit. ii. 164–189.

[136] O. Miller and M. Kovalevsky, “In the Mountaineer Communities of Kabardia,” in Vestnik Evropy, April, 1884. With the Shakhsevens of the Mugan Steppe, blood feuds always end by marriage between the two hostile sides (Markoff, in appendix to the Zapiski of the Caucasian Geogr. Soc. xiv. 1, 21).

[137] Post, in Afrik. Jurisprudenz, gives a series of facts illustrating the conceptions of equity inrooted among the African barbarians. The same may be said of all serious examinations into barbarian common law.

[138] See the excellent chapter, “Le droit de La Vieille Irlande,” (also “Le Haut Nord”) in Études de droit international et de droit politique, by Prof. E. Nys, Bruxelles, 1896.

[139] Introduction, p. xxxv.

[140] Das alte Wallis, pp. 343–350.

[141] Maynoff, “Sketches of the Judicial Practices of the Mordovians,” in the ethnographical Zapiski of the Russian Geographical Society, 1885, pp. 236, 257.

[142] Henry Maine, International Law, London, 1888, pp. 11–13. E. Nys, Les origines du droit international, Bruxelles, 1894.

[143] A Russian historian, the Kazan Professor Schapoff, who was exiled in 1862 to Siberia, has given a good description of their institutions in the Izvestia of the East-Siberian Geographical Society, vol. v. 1874.

[144] Sir Henry Maine’s Village Communities, New York, 1876, pp. 193–196.

[145] Nazaroff, The North Usuri Territory (Russian), St. Petersburg, 1887, p. 65.

[146] Hanoteau et Letourneux, La Kabylie, 3 vols. Paris, 1883.

[147] To convoke an “aid” or “bee,” some kind of meal must be offered to the community. I am told by a Caucasian friend that in Georgia, when the poor man wants an “aid,” he borrows from the rich man a sheep or two to prepare the meal, and the community bring, in addition to their work, so many provisions that he may repay tHe debt. A similar habit exists with the Mordovians.

[148] Hanoteau et Letourneux, La kabylie, ii. 58. The same respect to strangers is the rule with the Mongols. The Mongol who has refused his roof to a stranger pays the full blood-compensation if the stranger has suffered therefrom (Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, iii. 231).

[149] N. Khoudadoff, “Notes on the Khevsoures,” in Zapiski of the Caucasian Geogr. Society, xiv. 1, Tiflis, 1890, p. 68. They also took the oath of not marrying girls from their own union, thus displaying a remarkable return to the old gentile rules.

[150] Dm. Bakradze, “Notes on the Zakataly District,” in same Zapiski, xiv. 1, p. 264. The “joint team” is as common among the Lezghines as it is among the Ossetes.

[moose-mousse]

I work for insane people

So… I started work a few months ago and...

I keep being impressed with corporations lowering my expectations.

Like. EVERY time I think "Surely, this is as incompetent as it gets".

The boss is nice, the workers are nice, every PERSON is great so far. But the firm is just… fucked in ways that makes it hard to not scream with laughter.

It is like working in the ministry of silly walks by Monty Python. Insane things are happening, and everyone just acts like it is normal.

A dude was stating to someone else near me, that despite the costumers saying they did not want it, his code that crashed the application once a day, was NECESSARY, because writing code without memory leaks in C is basically impossible. Like… I just have all these small moments of insanity. Completely disconnected from each-other

My boss showing me and the other 3 new hires the coffee room, where a big screen proudly shows that not a single software product have 100% code coverage… as in, not a single person in this entire building filled with software people knows how code coverage works. He then points out an empty bowl, and declares "Twice a week, there is a fruit event". By which he means, fresh fruit is provided, and people can just grab some…. just said by a alien who is pretending to be human. Badly.

He then explained that the 2 coffee machines in here makes bad coffee. He then takes us to the copy room, showing us that THIS is where the GOOD coffee machine is. Which only takes coffee beans from a SPECIFIC vendor (Is… is the coffee machine… sponsored????)

He briefly pets the Foosball table (Again, in the copy room), which is jammed up against the wall so you can only reach the controls on one side ( Because, again, it is a copy room, and there is not enough space for it ) and he exclaims "Ahhhh… Not enough people are using this"

Suggesting, that he is trying to promote the little known sport "Single-player Foosball">

I start setting up my work PC and... Whenever any of the developers in this place wants to install things on their PC's, including compilers and testing frameworks, they have to either use the "SOFTWARE CENTER" program, which installs it FOR you… or in 10% of the cases, fails, without giving you any context for why it did that, and no tools for fixing it. Is it missing a dependency? Not working with the OS? Who knows!

Some programs cannot be installed like this though, because the SOFTWARE CENTER is not updated a lot. And when you want to install something the normal way… You get a popup, where you must provide a written explanation for why you need to have temporary admin rights to your own dang PC … you then submit that, and your screen will then be watched remotely by a worker from India, for a varied amount of time you are not told…

Or at least it says so. Maybe the Indian dude watching me is just an empty threat. Who knows. But they get to see me running absolutely… BONKERS .bat files

Like, I CHECKED them, and a good 80% of them calls a Power-Shell script in the folder above it, called "YES_OR_NO.ps1" which opens a windows 95 window informing you that DURING INSTALLATION YOU MAY NOT USE THE KEYBOARD OR MOUSE, AS IT MAY DISTURB THE SCRIPT THAT WILL INSTALL THE PROGRAM. A normal installation wizard then runs, except the developers are not trusted to click the buttons, and instead the script does it for you by moving and clicking the mouse.

All of this is documented. In markdown like reasonable people? Of course not! It is in ENHANCED markdown. Which is markdown in the same way javascript is java.

ENHANCED markdown requires browser and visual studio code extensions to be read. Completely missing the point of markdown being readable both raw and encoded… And sometimes word documents And sometimes power-point presentations left next to another bat file… this one calling the .exe file… right next to it…. I later found out is because the idea USED to be that all documentation MUST be made with Microsoft office tools.

I had to read the code of conduct today. And it was actually very well written.

I then watched a interactive animation telling me about the code of conduct… which it not only got a fact wrong about, it also broke it once.

I repeat. The introductory course in the code of conduct… broke the code of conduct'

After I watched that, and read the safety material…. which literally just said "Wear safety boots in the production floor"… I was then show the testing room.

I was lead to a different building, saying hello to the Vice CEO who was walking the other way, we walk into the production floor, ignored the fact that none of us have safety boots on, and walks into a room, with a 3*2 meter wide machine, several meters tall.

We edge around it, quietly hoping no one turns it on, since we would get slammed by it if they did, and walk down some stairs into the basement. Casually walk over a small river in the floor from a pipe that is leaking… what I really hope is water, and over to a shelf rack FILLED with the most MacGyver shit you ever did see.

Including, but not limited to, the 3D printed plastic block, with a piston that repeatedly smacking half a aluminum nameplate over the device it is testing. You see, it is a capacitance button, and it is testing it by simulating a human finger pressing it many thousands of times, a saws off antenna which is the end of a cable that is attached to it via a nice thick bolt, so it can send fake signals into it.

And of course the 24 volt, 5 amp system that is turning a circuit board on and off again, until it will crack.

We walk back out, remembering to step over the small river, which never even got a comment, and walk back to my department It is SO great. It is like working in the ministry of silly walks by Monty Python Like… Do I think I can bring value to this company? Like, making it better and more efficient? Yes. It would be hard not to!

And his is the largest pump manufacturer in the world! A super serious company with 4 billion dollars of revenue a year. And it is just… a NUTHOUSE

Like… NEVER believe the myth that corporations are competent.

[reasoningdaily]

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II's vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms.

Correctly concluding that only slave labor on a vast scale could account for these cargoes, Morel resigned from his company and almost singlehandedly made Leopold's slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world. Thousands of people packed hundreds of meetings throughout the United States and Europe to learn about Congo atrocities. Two courageous black Americans - George Washington Williams and William Sheppard - risked much to bring evidence to the outside world. Roger Casement, later hanged by Britain as a traitor, conducted an eye-opening investigation of the Congo River stations.

Sailing into the middle of the story was a young steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming over all was Leopold II, King of the Belgians, sole owner of the only private colony in the world.

Reviewer Comment:

This is a tragic history of the Belgian Congo at the turn of the 19th century as the Scramble for Africa began. Adam Hochschild is an American writer and journalist for the New Yorker, NY Times, NY Review of Books and Times Literary Supplement. His work has combined history with human rights advocacy. The events in this book are a shameful chapter in the era of colonialism, of which there were many. It is portrait of Leopold likely to inspire loathing in any who reads it. Beside an account of a colony, it archives the lives of activists who fought to free it. In 1482 Portuguese sailors braved the ocean beyond the Canary Islands and discovered a fresh water flow off the coast of Central Africa. Following a silt trail, fighting a fast current, they found the mouth of a vast river. Nine years later priests and emissaries arrived and began the first European settlement in a black African kingdom. Small scale slavery existed but a booming slave trade developed with the Americas to grow cotton and cane. During the 19th century slavery was abolished in Britain and America yet continued in Afro-Arab commerce. Leopold II (1835-1909) was the King of the Belgians and obsessed with obtaining colonies. He studied records of conquistadores in Seville, sailed to India, Ceylon, Burma and Java noting lucrative concerns. Plantations depended on forced labor to lift profits and civilize the lazy natives. He looked at land in Brazil, Argentina, Phillipines and Taiwan. Frustrated in these attempts he focused his sights on Africa. Humanitarian pretenses of freeing Africa from slavery and bringing enlightenment to the Dark Continent disguised his dreams of ivory and rubber.

Henry Morton Stanley led a Dickensonian life. Abandoned to a poorhouse as a child he sailed to America and became a soldier in the Civil War, first for the Confederacy and then for the Union. He became a newspaper correspondent and tracked down explorer David Livingstone during his search for the source of the Nile. Returning to Africa in 1874 to map the waterways of the interior he discovered the source of the Congo River. Upon reaching the Atlantic he was hired by Leopold to establish trading posts and railroads and force tribal leaders to cede land. King Leopold and an American ambassador formed fake philanthropic associations for evangelism and scientific study of the region. In 1884 he lobbied the US to recognize the Congo Free State, in reality a colony owned by himself. Post-Civil War politicians were interested in sending freed slaves back to Africa. The area annexed was as large as the land east of the Mississippi while Belgium was half the size of West Virginia. In diplomatic deals France and Germany fell into line and Britain became invested. The challenge was to carry steamboats over the falls. By 1890 trading stations had been secured. Elephants were hunted by conscripted natives or their ivory simply seized. Vacant land was leased to private companies with shares of the profit retained. Legions of Africans were used as porters through jungles chained by the neck. So many were needed agents began to purchase them from the slave traders they purported to abolish. Security officers of the Free State were Europeans, half from Belgium, with soldiers drawn from the Congo. They chose to join the conquerors, their spears and muskets no match for machine guns. Leopold's agents set up orphanages run by Catholic missions to train future troops. Captured women were kept in harems by agents or held hostage to coerce their men to harvest rubber. Discipline was enforced with the whip and counted in severed hands of dead rebels. To exact penalties entire villages were often burned down. The human toll over a quarter century is not known for certain but is estimated at 10 million, or half of the population. The causes included murder, starvation and disease (due to inhuman working conditions) and lowered birth rates. Joseph Conrad was briefly a steamboat pilot on the Congo, his novel 'Heart of Darkness' a depiction of what he saw. Displays of decapitated heads were not only a metaphorical critique of colonialism. Black Americans G.W. Williams, a polymath, and W.H. Sheppard, a missionary, exposed the conditions in 1890. Few voices of natives were recorded but are included where possible. In 1898 British shipping clerk E. D. Morel and Irish diplomat R. Casement suspected forced labor and began campaigns. Mark Twain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote exposés on Leopold. As opinion turned Leopold waged propaganda wars. Self-appointed commission reports criticized his regime. The only option was to sell Congo to Belgium; self rule was unthinkable. In 1908 Leopold was given a billion dollar bonus and billions remained in his name. Wild rubber was replaced with farms. Atrocities declined but forced labor persisted. Head taxes kept people in plantations and mines before independence in 1960. PM Lumumba, seen as hostile to business, was shot with Belgian and US assistance and replaced by kleptocrat Mobuto until 1997.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM THE BLACK TRUEBRARY

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer Anon]

Oh about that fandom thing you used the “we been knew!” meme for. Let me add more with the black washing thing

“I’m going to make that already poc blacks…and I’m also going to use the stereotypical versions of African Americans where we don’t point out we can various of skins tones even among siblings [IE my dad is medium like me, his brother is dark skinned, and sister is light skinned] and that we are mixed with various of groups like native Americans, Irish, European ones (beyond the slave masters stuff), etc!”

It more funny since media like the OG Disney Proud Family point out the diversity of skin tone and roots within the black American community. Yet the people who grew up with those types of shows that got into art pretend they don’t exist

But it like my theory about how Yasuke was going to look like in Shadows under codename red. I figure “Hmm okay we are back to modern descendants genetic dna with Red. So either abstergo find his descendants, or his corpse is in the surrounding countries. Hmm let me check African ancestry in Asia!”

And lo and behold I found out the descriptions of real life yasuke matches those of African mercenaries that were actives in places like Goa India which in a ac history podcast that Ubisoft have was referenced.

So I imagine him look like a Southeast African with a East African accent

And boom, that model yasuke after one, hired a Zambian actor to voice and Mocap him, and later in the character guide, confirms for their fictional version of him. They are using the theory that he came from Mozambique which was a Portuguese Colony and part of the Indian Ocean slave trade

That’s my issues with the whole black characters thing…despite the racists idiots among us. A midwestern black can be very different from one who like from Brazil

And the black washing thing, well the thing is that I think there an inferiority complex going on because they consume media that don’t have a lot of black people in it. Also this what I call pop Marxist idea that everyone thing before the Obama era is problematic but the sjw way of diversity will help us with better representation!

Now our racial relations are in the pit and vast majority of black characters are so POORLY written

It more funny since media like the OG Disney Proud Family point out the diversity of skin tone and roots within the black American community. Yet the people who grew up with those types of shows that got into art pretend they don’t exist

Ya, it's always wild when people that were in the hyper progressive spaces get a reality check like the one in that post or all the stuff you've been mentioning.

That and people just get idiotic about all that, I'm currently being reminded of that whole things I sent you a while back with folks getting angry because the art reference for black hands had the palms of their hands being significantly lighter than the backs of them, calling it whitewashing or some shit.

At least in that particular case we could ask the person if they'd ever actually encountered a black person before, but still, dayum.

And boom, that model yasuke after one, hired a Zambian actor to voice and Mocap him, and later in the character guide, confirms for their fictional version of him. They are using the theory that he came from Mozambique which was a Portuguese Colony and part of the Indian Ocean slave trade

Everything I've seen about that both from you and from elsewhere has been telling me they did a really through job with him, I still don't get the pushback to his inclusion in the game, ya it's partly a marketing decision but it also still fits in a period correct way too, since the guy is real.

That’s my issues with the whole black characters thing…despite the racists idiots among us. A midwestern black can be very different from one who like from Brazil

That was one of the fun things being brought up when the articles about Black Panther being 'hella diverse' were coming out, they had to figure out how to make diversity NOT about skin colour for once, granted they went right back to it being about skin colour right after so it's not like they learned anything from it, but it was nice to see for once.

And the black washing thing, well the thing is that I think there an inferiority complex going on because they consume media that don’t have a lot of black people in it. Also this what I call pop Marxist idea that everyone thing before the Obama era is problematic but the sjw way of diversity will help us with better representation!

If you have to change the race of characters to gain your representation is it really saying you're looking for anything more than skin colour.

Feels like a new kind of tokenism at this point, 'we're going to remake X movie word for word shot for shot and the only thing we're going to change is the cast is black now' is not representation.

Not saying they need to do the thing like they did in American Fiction with the dialogue switch, but my goodness do something.

Dr Doolittle is a good example, og movie stared Rex Harrison a stuffy white dude, then we got Eddie Murphy in there for a few movies playing him, then RDJ popped in to be him (should have seen the look on the faces of the people that cried "whitewashing" when that was announced after they were shown the poster from the 1967 film) but all the different movies played well because even if it's the same story it's different, Baz Luhrmann's way of doing Romeo and Juliet is a good example of using the original text but still making the story look and feel different.

Now our racial relations are in the pit and vast majority of black characters are so POORLY written

Need to get people to stop consuming garbage media, that would be very helpful I think