#non-Western sources on Alexander the Great

[jeannereames]

Concerning the ancient sources for Alexander the Great, I noticed you mention time and again many Roman writings, like Arrian. Do we not have any noteworthy Eastern sources dealing with Alexander? - Persian, even if contemporary to Rome, for example? Or from the territories he conquered or fought in

Great question and...alas, not really. See below, but first, here is a collection of pretty much all we have on Persia, by Amelie Kuhrt. It's currently pretty on sale, so grab it now if you want it.

Sources from Achaemenid Persia are few and far between, as much of it didn't survive Alexander (not necessarily intentionally). There are Babylonian and other Mesopotamian chronicles, which are important. We also have the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions. But the ancient near east didn't write narrative history in the same way Greece and Rome did. Kuhrt discusses ANE traditions in her book.

We also have Indian traditions about him, but these are in languages Classicists rarely/never read, alas. But there has been some important work done on Alexander in Vedic traditions. MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE. We need to be talking more to our Indian colleagues.

Finally, there is work on the archaeology of Central Asia, as well, but the reports are primarily in Russian. Look up material on the Greco-Baktrian Kingdom.

So it's there, but not in the massive amounts we get from the West. The Sasanids do talk about Alexander...and it's not flattering. But we just don't have a lot pre-Sasanid.

[lunavenefica]

Isn't it a bit of appropriation to take Celtic pagan culture and use it for your witchy nonsense? I mean, the only people who could possibly get away with this stuff are the Irish/Scottish etc.

I usually don't reply to these questions but since I can see that whatever you're trying to say comes from a place of ignorance I'll give you a quick history lesson:

1)Who were the Celts?

"Early sources place Celts in western Europe and also occupying land near the headwaters of the Danube River. Their home territories have often been traced to central and eastern France, extending across southern Germany and into the Czech Republic.

In 279BC the Celts were known to have looted Delphi, the sacred Greek site. Strabo (Geographer) recorded a meeting between the Celts and Alexander the Great in 335BC in the Balkans. Classical writers had recorded a large-scale migration of Celts soon after 400BC, this migration took the Celts from central Europe into Northern Italy and Eastern Europe."

As you can see, the Celts weren't only Irish or Scottish, that's something you could've googled and discovered in about 2 seconds.

2) Is it cultural appropriation?

Once again, it would've been enough to scroll through my blog to get your answer, if we're really going into cancel culture and cultural appropriation the answer is still NO!

First of all we have 2 admins, 2 different people with different backgrounds, I (the person answering this ask and managing most of the blog), 'Isidora' am literally of Slavic descent, I was born in Eastern Europe, in the Balkans, near the Danube river quoted in point n.1, and live in Italy, while the other person 'Blaiz' is from France and has Breton roots. So technically speaking, it's not cultural appropriation.

If we're talking about morality? It's still a no!

As absurd as it can seem, different cultures have a LOT, and I tell you, a LOT of common traditions, there may be some smaller differences or a change of names but you'll find a lot of similar holidays, practices and traditions in most cultures.

3) Are we using Celtic Pagan Culture for our witchy non-sense?

Never have I stated that I'm a Celtic Pagan, I am an atheist and see Witchcraft as a craft that combines a bit of psychology, science, self-help and fun to keep myself motivated to work on whatever I need to improve in my life.

What I'm sharing here are my notes and an insight of the history of certain Holidays, or ways to modernize what people did for centuries, because with the progression of technology what was easy to do in the past (like having bonfires) can be difficult in the present.

The other admin, Bleiz is a pagan who works with Breton deities.

They are pagan, there are MANY branches of paganism and there's absolutely nothing wrong in exploring them since the Celts were one of the most widely spread populations in the Ancient Age and there's been a LOT of contamination.

That being said, I hope you find something better to do in your life instead of sending passive aggressive anon messages trying to invalidate someone's beliefs/ruin their day just to get a response on topics that you clearly have very little knowledge of.

Educate yourself before speaking and respect other people's beliefs.

That's all, happy Halloween and touch some grass.

Yours truly,

Isidora

NB : Here is Bleiz writing!

My friend answered really well to your ask. Like she said, descendants of Celtic people are not only in Ireland or Scotland. There is a part in France, called Bretagne, where they stayed and kept a lot of their celtic traditions (mixed with christian religion, but that's another thing). A part of my family comes from there actually. In some villages, we still celebrate the old festivities going back to the celtic people (which were rebranded as 'christian honors' because they were so engraved into the cultures and traditions of Bretagne that the Church couldn't completely suppress them).

Not everyone on this site is american, and we all come from different backgrounds. Your question could have been really interesting, however with the tone you used, it looks more like an aggression to my origins and a disrespect to my ancestors who were murdered by the church because of their beliefs of the ancient gods.

If you don't know something, we would be glad to explain them to you, but please, next time, try not to be so aggressive. There is no shame in not knowing something.

Take care of you, and I hope this will help you to get into Celtic History, traditions and cultures through the different territories because it is fascinating!

Trugarez, kenavo!

⛤Bleiz⛤

[gladiates]

175+ non-Western literature recommendations to diversify your academia, organized by continent + country

I love world literature, and I’ve been frustrated by the lack of representation of it in literature + academia communities on tumblr, so here are some recommendations. I haven’t read all of these myself yet, but the ones I have are excellent and the ones I haven’t come highly recommended from Goodreads and are on my to-read list! 

With the exception of anthologies of older works, all of these books were written before 2000 (some literally thousands of years earlier), since I’m less familiar with super contemporary literature. Also, I only included each writer once, though many of them have multiple amazing books. I’m sure there are plenty of incredible books I’m missing, so please feel free to add on to this list! And countries that aren’t included absolutely have a lot to offer as well--usually, it was just hard to find books available in English translation (which all of the ones below are.)

List below the cut (it’s my first post with a cut so let’s hope I do it right... and also warning that it’s super long)

ASIA:

Bangladesh:

Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (1929)

China:

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (6th century BCE)

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (5th century BCE)

The Analects by Confucius (circa 5th-4th century BCE?)

The Book of Chuang Tzu by Zhuangzi (4th century BCE)

Mencius by Mencius (3rd century BCE)

The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (2nd century AD)

Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems by Li Po and Tu Fu (written 8th century AD)

Poems of Wang Wei (8th century AD)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (14th century AD)

Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling (1740)

Dream of the Red Chamber by Xueqin Cao (1791)

Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu (1809)

Diary of a Madman and Other Stories by Lu Xun (1918)

Mr Ma and Son by Lao She (1929)

Family by Ba Jin (1933)

Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang (1943)

A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)

Red Sorghum by Mo Yan (1987)

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian (1989)

The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature edited by Yunte Huang (anthology, 2016)

India:

The Rig Vega (1500-1200 BCE)

The Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita (around 400 BCE but not known exactly. The Gita is part of the Mahabharata)

The Upanishads (REALLY wide date range)

The Dhammapada (3rd century BCE)

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Nāgārjuna (2nd century AD)

The Recognition of Sakuntala by Kālidāsa (4th century AD)

The Way of the Bodhisattva by Santideva (700 AD)

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore (1910)

Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar (1936)

The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru (1946)

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh (1956) 

A Source Book in Indian Philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles Alexander Moore (1957)

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1993)

Women Writing in India: 600 BC to the Present V: The Twentieth Century by Susie J. Tharu and K. Lalita (1993)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (1995)

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1996)

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (1999)

Indian Philosophy in English: From Renaissance to Independence (anthology, 2011)

Indonesia:

The Weaverbirds by Y.B. Mangunwijaya (1981)

Iran:

Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings by Abolqasem Ferdowsi (11th century AD)

The Essential Rumi by Rumi (13th century AD)

The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat (1936)

Savushun by Simin Daneshvar (1969)

My Uncle Napoleon by Iran Pezeshkzad (1973)

Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi (1979)

Iraq:

Fifteen Iraqi Poets edited by Dunya Mikhail (published 2013 but the poems are 20th century)

Japan:

The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu (9th-10th century AD)

The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon (1002 AD)

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (1008 AD)

The Tale of the Heike, unknown (12th century AD)

One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse (not sure of year)

Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenkō (1332)

Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki (1914)

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (1948)

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (1948)

The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1948)

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (1949)

Masks by Fumiko Enchi (1958)

The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe (1962)

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe (1964)

Silence by Shūsaku Endō (1966)

Korea (written before the division into North/South):

The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong (written 1795-1805)

Lebanon:

Samarkand by Amin Maalouf (1988)

Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (1998)

Pakistan:

We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (1991)

The Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1991)

The Taste of Words: An Introduction to Urdu Poetry edited by Raza Mir (2014)

Palestine:

Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani (1963)

Orientalism by Edward Said (1978)

I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti (1997)

Mural by Mahmoud Darwish (2000, which technically breaks my rule by a year but it’s great)

Philippines:

Noli Me Tángere by José Rizal (1887)

Saudi Arabia:

Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif (1984)

Sri Lanka:

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai (1994)

Syria:

Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami (1989)

Taiwan:

Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin (1996)

Turkey:

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk (1998)

Vietnam:

Spring Essence: The Poetry of Hô Xuân Huong by Hô Xuân Huong (1801)

The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen Du (1820)

Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong (1988)

Miscellaneous Asia (country unclear or multiple current day countries):

The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 1800 BCE)

Myths from Mesopotamia translated by Stephanie Dailey

The Arabian Nights (as early as the 9th century AD, lots of changes over the years)

The Qur’an

AFRICA:

Algeria:

Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar (1985)

The Bridges of Constantine by Ahlam Mosteghanemi (1993)

Cameroon:

Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono (1956)

Egypt:

The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940 - 1640 B.C. translated by R.B. Parkinson

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (1956)

The Sinners by Yusuf Idris (1959)

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi (1975)

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif (1999)

Ghana:

Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo (1977)

Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah (1979)

In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture by Kwame Anthony Appiah (1992)

Guinea:

The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye (1954)

Kenya:

A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thing'o (1994)

The River and the Source by Margaret A. Ogola (1995)

Libya:

The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim al-Koni (1990)

Mali:

The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1973)

Nigeria:

The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola (1952)  

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)

Efuru by Flora Nwapa (1966)

The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (1979)

Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka (1981)

Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English by Ken Saro-Wiwa (1985)

The Famished Road by Ben Okri (1991)

Senegal:

God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène (1960)

So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ (1981)

Somalia:

Maps by Nuruddin Farah (1986)

South Africa:

When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head (1969)

Fools and Other Stories by Njabulo S. Ndebele (1986)

Sudan:

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (1966)

Tunisia:

The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi (1957)

Zimbabwe:

The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera (1978)

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (1988)

Miscellaneous Africa:

The Granta Book of the African Short Story edited by Helon Habila (2011)

The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier (1963)

AMERICAS:

Antigua and Barbuda:

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (1988)

Argentina:

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (1944)

Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar (1963)

The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (The First Good Novel) by Macedonio Fernández (1967)

Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (1976)

The Sixty-Five Years of Washington by Juan José Saer (1985)

How I Became a Nun by César Aira (1993)

Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo (2015 but written earlier)

Brazil:

Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis (1900)

Chronicle of the Murdered House by Lúcio Cardoso (1959)

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado (1966)

Pedagagy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (1968)

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (1977)

Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts by Rubem Fonseca (1988)

Chile:

The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso (1970)

Emergency Poems by Nicanor Parra (1972)

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (1982)

Colombia:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)

Cuba:

The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier (1949)

Cold Tales by Virgilio Piñera (1958)

Dominican Republic:

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994)

Guatemala:

Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias (1949)

I, Rigoberta Menchú by Rigoberta Menchú (1985)

Guadalupe (part of France but overseas):

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé (1986)

Haiti:

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwige Danticat (1994)

Jamaica:

No Telephone to Heaven by Michelle Cliff (1987)

The True History of Paradise by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (1999)

Martinique (part of France but overseas):

Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire (1950)

Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961)

Poetics of Relation by Édouard Glissant (1997)

Mexico:

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (1955)

Aura by Carlos Fuentes (1962)

The Hole by José Revueltas (1969)

Underground River and Other Stories by Inés Arredondo (1979)

The Collected Poems, 1957-1987 by Octavio Paz (1987)

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (1989)

Nicaragua:

Azul by Rubén Darío (1888)

Peru:

The Cardboard House by Martín Adán (1928)

The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (1962)

The Complete Poems by César Vallejo (1968)

St. Lucia:

Omeros by Derek Walcott (1990)

Trinidad and Tobago:

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James (1938)

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (1961)

Uruguay:

Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano (1971)

Venezuela:

Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos (1929)

Indigenous Writers from Canada and the United States:

American Indian Stories by Zitkála-Šá (Dakota) (1921)

Winter in the Blood by James Welch (Blackfeet and A’aninin) (1974)

Emplumada by Lorna Dee Cervantes (Chumash) (1982)

She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) (1982) 

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich (Chippewa) (1984)

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo) (1986)

Custer Died for Your Sins by Vine Deloria Jr. (Dakota) (1988)

The Grass Dancer by Susan Power (Dakota) (1997)

Miscellaneous Americas:

And We Sold the Rain: Contemporary Fiction from Central America edited by Rosario Santos (1988)

Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real edited by Celia Correas de Zapata (2003)

Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicana and Chicano Literature edited by Cristina García (2006)

[reimenaashelyee]

An update on Alexander Comic

It’s been awhile since my last legit update on the Comic, which can be explained by a billion things: pandemic-and-world-changing-related-stress, two scripts for different books I had to struggle to finish, a new graphic novel I am currently revising (minor revisions) + drawing, life, the simutaneous quickening and slowing of time, too many other things.

Anyway quick update on the Comic.

I’m one graphic novel away (My Aunt is a Monster) till I finally get to work full-time on Alexander. This dude has been waiting impatiently for so long as he lives rent-free in my head. But soon!!

Speaking of being full-time, I’m going to devote the entirety of 2021 to just make the comic. Plus if you haven’t heard, it’s going to be a webcomic with an official publisher backing it. In the meantime, between now and the future, I’m gradually gathering my thoughts and trinkets so I can start writing the first complete draft of the script/story.

The story hasn’t changed much. I thought a lot about it though, letting it marinate in the brain stew, and now more than ever it’s assured of its own voice. I’m taking the comic quite deep into the postcolonial/decolonial way of seeing and storytelling. If you’ve read any classic magic realist or deconstructive fabulist texts (Invisible Cities, 100 Years of Solitude, Life of Pi, etc), that’s more or less the vibe of Alexander Comic... which is an unusual take in Alexander the Great fiction generally, but when you think about it, what’s this man’s life but a mishmash of lives and things? Even what sources we have now about that is closest to the truth are still reconstructions from half-truths, half-legends, and the author’s own POV. For my book I am just going to own mine and everyone’s visions of Alexander and make it a fun, hopefully emotionally-delicious tour of his messy legacy. There will still be some hard truths -- I want to depict the ancient world and its people with respect; and provide vignettes of Alexander’s life from a place of research/care while allowing room for nuance and the many possible interpretations of those events. But it’ll be a fun non-Western playing with memory and history and storytelling, and I am hypeee to find out the results of my experiment.

In two months I will be doing an artist residency, and that’s when I’ll work intensely on Alexander. For now, gotta work on My Aunt is a Monster. @_@ We’ll see what updates I have for yall at the end of the year (which would mark the 2nd year of this project!)

Thanks for following me on this journey!!

[wizzard890]

our call of cthulhu campaign

Yarina Uglitsky (act i) 

“…Tales of Prester John’s magnificent kingdom opened the borders of western imagination. No longer did the Byzantine Empire mark the edge of the Christian world; here, suddenly, were rumors of a vast, strange country hidden beyond the Gates of Alexander, guarded by monsters, populated by a spectacularly wealthy and learned people, whose eyes were turned to heaven.

It is academically en vogue to dismiss this dreamed kingdom as a non-entity, and to apply a historiographic lens to those peoples considered the source of the legend. We are likely dealing with legendary Nestorian Christians and converted Mongol tribes, an exaggerated history of the Great Steppe from the fall of the Turkic khanate in the eighth century to the formation of the Mongol Empire in the first half of the thirteenth.

But this reduction does a disservice to the medieval mind, and indeed, to the intellectual evolution of the Soviet academy. In every meaningful way save the most prosaic, the Kingdom of Prester John existed. It could not be found, but over and over again it sent ripples westward.

On September 27, 1177, Pope Alexander III gave his private physician a letter addressed to Prester John himself, a greeting of brotherhood and, crucially, military alliance. The young physician, Phillip, set out from Rome to deliver the message by hand. He sent no dispatches from his travels, and so one is left to envision the burning deserts, the solitary nights, his commingled wonder and dread as he reached the edge of the map.

In the intervening years, the Pope turned his attention to the forcible conversion of Baltic pagans, and convening the Third Council of the Lateran, both more tangible expressions of Christian power, and indeed, achievements which utterly cemented his legacy. There is no indication that he concerned himself further with his long-departed physician.

The young man was never heard from again.”

- Dr. Yarina Uglitsky, Professor of Medieval History, Moscow University; “The Receding Kingdom: Frontier and Belief in the Medieval West”.

[khaliltumandar]

" Influence & Impact of the Arabic Language & Literature on the Western World "

Speech delivered by:

Dr. Khalil Tumandar on 9th Dec 2020 in an international Conference/ webinar, organized by Arabic Dept of Sir Syed College, Aurangabad,

alongwith the Guest Speakers from different Countries including : (Canada ,Egypt,India, Iraq,Japan,KSA,

Kuwait,Turkey,UAE,USA & Yemen).

اعوذ بالله من الشیطن الرجیم

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

الحمدلله رب العالمین والعاقبته للمتقین والصلوہ والسلام علی سید الانبیاءوالمرسلین وعلی آله و اصحابه اجمعین اما بعد -

قال رب الشرح لي صدري ویسر لي امري و احلل عقده من لساني یفقهوا قولي

Respected Chairperson ,

Dr. Shamama Parveen۔

Principal Sir Syed College,A'abad ,India,

Dr Shaikh Kabir Ahmed.

Prof & Head, Department of Arabic , Sir Syed College,Aurangabad(Maharashtra),

Dr. Muhammed Mustafa khan Al - Nadwi Al- khairi.

Former Prof, Dr. Abdur Rasheed

Al- Nadwi ,Al-Madni.

Former Prof Dr. Muhammed Sadrul Hasan Al- Nadwi Al - Madni.

Distinguished Guest Speakers from different Countries .

Respected and Dear Audience .

As-salam- Alaikum

السلام علیکم ورحمتہ الله وبرکاتہ

Indeed it is a great privilege and honour for me to be here, on this auspicious occasion of two days Arabic International Conference / Webinar on

" Literary & Linguistic Influences of Arabic on International Languages" organized by , Department of Arabic, Sir Sayyed College of Arts, Commerce and Science, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India.

Late (Marhoom) Prof Tilawat Ali was founder Chairman of this renowned institute. Prof Tilawat Ali was very well known to me since 1989-90 when he planned to establish this great educational center. May Allah accept his deeds and services as a source of maghfirat in Aakhirat ( the life hereafter)Aameen .

Today I have been asked to highlight few relevant points over the topic,

" Influence and impact of the Arabic Language and Literature on the Western World ".

Dear Audience ,

Before we should proceed our main discussion, it would be better to know how many spoken languages exist presently ?

It is around 7117.

if we select, ten top most popular spoken languages among these, then the list would be as:

(1) Mandarin

( Mandarin and Cantonese languages , used mostly in China).

(2) English .

(3) Hindustani (mixed Urdu & Hindi ) .

(4) Spanish.

(5) Arabic .

(6) Malay.

(7)Russian.

(8)Bengali.

(9) Portuguese &

(10) French.

The Arabic language is ranked as , fifth spoken language in the world.

Dear Friends,

Today I would like to begin my talk, with the Divine Message of the Holy Quran, Chapter 30 Surah Al - Rum, Aayat 22.

ومن آیاته خلق السماوات والارض و اختلاف السنتکم والوانکم ان في ذلك لایات للعالمین -

Translation:

And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and colours. Surely, in this there are the signs for those of sound knowledge.

These Divine words of the Holy Quran indicate clearly that, all languages are signs of the greatness of our Creator Allah Subhanahu Taala. Hence, we should respect all languages and at no cost discriminate against any human being based on language and colour.

The Arabic language has a great significance all over the world, as it is the language of the Holy Quran.

We know very well that, the first aayat of the Holy Quran revealed as :

اقرا باسم ربك الذی خلق

Translation: " Read, O' Prophet, in the name of your Lord "Chapter 96/1.

Another reference regarding the importance of the Arabic language:

احبوا العرب لثلاث:

لاني عربي' والقرآن عربي و کلام اھل الجنته عربي

رواه العقیلی فی الضعفاء

والطبرانی فی الکبیر

والحاکم فی المستدرک

والبیہقی فی شعب الایمان

( عن ابن عباس رضی اللہ عنہ)

and there is one more reference as :

عن ابی ھریرہ رضی الله عنہ: قال قال رسول الله صلی الله علیہ و سلم انا عربي والقرآن عربي ولسان اھل الجنته عربي

It is narrated from Abu Huraira ( رضی الله عنہ ) that, Rasoolullah Prophet Muhammed( P.B.U.H) صلی الله علیہ و سلم said that, I am Arabi, Quran is in Arabic and the language of Paradise is Arabic.

Al - hamdu- lillah, these (03) three are the main reasons why we should love the Arabic language.

According to data collected in the recent past, it was believed that around two hundred & twenty( 220) Million Arabic speakers exist, but equally four hundred & fifty ( 450) Million could be considered as Arabic language speakers all over the world when one should include non- Arabs, who know the Arabic language because of their interest.

Arabic is the language of the Holy Quran, Prayers ( Salah )and Islamic Studies( Hadith & Fiqh- Islamic Jurisprudence) for a billion and a half Muslims all over the globe. it is also used by a large number of people in different fields of culture, religion, history, trade, technology, agriculture, medical fraternity, engineering, fabrics & clothing, chemicals & pharmaceuticals, food & drugs, Mathematics & Astronomy, Algebra& Geometry, Zoology & Botany.

English and other European languages are enriched with numerous Arabic loan words. As many words in the European languages are originally derived from Arabic.

Just for an illustration, few examples of the English words as:

Camel جمل ،Giraffe زراف' Camphor - کافور ' Musk - مسک ،Caliph - خلیفہ ' Lemon- لیمون ' Alcohol - الکحل ' Sugar - سکر '

Syrup - شراب, Algebra- الجبرا '

Carat - قیراط etc.

There are almost more than 1000 English words of Arabic origin used in a routine.

Dear Friends,

Arabs invented the concept of numerical digit (0)Zero/ صفر ( sifar ,khali - kuch naheeh ,zee- roh) which means emptiness or nothingness and it made easier all complicated mathematical calculations.

We equally noticed that Western Culture is very much influenced by Arabic Philosophers like Khalil Jibran ( خلیل جبران ), Poet Mehmud Darwesh. ( محمود درویش )۔ Even they were impressed by great scholars like Avicennia ( ابن سینا) Ghazali ( غزالی ) and Ibn Rushd( ابن رشد ).

The translation work of renowned Mathematician Al - Khwarizmi who invented Algebra ( الجبرا) mostly at the end of the eighth century, Jabir bin Aflah & Muslima Al - Majriti were the famous names referred by Madrid ( Capital of Spain), even in the 12th century.

Andalusian Scholar completed the great work of translation of Aristotle and Ibn Rushd into Latin & that too in those days, when Greek Philosophy did not exist in Europe. It is also mentioned in the history of the world that collection of Indian Stories known as پنچ تنتر / Panchtantra was translated into Arabic from the Persian version of Ibn- Al - Muqqaffa with the name " Kalila - wa- Dimnah" . This Arabic portion was translated in many languages of the world and collection of these stories were published five hundred years ago, by an English publisher named William Caxton in 1484.

It is also observed that the Spanish language has many Arabic words.

Cardova (Qartaba/ قرطبہ) is also called Cardoba, a city located in southern Spain. There is a library that has more than 400000( four hundred thousands) manuscripts ( مخطوطات ). But, this was a time when taking a gus'l or a bath was considered a dangerous custom.

Non-muslim Arabic Scholars from the West are called " Orientalists"( مستشرقین). They are paid for presenting their critical concepts. They have a keen interest in learning the Arabic language, to know details about the Holy Quran & Hadith (Traditions of Prophet Muhammed, P.B.U.H,صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم) and deep knowledge of Islam & history. They dedicate their lives to their missions. Few of them during their research realized the truth and finally enter the fold of Islam. The Hidayat ( ہدایت / guidance) comes to them only from Almighty Allah subhanahu Quddus ( الله سبحانہ قدوس).

Infact , we should be thankful to the Orientalists who learn the Arabic language & literature, irrespective of their intentions and missions. I would like to enumerate the few .

(1) Joannis Damascene: (676-749 ) official of the Caliph of Damascus.

(2) Abd - al - Masih ibn Ishaque Al- Kindi, an Arab Christian most probably of the 8th / 9th century, his work was translated into Latin and very much popular in Europe.

(3) Petrus Venerablis ( 1092-1156 ) translated , Holy Quran into Latin.

(4) Mose bin Maimoon ( 1135-1204 ) A Jewish Theologist and Talmudist wrote a book Dalalat al- Harin, a guide on Jewish theology, published in 1190.

(5) Marco de Toledo: ( 1193-1216 )

Did translation of Holy Quran, from Arabic to Latin.

(6) Frederik 2: ( 1194-1250 )

An emperor, who continued the mission of translation of Holy Quran from Arabic to Latin.

(7) Ibn- Kammuna : ( 1215-1285)

A Jewish scholar who wrote a book in Arabic on examination of inquiries into three faiths.

(8)Alfonso Sabco: ( 1221-1284)

who did the translation from Arabic into Greek, over the scientific works of Arabs, later on, it was translated into Latin and its maximum translators were jews.

(9) Raman Marti ( 1286):

A traditional partisan ( a strong supporter of a cause), who studied Islam thoroughly and in his book gave the references of Holy Quran, Hadith and quotations from Al - Farabi, Ibn - Sina, Al - Ghazali & Ibn Rushd in his books.

(10) Bar -Ebraya: ( 1226-1286)

much influenced by Al - Ghazali.

(11) Theodor Barliander: ( 1506-1564).

A Zurich theologian published his book with a preface written by Martin Luther.

(12) Andre Ryer: ( 1580- 1660)

Did translation of holy Quran from Arabic to French, published from Paris

in 1647.

(13) Alexander Ross:(1591-1654)

From Scotland did a translation of holy Quran Kareem from French to English.

(14) Antoine Galland :( 1646-1715)

From France, first in the West to translate the Arabian Nights.

(15) Humphrey Prideaux: (1648-1724) wrote many books on Islam.

In addition to the above mentioned, there are many more orientalists, still busy round-the-clock in their mission since the last 1400 years.

No doubt, the Arabic language has also influenced the English language and Western Culture.

Indeed the Arabic language is a live language, which is survived in its original form even after 1400 years, when the first aayat or the First Divine Message of Almighty, in the form of the Holy Quran revealed to, our Beloved Prophet Muhammed ( P.B.U.H) صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم, brought by Archangel Jibraeel علیہ السلام ( Alaih salam), at the Mount Hira ( جبل نور ), Holy Makkah.

اقراء باسم ربك الذی خلق

" Read, O Prophet, in the Name of your Lord, who created ".

Hence, we must read and understand the Arabic language as much as possible, so that we can convey the message of our Creator to mankind all over the world.

انا انزلنه قرانا عربیا لعلکم تعقلون ( سورہ یوسف آیت 2 )

We have revealed it as a Recitation in Arabic that you may fully understand ( surah Yusuf,aayat number 2).

May Allah guide all of us and everyone in the world so that we can understand the words of our Lord Almighty Allah , the words of wisdom in the form of

" Holy Quran " on this earth . ( Aameen ).

Speech delivered by :

Dr. Khaliluddin Tumandar,

mbbs( Bom)mcps.

Former physician, Haram Shariff

Holy Makkah

Presently at :

Ontario, Canada.

email: khaliltumandar123@gmail.com.

[justforbooks]

The End of Communism in Russia Meant the End of Democracy in the West

Alexander Zinoviev, along with Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, was one of the three great intellectual giants who became dissidents during the late Soviet period.  

This remarkable and prophetic interview was originally published in 1999 in the French Figaro Magazine.  Its original title was:  ”The West and Russia – A Controlled Catastrophe”

Q. With what feelings are you returning home after such a long exile?

A. With a feeling that I once left a strong, respected, even awe-inspiring power. Returning now, I found a defeated country in ruins. Unlike others, I would never have left the USSR if I had had a choice. Emigration was a real punishment for me.

Q. Nevertheless, you were welcomed with open arms here! (in Germany – Ed. Note)

A. That is true… But despite the triumphant recognition and the worldwide success of my books, I have always felt like a stranger here.

Q. After the collapse of communism the Western system has become the main focus of your research. Why?

A. Because what happened was what I had predicted: the fall of communism turned into the breakup of Russia.

Q. So the fight with communism was a conspiracy to destroy Russia?

A. Precisely. I say this because once I was an unwitting accomplice of this action that I found shameful. The West wanted and programmed the Russian catastrophe. I read documents and participated in the research, which under the guise of ideological struggle worked towards the destruction of Russia. This became so unbearable for me that I could no longer stay in the camp of those who destroy my people and my country. The West is not a stranger to me, but I consider it an enemy empire.

Q: Have you become a patriot?

A: Patriotism does not concern me. I received an international upbringing and I remain loyal to it. I cannot even say whether I love Russians and Russia or not. I am part of them. Today’s suffering of my people is so horrible that I cannot stand watching them from afar. The barbarity of globalization manifests itself in many diverse, unacceptable ways.

Q: Nevertheless, many former Soviet dissidents speak about their former homeland as a country of human rights and democracy. Now that this point of view has become commonly accepted in the West, you are trying to refute it. Isn’t there a contradiction here?

A: During the Cold War, democracy was a weapon in the fight against communist totalitarianism. Today we understand that the Cold War era was the history of the West’s  apogee. During that time the West had it all: unprecedented growth of wealth, true freedom, incredible social progress, colossal scientific and technological achievements. But at the same time the West was imperceptibly changing. The timid integration of developed countries launched at that time has developed into the internationalization of the economy and the globalization of power that we are witnessing now. Integration may help the growth of common good and have a positive impact if it is driven by the legitimate aspiration of fraternal people to unite, for example. But the integration in question was conceived from the beginning as a vertical structure strictly controlled by a supranational power. Without a successful Russian counter-revolution against the Soviet Union, the West could not have started the process of globalization.

Q: So, the role of Gorbachev was not positive?

A: I look at things from a slightly different angle. Contrary to common belief, Soviet communism did not collapse because of internal reasons. Its collapse is certainly the greatest victory in the history of the West. An unheard of victory which, let me say it again, can establish a unitary power monopoly on a planetary scale. The end of communism also signalized the end of democracy. The modern epoch is not only post-communist, it is also post-democratic! Today we are witnessing the establishment of democratic totalitarianism, or, if you will, totalitarian democracy.

Q: Does not it all sound a little absurd?

A: Not at all. Democracy requires pluralism and pluralism implies an existence of at least two more or less equal forces which oppose each other and at the same time influence each other. During the Cold War there was world democracy, global pluralism, with two opposing systems: capitalist and communist, plus other countries with an amorphous system which belonged to neither. Soviet totalitarianism was sensitive to Western criticism. In turn, the Soviet Union influenced the West, in particular through the latter’s own communist parties. Today we live in a world dominated by one single force, one ideology and one pro-globalization party. All of this together began to take shape during the Cold War, when superstructures gradually appeared in various forms: commercial, banking, political and media organizations. Despite their different fields of activity, what they had in common was essentially their transnational scope. With the collapse of communism they began to rule the world. Thus, Western countries ended up in the dominant position, but at the same time they are now in a subordinate position as they gradually lose their sovereignty to what I call the supra-society. The planet-wide supra-society consists of commercial and non-commercial organizations whose influence extends far beyond individual states. Like other countries, the Western countries are subordinated to these supranational structures. This is despite the fact that the sovereignty of states was also an integral part of pluralism and hence of democracy on a global scale. Today’s ruling supra-power suppresses sovereign states. The European integration unfolding in front of our very eyes is also leading to the disappearance of pluralism within this new conglomerate in favor of supranational power.

Q: But do not you think that France and Germany remain democracies?

A: Western countries got to know true democracy during the Cold War. Political parties had genuine ideological differences and different political programs. The media also differed from each other. All this had an impact on the lives of ordinary people contributing to the growth of their wealth. Now this has come to an end. A democratic and prosperous capitalism with socially oriented laws and job security was in many ways thanks to a fear of communism. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, a massive attack on the social rights of citizens was launched in the West. Today the socialists who are in power in most European countries are pursuing policies of dismantling the social security system, destroying everything that was socialist in the capitalist countries. There is no longer a political force in the West capable of protecting ordinary citizens. The existence of political parties is a mere formality. They will differ less and less as time goes on. The war in the Balkans was anything but democratic. Nevertheless, the war was perpetrated by the socialists who historically have been against these kinds of ventures. Environmentalists, who are in power in some countries, welcomed the environmental catastrophe caused by the NATO bombings. They even dared to claim that bombs containing depleted uranium are not dangerous for the environment, even though soldiers loading them wear special protective overalls. Thus, democracy is gradually disappearing from the social structure of the West. Totalitarianism is spreading everywhere because the supranational structure imposes its laws on individual states. This undemocratic superstructure gives orders, imposes sanctions, organizes embargos, drops bombs, causes hunger. Even Clinton obeys it. Financial totalitarianism has subjugated political power. Emotions and compassion are alien to cold financial totalitarianism. Compared with financial dictatorship, political dictatorship is humane. Resistance was possible inside the most brutal dictatorships. Rebellion against banks is impossible.

Q: What about a revolution?

A: Democratic totalitarianism and financial dictatorship rule out the possibility of social revolution.

Q: Why?

A: Because they combine omnipotent military power with a financial stranglehold. All revolutions received support from outside. From now on this is impossible because there are no sovereign states, nor will there be. Moreover, at the lowest level the working class has been replaced with the unemployed class. What do the unemployed want? Jobs. Therefore, they are in a less advantageous position than the working class of the past.

Q: All totalitarian systems had their own ideology. What is the ideology of the new society you call post-democratic?

A: The most influential Western thinkers and politicians believe that we have entered the post-ideological epoch. This is because by “ideology” they mean communism, fascism, nazism, etc. In reality, the ideology, the super-ideology of the Western world, developed over the last fifty years is much stronger than communism or national socialism. A western citizen is being brainwashed much more than a soviet citizen ever was during the era of communist propaganda. In ideology, the main thing is not the ideas, but rather the mechanisms of their distribution. The might of the Western media, for example, is incomparably greater than that of the propaganda mechanisms of the Vatican when it was at the zenith of its power. And it is not only the cinema, literature, philosophy – all the levers of influence and mechanisms used in the promulgation of culture, in its broadest sense, work in this direction. At the slightest impulse all who work in this area respond with such consistency that it is hard not to think that all orders come from a single source of power. It was enough to decide to stigmatize General Karadžić or President Milošević or someone else for the whole planetary propaganda machine to start working against them. As a result, instead of condemning politicians and NATO generals for violation of all existing laws, the vast majority of Western citizens is convinced that the war against Serbia was necessary and just. Western ideology combines and mixes ideas based on its needs. One of these ideas is that Western values and lifestyle are the best in the world! Although for most people on the planet these values have disastrous consequences. Try to convince Americans that these values will destroy Russia. You will not be able to. They will continue to assert the thesis of universalism of Western values, therefore following one of the fundamental principles of ideological dogmatism. Theorists, politicians and media of the West are absolutely sure that their system is the best. That is why they impose it around the world without a doubt and with a clear conscience. Western man as the carrier of these highest values is therefore a new superman. The term itself is a taboo, but It all comes down to this. This phenomenon should be studied scientifically. But I dare to say that it has become extremely difficult to conduct scientific research in some areas of sociology and history. The scientist who desires to research mechanisms of democratic totalitarianism will face extreme difficulties. He will be made into an outcast. On the other hand, those whose research serves the dominant ideology are flooded with grants while publishing houses and media are fighting for the right to work with such authors. I have personally experienced it  when I have been teaching and working as a researcher at foreign universities.

Q: Does not this super-ideology you dislike, have ideas of tolerance and respect for others?

A: When you listen to representatives of the Western elite, everything seems so pure, generous and respectful to people. Doing so they use the classic rule of propaganda: hide the reality behind sweet talk. However it is enough to turn on the TV, go to the movies, open a bestselling book or listen to popular music to realize the opposite: the unprecedented dissemination of the cult of violence, sex and money. Noble speeches are designed to hide these three (and there are more) pillars of totalitarian democracy.

Q: What about human rights? Is it not the West who honors them the most?

A: From now on the idea of human rights is increasingly under pressure. Even the purely ideological thesis that these rights are intrinsic and inseparable today will not sustain even the  first stage of a thorough analysis. I am ready to subject  Western ideology to the same scientific analysis that I did with  communism. But this is a long conversation, not for today’s interview.

Q: Does Western ideology have a key idea?

A: The idea of globalization! In other words, world domination! Since this idea is rather unpleasant, it is hidden under lengthy phrases about planetary unity, transformation of the world into one integrated whole… In reality, the West has now commenced work on structural changes across the whole planet. On the one hand Western society dominates the world, on the other hand it itself is being rebuilt vertically with the supranational power on the very top of the pyramid.

Q: World government?

A: Yes, if you will.

Q: To believe in it, doesn’t that mean to be a victim of delusional fantasies about global conspiracy?

A: What conspiracy? There is no conspiracy. The world government is controlled by the heads of well known supranational economic, financial and political structures. According to my estimates, this super-society, now ruling the world, has about fifty million people. Its center is the United States. The countries of Western Europe and some former Asian “dragon” countries are its basis. Other countries are dominated under a tight financial and economic ranking. This is the reality. Regarding propaganda, it presumes that the creation of world government under control of the world parliament is desirable because the world is a big brotherhood. All these are just stories designed for the plebs.

Q: The European Parliament as well?

A: No, because the European Parliament exists. But it is naive to believe that the European Union was a result of the good will of the governments of the member states. The European Union is a weapon for the destruction of national sovereignties. It is part of the projects developed by supranational organisms.

Q: The European commonwealth changed its name after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As if to replace the Soviet Union, it was called  the “European Union”. After all, it could be called differently. Like bolsheviks, European leaders call themselves commissioners. LIke bolsheviks they head commissions. The last president was “elected” being the only candidate …

A: We must not forget that the process of social organization is subject to certain rules. To organize a million people is one thing, to organize ten million is another, to organize a hundred million is a very hard task. To organize five hundred million people is a task of colossal proportions. It is necessary to create new administrative bodies, to train people who will manage them and to ensure their smooth functioning. This is the primary task. In fact, the Soviet Union is a classic example of a multinational conglomerate led by a supranational management structure. The European Union wants to achieve better results than the Soviet Union! That is justified. Even twenty years ago I was stunned by the fact that so-called flaws of the Soviet system were even more developed in the West.

Q: Like what?

A: Planning! The Western economy is infinitely more planned than the economy of the USSR was ever planned. Bureaucracy! In the Soviet Union 10 to 12% of the active population worked in the country‘s management and administration field. In the US this number is 16 to 20%. However the USSR was criticized for its planned economy and the burden of bureaucratic apparatus. Two thousand people worked in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The Communist Party apparatus reached 150 thousand workers. Today in the West you will find dozens, even hundreds of enterprises in industrial and banking sectors employing more people. The bureaucratic apparatus of the Soviet Communist Party was negligibly small compared with the staff of large transnational corporations of the West. In fact, we must recognize that the USSR was mismanaged because of the lack of administrative staff. It was necessary to have two to three times more administrative workers! The European Union is well aware of these problems and therefore takes them into account. Integration is impossible without an impressive administrative apparatus.

Q: What you say is contradictory to the ideas of liberalism promoted by European leaders. Do you not think that their liberalism is just a show?

A: The administration has a tendency to grow greatly which is dangerous in itself. It knows that. Like any organism it finds antidotes to continue its normal functioning. A private initiative is one of them. Another antidote is  social and individual morality. Applying them,  power fights self-destructive tendencies. So it invented liberalism to create a counterweight to its own gravity. Today, however, it is absurd to be a liberal. The liberal society no longer exists. The liberal doctrine does not reflect the realities of the unprecedented era of concentration of capital. The movement of huge financial resources does not take into accounts the interests of individual states and peoples consisting of individuals. Liberalism implies a personal initiative and taking of financial risks. Today any business needs money provided by banks. These banks, whose numbers are diminishing, implement a policy which is by its nature dictatorial and manipulative. Business owners are at their mercy because everything is subject to lending and therefore is under the control of financial institutions. The importance of the individual – the basis of liberalism – is reduced day by day. Today it does not matter who heads this or that company, this or that country: Bush or Clinton, Kohl or Schröder, Chirac or Jospin, what is the difference?

Q: The totalitarian regimes of the 20th century were extremely cruel, which cannot be said about Western democracy.

A: It’s not the means that are important, but the end result obtained. Would you like an example? In the struggle against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union lost 20 million people (according to the latest figures of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation – 27 million. – Ed. Note) and suffered tremendous destruction. During the Cold War, a war without bombs and guns, there were a lot more losses any way you look at it! Over the last decade the life expectancy of Russians dropped by ten years! The death rate is much higher than the birth rate. Two million children do not sleep at home. Five million school-age children do not attend school. There are 12 million registered drug addicts. Alcoholism has become universal. 70% of young people are not suitable for military service due to various physical defects. These are the direct consequences of the defeat in the Cold War, followed by a transition to a Western lifestyle. If this continues, the population will drop rapidly at first from 150 million to 100 million, and then to 50 million. Democratic totalitarianism will surpass all previous totalitarian regimes.

Q: Through violence?

A: Drugs, poor nutrition, and AIDS are much more effective than military violence. Although after the immense force of destruction of the Cold War, the West invented a “humanitarian war”. The military campaigns in Iraq and Yugoslavia are two examples of collective punishment and retaliation on an exceedingly large scale, while the propaganda machine shapes them as a “good cause” or a “humanitarian war”. Turning the victims of violence against themselves is another, different approach. An example of its use is the Russian counter-revolution of 1985. However, when they unleashed the war in Yugoslavia, the countries of Western Europe led war against themselves.

Q. In your opinion, the war against Serbia was also a war against Europe?

A. Absolutely right. In Europe there are forces that can compel it to act against itself. Serbia was chosen because it resisted the ever-expanding globalization. Russia could be next on the list. Before China…

Q: In spite of its nuclear arsenal?

A: Russia’s nuclear arsenal is huge, but it is outdated. Besides, the Russians are morally disarmed and ready to surrender… I believe that the monstrosity of the 21st century will surpass everything that mankind has seen to this day. Just think about the coming global war on Chinese communism. To defeat such a populous country one will need not exterminate around 500 million people, not 10 or 20 million. Today, given the level of excellence of the propaganda machine, it is quite possible. Naturally, in will be done in the name of freedom and human rights. Unless, of course, some PR organization invents a new and no less noble a cause.

Q: Don’t you think that people can have their own opinions, and that they can vote and thus express themselves?

ANSWER. First of all, even now people don’t vote that often, and they will vote even less in the future. With regard to public opinion in the West it is shaped by the media. Suffice it to recall the universal approval of the war in Kosovo. Remember the Spanish war! Volunteers from all over the world traveled to that country to fight on one side or the other. Remember the war in Vietnam. But these days, people are so well shepherded that they react only the way that the purveyors of propaganda want them to.

Q: The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were the most multi-ethnic countries in the world, but they were destroyed nevertheless. Do you see a connection between the destruction of multiethnic countries, on the one hand, and the promotion of multi-ethnicity on the other hand?

A: Soviet totalitarianism created a genuinely multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society. It was the Western democracies that made superhuman efforts to fan the flames of various kinds of nationalism, because they considered the breakup of the Soviet Union as the best way to destroy it. The same mechanism worked in Yugoslavia. Germany had always sought the obliteration of Yugoslavia. United, Yugoslavia could strengthen its resistance. The essence of the Western system is to divide in order to make it easier for the West to impose its laws on all parties, and then act as Chief Justice. There is no reason to assume that this know-how will not be applied in relation to the dismemberment of China in the future.

Q: India and China voiced their opposition to the bombing of Yugoslavia. If needed, could they form a core of resistance? After all, 2 billion people are no joke!

A: The means of those countries cannot in any way be compared with the military might and technological superiority of the West.

Q: Were you impressed by the effectiveness of the US military arsenal in Yugoslavia?

A: Not only that. If such a decision had been made, then Serbia would have ceased to exist within a few hours. Apparently, the leaders of the new world order have chosen a strategy of permanent violence. Numerous localized conflicts will now keep igniting one after another so that the “humanitarian war” machine, which we have already seen in action, could keep extinguishing them. In fact, this is likely to become the solution to extending control over the entire planet. The West controls most of the Earth’s natural resources. Its intellectual resources are millions of times greater than the resources of the rest of the world. This is the foundation of the overwhelming hegemony of the West in technology, the arts, media, IT, and science, and this implies its superiority in all other areas. It would be too easy to just conquer the world. After all, they still need to rule! And this is the fundamental problem that the Americans are trying to address now… Remember that in the time of Christ, the population of earth was only about 100 million people. Today, Nigeria alone has that number of inhabitants! A billion “westernoids” and the people assimilated by them will rule the entire world. However, this billion, in turn, also needs to be controlled. In all probability, two hundred million people will be required to control the Western world. But they must be chosen and taught. That’s why China is doomed to failure in its struggle against the hegemony of the West. The country does not have enough control, nor economic and intellectual resources to implement an effective administrative system consisting of approximately 300 million people. Only the West is able to solve the problems of global governance. It has already started to do so. Hundreds of thousands of “westernoids” in the former communist countries, such as Russia, tend to occupy leadership positions there. Totalitarian democracy will also be a colonial democracy.

Q: According to Marx, apart from violence and cruelty, colonization also brought with it the blessings of civilization. Perhaps the history of mankind is simply repeating itself at this new stage?

A: Indeed, why not? But, alas, not for everyone. What kind of contribution to civilization has been made by American Indians? Almost none, as they were crushed, destroyed, and wiped off the face of the Earth. Now look at the contribution of the Russians! Let me make an important point here: the West did not fear Soviet military power as much as its intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential. The West saw that the Soviet Union was full of life! This is the most important thing that must be destroyed, should one wish to destroy one’s enemy. Which is precisely what was done. Today, Russian science is dependent on US funding. It is in a pitiful state because the US is not interested in financing its competition. Americans prefer to offer Russian scientists jobs in the United States. Soviet cinema, too, has been destroyed and replaced by American movies. The same thing happened to literature. World domination manifests itself primarily as an intellectual, or, if you prefer, a cultural diktat. Which is why in the last few decades, Americans have so zealously tried to bring down the cultural and intellectual common denominator of the entire world to their own level – it will allow them to impose this diktat.

Q: But might this domination turn out to be a blessing for all mankind?

A. Ten generations from now, people will, indeed, be able to say that it all happened in the name of humanity, i.e. for their greater good. But what about the Russians or the French who are alive today? Should they be happy that their people will have the same future as the American Indians? The term “humanity” is an abstraction. In reality, there are Russian, French, Serbs, etc. However, if the current trend continues, then the nations who founded modern civilization (I mean the Latin peoples), will gradually disappear. Western Europe is already bursting with foreigners. We have yet to speak about it, but this phenomenon is not accidental, and it is certainly not the consequence of the allegedly uncontrollable human migration flows. The goal for Europe is to create a situation similar to the situation in the United States. I suspect that the French will hardly be delighted to learn that mankind will come to be happy, but only without the French. After all, it might well be a rational project to only leave a limited number of people in the world, who could then live in a paradise on earth. Those remaining people would certainly believe that their happiness is the result of historical development… No. All that matters is the life that we and our loved ones are living today.

Q: The Soviet system was ineffective. Are all totalitarian societies doomed to inefficiency?

A: What is efficiency? The US spends more money on weight loss than Russia spends on its entire public budget. Still, the number of overweight people is growing. And such examples are many.

Q: Would it be correct to say that the intensifying radicalization in the West will leads to its own destruction?

A: Nazism was destroyed during total war. The Soviet system was young and strong. It would have continued to thrive, had it not been destroyed by outside forces. Social systems do not destroy themselves. They can only be destroyed by an external force. It’s like a ball rolling on a surface: only the presence of an external obstacle could break its movement. I can prove it like a theorem. Today, we are dominated by a country with enormous economic and military superiority. The new emerging world order is drawn to unipolarity. If the supranational government manages to achieve this by eliminating all external enemies, then a unified social system can survive until the end of time. Only a person can die from their illness. But a group of people, even a small group, would try to survive through reproduction. Now imagine a social system comprising billions of people! Its capacity to anticipate and prevent self-destructive phenomena will be limitless. In the foreseeable future, the process of erasing differences across the world cannot be stopped, since democratic totalitarianism is the last phase of the development of Western society, which began with the Renaissance.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[anangsowah]

In the past two and a half years Americans have been subjected to a barrage of tweets, statements and policies that could only serve one purpose, divide us along racial, religious and ideological lines. Our President says he is doing all these to make America great again but in the meantime he is continuously widening the gulf that has developed between us.

My primary question to him is very simple. In Africa there is a proverb that says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. So Mr. President how can we be great again if we are divided. When you campaigned you described yourself as an outsider a non-politician who was going to drain the swamp. I had waited to feel the fresh air emanate from Washington. DC as the swamp got drained. On this note though I have been met with disappointed it appears the swamp only got deeper and some of us are afraid we may all drown in your swamp.

It appears you are just another politician, just a bit more brash, foul mouth and much too rough around the edges. I know your supporters would disagree with that assessment and say you just tell it as it is. Unfortunately, I have not heard you tell it as it is when Heather Heyer was run down in broad daylight by a hate filled white supremacist whose name I am happy to have forgotten. On that day, you only said there were fine people on both sides when one side was mourning a life cut short in its prime. That is not telling it as it is.

Mr. President you tweet about almost anything and sometimes I wonder whether that is your job because I can at best manage 2-4 tweets a day. I was a bit disappointed that whenever there were tragedies in which people of color where the victims your tweets either were late in coming or were totally absent. I don’t believe we need your tweets but if there are tweets we the people would at least want to see some semblance of equal representation. Or maybe, just maybe you believe people of color are not that important to deserve your glorious tweet from the golden toilet which I hope has been relocated to the White House for your comfort.

Now, Mr President I would like to assume you are unaware of the damage that you may be doing to the fabric of this nation with your words and tweets. I would like to pick a few of them and explain why I would not want that from my president.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have a lot of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with them. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Ok, let’s be a little more philosophical about this. Assuming this was true, is it something that you need to say? I would say no because there are many Americans who have Mexican heritage and some of those families may have been on this soil even longer than when your grandfather Frederick Trump arrived in 1885. They may be shorter and have darker skins than yours but many of them are Americans, who you swore to serve and protect, please show them respect.

“Why do we need more Haitians, take them out,” he said, according to sources. Someone else in the room responded: “Because if you do, it will be obvious why. “Why would America want immigrants from all these shithole countries” 

I take this very personal Mr. President I am from one of the countries that you describe as shitholes and I have a lot of friends from Haiti both here in the US and back in Haiti. Their country may not be developed technologically or economically as the United States but they are wonderful people and do not appreciate their country or for that matter my country of origin described as shitholes. We all have our problems but do not like things being rubbed in our faces. Your country of origin has its own skeletons that I would not talk about for the sake of all my great German friends.

Below are your tweets asking American congresswomen 3 of whom were born in the US to go back where they came from.

Well they have since taken your advice and gone home and they are getting the star treatment.

Ilhan Omar speaks to a welcome party at the airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Mr. President these honorable congresswomen are all Americans, I suppose you did not realize, you cannot get into congress if you are not American!!

Rashida Tlaib – Born in Detroit to parents of Palestinian descent attended Wayne State University and has a law degree from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.

Alexander Ocasio-Cortez – Born in Bronx, New York to parents of Puerto Rican descent grew up in Yorktown Heights, NY and returned to the Bronx after College

Ayanna Pressly – Born in Cincinnati, Ohio to African American parents. Grew up on the Northside of Chicago, now a resident of Boston, Massachusetts.

Ilhan Omar – Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, parents immigrated to US when she was 7 years old, became an American citizen at age 17 years, attended North Dakota State University and returned to Minneapolis as a Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Mr. President, all these congresswoman are as American as you and your family. The only difference is that they are non-white. That does not make them any less American. Please, start ruling this nation as a president and stop fighting people who do not agree with you. You have been given the power use it appropriately and stop these little fights. 

We need you to help make American whole again, we don’t need to be great again, because we are already great.

By Dr. Leonard Sowah an Internal Medicine Physician in Baltimore, Maryland

Can You Make America Whole Again? By Dr. Leonard Sowah In the past two and a half years Americans have been subjected to a barrage of tweets, statements and policies that could only serve one purpose, divide us along racial, religious and ideological lines.

[pokemaniacal]

Something that’s been on my mind for a bit that your professional word may be able to help with. Would you happen to know how ethnically diverse the Greek and Roman empires were?

very

next question please

…

…what, you want more?  Oh, fine, but for the record this is not the sort of thing people just “happen to know.”

Okay so I’m assuming by “Greek empire” (remember, kids: there was never a politically autonomous and unified state called “Greece” or “Hellas” until 1822) you mean Alexander’s empire (320s BC) and the Hellenistic successor kingdoms (323 BC – 31 BC), and by “Roman empire” you mean Rome starting from the time it becomes a major interregional power (say, following the second Punic War, which ended in 201 BC) rather than just Rome in the time of the Emperors.  You could spend like most of a book on each of these just corralling the data that might let us answer this question, but whatevs.

Lesson one: the ancient Greeks and Romans did not think about ethnicity in the same way as we do.  In particular, they were not super hung up on the colour of people’s skin – skin colour in ancient art is more often a signifier of gender than race, because women are expected to spend less time outside and therefore have lighter skin (which is another whole thing that we shouldn’t even get into because this is an aristocratic ideal of female beauty and of course lots of Greek and Roman women would have worked outside).  Arguably the most important signifier of ethnicity to the Greeks and Romans was actually language, with everyone who didn’t speak Greek or Latin being a “barbarian” (traditionally this word is supposed to come from the Greeks thinking that all foreign languages sounded like “bar bar bar,” although I’ve also heard a convincing argument that it comes from the Old Persian word for taxpayer, barabara, and originally signified all subjects of the Persian king).

In the modern world we have designations of ethnicity that are super broad and grow in large part out of early and long-since-debunked anthropological theory that divided humanity into three biologically distinct races, Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid, and don’t really reflect a lot of important components of ethnicity.  The thing is, as the internet will happily tell you ad nauseam, race is a social construct.  Like, yes, designations of race describe real physical characteristics that arise from variation within human genetics, but the way we choose to bundle those characteristics is arbitrary, and where we choose to draw the lines is arbitrary (like, for a long time in the US, Greeks and Italians weren’t considered “white,” but today they definitely are, even though nothing changed about their genetics).  If we today were brought face to face with a bunch of ancient Greeks and Romans, we would probably be pretty comfortable with assigning a majority of them to the big pan-European tent of modern “whiteness,” but if you had asked them about it, they certainly would not have felt any kinship with the pale-skinned people of northern and western Europe from whom most English-speaking white people today are descended.  Those people were every bit as barbarian (and every bit as fair game for enslavement, for that matter) as the darker-skinned folk of the Middle East and North Africa.  Ancient Greeks and Italians also had loads of internal ethnic divisions – like, the Latins (the central Italian ethnic group to which the Romans belonged) were a different thing from the Umbrians to their east, the Etruscans to the north and the Oscans to the south.  In Greece, you had Dorians in the Peloponnese, Ionians in Attica and Asia Minor, Boeotians and Thessalians in central Greece, Epirotes in western Greece, and DON’T EVEN ASK about the Macedonians, because boyyyyyyyyy HOWDY you are NOT ready for that $#!tstorm.  The point is, race and ethnicity can be basically anything that you think makes you different from the people in another community.

So yeah, Alexander’s empire.  Alexander the Great conquered Persia, which was already the largest empire the world had ever seen at the time and incorporated dozens of ethnically distinct peoples (including many Greeks of Asia Minor, some of whom willingly fought against Alexander) through a philosophy of loose regional governance and broad religious tolerance.  Now, here’s the thing: Alexander had no idea how to run an empire of that scale.  No Greek did.  No one alive in the world did – except for the Persians.  Alexander didn’t have anything to replace the Persian systems of governance or bureaucracy, so… he didn’t.  Individual Persian governors were usually given the opportunity to swear loyalty to him and keep their posts; vacant posts were filled with Macedonians, but the hierarchy was basically untouched.  Alexander himself married a princess from Bactria (approximately what is now Afghanistan), Roxana, and had a kid with her, and encouraged other Macedonian nobles to take Persian wives as well, to help unify the empire.  Unfortunately Alexander, of course, had to go and bloody die less than two years after he’d finished conquering everything, and tradition holds that on his deathbed he told his friends that the empire should go “to the strongest,” which was an incredibly dumb thing to say and caused literally decades of war, which we are not even going to talk about because it is the most Game of Thrones bull$#!t in the history of history.  All you need to know is that when the dust settled there were basically three major Greco-Macedonian dynastic powers: the Antigonids in Greece, the Ptolemies in Egypt, and the Seleucids in Persia.

In terms of ethnic makeup the Antigonid kingdom is in principle the most straightforward because they’re basically still running the same Greece that Alexander’s father had conquered.  Even then, you should bear in mind that a) most Greek cities had legal provisions for allowing foreigners to live there under certain conditions (“foreigners” often meant Greeks from other cities, but in principle could be anyone), and b) the Greeks had a lot of slaves (many of whom were, again, Greeks from other cities, because that’s fine in ancient Greek morality, but a lot of them would have come from all over the place), and even though the Greeks didn’t count slaves as “people” or consider them a real part of a city’s ethnic composition, WE SHOULD.  The Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt seems to have had a relatively small Greco-Macedonian upper class ruling over a native Egyptian, Libyan and Nubian peasant majority.  Members of that ruling class seem to have been kind of snobbish about any mixing between the two – only the very last Ptolemaic ruler, Cleopatra VII (yes, that Cleopatra), even bothered to learn the Egyptian language.  However, the Ptolemaic rulers did make some important cultural gestures of goodwill towards the Egyptians.  They took the native title of Pharaoh, which previous foreign rulers of Egypt hadn’t, and adopted a lot of traditional Pharaonic iconography like the double crown.  They also worshipped some of the most important Egyptian gods, most notably Isis, and may have kind of… deliberately created a new Greco-Egyptian god, Serapis, by blending together Osiris and Dionysus (Serapis actually becomes super important in the Roman period and is widely worshipped even outside Egypt).  And then there’s the Seleucids, an empire that did nothing but slowly collapse from the moment it was established.  They have a rough time of it because they have the largest land area to cover and dozens of distinct ethnic groups to bring together, and it doesn’t help that they kinda keep doing the Game of Thrones thing for about two hundred fµ¢&ing years.  They often get a bad rap in history and have a reputation for oppressing the non-Greek populations of their empire, but that’s probably at least partly because some of our most important sources for the Seleucids are Jewish, and the Seleucid kings’ relationship with the Jews broke down in a fairly spectacular fashion during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 175-164 BC).  It’s not clear whether that’s representative of the Seleucids’ normal relationship with their subject peoples, or a worst case scenario.  Also, the Seleucids tend to get painted as villains in the historical record by both the other Greek powers and the Romans, and never really get much of a chance to defend themselves because we don’t have Seleucid histories.  What is clear is that they inherited all the ethnic and religious diversity of the Persian Empire, and most of their rulers were half-Persian because they followed Alexander’s example by marrying into the Persian nobility.  After an initial period of conflict they also seem to have maintained cordial relations with the Mauryan Empire of India, their neighbour to the east, for several decades, and contemporary Indian sources talk about sending Buddhist missionaries into Seleucid lands, so… like, there might have been a bunch of Greek Buddhists running around the empire; that’s a thing.

Whew.  Okay, so that is a criminally brief answer to-

OH CHRIST YOU ASKED ABOUT THE ROMANS AS WELL

WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME

Right.  Romans.  One of the major schools of thought on how the Romans were able to create such an enormous and long-lasting empire in the first place is that their openness to accepting foreigners into their community gave them an enormous manpower advantage over every other ancient Mediterranean state.  Greek politics generally operates on the level of cities; even in the age of Alexander, individual cities have quite a lot of legislative autonomy.  Citizenship is also something that works on the level of cities: you aren’t a citizen of, say, the Seleucid Empire; you’re a citizen of Antioch, or Tyre, or Babylon, or whatever.  But then the Romans happen.  The Romans are weird, because they will sometimes just declare that all the people of an allied city are now also citizens of Rome.  In the early period of Rome’s expansion in the central Mediterranean, this meant (or so the theory goes) that they could draw upon larger citizen armies and sustain more casualties than their rivals.  This is how they beat Pyrrhus, the Greek king of Epirus (r. 297-272 BC), when he invaded Italy in response to disputes between Rome and the Greek colony of Tarentum; this is how they beat Hannibal, the legendary Carthaginian general, even after he annihilated the largest army the Romans had ever fielded at Cannae during the second Punic War (218-201 BC).  Now, at this point they are basically still just bringing in Italians, which we might consider ethnically homogenous even if they didn’t, but there’s more.

Once they really start to get going, the Romans enfranchise entire provinces at a time, like when the emperor Claudius (r. AD 41-54) decided to make everyone in Gaul (modern France, more or less) a Roman citizen.  The really interesting thing about this particular decision is that we actually have a copy of the speech he made to the Senate in Rome at the time, so we can examine his rationale.  Claudius’ argument is basically that being inclusive has always been what has made Rome stronger than its rivals, going right back to their mythological past, when Romulus populated his city with disenfranchised criminals from other communities (and, uh… women that they kidnapped from the next town over).  The Romans believed that everything great about their civilisation had originally been learned or borrowed from someone else – metalworking and irrigation from the Etruscans, infantry combat from the Greeks, shipbuilding from the Carthaginians, etc – so it wasn’t a huge stretch for them to believe that all these people should eventually become part of Rome as citizens (well… the ones who weren’t killed or enslaved in the conquest, anyway – no one ever said the Romans were saints).

The reason Claudius feels he needs to justify all this to the Senate is that citizenship (rather than any of the forms of semi-citizen rights that Romans would sometimes grant to their allies) will make rich Gauls eligible to become Senators themselves, and occupy other high-level posts like provincial governorships.  The decision affects the ethnic composition of the Senate, so even though he doesn’t actually need their permission to do it, he asks as a courtesy (the emperors’ relationship with the Senate is a weird and complicated thing).  Even without being a citizen, you could actually do a great deal in the Roman government in Claudius’ time.  Many of the most important jobs in the empire were ones that had existed during the age of the Republic, when Rome was theoretically a democracy, and all of those were restricted to citizens even after they stopped being elected positions – but there was also an imperial bureaucracy that answered directly to the emperor and his aides, and he was free to choose literally anyone to fill those positions.  As a result, a lot of emperors deliberately picked slaves and former slaves for loads of senior positions, specifically because their lack of citizen rights meant that they could never be political rivals, and because they were a useful counterbalance to the power of the blue-blooded Roman aristocracy.  And, again, slaves can be from basically anywhere.  A lot of these administrative slaves were Greeks, because Greek education provided useful skills for running the imperial bureaucracy that the Romans themselves often didn’t have, but emperors could and did commission literally anyone for these positions.

Eventually the emperor Caracalla (r. AD 211-217) just decided it wasn’t worth keeping track anymore and declared that every freeborn person in the entire empire, which by that point stretched from northern England to Morocco to Romania to Jordan, was now a Roman citizen.  All of these people are now “Romans,” regardless of their language or culture or religion; the only criterion is that they not be slaves or former slaves (and even if they’re former slaves, their children will be Roman citizens).  And these people can move, in ways that were never possible before the Empire existed, because Rome is the first – and so far the last – political entity ever to unite the entire Mediterranean region, which allows them to wipe out piracy almost completely and jump-start trade and travel in ways that would never happen again for over a thousand years.  My own research on Roman glass has led me to encounter glassblowers with Syrian or Jewish names working in northern Italy – people who were probably integral to spreading the technology of glassblowing to western Europe.  The Roman army also moves people around – like, a lot.  You might enlist in your home town in Syria, then serve on Hadrian’s wall and retire in northern England – in fact, we know that this happened because we’ve found stuff like inscriptions in the Aramaic language in Roman Britain.

Also Rome had, like… a whole dynasty of African emperors one time.  Septimius Severus (r. AD 193-211) and his successors were part Italian, part Punic (of Carthaginian descent – ultimately Middle Eastern, since the Carthaginians were originally a Phoenician colony) and part Berber (native North African), and Severus grew up in what is now Tunisia.  And that wasn’t really a big deal for the Romans, 1) because Severus’ Italian ancestry made him a Roman citizen, which trumps all other signifiers of ethnicity, and 2) Rome had already had a couple of emperors of Iberian (= Spanish) descent by this point who were considered some of the best ever, and the Iberians are just as “barbarian” as the Berbers as far as Rome is concerned.  Other Roman emperors of varied ethnicities include Philip (Arabian), Diocletian (Illyrian), the three Gordians (probably Cappadocian), and Elagabalus (Syrian, and incidentally the gayest Roman of all time; like, normally I would warn you to be super cautious about using modern labels like “straight” and “gay” for Romans because they just didn’t think about sexual orientation in those terms, but I make an exception here because Elagabalus was super gay).

Oh, and just because someone will definitely bring it up if I don’t, there was a big fuss in the news a few years back because someone discovered the skeletons of what they claimed were Chinese people living in, of all places, Roman Britain.  And to me, one Chinese family in Britain in the first century AD is not particularly a dramatic stretch of plausibility (a handful of people could easily slip through the historical record and just never be mentioned), but the evidence in this particular case falls some way short of “proof.”  There’s chemical data that suggests these individuals grew up somewhere far away from Britain, which is well and good, but the thing that points specifically to China is not the isotopic analysis but a study of bone morphology, and trying to determine someone’s ethnicity on the basis of what their bones look like, on the universal scale of things that are sketchy, ranks “sketchy as all fµ¢&.”  Again, I’m happy to believe that they exist, because China (Seres in Latin) and Rome (Dà-Qín in Chinese) definitely knew about each other, and we occasionally find Roman artefacts and coins in eastern Asia, or Chinese artefacts in the eastern Roman Empire, but the specific evidence for these individuals isn’t there, in my opinion.

…that was a brief answer.  Let it stand as a warning to others.

[xtruss]

IT ISN’T OVER WHEN THE FAT LADY SINGS – THE FIRST RUSSIAN STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT OF THE AUSTRALIA-UK-US (AUKUS) SUBMARINE DEAL

— By John Helmer, Moscow

— Source: Dances with Bears

Following last week’s meeting in Washington of Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne (lead image left), the Australian defence minister and their US counterparts, a strategic military and basing agreement was announced between Australia, the UK and US (AUKUS). This is being reinforced with summit meetings in Washington this week.

The declared target of their war-making preparations is China.

Australian strategy against Russia in the Pacific region follows in lockstep with the US. But for the time being the Russian enemy, and Russian submarine and surface fleet operations in the Indo-Pacific region, are not being discussed by Australian officials in public; at least not to the extent when President Vladimir Putin last visited Australia in November 2014 with a nuclear-powered, nuclear armed naval escort.

Ahead of schemes for strategic warmaking in the Pacific, the US, the UK and Australia are also engaged in proxy war operations. These have accelerated recently in Myanmar, where Russia and China are allied in support of the military government of General Min Aung Hlaing. Next, from both sides, state bribery, subversion, putsch-making, and other special operations are likely to accelerate in the Pacific islands from Fiji to Papua-New Guinea.

For the moment, the initial reaction to AUKUS from the Russian Foreign Ministry has been as close to uncritical as the ministry can be. “We noted the plans, announced by Australia,” said spokesman Maria Zakharova last Thursday, “to build nuclear-powered submarines as part of an ‘enhanced trilateral security partnership’ agreed yesterday by the United States, Great Britain and Australia. We proceed from the premise that being a non-nuclear power and fulfilling in good faith the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Australia will honour its commitments under this document, as well as the IAEA Safeguards Agreements along with its Additional Protocol. We hope that Canberra ensures the necessary level of cooperation with the IAEA in order to rule out any proliferation-related risks.”

The first detailed technical and strategic assessment of the AUKUS scheme has followed this week in Vzglyad, the leading strategy publication reflecting the Russian General Staff and GRU assessments. A translation from the Russian article by Alexander Timokhin.

Source: https://vz.ru/

The headline is ironic: “How Australia’s nuclear submarines will bring to China to its knees”.

“In a few years, another country with a nuclear submarine fleet will appear in the world – Australia. What kind of submarines will this country receive from its allies, what kind of combat capabilities do they provide, and according to what scenario can they be used to contain China’s military power?

Everything is learned by comparison. What are the eight multi-purpose nuclear submarines that Australia will receive (not to be confused with submarines armed with ballistic missiles)? Let’s compare them with other fleets.

First, take the example of China, against which (at least, so they say) everything is being planned. Now China has only nine multi-purpose nuclear submarines, with low stealth. Three of them are Project 091; these are old and noisy vessels that have almost no combat value. The remaining six are Project 093, more modern boats, which, however, are inferior to modern American and British ones. In fact, only these six have a real combat value, and it is this number that should be taken into account.

I must say that the Chinese have made tremendous progress if we start from their initial level. Their submarines are already armed with good torpedoes and means of countering enemy torpedoes. But they are still very far from British ‘Astutes’ or American ‘Virginias’.

The Jin-class Type 094 Chinese ballistic submarine. Its successor, the Type 095, is under construction read this. The Type 096 is still being designed.

The first of the British Navy’s Astute-class submarines in construction

Theoretically, the ‘Virginia’ of the latest modification (the block, as the Americans say) will be able to be used when delivering a high-precision massive non-nuclear strike on Chinese territory. In this case, the Australians will be able to increase the American salvo. In the future, when the Americans finish their hypersonic missile program for the Navy, this strike may also be very fast.

It will be a separate story if the Americans again trample on international norms of behaviour and deploy nuclear weapons on Australian submarines before the war. Then, using cruise or hypersonic missiles, Australia will be able to cause China (and not only it) simply monstrous damage. And just ordinary Tomahawks with their fast, surprise launch can cause considerable damage to the side attacked – and the tactical and technical characteristics of the ‘Virginia’ will allow you to secretly approach even a well-guarded shore and deliver a sudden and unexpected blow.

Naturally, this is true if Australia builds ‘Virginias’ with vertical missile launch installations, and not ‘Astutes’, which can only use Tomahawks through torpedo tubes. There is no answer to this question yet.

In the event of a war more or less close to a classic naval war, these submarines will create an additional threat to China, and China will be required to allocate additional forces to this threat, which it will need very much in a war with the United States and Britain, even without Australia.

The Chinese are taking care of their fleet and developing it. They have anti-submarine surface forces and anti-submarine aviation, but when performing combat tasks outside the combat radius of their base (coastal in colloquial language) aviation, the problem of combating enemy submarine forces will become quite acute for China. Chinese surface ships will be subjected to air strikes by Australian based and American carrier-based aircraft; anti-submarine aircraft will not be able to work without cover; in fact, all tasks will have to be solved by Chinese nuclear submarines. They do not reach the western (that is, the future Australian) level yet, and they will be forced to act against heterogeneous enemy forces (submarines, anti-submarine aircraft, surface ships) without support.

How Will China Respond?

China has hope – there are new multi-purpose nuclear submarines being created, designated in the foreign press as Type 095, and in China itself 09-V. According to visual assessment of images of the boat, it is clear that China is trying to introduce a large number of technical solutions that increase the stealth of the submarine and the range of detection for its underwater targets. It is clearly visible that the boat is being created specifically for combat.

But what success the Chinese will have is an open question, and most importantly, even these boats will not see superiority in quality; ideally there will be approximate parity. At the same time, if the current pace of updating the submarine forces in China continues, then China will be inferior to the Americans and the British in numbers even without Australia, and even more so with it. These new boats are still in planning stage — China has not built any of them yet. And another hostile nuclear submarine fleet will definitely require the Chinese to invest very quickly and very seriously in expanding their production; that requires time, money, and resources.

Can China Ignore This Threat? No.

Here is just one of many examples. Geographically, Australia can completely block the connection between China and the Indian Ocean: there is a direct exit there and this is not controlled by China in any way. China only has the Strait of Malacca, which with its new submarines Australia will be able to block from the Indian Ocean. Or go past Australia itself, with the same submarines and its aircraft. There is no other road by which a large amount of oil can be supplied to China.

Australia would never have had these opportunities in this form if it had continued its work on the purchase of non-nuclear submarines from France. A non-nuclear (in fact the same diesel-electric) submarine is not capable, for example, of going under water at a high speed, as the ‘Virginias’ and ‘Astutes’ can, and secretly, without a critical increase in noise. A non-nuclear boat needs to deliver fuel to the combat service area, an atomic one does not need to – a nuclear submarine is not tied to nearby bases or to fuel, and it can operate disproportionately more freely than a diesel-electric one, even with an air-independent power plant.

In combat, a nuclear submarine also has a lot of advantages, up to the possibility of sometimes getting away from the enemy’s torpedo by running. For a hypothetical Australian-French non-nuclear submarine, this would be impossible. The hydroacoustic complex on the ‘Virginias’ is generally difficult to compare with something, and this is the range of target detection and the range of shooting at it.

Now China, in addition to measures to counter the submarine fleet of the United States and Great Britain, will also have to take into account Australia, which wants to get a nuclear submarine more powerful than anything that China has at present.

What does the battlefield look like in numbers? If we start from how many of the ‘Virginias’ are already built and under construction to go into service by 2036, when the Australians want to get their eight submarines, then we can assume that there will be about 20 units. And they will not be able to throw everything at China; some of the submarines will be needed in case of emergency operations against Russia.

Thus, an additional eight Australian submarines will increase the number of units opposing China by at least a third, compared only with American submarines. This is even more than the British will be able to give for the war with China. China will have to increase both the submarine and other fleet forces by a comparable number.

In general, for China, these eight additional enemy submarines are a fresh handful of bones in the throat. That’s about what the Americans planned to do with the British. That’s what eight nuclear submarines are.

This is what caused the reaction of the Chinese to the news. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the transfer of nuclear submarine construction technologies to Australia harms the nuclear non-proliferation regime and ‘exacerbates the arms race’, as well as the fact that the United States and Great Britain ‘extremely irresponsibly’ apply double standards. These admonitions, of course, will not have any effect.

And what does this mean for Russia? If Australia wants to have eight multi-purpose submarines by 2036, then by that year we will ideally have four Yasen-class vessels in the Pacific Ocean – the ‘Novosibirsk’, ‘Krasnoyarsk’, ‘Vladivostok’ and, presumably, the ‘Perm’.

The Russian Navy’s Yasen-class ‘Kazan’, June 2021.

As for the future boat of the project 545 with the code-name ‘Laika’, the form in which the ‘Laika’ was presented to the president in December 2019 indicates the deliberate obsolescence of the project. And most importantly – it is extremely doubtful that these boats will be in service by the mid-thirties. This is another example of how many there will turn out to be — eight nuclear submarines in one theatre of military operations.

However, the western ‘partners’ may have difficulties in implementing these wonderful plans.

Is Everything So Simple?

There is one aspect in all of this that can complicate everything. The production of as many as eight nuclear submarines, stuffed with high-tech systems to the brim, is not an easy matter. If we assume that the Australians will build some kind of ready-made project, for example the ‘Virginia’, then in any event they will up to 14 years for the construction of eight nuclear submarines if they start next year. This is an ultra-fast pace for eight units; the Americans themselves take five years to build one ‘Virginia’ from the popint of laying the keel to delivery to the Navy.

Is it possible for the Australians to meet the deadlines? Yes, but only in an “expansive’ way – laying more submarines a year than the Americans. And this requires, firstly, shipyards in sufficient quantity to build submarines; secondly, workers and engineers; and thirdly, the supply of components from the United States, which can become the bottleneck of the project because of the existing crisis in American shipbuilding. Does Australia have all this in the right amount? The allies will not be able to help them there; they do not have enough themselves.

And if the Australians build some kind of British project – either the ‘Astute’ or, as is now rumoured in Britain, the future project of a British multi-purpose submarine, which should replace the ‘Astutes’, then nothing will work out. Britain is barely coping with the construction of its submarines by itself, including the part played by related companies. In the case of the ‘Astutes’, some of the related parties are from France engaged by by the Anglo-Saxons. On the other hand, the British can in this way compensate for the losses of the French from the broken Australian contract for non-nuclear submarines. Still, the problem of timing will also arise in this case.

The Australians seem to understand this. On Sunday, September 19, the Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said that Australia will not wait until its nuclear submarines are built, but will buy or lease British or American ones.

This is quite possible. However, not with British submarines, but more likely with American ones, although such a scheme would not lead to the desired increase in anti–Chinese forces; there would still be as many submarines against China, just some of the flags would change. But, firstly, by the time the construction of their series is completed (even if not all and with a delay), the Australians will already have experience working with nuclear submarines, and secondly, the United States now has problems with repairing its submarines (they do not pull, as they say), and renting some of their ships to Australia for the Americans will in fact mean their salvation as combat units, even under a foreign flag.

In general, it is possible to make Australia a country with a nuclear submarine fleet quickly. Moreover, the authors of this initiative have an extremely serious reason for all this. Such gigantic investments and sharp political turns are not carried out just like that. The hegemony of the Anglo-Saxons in the world is seriously shaken, both because of their own internal weakness, and because of the growth of China, and the sabotage of their system of power by Russia. It is quite obvious they will not give up their power over humanity and the benefits resulting from this in a favourable fashion.

It is worth recognizing that the world is on the verge of war. Australia’s agreement with the United States and Britain says exactly this. An ordinary world war with tens of millions of dead, as one option, or with hundreds of millions; after all, no one has canceled nuclear weapons. Such a war is almost inevitable.

Moreover, knowing what deadlines the ‘partners’ set for themselves, you can roughly understand the time for which they are preparing the ‘hot phase’. And looking at how other countries are preparing for the next world war, it’s time for us to take a critical, honest and non-biased look at how we are preparing for it.”

[richardpullmans]

Step by step instructions to normally get in shape quick

While there are unlimited eating regimens, enhancements, and feast substitution plans professing to guarantee quick weight reduction, most come up short on any logical proof. There are, nonetheless, a few systems upheld by science that do affect weight the executives.

These methodologies incorporate working out, monitoring calorie consumption, discontinuous fasting, and diminishing the quantity of sugars in the eating regimen Fifty Fears.

In this article, we think about nine powerful strategies for weight reduction.

Science-upheld approaches to get thinner

Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

Techniques for weight reduction that logical exploration upholds incorporate the accompanying:

1. Attempting discontinuous fasting

Discontinuous fasting (IF) is an example of eating that includes ordinary momentary diets and devouring dinners inside a more limited time-frame during the day.

A few studiesTrusted Source have shown that momentary discontinuous fasting, which is as long as 24 weeks in span, prompts weight reduction in overweight people.

The most well-known discontinuous fasting techniques incorporate the accompanying:

Substitute day fastingTrusted Source (ADF): Fast every other day and eat typically on non-fasting days. The changed versionTrusted Source includes eating only 25–30 percent of the body's energy needs on fasting days.

The 5:2 Diet: Fast on 2 out of at regular intervals. On fasting days eat 500–600 calories.

The 16/8 strategy: Fast for 16 hours and eat just during a 8-hour window. For the vast majority, the 8-hour window would associate with early afternoon to 8 p.m. An examination on this technique found that eating during a confined period brought about the members devouring less calories and shedding pounds.

It is ideal to receive a good dieting design on non-fasting days and to abstain from over-eating.

2. Following your eating regimen and exercise

On the off chance that somebody needs to get in shape, they ought to know about all that they eat and drink every day. The best method to do this is to log each thing that they burn-through, in either a diary or an online food tracker.

Analysts assessed in 2017 that there would be 3.7 billion wellbeing application downloads before the year's over. Of these, applications for diet, active work, and weight reduction were among the most mainstream. This isn't without reason, as following active work and weight reduction progress in a hurry can be a powerful method of overseeing weightTrusted Source.

One studyTrusted Source tracked down that steady following of actual work assisted with weight reduction. Then, a survey studyTrusted Source tracked down a positive relationship between's weight reduction and the recurrence of observing food admission and exercise. Indeed, even a gadget really basic a valuable weight reduction apparatus.

3. Eating carefully

Careful eating is a training where individuals focus on how and where they eat food. This training can empower individuals to appreciate the food they eat and keep a solid weightTrusted Source.

As the vast majority have occupied existences, they regularly will in general eat rapidly on the run, in the vehicle, working at their work areas, and sitting in front of the TV. Subsequently, numerous individuals are scarcely mindful of the food they are eating.

Strategies for careful eating include:

Plunking down to eat, ideally at a table: Pay consideration regarding the food and appreciate the experience.

Keeping away from interruptions while eating: Do not turn on the TV, or a PC or telephone.

Eating gradually: Take time to bite and appreciate the food. This strategy assists with weight reduction, as it gives an individual's cerebrum sufficient opportunity to perceive the signs that they are full, which can assist with forestalling over-eating.

Settling on thought about food decisions: Choose food sources that are loaded with supporting supplements and those that will fulfill for quite a long time instead of minutes.

4. Having protein for breakfast

Protein can control craving chemicals to help individuals feel full. This is for the most part because of a diminishing in the craving chemical ghrelin and an ascent in the satiety chemicals peptide YY, GLP-1, and cholecystokininTrusted Source.

ResearchTrusted Source on youthful grown-ups has additionally exhibited that the hormonal impacts of having a high-protein breakfast can keep going for a few hours.

Great decisions for a high-protein breakfast incorporate eggs, oats, nut and seed margarines, quinoa porridge, sardines, and chia seed pudding.

5. Scaling back sugar and refined starches

The Western eating regimen is progressively high in added sugars, and this has unmistakable connections to obesityTrusted Source, in any event, when the sugar happens in beveragesTrusted Source instead of food.

Refined carbs are intensely prepared food sources that at this point don't contain fiber and different supplements. These incorporate white rice, bread, and pasta.

These food sources rush to process, and they convert to glucose quickly.

Overabundance glucose enters the blood and incites the chemical insulin, which advances fat stockpiling in the fat tissue. This adds to weight acquire.

Where potential, individuals should trade handled and sweet food sources for more restorative choices. Great food trades include:

[weavingthetapestry]

8th October, 1275- The Battle of Ronaldsway

(The area around Ronaldsway, at the south end of the Isle of Man, from the air. Picture from Wikimedia Commons)

Got another battle for you today folks, in keeping with the fact that earlier the Battle of Largs was covered on this blog. That battle, though perhaps not quite so game-changing and pivotal in British history as some sources would have us believe, was still an important moment in the process that saw sovereignty over the islands and western seaboard pass from Norway to the Scottish Crown. With the death of Haakon IV in late 1263, any hopes the Norwegians had of soon resuming their campaign and recouping losses were stymied and King Alexander III quickly capitalised on the situation, sending a force into the Hebrides under the Earl of Buchan and Alan Durward, whose forces simultaneously wreaked devastation and brought home the message of Scottish ascendancy. Hostages were taken for good behaviour and while some of the Hebridean rulers still refused to give into Scottish demands of overlordship, others, including several notable members of the House of Somerled, came into the king of Scotland’s peace more readily.

The story of how the Western Isles were incorporated into the kingdom of Scotland is reasonably well known- or at least the popular, if not wholly accurate and somewhat sanitised, version of the story is more likely to be covered in a Scottish history class than that of the Isle of Man. Nonetheless for a short while this territory also came under the control of the Scottish Crown. At around the same time as Buchan and Durward were sent into the Hebrides, an expedition was also fitted out for the Isle of Man. However, Magnus Olafsson, the King of Man, who was probably quite rightly anxious to avoid a Scottish army being set loose in his own land, pre-empted Alexander’s intervention and met with the king of Scots at Dumfries. There, he did homage and received Alexander’s promise of protection and shelter in Scotland should the king of Norway attempt to take reprisals against him, in return for agreeing to provide military service of ten galleys.

How this new relationship between the kings of Man and Scotland would have panned out in time is impossible to say, as Magnus died at Castle Rushen in late 1265. After this, control of Mann was put in the hands of a succession of royal bailiffs (Lewis and Skye, which were also part of the kingdom of Mann, were put under the control of the Crown and the Earl of Ross respectively) and Alexander’s sovereignty over the island was confirmed by Norway as a result of the Treaty of Perth in 1266. At some point seven hostages were taken for good behaviour as well, and kept by the Sheriff of Dumfries on behalf of the king. To all intents and purposes, Man was to be treated as a possession of the Scottish Crown, whether the Manx liked it or not (this also must have stuck in the throat of the king of England, who lost the opportunity to finally bring Mann under English control as a result of being distracted by domestic strife). However while there was little significant trouble in the Hebrides in the decades after the Treaty of Perth, Man was a different matter and not only were the baillies unpopular, but in general the island’s loss of autonomy and subjugation to the Scottish Crown did not go down well. And thus we are brought to the autumn of 1275, when that simmering discontent came to a head and the Manxmen rose in revolt.

(A seal of Alexander III of Scotland, last king of the House of Dunkeld) 

The leader of this movement was Guðr��ðr Magnusson (name may also be rendered as Godfrey or Godred), an illegitimate son of the late Magnus, who appears to have been viewed by the majority of the Manx political community as the right man to succeed his father. Quickly gathering support, he soon seized the main castles and strongholds on the island, turfing out the Scots there, and making a bid to reestablish the primacy of the Crovan dynasty. Members of this kindred had ruled in Mann since at least the twelfth century, though at other times their power also extended to the Outer Hebrides, especially Lewis (their main competitors, meanwhile, were the branches of the Mac Somhairle clan in the Inner Hebrides and Argyll- who gave rise to the MacDonalds, MacDougalls, and MacRuaidhris- whose members had occasionally also ruled in Mann). But Godred’s attempts to claim the kingship of Mann that his ancestors once held, naturally aroused the wrath of Alexander III, who immediately acted to prevent the situation getting any further out of hand.

Having raised a force from Galloway and the Hebrides, a fleet was soon on its way south to Mann, landing at Ronaldsway on the south side of the island on the seventh of October. Its leaders were King Alexander’s second cousin John de Vesci, lord of Alnwick; John ‘the Black’ Comyn, lord of Badenoch; Alexander MacDougall lord of Argyll, whose sister had been married to the late Magnus Olafsson; Alan MacRuairi, who twelve years earlier had raided the west coast of Scotland on behalf of Hakon IV of Norway; and Alan, a son of the Earl of Atholl and grandson to Roland/Lachlan of Galloway. Of these the last had already been one of the Crown’s bailiffs of Mann, while two more- MacDougall and MacRuairi- belonged to two of the most prominent septs of the House of Somerled, and their role in the suppression of the Manx revolt says a lot about Alexander’s new power in the Hebrides and on the west coast of the Scottish mainland (nevertheless, Alan MacRuairi’s older brother Dubhgall, the head of the MacRuairis, remained in rebellion and had taken himself off to plunder Ireland a few years before, so not everyone was wholly happy with the situation in the Hebrides, even if it was more accepted than in Mann). Meanwhile the ability to raise men in the Hebrides and Galloway was a testament to the strength of the campaigns of Alexander III and his father respectively in those parts, and the Hebridean galleys were a strong addition to the naval power of the Scottish Crown, which had already shown its ability to exploit the advantages of the galley in its earlier campaigns in the west.

Sources for the Manx side of things are even less informative, though for all his early success Guðrøðr’s force does not seem to have been anywhere near as well-equipped as its enemy. When the Scots landed on the seventh, they sent a peace embassy to offer terms if the Manx surrendered, but Guðrøðr and his counsellors firmly rejected this option. Early the next day- the eighth of October- battle was joined before the sun was even in the sky. It is perhaps rather disappointing, given all the lead-up, that Guðrøðr’s short rebellion ended so swiftly and that the skirmish can be summed up in a few sentences, but the sources, though unfortunately short, make it clear that Ronaldsway was an overwhelming defeat for the Manxmen. Accounts of the battle describe the latter as being ‘naked and unarmed’ and they were almost immediately beaten back by the crossbowmen, archers, and other soldiers of the Scots. Very soon they turned and fled, with the Scots in hot pursuit, cutting down any they could catch and not stopping to spare people on account of sex or rank, to the result that over five hundred are alleged to have died in the battle itself. As Ronaldsway is, even today, very close to the important settlement of Castletown (so named for Castle Rushen, then the main political centre of the island), the flight of the Manx brought the Scots into contact with non-combatants and, both in the chase and after the battle was technically over, the invaders brought destruction to the area. As well as slaying many, they are also supposed to have sacked Rushen Abbey, a significant foundation of the Crovan dynasty and a hugely important religious centre for the Isle of Man.

The Chronicle of Man provided a versified toll of the dead:

‘Ten L’s, three X’s, with five and two to fall,

Manxmen take care lest future evils call.’

Or, in Latin:

‘L decies, X ter et penta, duo cecidere,

Mannica gens de te dampua futura cave.’

(Castle Rushen, in the thirteenth century the main political centre of the Isle of Man, and not far from Ronaldsway. Not my picture.)

Scottish control was quickly- and brutally- reestablished over Mann, while Guðrøðr, is supposed to have fled to Wales with his wife and followers. He was not to be the last of the Crovan dynasty to lay claim to Mann, but for the rest of Alexander III’s reign the island does not appear to have caused any significant trouble. To the Scottish Crown this settled the matter and the young Prince Alexander, son of the Scottish king, was named lord of Man until his early death in 1284, though it is doubtful if he ever played much active role in its governance and the real administration of the island was once again placed in the hands of bailiffs.

However, some historians argue that the aftermath of the Battle of Ronaldsway, since it can hardly have inspired positive feelings towards Scotland, may have promoted the further growth of an anti-Scottish faction in the Manx political community. When Margaret- the infant daughter of Eric II of Norway and granddaughter of Alexander III- inherited the throne of Scotland upon the death of her maternal grandfather in 1286, she also succeeded to the title Lady of Mann. However, when her great-uncle Edward I of England annexed the island a little while before her premature death in September of 1290, nobody on the Isle of Man appears to have complained. After all, the Battle of Ronaldsway- and the destruction that followed- had only occurred fifteen years before, and even prior to that the majority of the Manx had not shown any particular enthusiasm for Scottish sovereignty. The territory was formally restored to King John by Edward I in 1293, though quite some time after the rest of the Scottish realm, and was to pass back and forth between Scotland and England for several more decades, but after the mid-fourteenth century Scottish claims to Mann were largely abandoned and at the end of the century it formally came under English control. The Crovan dynasty, however, would never again hold the title Kings of Mann.

(References below cut)

The Furness continuation of William of Newburgh’s ‘Historia Reru Anglicarum’ in ‘Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard’, ed. Richard Howlett

The Chronicle of Man in ‘Monumenta de Insula Manniae, or a Collection of National Documents Relating to the Isle of Man’, transl. and ed. J. R. Oliver

‘Early Sources of Scottish History’, A.O. Anderson

John of Fordun’s ‘Chronica Gentis Scotorum’, ed. by W. F. Skene

‘Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306′, G.W.S. Barrow

‘The Kingdom of the Isles: Scotland’s Western Seaboard, c. 1100- c.1336′, R. Andrew MacDonald

“The Wars of Scotland, 1214-1371″, by Michael Brown

[discoveringhistory]

Dissertation Weekly: Making Discoveries & Changing My Interpretation and Perception

As I write this week’s blog I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of an important letter from the great-great grandson of Douglas and Kate Bemo! 

One of the pitfalls of graduate school is that you never seem to get enough time to conduct research on your chosen dissertation topic while you are 1) up to your eyeballs in coursework, 2) opt to add an additional 15 hours of coursework for a graduate minor to your program of study, 3) and are prepping for your comprehensive exams.  At this juncture in my graduate career I am past all three of these important milestones.  I also had the good fortune to come into my program with roughly 90% of my research completed (something that is rare in my field).  To date I have written the prologue, epilogue, and first two chapters of my dissertation and am working on the remaining three so I can hopefully stay on track to defend in early May and graduate in July 2019. (Note: I had hoped to be further along at this point in time. Moving, settling in to my new residence, my wedding, taking on my step son and his mental health and legal challenges, and my own near exhaustion has slowed down my progress more than I ever imagined!) One of the challenges I face is writing while researching and attempting to fill the gaps and little nooks and crannies that remain so I am have as much material as possible to flesh out the life and experiences of Douglas Bemo as an AfroMvskoke/Seminole man living in a very complex and ever-changing world in the Indian Territory in the mid to late 19th century.

The front page of the American Missionary in January 1873 touts the evangelizing work of Rev. D.B. Nichols at Howard University. In July 1872 Douglas was enrolled in and left at Howard University where he was a student in the Model School and a member of the Military Department’s Corps of Cadets until he left in 1874. Note the area highlighted by the pin box.  The “Creek Indian” Nichols refers to in his description is indeed Douglas. His presence at Howard and his connection to the non-denominational church founded by Nichols made excellent PR material.

As of late I have been able to flesh out details of Douglas’ life that 1) his wife Kate NEVER mentions in her one sided portrayal of him in her diary and 2) I never thought I would discover. To some the details may seem minor, nothing of consequence.  However, when you are writing about an AfroMvksoke/Seminole man-- a person of color-- who has been marginalized in his wife’s diary (a primary source of great value to historians) and rendered voiceless by most histories of Indian Territory, the responsibility to flesh out the small details is imperative. Being able to find Douglas’ pay slips from the Mvskoke Nation, his appointment letter as a prosecuting attorney for the Mvskoke Nation, the American Missionary article that mentions him simply as a “Creek Indian”, or a fragment of a school essay he wrote while at the Tullahassee Mission provides me with insight into him that helps me as a historian or recover his voice. When Douglas died in 1898 his wife elected to not run an obituary in any of the local papers. For historians and geneaolgists obituaries are little goldmines of information and help us to pull threads of a person’s life together. For Douglas, however, his erasure from the “go-to” local history sources silences his voice. At this point in the writing of my dissertation I almost see the project as an extended obituary for Douglas.  Despite the best attempt of his wife to erase him from memory and control how he was viewed by anyone reading her diary, my work is an intervention and call to change how we use our sources as historians. What are we missing by simply looking at them from one perspective?  LOTS is the easy answer. In my case, as I am discovering every day, the little details are the most important and telling...and so critical to my understanding of this complex interracial marriage at a time when such unions normally followed a predictable pattern of an Anglo-American male paired with an Indigenous female. 

This news snippet about Minnie Tappan, a Cheyenne survivor of the infamous Sand Creek Massacre, intersects with my look into Douglas’ time at Howard University.  Douglas and Minnie were classmates at Howard and as the only American Indians enrolled at Howard at the time they surely closed paths.

Just this week I discovered that Douglas attended Howard University with a young woman named Minnie Tappan.  A Cheyenne, Minnie was “orphaned” after the infamous Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado Territory during the Civil War.  (Note: I use the term orphaned in quotes on purpose. Even though her parents were killed, Minnie would have been taken in my Aunts, Uncles, or other members of her mother’s clan. Anglo-Americans did not recognize this cultural practice with respect to American Indian peoples.) Taken back East by Samuel Tappan, Minnie was enrolled in Howard University.  In 1873 Minnie contracted consumption and died in her dorm room at Miner’s Hall on the Howard Campus.  News of her death surely filtered among the student body. For Douglas this must have been a terrifying prospect-- would he contract consumption and be next? The presence of another American Indian face on the Howard campus surely reassured and lifted Douglas’ spirits. In letters to Kate, back in Indian Territory teaching at a Mvskoke Nation agency school, Douglas mentions the passing of an Indian girl from Colorado. To some this may seem a trivial detail. However, for Douglas seeing Minnie’s face on campus meant there was someone else like him, he was not an Indigenous island unto himself. So the small bits and pieces of his life are now coming into sharper focus and making him seem so very real.

A photo of Kate Edwards Bemo Mitchell as an older woman. This photo surfaced online and after comparing it to a verified photo of Kate in her younger days there is no doubt it is Kate.  

While looking for the traces of Douglas’ life, more details about Kate keep cropping up.  The photo above is a recent discovery that stopped me in my tracks.  Seeing the face of Kate as an older woman I was struck that Douglas did not get the privilege of living into his later years to watch his son grow into adulthood, marry, and have his own family.  Douglas never got to be a grandfather and share the stories of his life with his descendants. Their views about Douglas come solely from Kate’s very partisan telling of her life and how she was impacted by her unfortunate marriage to her “worthless” Indian. Not only was history robbed of Douglas’ voice but his descendants as well. Now, I am even more determined to search as many archival sources in Oklahoma as possible in the hope I will find an image of Douglas to counterbalance Kate’s well crafted image.  While this goal may not be realized during the writing of my dissertation I do hope that one day an image will surface. Looking into the life of Douglas’ brother Alec (Alexander) --who spent his life living in the Seminole Nation with his wife and large family-- may be the only chance to see what Douglas may have looked like, so the search for an image of Alec is on! 

My scheduling calendar and book are a crazy patchwork colors and scribbles.  This is the only way I can keep all the tasks related to my work, research, and family life in some semblance of order.

Of course the most difficult part of this entire process of writing a dissertation is keeping research, writing, thinking, reading, and family life scheduled and organized.  My calendars/schedules (seen above in glorious colors) are nothing short of a form of managed chaos/controlled insanity at the moment. At this juncture I am really soul searching and looking at my progress, deadlines, and thinking about the fact I MIGHT have to push my defense off until October 2019 and graduate in December 2019. This would mean I missed my target deadline of earning my PhD and Graduate Minor in museum studies in four years start to finish by one semester. Part of me wants to push forward and graduate in July (so I can walk in may graduation and participate in departmental convocation) while the other part of me wants to produce an important dissertation and knows deep down that I need the time. Stay tuned, resolving this dilemma will be an interesting ride.

So, in my quest to flesh out Douglas’ lived experience in the Indian Territory I will be heading to Oklahoma City and the amazing collections of the Oklahoma Historical Society at the end of February. Add to that a trip to Howard University in D.C. (February), Western Kansas and Fort Wallace (March) and the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philly (April) and a possible research swing to the Seminole Nation in Wewoka, OK and you get an idea of what it is like to write and research simultaneously. Thank goodness for frequent flyer points, my husband’s willingness to pay for trips, and my love of travel...for I truly am a historian on the road.

Thanks for reading, hope you have enjoyed this edition of Dissertation Weekly.  Stay tuned! Next week I will share about one of my recent research experiences and the need for document preservation in local communities!

Cheers,

Michelle and Josie the Kitten

Josie supervises the writing of a fellowship application. She is an excellent proofreader as long as you don’t want her to flip the pages.

[chelseaandthediscourse]

           Recently, I found myself embroiled in a debate with another user on Tumblr in a back-and-forth that encompassed issues such as trans rights advocacy, the medicalization and pathologization of trans identities, and the exclusion of non-binary identities from the trans community. These, I feel, are very important issues that the entire trans community needs to look at more critically and decide what kind of movement we want to be. The politics espoused by the person with whom I was debating are harmful to some of the most marginalized of our community and by excluding them we risk repeating the mistakes of the past in throwing those of us who are ‘too transgressive’ under the bus for our own gain, an issue I expand on during the debate. This debate, in my opinion, is an example of transnormativity and intercommunity bigotry in action, and it shows precisely why we need to combat the biases within the trans community if we want a trans rights movement that isn’t a repetition of the hegemonic assimilation that has hurt so many in the broader LGBTQ+ community.

           The debate started with me responding a post which was lauding the ‘truscum’ ideology. For reference, truscum, short of ‘true transsexual scum,’ is a term, usually pejorative, denoting a trans identified individual who believes that trangender identities are a medical, typically psychological, disorder, which requires strict diagnostic guidelines and subsequent medical treatment in order to be considered ‘valid.’ Typically, those who espouses truscum ideology are also very set in thinking that gender and sex exist as a binary, often acknowledging that while gender is social construct, sex is a biological truth based on genitals and other physical markers.

           I have transcribed the debate in its entirety below, but the original post containing my participation in the debate may be found at https://chelseaandherself.tumblr.com/post/159568375672/truscum-more-like-common-sense. In the beginning, there are a few other participants, but it swiftly moves to just being between myself, Tumblr name Chelseaandherself, and by debate opponent, tumblr name Thathighclassbitch. I have underlined all usernames to denote the start of a new post, and bolded the usernames of myself and Thathighclassbitch to make them stand out.

Thathighclassbith: Truscum? More like common sense.

Softtrains: truscum? More like let people live their lives fucker

Asprodente: More like have an at least semi-verifiable way of identifying a real condition.

More like stop justifying people’s whimsical identifications, especially when it hurts the case for real transgenders to be accepted because they’re thrown into the boat with people who throw on a new change of clothes and call themselves trans for snowflake points.  You’re participating in swaying the science side of the right away from transgenderism.

You are not helping and you’re making it worse.

Softtrains: hey… if people identify as a gender they weren’t assigned with at birth… guess what theyre a “real transgender”

Asprodente: Let me ask you something, what does it mean to identify as something? What is the requisite? 

Softtrains: it means being the goddamn thing youre identifying as

Asprodente: Actually, you know what, I’ll just skip beating around the bush and get right to it.

Calling yourself something and being that something are vastly different. If I said I was trans, right now, would you believe me? Is my word the only factor worth consideration?

How about an example:  / I say “I have diabetes.”. You don’t have much reason to doubt that, but you don’t know if I really have it.  Someone else asks me, “Are you sure you have diabetes?” Now, this question is quite rude, yes, but I fail to present a doctor’s note, a prescription, or any medication for diabetes, and have not presented enough of the symptoms. I tell them that I identify as a diabetic. 

Is that okay? In that scenario, should I be defended to identify as diabetic? What if diabetics nationwide are facing discrimination? Well, after my stunt, the anti-diabetics have gone around saying “Hey, they might be one of those fake diabetics!” to justify their treatment. Diabetics are now being treated worse than they were before. / We do have a way of determining whether someone is trans. It’s called dysphoria. We’ve observed mental discrepancies between trans brains and cis brains, which make MtF trans brains look more similar to cis female brains than cis male brains.

Geekandmisandry: There is some, but minimal and conflicting evidence that brain waves are different in trans people, relying on that is ridiculous when the researchers THEMSELVES tell you not to because it’s not conclusive and there are a great number of variables.

Trying to test trans people is fucking ridiculous, comparing it to diabetes is willful ignorance. There isn’t a blood test for transness and don’t pretend you’re on a “science side” when you clearly haven’t actually looked at the finding, you’re just doing a hopeless regurgitation of some cherry picked data.

It shows.

Sex and gender are complex and anyone who claims to know the exact nature of them at this point of our scientific research is a liar.

Chelseaandherself: Sex and gender are social constructs.

Blood sugar is not.

Thathighclassbitch: Actually

Vagina equals female Penis equals male And when you have gender dysphoria, you either want to have a dick or a vagina.  It’s not a social construct.

Chelseaandherself: Buddy, pal…listen…please actually read legitimate sources on the matter before coming on to my blog with this stuff.

There’s absolutely zero scientific reason to equate having certain genitals with certain genders or sexes. You’re erasing the entire spectrum of intersex just to create a binary system. What do you call someone with a penis who has an XX karotype? Because that’s possible. Someone with a vagina with an XY karotype? Because that’s also possible. As is any number of other assortments of genital and chromosome combinations that make it impossible to actually have a binary system of sex. We made it up. That’s the definition of a social construct.

Thathighclassbitch: That’s rare and not exactly a ‘normal’ thing. Normal people have xy if they’re male, and xx if they’re female. That’s science. And intersex is a mutation, and is not a normal thing. And even so, it wouldn’t be SOCIAL.

And buddy, pal…maybe give some backup for the shit you’re saying before coming onto MY post. Because this is my post. And I don’t care if you respond, it’s public. But don’t shit me with coming onto your blog.

Chelseaandherself: http://www.isna.org/faq/frequency

http://www.isna.org/faq/ten_myths/rare

http://oii-usa.org/2563/how-common-is-intersex-in-humans/

Most estimates put intersex conditions at about 1-2% of the population, but it’s hard to get an accurate measure and these are fairly conservative estimates. This may not seem like a large portion of the population, but it’s actually pretty significant. And ignoring that large of a population is just bad science.

https://sites.psu.edu/evolutionofhumansexuality/2014/02/19/third-genders-new-concept-or-old/

Prior to colonization, multiple cultures around the world recognized genders and sexes outside of the binary, demonstrating that our understanding of such matters is constructed by our culture. Even within western society, understandings of sexuality and gender have not been static; for a long time, what we now consider to be homosexual men were considered a third gender. I do not have a convenient online source to link to you for this, but consider checking out Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBTQ Studies by Jonathon Alexander, et al.

http://sociologyinfocus.com/2016/08/sex-is-a-social-construction-even-if-the-olympics-pretends-its-not/

Here’s a nice little article that discusses the issue and provides a few other sources.

Sources I can recommend off the top of my head but can’t link you to as they aren’t available online:

Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling

Bodies That Matter by Judith Butler (or any number of her other works)

A significant portion of the works of Michel Foucault, most notably The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception and The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, both of which discuss how knowledge in the sciences is constructed through a social and cultural lens.

I could provide you with a significantly better selection of sources if you had access to a university level research database, but…

Thathighclassbitch: I’ll check out the links later, alright? So do consider that when I’m replying right now, since I haven’t checked them out yet.

But intersex and such is still a rare case, and people can usually identify with either one of the sexes. Plus the belief of more genders is, like I said, a belief, and should not be connected to being transgender, since it harms people like me in various ways.

Chelseaandherself: Intersex is a rare case compared to some things and not when compared to other things. As some of those articles mention, the 1-2% estimate puts it at being about as rare as being born with naturally red hair and more common that cystic fibrosis. The point is, it’s not a statistical anomaly, and ignoring it is bad, reductive science. And further, some people do not know they are intersex.

Sexing the Body by Fausto-Sterling specifically addresses the issue of an Olympic athlete who had to undergo genetic testing to participate only to discover that, having lived her entire life thinking she was a “normal” female, she was actually intersex and had latent testes hidden in her body. I’ve switched back to mobile tumblr, otherwise I’d find you a link on her, but her name was Maria Patino, a quick Google search should find her. And there are other accounts of similar things. The belief of more genders is just that, a belief, I agree, but, I’m arguing, that the belief in a binary system of gender is also just that, a belief. I literally have no idea what you being transgender has to do with this discussion. I’m transgender too and I think the discourse your perpetuating is harmful to me.

Thathighclassbitch: No I completely understand that ignoring that issue is bad and that’s not what I was going for when it comes to this post. This post was mainly directed at people who think they are nonbinary in any way. Because these people confuse this for being a different gender, and think they are transgender. Even though you cannot transition to any non binary gender.

Gender identity, however, is a social construct. This is mainly just the way you present yourself and kinda the way you respond to gender roles. (Don’t fully know how to put it.)

And what I meant with the last part was that people who say they are transgender, yet don’t have dysphoria, are hurting people like me with dysphoria. I wasn’t directing it towards me, but more towards a group of people I’m part of.

Chelseaandherself: I know what gender identity is?

But okay, look, this is what it comes down to then. You want non-binary people out of the trans community because you think they somehow hurt trans people. Again, I reiterate that I am a transgender woman, I am part of this group that you claim to be protecting. All you’re really doing is policing people’s identities in the same way that binary trans people have had their identities policed and told they are legitimately the gender they identify as. You’re also perpetuating the same discourses that historically have been used to keep transgender people out of the mainstream LGBTQ+ movement. I speak here specifically of that movement within the US; I see on your blog description that you are Dutch and I cannot speak to the history of any civil rights movements originating in that area of the world. But in the US, trans people were systematically pushed out of the rights movement because we were considered too transgressive and were thought to be hurting the more normative, cisgender members of the community by holding them back from acceptance in mainstream culture. You are doing the same to a marginalized section of an already marginalized minority. What you are essentially arguing to is the idea of trickle down advocacy…much like trickle down economics, the idea is that we fight for the rights of the least oppressed, and those rights will eventually trickle down to those who are more oppressed, and we slowly work our way down the rungs of the social hierarchy. But this isn’t a great model for social rights. Think about it this way, your goal is to fight for the rights and acceptance of binary transgender people, correct? Doing it you’re way will eventually gain those things for binary trans people, and sure, that’s great, but non-binary individuals will still be out in the cold. If you include non-binary people in you’re advocacy, then maybe the fight is a little harder and a little longer, but in the end everyone is better off. Let’s be honest, non-binary identities ARE more transgressive to social norms and people have more trouble accepting those identities. Because of this, don’t you think that if non-binary identities are accepted and recognized within the mainstream, that binary trans identities like yours and mine are also going to be accepted?

Thathighclassbitch: You see, what I’m saying is that nonbinary does not equal trans. It means not confirming to gender roles, and it’s something you cannot transition to.

People should first understand what nonbinary is, and should understand that it’s not a gender, before we can work towards acceptance.

Nonbinary and transgender are two different things. One has something to do with a mental disorder, and the other is not confirming to the stereotypical gender roles. It’s not an entirely new and amazing gender.

Basically, you can be a nonbinary man or nonbinary woman, but you’re still a man or a woman either way. It’s basically another way of saying that someone is a tomboy or a femboy.

However, tomboys/femboys do appear to have different stereotypes than nonbinary people, and nonbinary includes both men and women. So I suppose that would be a bigger community.

But it’s not transgender.

Chelseaandherself: Okay, have fun thinking your identity is a mental disorder and playing identity police.

This is no longer a productive debate as I can see that you are very set in your thinking here, so I really don’t feel the need to spend my time in the futile pursuit of trying to convince you otherwise. Thank you for the mental exercise and have a lovely day.

             At this point, I decided to disengage from the debate as it became clear to me that not only did he seem unwilling to actually read the sources which I provided, on his request, but also had no intention of engaging with me with arguments that were more substantial than a reiteration of phobic language. The debate was, in short, entirely unproductive. We, as a community, need to do better than this. We need to stop repeating the same bias that has been thrown at us and using it to further marginalize members of our community. Trickle down social justice isn’t good enough and it doesn’t work.

[hetaliaoccritique-blog1]

Lads !! //crawls out of hole

What up boys it your girl Meming back on t00mblr. 

Country/City/State Information- Name: مملكة البحرين / Mamlakat al-Baḥrayn Kingdom of Bahrain

This is perfect, tysm for not screwing up the Arabic ;;-;; 

Age: 46 { From Dec. 17 1971 on }

I would try to put in more here, the country age; 2250 is a good age for Bahrain at most, a few centuries after the country was inhabited mainly. However, you could also back up some more dates for the nation; 2600 years isn't bad either. 

However, the fact you specified nation age is great, especially the date!!

Capital City (if country): Manama Biggest City: Manama Boss (Mayor/President): Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

Here you could include the other rulers; the Prime Minister, Khalifa Bin Salman al-Khalifa, or the crown prince, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.

Flag (Coat of Arms): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Bahrain.svg / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Emblem_of_Bahrain.svg

The flag here is correct, but the official coat of arms of Bahrain is https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Emblem_of_Bahrain.svg/2000px-Emblem_of_Bahrain.svg.png ... Either way im loving this pls continue

Biggest Ethnic Group: Baharna

Maybe you could link a source for this? the Baharna usually live in Manama and Bahrainis usually recognise the largest ethnicity to be Bahraini; either way, i'm not saying you're wrong if this is a result of research!!

Language(s) spoken: Arabic (Bahraini, Gulf)  English Armenian (Armenians)  Balochi Hindi  Malayalam (Indians)  Pashto  Persian (Ajams)  Punjabi  Tamil  Urdu

Dam this all correct! Thank u for specifying them all aaa!!! Im gonna cry, you've done a lot of research so far and we not even done w/the review!!

Population: 2016 estimate - 1,378,000 Religion: Islam

Mainly Shi'a reside in Bahrain, at around 70% of the Muslim population. Maybe you could add this in ??

Government: Constitutional Monarchy Climate: WWF classifies Bahrain’s ecoregions as Persian Gulf desert and semi-desert, and the landscape is mostly arid desert. However, the marine habitats are very diverse, including seaweed beds, marshes and coral reefs as well as coastal islands. There are no mountains of importance except for the Jabal ad-Dukhan, at the centre of Bahrain island. Farming – date palms and fruits – is made possible, only to the north and north-east of this mountain, by the use of artesian wells, springs and desalination plants. The rest of the territory is desert, with some small lagoons. Economy: According to a January 2006 report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Bahrain has the fastest growing economy in the Arab world. Bahrain also has the freest economy in the Middle East and is twelfth freest overall in the world based on the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal.

In 2008, Bahrain was named the world’s fastest growing financial center by the City of London’s Global Financial Centres Index. Bahrain’s banking and financial services sector, particularly Islamic banking, have benefited from the regional boom driven by demand for oil.[210] Petroleum production and processing is Bahrain’s most exported product, accounting for 60% of export receipts, 70% of government revenues, and 11% of GDP. Aluminium production is the second most exported product, followed by finance and construction materials.

Economic conditions have fluctuated with the changing price of oil since 1985, for example during and following the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990–91. With its highly developed communication and transport facilities, Bahrain is home to a number of multinational firms and construction proceeds on several major industrial projects. A large share of exports consist of petroleum products made from imported crude oil, which accounted for 51% of the country’s imports in 2007. Bahrain depends heavily on food imports to feed its growing population; it relies heavily on meat imports from Australia and also imports 75% of its total fruit consumption needs. Since only 2.9% of the country’s land is arable, agriculture contributes to 0.5% of Bahrain’s GDP. In 2004, Bahrain signed the US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement, which will reduce certain trade barriers between the two nations. Due to the combination of the global financial crisis and the recent unrest, the growth rate decreased to 2.2% which is the lowest growth rate since 1994.

Unemployment, especially among the young, and the depletion of both oil and underground water resources are major long-term economic problems. In 2008, the jobless figure was at 4%, with women over represented at 85% of the total. In 2007 Bahrain became the first Arab country to institute unemployment benefits as part of a series of labour reforms instigated under Minister of Labour, Dr. Majeed Al Alawi.[217]

Now, i'm not saying this is bad; it's all good, it just seems very similar to the Wikipedia page. Almost c+p. But if this is a WIP area, keep going! I won't rat u out for this lmao, pretty good, nice info included. I won't point fingers, I understand if this is a TBA.

Human Information- Name: Ruqaiya Ali

From what I know, naming traditions in Bahrain are along the lines of;

Personal name (Ruqaiya) then bint (daughter of in Arabic), her father's name, then ibn (son of) her grandfather's name, then (Al-) Family name. So we can use the name Khadija bint Aisha ibn Mohammad al-Andalusi. However, the al- suffix usually relates to a person's place of birth, so al-Andalusi could change to al-Damashqi.

Nickname(s): Ruqia Age: 23 Gender: Female Birthday: December 17th Current Residence: Manama Language(s) spoken:  Bahrani Arabic English Armenian  Balochi Hindi  Malayalam  Pashto  Persian  Punjabi  Tamil  Urdu Bad Habit(s): { N / A ATM } Like(s): Pearls, Seafood { TBA } Dislike(s): { TBA } Hobbies: { TBA } Fear(s): { TBA } Equipment/Weapons: { TBA } Culture Favorites: { TBA } Personality: Ruqaiya is very hospitable and friendly towards expatriates. Shes very conservative and very patriotic and proud of her country. { TBA }

Thank you for specifying that these are tba, instead of the ppl that just write 'fears: one word that is not related to anything' so Guess What ur gr8

Appearance- Height: 5'1 { Average Height of Bahraini Women } Weight: 106 lb

This is all great, although a few sources tell me the height is even lower lmao, like 5'0.75, but 5'1 is accurate! Just a heads up if you want to add it (also it's easier for more to recognise it) - 5'1 is 155cm.

Hair: Semi Long and Curly, Goes around to her Shoulder Blades. Black in color.

Cool bro, but does she wear a headscarf (hijabs are common), specifically Muhtashima, a not-full hair covering, or the Muhajiba, fully covering the hair?

Eyes: A dark brown, appearing black. Skin: 23 in Von Luschans Skin Chart/Scale  Accent: Bahrani

We could go into this a bit more, such as describing words she sometimes mispronounces, and her overall speech. Saudi arabic is different from Bahraini arabic, e.g shino in bahraini arabic, and aish in saudi arabic, both mean 'what'; how Bahraini arabic accent is only spoken by 400,000 so it could make her seem out of place in everyday Arabic.

  Anything on your body that represents your country?: { TBA } Outfit(s): { TBA } Scar(s): { TBA } Accessories: Pearl Bracelet, { More TBA }

Relationships- Ancestor: Dilmun / Telmun Family: Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia Friends: India, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, Russia, U.K and Saudi Arabia Rivals: { TBA } Enemies: { TBA } Pet: { N / A ATM } Potential Love Interest: Kazakhstan { May chnage in future } Foreign Relationships: Embassies: Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, P.R China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Oma, Pakistan. Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, U.K, U.S and Yemen. Non Resident Embassies: Argentina, Australia, Armenia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, North Korea, Fiji, Georgia, Kosovo, Ireland, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, Tanzania, Vietnam.

I understand this OC is a w.i.p, but perhaps when you have fixed her up, you could add relationship history; nothing too long if you want, really, but it'd be very good and interesting to read.

History: The site of the ancient Bronze Age civilization of Dilmun, Bahrain was an important center linking trade routes between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley as early as 5,000 years ago. The Dilmun civilization began to decline about 2,000 B.C. as trade from India was cut off. From 750 B.C. on, Assyrian kings repeatedly claimed sovereignty over the islands. Shortly after 600 B.C., Dilmun was formally incorporated into the new Babylonian empire. There are no historical references to Bahrain until Alexander the Great’s arrival in the Gulf in the 4th century B.C. Although Bahrain was ruled variously by the Arab tribes of Bani Wa’el and Persian governors, Bahrain continued to be known by its Greek name Tylos until the 7th century, when many of its inhabitants converted to Islam. A regional pearling and trade center, Bahrain came under the control of the Ummayad Caliphs of Syria, the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad, Persian, Omani and Portuguese forces at various times from the 7th century until the Al Khalifa family, a branch of the Bani Utbah tribe that have ruled Bahrain since the 18th century, succeeded in capturing Bahrain from a Persian garrison controlling the islands in 1783.

In the 1830s the Al Khalifa signed the first of many treaties establishing Bahrain as a British Protectorate. Similar to the binding treaties of protection entered into by other Persian Gulf principalities, the agreements entered into by the Al Khalifa prohibited them from disposing of territory and entering into relationships with any foreign government without British consent in exchange for British protection against the threat of military attack from Ottoman Turkey. The main British naval base in the region was moved to Bahrain in 1935 shortly after the start of large-scale oil production. from all aggression by sea and to lend support in case of land attack.

In 1968, when the British Government announced its decision (reaffirmed in March 1971) to end the treaty relationships with the Persian Gulf sheikdoms, Bahrain initially joined the other eight states (Qatar and the seven Trucial Sheikhdoms now the United Arab Emirates) under British protection in an effort to form a union of Arab emirates. The nine sheikhdoms still had not agreed on terms of union by 1971, however, prompting. Bahrain to declare itself fully independent on August 15, 1971.

Bahrain promulgated a constitution and elected its first parliament in 1973, but just two years later, in August 1975, the Amir disbanded the National Assembly after it attempted to legislate the end of Al-Khalifa rule and the expulsion of the U.S. Navy from Bahrain. In the 1990s, Bahrain suffered from repeated incidents of political violence stemming from the disaffection of the Shi’a majority. In response, , the Amir instituted the first Bahraini cabinet change in 20 years in 1995 and also and increased the membership of the Consultative Council, which he had created in 1993 to provide advice and opinion on legislation proposed by the cabinet and, in certain cases, suggest new laws on its own, from 30 to 40 the following year. . These steps led to an initial decline in violent incidents, but in early 1996 a number of hotels and restaurants were bombed, resulting in several fatalities. Over 1,000 people were arrested and held in detention without trial in connection with these disturbances. The government has since released these individuals

Cool cool, again I understand the w.i.p so having a widget similar to other websites, ok? Just keep it in mind that you could change a few wordings when y'all done, and I think you got yourself a good OC!

{ She’s a still a work in progress, but i wanted to submit what i had so far for review }

-=+=- 

Honestly this is a really good OC. It may be a WIP but you're definitely on your way. Aside from the WIP, you could work on typing it up in your own words, and, work on the WIP parts as well. Overall, the work you put into this OC is really good.

[yanagibayashi]

Still, many African Americans, even those who believed in the economic principles of communism, were suspicious of whether the Soviets fully grasped the intricacies of race in the United States. As the author Zora Neale Hurston once put it, “What the hen-fire could Russia do for us?” This skepticism manifests in Amiable With Big Teeth when Maxim Tasan tries to convert Pablo Peixota’s daughter, Seraphine, to his cause by telling her that Russians don’t believe in race. He cites the fame of Alexander Pushkin, often called the father of Russian literature, whose maternal great-grandfather was from Eritrea (though Tasan says Ethiopia and indeed, this fact is disputed between the two countries) as proof of Soviet Russia’s legacy of color-blindness. When Tasan proudly tells Seraphine that Pushkin’s descendants were known as “Russians, not Russafricans,” she can’t help but interpret what they’re doing as “passing”—pretending not to be black and thus shamefully denying their heritage. The scene speaks to the friction and misunderstandings that McKay and Hurston believed plagued Soviet messaging on race relations. [...] For a work so rooted in international politics and full of non-American characters, Amiable With Big Teeth has the surprising distinction of being the only novel McKay ever wrote on American soil. (He toiled away on it while holed up in a cabin in Maine, “up here where it is cold and bracing,” he told a friend.) Despite his centrality to the Harlem Renaissance, McKay spent much of the period when that movement flourished abroad, in Western Europe, Morocco, and, of course, in Moscow. McKay’s contribution to the Harlem Renaissance was his decidedly global pan-African outlook.

A Forgotten Novel Reveals a Forgotten Harlem by Jennifer Wilson (On the discovery of Claud McKay's Amiable With Big Teeth, 70 years after it was written)

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/03/a-forgotten-novel-reveals-a-forgotten-harlem/518364/?utm_source=feed