#liberalisation

[indian-school-of-public-policy]

The Role of Liberalisation in India's Economic Growth

Explore the impact of liberalization on India's economic growth in this insightful article. Learn how economic policies have shaped the nation's progress.

[mariemariemaria]

the people who think that christianity is the worst most problematic religion ever and the people who think that islam is the worst most problematic religion ever are two sides of the same coin to me

[miamicommune]

think maybe the argument abt how the USSR's police "had to be like that" because the whole world was Against Them and trying to turn them capitalist would've been a lot more meaningful if they hadn't Fucking Failed.

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

so your job employs minors under certain conditions. what if a minor just worked at the frontdesk of a brothel? would that be okay since theyre not being fucked until theyre 18? what is the issue about prostitution that applies to minors but not adults? minors are allowed to have sex, unlike for example drinking alcohol or driving a car, which is what is keeping them out of certain jobs, but they can and do have sex so whats the issue? what if only other minors are allowed to buy sex from them, is it okay then? if sex is neutral, and sex is a service, and sex is labor, why would there be moral issues with minors in prostitution? and why do they vanish once a girl turns 18?

people actually realise that sex is not a neutral service but a moralised interaction for a reason. and its wild they can apply this to minors but not adults, as if sex stops being an intimate and vulnerable act once you turn 18. „minors cant consent to sexual actions with adults“ just highlights how important freely given consent is. its assuming that minors dont have the cognitive ability yet to consent to sex (with adults). its a general assumption about minors to protect them.

yet despite the inherent issues with bought consent - relying on income arguably diminishes the freedom of choice - there are no general assumptions made about women in prostitution to protect them, even though the few statistics show that most of them are marginalised, without alternative and often impoverished. adults can be vulnerable too, and especially vulnerable groups are being systematically exploited in the sex industry. just because you have the cognitive ability to consent, does not mean you are in a position to give it freely. the premise of prostitution is that consent is circumvented with money, and money is power, so this is usually a process of a man using his power to get a less privileged woman (sometimes man) to serve him sexually. laws about the age of consent are in effect to protect minors from being abused. yet there are no laws in effect keeping men from sexually abusing other vulnerable groups through prostitution (where i live, and in many places its prostitutes who get punished, not sex buyers).

lets say prostitution is a profession. minors are allowed to work, under certain conditions. why shouldnt 14, 15 and 16 year old girls prostitute themselves for some extra allowance, do some porn after school, do an internship in a brothel? if this thought makes you uncomfortable, you realise that the sex industry is not like any other industry. that perhaps, sexually satisfying men is not a viable career or profession for young girls. its not lack of skill or responsibility stopping teenagers to enter the sex industry like it does with some jobs. because thats not needed to be used as a sex object. in fact, a lot of sex buyers and porn consumers specifically look for young and unexperienced women - men in general actually. the next logical step of legalisation, of treating prostitution as a profession, of bending to the demand, is this. not to be a slippery slope stacy but i wish this was something more people considered.

[reasonsforhope]

"The number of teenage abortions in Finland fell by 66% between 2000 and 2023, its public health institute THL said on Monday, attributing the reduction to the offer of free contraception to adolescents and compulsory sex education in schools.

Finland also passed a law in 2022 liberalising abortion, at a time of deep divisions over abortion rights in Europe and court rulings in the U.S. that restricted access to terminations of unwanted pregnancies for millions of people there.

The number of abortions among women under 20 rose during the 1990s in Finland, which led the Nordic country to respond at the start of the 2000s by making morning-after pills available without prescription from 15 years of age and sexual education compulsory in all schools.

"We can assume that sexual education plays a significant role," THL's research professor Mika Gissler told Reuters, adding that increased access to contraception from a young age was another factor behind the change.

The number of abortions fell 66% to 722 in 2023 from 2,144 in 2000 among all teenagers aged 19 or younger in Finland, while the drop was even steeper at 78% among those under 18 in the same period, THL's statistics showed.

"Since the latter half of the 2010s, the decline in the number of young people's abortions has also been influenced by the introduction of free contraception in many welfare regions," THL wrote in a report...

Under the 2022 liberalisation, Finland from September 2023 stopped requiring women to give a reason for having an abortion, making it available upon a pregnant person's request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

[Note: That's actually not a very long window for abortion! Many conservative states in the US have actually instituted 12-week bans, and it's caused terrible upheaval and limits to medical services. Sounds like Finland should liberalize further, imho! Still, important progress!]

THL said it was too early to conclude whether the legislative change, which took effect last year, will have an impact on the number of abortions."

-via Reuters, June 3, 2024

[king-of-men]

Without bothering to look up anything in particular about sweet brother, I suspect it's the opposite: Sweden has exactly one lottery, it's run by the state, and the payouts are extremely easy to track down in public records. So it's easy to get the data and be sure you're studying everyone who won, no selection bias.

Not fact-checked, obviously, but I have this vague sense that I’m constantly seeing observational studies about Swedish lottery winners. The latest ACX linkdump has one, and there were previously influential ones about “what does winning the lottery due to your likelihood of getting or staying married and having children” and “what does winning the lottery do to life satisfaction”. How many lotteries does Sweden have, and why are their lottery winners apparently always the ones used in observational studies?

[dingodad]

it's interesting to look at jane crocker's political career not always in terms of how it makes her a ""fascist monster"" so to speak - along the lines of homestuck's literal fascist monsters like the condesce and lord english - but in how it plays into the crucial fact at the heart of her character that she is "normcore". jane is a character of the context she was born in, the almost-exact midpoint of the barack obama presidency; superficially and popularly, a time of great optimism for a liberalising america, but through this facade of optimism a time which also saw a great deal of "normalisation" of deeply evil american imperialism both abroad and at home.

jane's love of the NBC's Parks & Recreation is emblematic of this. homestuck and parks & rec are similar in one respect, which is that p&r also began and ended over the course of the obama presidency - and like jane, p&r is deeply of that era. in many senses it is the ancestor to the "copaganda" of programming like Brooklyn 99 which took over its position of popularity into the trump era: at the core of its comic dynamic is the interplay between leslie knope, a progressive-liberal "girlboss" and champion of big government, and ron swanson, the hard-working, moustache-toting libertarian sentinel of private capitalist interest. but in the classic mode of liberal american thought, the core message of the show is that these two characters are friends. despite the complete incompatibility of their respective ideologies, the two must work together and make compromise at every stage, ensuring that the political landscape of america - implicitly the perfect state - never changes or progresses from where it is now. and it's telling that, despite being the liberal "girlboss" with visions of political ascendancy, jane's love and admiration is for the male character. like obama himself, swanson serves to put a friendly, sometimes goofy but always loveable face on american patriarchal hegemony.

because by the time homestuck had closed up and the post-canon had opened america had crossed that threshold from obama's presidency into the next, it's impossible not to draw parallels between jane's descent into xenophobia and the overt isolationism of the trump republican administration. but i think putting jane on this trajectory is also in a very real sense just as much an indictment of the democrat majority of homestuck's genesis; xenophobia is not a "trump problem" but rather an AMERICA problem, and in fact the political landscape of the late 2010s and 2020s is an inevitable progression of the kind of politics that were considered "normal" in 2011, not the result of some freak misstep of electoral probability in 2016.

[ragzonacamrencruise]

Betrayal (An ATLA analysis)

It's really important to me, how, in the Avatar universe, the person who's at the right side of the throne (essentially the right hand), always betrays the one sitting on the said throne.

Exhibit A:

Long Feng, kept the King oblivious to the Hundered Year War and handled all matters that are not partying or charity events, making him the de facto ruler of Ba Sing Se without even the King's knowledge, essentially paving a way for his betrayal.

Exhibit B:

Zuko, said it himself, that he was literally at his father's right hand. Even Azula got only the second best seat. And the next thing Zuko does? He betrays his father. I know what you're all thinking. But didn't Zuko already betray him before? Well, he did when he released Aang from Zhao as the Blue Spirit. But, the important point is, his explicit orders were to capture the Avatar to restore his honour. It didn't matter which methods he used to do it. He only ever openly betrayed his father during the eclipse and that was after he was placed at the right hand in the war meeting.

Exhibit C:

Mai, a betrayal that was a turning point in Azula's declining mental health. But hey, Ty Lee betrayed Azula too, right? Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that Mai did it first and she was sat at Azula's right hand. Mai never really feared Azula. She only followed her around out of her own will. Ty Lee on the other hand, when Azula recruits her at the circus, is found showing fear. She only had the guts to betray Azula after Mai did.

It really puts into perspective how Ty Lee couldn't betray Azula until provoked because she feared her, and Mai betrayed Azula because she didn't fear her enough. It further solidifies Azula's stellar line, "You should've feared me more!", insisting that if Mai had feared her more, she wouldn't have betrayed her. This especially holds true because it's later explained by Azula herself that, "Fear is the only reliable way." Fear kept Ty Lee in line but liberalised Mai cuz she didn't fear Azula more.

But all that goes out the window because Ty Lee betrayed Azula too. This is also one of the main reasons why Azula banishes most of the people around her. Because, "None of them can be trusted", and she trusted Mai as she knew Mai never feared her. It hurts her deeper because she trusted Mai and let her mantra of "Fear is the only reliable way" go, and guess what happens? She betrays her.

This solidifies three things in her brain: 1. Trust doesn't work, and, 2. Fear doesn't work either. 3. Nothing works, really.

Therefore, her action of banishing everybody with, "Sooner or later they all would've betrayed me."

This works for Exhibits A and B too. Long Feng never feared King Kuei and King Kuei completely trusted him until he learned of his betrayal. Trust didn't work, and fear didn't work either.

Zuko had never trusted his father. He only feared him. He has a physical scar on his body to prove it. But once that fear starts to deteriorate, he openly confronts his father and betrays him, letting go of his fear with, "It was cruel, and it was wrong!". Trust didn't work, and fear didn't work either.

So, what does work?

Well, the answer is pretty simple.

Love.

Love works. Any number and different kinds of love, be it platonic, or sibling, or romantic, it doesn't matter. It is foolproof!

Genuine care and affection for a person, doesn't let you betray them that easily. It's what made Sokka decide they should help Aang in Book 1. It's what made Yue turn into the moon. It's what made Toph come back to the Gaang again after she stormed off in Book 2. It's what made Aang come back for Bumi in Omashu in Book 2. It's what made Zuko find his path to Iroh again in Book 3.

The lack of love (from her own parents) is what made Azula's mental health deteriorate, as she thought nothing worked; it's depressing because she doesn't know that love actually works, cuz she's never known or experienced love her entire life, so she doesn't even consider it as an option.

The lack of love is what made the Dai Li betray Long Feng. The lack of it drove Zuko's betrayal to Ozai, Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal to Azula and even Jet's betrayal to Katara.

This could go on and on, but the end point here is that Azula's words on betrayal are true, but only when love is taken out of the equation. Love is the 'X' factor. Without it, there really is no equation, as all leads to zero.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

in the future we will look back on the criminalisation of prison escape (and similar offences like resisting arrest) as a ghastly blindspot in human dignity, like extracting forced self-incrimination under oath. being free is the point of being a person; requiring of a person that they renounce their freedom without their humanity is like asking them to renounce their work but not their profession, it makes no sense. even thomas hobbes had this one figured out!

sometimes ppl will point out experiments in such minimal respect for freedom in relatively liberalised european nations, but this gives the impression the idea is some sort of ultraprogressive innovation only to be sought out in infamously socially weird pockets of relative global privilege like switzerland or the netherlands. but no, it has all but universally respected precedent in intl law: prisoners of war are not subjected to the insanity of criminalising self respect in action. everyone knows this, nobody writes stupid editorials about how this is a bleeding heart lib mistake and the geneva conventions have gone too far. when and where domestic law manages to reflect these minimal standards of decency we will reach a point past which felony charges for escape attempts from prisons will strike us as perverse as an imagined soldierly duty to forswear escape as a pow

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

oh my god throwback moment? or is that yet another idiot.

reality in germany: taxis casually driving around advertising one of germanys and berlins biggest brothel (3000 m2) which insultingly is called artemis.

not so fun fact: the artemis is member in the bundesverband sexuelle dienstleistungen (bsd) which was a consultant to the ministery of work and social issues responsible for the prostitution law. let that sink in.

also, the bsd is not to be confused with the berufsverband erotische und sexuelle dienstleistungen (besd) that only allows current and former prostitutes as members (albeit even if they run a brothel or agency). confusing? german journalists would agree because they regularly and embarrassingly get the two mixed up.

they are both lobby groups for prostitution though so im against them. but when the media interview stephanie klee (bsd), johanna weber (besd) or other lobbyists from these groups, they dont contextualise it and treat it more like a union.

the devil works hard but the prostitution lobby works harder!

[spaghettioverdose]

I hate you privatisation I hate you anarchy of production I hate you dictatorship of the bourgeoisie I hate you weakening of unions I hate you liberalisation of radical movements I hate you wage stagnation I hate you cyclical economic crisis I hate you environmental destruction for the purpose of profit I hate you imperialism I hate you NATO I hate you USA

[probablyasocialecologist]

This is The Farming Left: these land workers share a politics, united by the concept of food sovereignty: the right to control of local food systems, which originated with farmers in the Global South. ‘We’re talking about equitable access to resources to enable localised food supplies’, explains Fernandes. These organisations are tackling the challenges of access to land in an unequal landscape: the Ecological Land Cooperative, for example, purchases large plots and obtains planning permission for dwellings before parcelling them up into affordable smallholdings.  The Kindling Trust in Manchester is also seeking to foster a new generation of agroecological farmers. The Trust, which was established in 2007, has a veg box scheme and a community garden, and also offers training to new entrants, but there has always been a long-term plan to establish a cooperative farm. Since raising over a million pounds from more than six hundred investors last year, the Trust is looking to purchase a 120-acre farm in the Manchester area. ‘We want people to feel ownership in whatever way they get involved’, explains co-founder Chris Walsh. Whether they are founding members, workers, investors, or tenants, they will all be represented equally on a governing board.   There ‘is a need for a rural radicalism’ of this kind, argues Chris Smaje, farmer and author of A Small Farm Future (2020). ‘It’s about trying to de-commodify land and take it out of speculative ownership’, he explains. For Smaje, who plans to purchase a 20-acre plot to be divided up among several small-scale farmers, the goal is ‘to build a land-based community’ and ultimately ‘generate more of what we need within our own communities’.  While the radical agrarian community in the UK pales in comparison to the strength of conservative farming interests, this fight for land – and the right to use it – is happening on a global scale. The international peasants’ movement is connected through the 200-million strong La Vía Campesina, linking groups such as Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), or ‘Landless Workers’ Movement’, which has, since the 1980s, been occupying land to their counterparts across the world. The world’s farming Left is a David to big agribusiness’s Goliath, the latter having been bolstered by states, major international institutions, and the liberalising of global political economy since the Second World War. From Zapatistas to Scottish crofters, the peasants’ movement is fighting to turn the tide on our social and ecological future before it is too late.

[turndecassette2]

I do remember those magic knight people! Every once in a while I go back on your blog to try to track down those drawings because I like them and the concept in the description so much. I would love to hear more about them. Do you have a story planned out?

yeah, vaguely. so for the cosmology; there's this dystopian city I desperately need to draw a map of built above the fossilised remains of an ancient hell. the city mines the hell for 'hell-flesh', a semi-sentient magical substance that's kind of the physical container of the souls of the damned. I suppose this is like fantasy rare earths for fantasy compute or w/e. this has been going on for a while and the city is, kiruna-style, gradually falling down the pit. also as more of the hell is laid bare, semi-autonomous demonic creatures are let loose, maybe as a kind of immune response against human incursion.

(imagining this sort of thing + branching passages. but in the middle of an italian intra-feuding city-state w a population ca modern day singapore)

a kind of grid of bridges and fortresses has been built above the pit to protect the fancier, upper parts of the city from the decaying/descending bits below. the lower city is mostly miners etc & due to the fucked up mutagenic influence of living near a hell & touching hell stuff all day the people in the upper city treat them with suspicion. there's a 'join the US navy-army-whatever to get health insurance & education & basic human dignity' or like french foreign legion situation where by joining the elite magic army manning the little fortresses, ppl from the lower city can gain some access to the upper. in the reverse I guess for the upper city ppl it functions a bit like 'the wall' in asoiaf where criminals, noble bastards etc go to maybe redeem themselves or die horribly.

the fire magic used by the guards to fight demons etc is derived from the burning corpse of a god that is said to have been there since before the founding of the city (presumably the entity responsible for the hell situation in the first place). by swearing fealty to this dead(-ish) god one gets the ability to summon his divine flame but you forfeit your chance at an afterlife, or maybe you go to hell (no-one is quite sure). everyone kind of assumes once the body is fully burned the god will return/reincarnate (and either save or destroy the city, depending on who you ask).

the politics part; at its founding the city was part of some empire that has since collapsed (pretty recently). the city is dependent on trade to stay viable/fed and to appease the new warring states/mini-empires that have sprung up around it. the current ruler is a reclusive young queen & she has her favourite lord/advisor, an ageing academic who is sort of trying to liberalise the place or make it superficially less fashy. other lords dislike this & are working to either find her a proper king or hasten the return of some deity or other that will return the place to its former glory.

I guess the story? has this noble child bastard protagonist from a shady family* of word-mages who is sent to the 'centre' fortress & works her way up to become the apprentice of some hero-knight demon slayer guy with a possibly shady past (I think rn the name I have for the guy is Chaimé & idk if this is a good name? like the spanish jaime but w more e, & the tiny bastard is Myia I think). I imagine her being the sasuke to a happier, more popular girl who saves her from a demon (embarrassing) then is outed as a half-demon herself (she's the redhead in the drawings) & Myia warms up to her as she (demon girl) becomes increasingly isolated from the outside city (being supposedly dangerous or too powerful? I don't think Myia has much natural magic or w/e in her aside from being a nerd & very persistent).

sorry there's a lot here that would be SPOILERS if I ever actually made this into something coherent enough to be an actual comic ha ha. the knight/mentor guy gets dragged into a kind of fantasy 'business plot' & I guess part of that would be like, seeing to what extent he goes along with it & if he's actually a good person ha ha. + there's a bunch of other characters w stuff going on that I haven't figured out the looks of yet but. they're important in my head. the big bear-ish bf guy who gets sent on an expedition down the pit etc

* I have a distinct image of these people living hidden away in some gormenghast-style estate. they've habsburged themselves into being mostly deaf but the only ones around who can fully read/write the divine language that lets them do word-based magic & the other houses kind of have to put up w their weirdness. also scheming nobles in dune using sign language is 1 of my favourite things in the new film adaption & I like the idea of outsiders being forced to learn to sign (or else being cut-off from higher level magic) as some sort of power move? I don't think they involve themselves that much in politics since that's below them but are def part of the 'bring the gods back' thing, for better or worse. anyway after 'avas demon' (GUILTY PLEASURE I know it has such pretty colours but comes from such an unhinged part of the internet, will never stop apologising for this) started posting again I realised it had a character w the same look & vibe so will try and re-design protag girl to look more like this cute person I saw in a fashion post on IG

... let's see how this goes. came up w all this BS after some viz lady at comicon asked me if I wanted to make them a manga but it's grown from being too little to being too unwieldy to pitch. will see after I finish up my current projects. how much blood, swearing & genocide can a story have before it stops being YA. I think chainsaw man is sort of YA but dorohedoro isn't

[ash-says]

Tips on how to be Goody Two Shoes and Pure in the society's eyes:

If you ask me personally I feel we girls should know how to camouflage cause it will just not save your life but also open lots of doors for you. Society loves obedient, docile and submissive women. It villianizes the ones who don't fit in this category. It's difficult to change the patriarchal society so easily thus as we fight for our rights how about we smartly use it for our advantage by selling a delusion?

Don't we say, delulu is the only solulu.

So here are some tips for you:

1) Be a nerd. Literally nothing screams Goody two shoes more than this.

2) Believe in purity culture (even if you don't, publicly act like you do). When someone asks you for casual sex react as if he has asked for your life.

3) Be religious. After all if you are faking a personality make sure you nail it down to perfection.

4) Don't indulge in sexually provocative behaviours or flirting.

5) Delude them in thinking you are a pushover. Do not exert any kind of power or assertiveness until it's absolutely necessary. Fake weakness.

6) Be kind and soft spoken. Treat people lower than your status with love and be receiving towards them. This helps in establishing influence and being perceived as a kind, gentle and elegant lady.

7) Don't let men touch you easily and casually. Be a little reserved. It automatically elevates the way people look at you and gives off a little conservative vibes.

8) Identify the thin line between modernization and traditions. Tread on it carefully to appeal to both the masses.

Disclaimer: I am not preaching to people please but rather use the society's biases to our advantage. The foolish rebels while the smart ones beat them at their own game.

9) Dwell in both sides of the world. It will give you an instinct on how to act where. Explore both the dark and light sides of the human society. The extreme liberalisation and the extreme conservatism this will teach you how to blend both of them for your benefit.

10) Be pretty. It can be in anyway. Make sure the way you are showing up is confident, attractive and showcases your best self. Pretty privilege is real. The amount of times I got out of situations, things and extra work by using pretty privilege, acting cute and dumb coupled with my other techniques is unreal. Leverage the shit out of it.

That's all for today's show on ash-says. Stay tuned for more illegal tricks and explosive opinions.

[indian-school-of-public-policy]

Voice of ISPP | Insights from our current scholars | Shristy

In this video, we are thrilled to introduce you to Shristy Singh, our scholar from the Class of 2023. Join us as Shristy shares her inspiring journey and experiences at ISPP, along with her passion for development and policy.

Shristy is a driven individual with a profound interest in the world of public policy. With a strong foundation in the field, she brings valuable insights and a unique perspective to the table. Her previous professional experience at Tata Consultancy Services has equipped her with valuable skills and abilities that perfectly align with her interests