#the foundation of humanitarian decay

[yourneutralscientist]

[Master post]

This is the master post for all the logs for each and every single person that has taken a vial, eaten food, or participated in a study regarding the human/metahuman/other anatomy and mind.

Please proceed with caution as not all logs will be accessed normally and will require a specific password or key card to access.

Log Entries

Entry [45483290]: Log 4583290 Sect. 32 Green Lantern

*Entry [893842]: Log 893842 Sect. 10 Batman

[sensualnoiree]

astro notes: saturn's energy 🪐

Saturn's association with lead is deeply symbolic. Lead is the metal that represents the prima materia, the primary material or first matter that is the starting point of the alchemical process. The prima materia is often depicted as chaotic, formless, and impure, symbolizing the unrefined state of both the soul and the material world.

Lead's qualities of density and heaviness reflect the weightiness of this initial stage of alchemical work. It signifies the darkness and inertia that must be overcome in order to progress toward the goal of spiritual or material transformation. Lead is seen as the base or foundation upon which the alchemical work is built, much like Saturn's influence is foundational in shaping our understanding of limitation, structure, and discipline.

Saturn's association with time highlights its role as a marker of the passage of time and the limitations it imposes on mortal life. Saturn's energy is often seen as a reminder of the fleeting nature of life and the importance of making the most of our time on Earth.

Aging is another key theme associated with Saturn, reflecting its role in the process of maturation and growth. Saturn's influence teaches us the value of experience and wisdom that come with age, as well as the acceptance of the changes that come with the passing of time.

Saturn's association with the cycles of life and death reflects its role in the process of transformation and renewal. Saturn represents the process of dissolution and decay that is necessary for new growth to occur. This process is often challenging and painful, but it is essential for personal and spiritual growth.

Saturn's energy teaches us the importance of patience, perseverance, and the understanding that all things have their time and place in the grand scheme of the universe. Saturn's influence reminds us that change is inevitable and that we must learn to accept and embrace it in order to grow and evolve.

Saturn's association with earth signifies its qualities of stability, endurance, and resilience. Like the element of earth, Saturn's energy is slow-moving and enduring, emphasizing the importance of patience and persistence in achieving our goals. Saturn's influence is about building a solid foundation for the future, ensuring that our efforts are well-grounded and long-lasting.

In astrology, Saturn is often associated with discipline, responsibility, and hard work. These qualities are reflective of the earth element's ability to provide structure and form. Saturn's influence is said to bring a sense of order to our lives, helping us to organize our thoughts and actions in a way that leads to tangible results in the material world.

In Capricorn, Saturn is in its domicile or home sign, which means its influence is particularly strong and pronounced. Capricorn is an earth sign, emphasizing Saturn's qualities of stability, discipline, and practicality. Individuals with strong Capricorn or Saturn placements in their charts are often hardworking, ambitious, and reliable. They are skilled at long-term planning and have a strong sense of responsibility and duty.

Capricorn's association with Saturn also reflects its connection to the concept of time and aging. Capricorn individuals are often wise beyond their years, displaying a maturity and seriousness that is characteristic of Saturn's influence. They are often seen as natural leaders and authority figures, capable of guiding others with their wisdom and experience.

In Aquarius, Saturn's energy is expressed in a more unconventional and humanitarian way. Aquarius is an air sign, emphasizing Saturn's mental and intellectual qualities. Aquarius individuals are often progressive, innovative, and forward-thinking, seeking to bring about positive change in the world.

Aquarius is also associated with Saturn's role as a teacher and mentor. Aquarius individuals are often drawn to teaching and mentoring others, using their knowledge and experience to help others grow and evolve. They are often seen as visionaries, capable of seeing the bigger picture and inspiring others to think outside the box.

follow for more astro insights like this and support me over on yt @quenysefields or instagram sensualnoiree 🤸🏿‍♀️

[witchrog]

''One swallow does not make a spring.'' Keep on tight dear friends and enemies, the last weeks of winter slip away with catalyzing star aspects leading towards the Solar Eclipse. Through many folklore traditions winter is a time of introspection, letting go, rotting, death, and decay, of gathering energy for the Spring. Even though in some areas, the first heralds of Spring are already blooming, Nature reminds us with her skeletal visage of naked branches that Life is yet to fully sprout and burst forth, not all snow has melted, and not all of the birds have flown back. Eerie, liminal, and a truly fitting atmosphere for the month of the sign of Pisces, the sign who most of all, dances on the boundaries between worlds, between Life and Death, embrace the time to let go of what need to go, before heading into a new cycle, with Spring and the Sun entering Aries.

Today, we have a square aspect between Venus and Uranus (March 3, 2024, 1:17 pm GMT), squares often bring difficulties, delays, and strains, how they manifest can be read by the signs and planets involved, and the ''where'' is determined by the houses it occurs in your chart. This diabolical square can bring unexpected expenses, especially related to technology and devices, the other side of the coin of this aspect is unexpected income, again depending on how it falls in your chart. Relationships are also in the terrain of this aspect and planets, again expect the unexpected, this is a time of change, situations that are wake-up calls, of breaking points, and beginnings of new relations. Focusing on the future and more humanitarian, innovative topics can get you on the good side of this transit, holding on to the past and things that have no strong foundations will be shaken up, let alone by Uranus and Venus, but also some other aspects.

While this square is happening Venus is conjunct Pluto, and Chiron conjunct the North Node ( Reached word limit, see you next post )

#folklore#astrology#witchesofinstagram#traditionalwitchcraft#occult#slavic#venus#folkwitch#malewitch#darkforest#folkgram#darkshinemag#beatifulbizzare#cinegrams#witchlife#broom#eclipse#winter#witchaesthetic#ritual

[rosesastrology]

The house meanings, in depth

1st house (ascendant): how you react, stature, your impulses, instincts, vitality, form and shape of the body, breath, physical appearance, complexion, life, our image, how we are perceived, the self, strength, light, behavior, manner of being, the identity, identification, initiation, the head (headaches), facial features

2nd house: how your voice sounds, abundance of food, assets, stocks, attitude towards possession, wealth, money, concrete values, self-worth, control, banks, personal finance, where you need to feel secure, personal needs, (real or illusional) certainties, neck, vocal chords, material comforts, gain, profit, collarbones, hedonism, hedonist sex, personal material needs, possessive love, jealousy, the senses, sensuality, nutrition, income, gems, jewelry, resources, self-esteem, talents, inheritance from the father, ammunition

3rd house: interactions, communication style, learning, mundane knowledge, logic, extended family (not parents), the color orange, siblings, close friends who feel like siblings, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, cousins, writing, education up to university, language, arms, hands, fingers, shoulders, contracts, mobiles/telephones, personal community, friend groups, neighborhood, local vicinity, short-distance travel, travelers, our daily commute, transport, rituals, environment in which we live/work, postal service, regular journeys, letters, rumors, messages, written reports, faxes, journalism, diaries, the press, propaganda, magazines, public opinions

4th house (Imum Coelli): parents (in particular the father), immediate family (Inc. grandparents), our roots, memories, the past, childhood, ancestry, ancestral lands, home life, the private self, what you do behind closed doors, family roots, home, houses, land, mining, oil, minerals, fossil fuels, nurturing, emotional foundation, physical death, foundation of life, karmic debt through family, roots of consciousness, upbringing, ancestral/ethnic traditions, nationalism, final years of life leading up to death, water supplies, ground, quality and fertility of ground, history, funerals, crops, farming, breasts, the chest/lungs, the beginning and ending of all things, wells, deepest region of the underworld, the origin of humanity, graves, buried treasure, drowning, inheritance from parents

5th house: your will, ideas, children, how you express yourself, progeny, pleasure without responsibility, no regret pleasure, joy, fun, romance & sex (NSA), fertility, pregnancy, miscarriages, health and condition of children, creation, hobbies, sports, creativity, entertainment, gifts, luxury, scandals, controversies, indulgence, parties, theatre, drama, parks, leisure, porn, prostitution, dancing, inns, banquets, pubs, art, love affairs, muses, music, clothes, gambling, horse-race betting, betting, taverns, liver, the heart, the back, a honey color, lotteries, speculation, games, resorts, spas, feasts, holidays, leisure, overindulgence, diplomats, recreation, parks, the stomach

6th house: discipline, service, plants, nurturing, schemes, medicine, work, slavery, daily routine, maintenance tasks, mundane work, tasks, accidents, illness, injuries, health, healing, doctors, veterinarians, nurses, death of friends, physicians, animals, pets, housework, chores, infirmity, bones, farmers, caretakers, cattle, weakness, affliction, sorrow, food reserves, dark colors, smaller intestine, lower stomach, guts, liver, kidneys

7th house (descendant): relationships, business partners, romantic love, long-term commitments, mutual commitments, marriage, long-term enemies, what we project on others, partnerships, the spouse, engagement, lovers, fugitives, runaways, escaped convicts, thiefs, the destination, paternal grandfather, butt, lower intestines, bladder, womb, sex organs

8th house: transformations, death, birth, doubt, questions, the occult, material spiritual pursuits such as astrology and tarot, high needs, power, spiritual sex, crisis, the underworld, the devil, demons, mental agony, anxieties, fear, mental illness, inheritance, financial support, possession of others, obsession, other people's money, debt, loans, collective resources, emotional and material richness, power, control, abuse, sexual abuse, taxes, decay, loss, the quality and nature of death, ego death, spiritual death, inheritance, legacies, poison, inner transformation, personal vulnerability sex organs, bladder, groin, gallstones

9th house: higher (classical) knowledge, law, religion, saints, psychology, long-distance travel, culture, foreign countries, belief systems, morals, ethics, race, ethnicity, growth, physical freedom, luck, progeny, prophecies, prophets, where we find meaning, larger than life questions, religious buildings, spirituality, higher education (university and above), teachers, mentors, guides, divination, mystic pursuits, meditation, yoga, mysteries, detectives, mental & physical journeys, lawyers, publishing, the unknown, space, the universe, meaning of life, philosophy, foreigners, dreams, visions, inspiration, astrology, mysticism, books, wisdom, university, scholarships, students, counsellors, advisors, solicitors, cults, God, the freemasonry

10th house (medium coelli): career (not per se everyday work like the 6th), ideals, ambitions, desire for success, reputation, traditions, honors, awards, prizes, recognition, fame, leadership, kings and queens, law, authority, business, social status, inheritance from the mother, judges, magistrates, butt, hips, thighs

11th house: friendship, credits, where you feel as though you belong, community, the collective, adoption (usually a 5th house involvement is present), humanitarianism, collective activism, radicalism, parliament, groups, social network, stepchildren, other people's children, hopes, aspirations, support, assistance, protests, trust, praise, positive hope, broader ambitions for the larger collective, political ideals, supporters (behind the scenes), servants, councils, ambition, freedom, optimism, confidence, personal strength, motivation, security, restoration, mother's money, legs, ankles

12th house: mental freedom, dreams, sleeping conditions/disorders, prisons, mental asylums, transcendence, reincarnation, isolation, loss, institualitzation, insanity, poverty, slavery, step-parents, self-sabotage, paranoia, hidden enemies, hidden pain, emotional baggage, karma, shadow work, addictions, substance abuse, escapism, art, secrets, misunderstandings, being unaware of something, captivity, imprisonment, sorrow, monasteries, scandals, personal fears, hidden family secrets, shame, guilt, regret, scandals, suicide idealism (especially if there are bad aspects between the 8th, 12th and asc), traitors, spies, witchcraft, hauntings, bondage, finances of friends, sickness of spouse, death of the children, mother's kin, underground movements, hospitals, the occult, freemasonry, disease, bad health, hands and feet

Ref:

- skyscript.co.uk

- straightwoo.com

[frighthouseofalighthouse]

Alex, I know how hard this week must be for you. You’ve always worked best with your words. Maybe try writing a letter here, in response to this ask? Like, a letter to Laurens? Everything you wish you could say to him? We’re here for you.

Holy shit, this is a super thoughtful thing to send me. You sure??? Because it will be super long. With many things I’ve never said out loud. Although I suppose that’s the point. (You don’t have to read this, seriously, you’ve been warned.) Okay. Here goes.

(Okay one more thing - never thought I’d be writing a “Dear John” letter of sorts lmao)

(ANOTHER THING - IF YOU READ THIS POSSIBLE WARNING FOR SELF HARM OR SUICIDE, POSSIBLY GRAPHIC)

John,

My love. My love. My love. The constellations in my sky. The moon to stay my tides. I fear I never told you enough how much I loved you. It was a mistake I was sure not to make with Eliza. It was always you caring for me, loving me, keeping me grounded, pulling me to shore when all I wanted was to drown. Is that why you became so distant emotionally when miles parted us physically?

I long for you to tell me whether or not it was a mistake I made. Even now, I hog blame to myself like it’s a rare book that will fall apart if I allow anyone else to touch it. Because it is. If I share it, it will be debunked, dismantled, and I will have no more reasons to punish myself. I don’t know how to stop punishing myself. The only way I could ever not do it was when I let people in, but I know it’s not healthy for me to rely on others to keep me from punishing myself. Which makes me feel toxic, which makes me want to punish myself, which takes us back to square one. Square one that we never left because my ambition was and is a front because my fear is paralyzing. It seems like I left square one, but I never did. My accomplishments were a ladder. Up and up, and down, and up, but never forward. I’ve never admitted any of that before. It was only you with whom I could be so honest.

Here are some things I remember of you.

The way your eyes, your hair, your face, glowed in the sun and scintillated like shimmering water underneath the moon.

Your arms around me late at night.

Your soft footfalls across the room as you neglected your bed to lay with me in mine, though we were crowded and smashed cheek to cheek, legs tangled together.

The way your eyes landed on me from across the room, and made me feel instantly at home even if I was trapped in an anxious conversation.

How your gaze lingered on me at dinners when the other officers had drunk too much to notice who was looking where.

Your fingers itching and twitching for something with which to sketch me as you observed me and drunk me in, in the way only an artist and naturalist could look at another living thing.

Your teasing, your laughing, your smiling.

A stolen, passionate kiss on a foggy battlefield before we threw ourselves under heavy fire for a dangerous scheme.

Your arm around me as you helped me on the long, long hike back to camp following said battle as I had shards of artillery shell in my knee.

You staying by my side the next nights, your steady voice carrying me through the sickness from the untreated wound. The anchor that kept me on this earth as I relived a hurricane in my fever dreams.

You holding me tight that winter as you barged into our room to find me bleeding from the wrists, a stained bayonet on the floor beside me.

Your wary eyes on me as I explained to my superiors that the perpetual slices on my arms were from my clumsiness as I practiced my skills with swords and weaponry in my free time.

You, you, you.

I will never understand why you didn’t tell me more about yourself during our time together. Or maybe you did? I don’t know anymore. There’s so much blank. space. That’s something else I’ve never admitted, never said in any of my responses to these questions people ask of me. As sure as I am, as sure as I have to be, some days I don’t know if I really am me. You’d break it down logically for me. You’d listen, nodding, concern in your eyes, shoulders hunched and arms wrapped around your knees, strands of hair falling in your face. You’d tuck back your hair, with the same gesture you used to sketch rough lines with a pencil, so that I could see your eyes unobstructed. You’d speak to me, in that voice clear as the reflection in a still lake, smooth as the edges of a perfect cloud, resonating like a violin in an empty ballroom. You’d convince me that all of this is real, and I’d believe it til the next time I forgot what you said and you’d have to say it all again. But you would. You were too patient. But only with me. When it came to everything else, you couldn’t take action fast enough. Your life and your death showed that. Perhaps that’s why I was drawn to you - I’d never seen someone so full of plans as I was. But I was so scared inside. What if you were too? What if you were just as hurt, just as lost, just as broken, but I was too focused on my own pain to notice? What if I could have cared for you as you did me? Would that have kept you here?

Your words would steady me right now. Your words could stop an earthquake in a heartbeat, soothe those tectonic plates and tell them they need never tremble again. And they talk of the power of my words... My words can build nations, sure, but they didn’t stop the cracking and sinking of foundations that happened later. Your words...your words could halt destruction, which is infinitely more valuable. They never saw the power of your words. They never got to see the power of your words. You should have come to congress with me. You would have lived, you would have met the family Eliza and I built together. We could have built this nation together. I know it would not have decayed the way it has if we had had your words as well as mine. Did you not want that? Why did you not want that? I pleaded, I pleaded, why could I not sway you as you could me?

I remember the last face-to-face conversation we had. I had been offered a position in the south as well. You know this, of course, but many do not. Our superiors offered to allow us joint command of the battalion of which we had dreamed and schemed. But John Hanson had caught wind of my exaggerated reputation and offered me a spot in Congress. I begged you to join me. Your father, though he had not been President of Congress for several years, still had a great reputation and much sway, and I knew we could carve out a spot in that hall for you as well. But your humanitarian heart was set on the south. I think by this time, things were starting to fray, though I still cannot pinpoint exactly how. I think perhaps you held a grudge towards all of Congress because of your strained relationship with your father.

You told me I used to be better than that, that I used to be above betraying my morals for the metaphorical thirty pieces of silver.

I said that I was betraying nothing; I wrote my way off an island to come and build something.

You said that I came from an island full of slaves, that I should know very well the only way to build was to help the lowest first.

I reasoned that didn’t you see? Planting myself, an ardent abolitionist, in a group of slaveholders was the surest way to plant the seeds of freedom.

You laughed and said I’d have better luck getting my horse to recite the Hippocratic Oath. You said that I was putting a country that didn’t yet exist above the people.

I said that while you were off on a satin chaise reading Augustine’s Confessions, I was at a foul-smelling, noisy port reading Cicero in between meticulously jotting down numbers.

I wanted to tell you that once we saved the people, we would have no safety and security for them if I did not first go and build it. You can liberate all the people you want, but you cannot harbor and house them unless you first build a house. I wanted to tell you this, but the moment I opened my mouth was when you put up your hand to stop me and said the two words that stole away my breath like a broadsword in the ribs.

“Goodbye, Alexander,” you said. And you left.

We never spoke of this argument though letters. I wrote to you, as hopelessly devoted to you as ever, but your replies were never the same. Your “Adieu, beloved”s became “Adieu”s, your “yours always and forever”s became simply “yours”.

I begged you, once more, at the beginning of August, to put down your sword and come to Congress with me. We had word, you see, that the British were preparing to withdraw their final troops from south of Chesapeake Bay. There was no need for you to keep skirmishing with them. For once in your life, just stop, just wait, just rest. No need to hurry out what is already halfway through the door. If you would just listen, if you would come to Congress with me... We could be great. We could be legends. I do not know if you received this letter. I prefer to think that you did not, because I never received a reply, and no half-composed one was found among your things. This is what happened: I became a legend. Alone. Is there even a plaque on the site where you were shot down? I do not know that there is. Just a desolate, empty stretch of marshland along the banks of the Combahee River. Do the mud and the trees remember you the way this country remembers me? Your name lives on only through a fort in my current home state named for your father, through biographies of me, and through a musical. A musical written and titled for me. And, of course, in the ever-mourning, lamenting halls of my heart.

I want, need, you to know how shattered was my soul when I received the letter from your father. But -- my soul shatters again, and I cannot bear to speak of it now. Perhaps, with prompting, sometime in these next four days I will take up my pen again in the hopes to show you how much my heart weeps without you.

I love you. I miss you. I need you. I need to not be alone in the burden of these memories.

Oh, and do you know that if I had you here, we would have no more need for secrecy? We are legal. We are allowed to take pride in ourselves and our love. In fact, I am attending a festival this Saturday for that purpose. I will hold you in my heart while I am there. You would love it. You and your pride. I only hope to carry half as much pride as you would.

Love and sonnets always,

Your Little Lion

[thisdaynews]

JUST IN:Corruption, inefficiencies actually swarm government agencies despite lawmakers’ oversight.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/just-incorruption-inefficiencies-actually-swarm-government-agencies-despite-lawmakers-oversight/

JUST IN:Corruption, inefficiencies actually swarm government agencies despite lawmakers’ oversight.

Reports of the Auditor General of the Federation from 2015 to 2019, which accumulated in the National Assembly a while after their accommodation for thought by the Committee on Public Accounts, uncovered that it was still the same old thing for government employees as administrative legislators appeared to have reneged on their oversight capacities throughout the long term.

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Indeed, even the Public Account Committee, which turns out to be the main standing board perceived in the country’s constitution and customarily headed by an individual from the resistance to dodge bargain, has likewise throughout the long term, neglected to complete its normal exercise on the reports of the Auditor General for the Federation typically submitted to it.

For example, there is no record to show that the board , headed by Senator Andy Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party in the eighth Senate, accomplished any genuine work on the AuGF reports submitted to the National Assembly from 2015 to 2018.

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This is clear on the grounds that a similar board in the ninth Senate, presently headed by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, likewise of the PDP is as yet thinking about one of the volumes of the 2015 report, leaving those of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, unattended to, over one year after its introduction.

Despite the fact that the Urhoghide board said it had outlined techniques to deal with the thought of the multitude of reports before the finish of the nineth Senate in 2023, it is glaring that reports of AuGF from 2019 to 2023 would accumulate unattended to when the current National Assembly is broken up.

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The faceoff between the chief and the Senate authority in the eighth Assembly didn’t improve the situation at all as oversight capacities endured an extraordinary arrangement.

Heads of government services, offices and offices exploited the circumstance to do their exercises without plan of action to the National Assembly by and large.

The improvement brought about heads of MDAs including in extra-budgetary spending, misappropriation and executing financial plans without the endorsement of the country’s parliament as apparent in the report of the AuGF been considered by the SPAC.

A cross-segment of Nigerians and legislators, who addressed our reporter on the issue, accept that oversight elements of the administrators were simply to satisfy all honesty and that nothing genuine was being done at whatever point they leave on such celebration.

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For example, the President, Women Arise and Center for Change. Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, contends that legislators’ oversight capacities throughout the years in our Nigeria, “have been a pointless activity attributable to the level of debasement that has eaten profound into our good and financial textures as a people.”

She stated, “Administrators are legally expected to be the soul and eyes of their different bodies electorate in this manner going about as specialists of check and equilibriums openly administration as ‘total force taints totally’ yet for avarice, sell their inner voices by gathering pay-offs from contractual workers, services, organizations and divisions under their watch.”

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Odumakin keeps up that the officials are not doing what’s necessary to check debasement in the services, offices and offices of government.

She stated, “From the different records accessible to us throughout the long term, there is such a great amount to be done with respect to our lawmakers to check defilement in our services, offices and offices.

“Debasement is a colossal danger to our aggregate government assistance and improvement as a people. We should frontally battle it in the event that we really need to be in the association or comity of created countries.

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“For example, we have had instances of where contractual workers are activated without their essence on undertaking locales. Just of later while there was an all out lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we heard that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs dispensed billions of naira to take care of younger students.

“We have similarly known about the decays in the Niger Delta Development Commission under the domain of Senator Godswill Akpabio which prompted the ‘blacking out show’ of its Managing Director, Prof. Pondei Daniel Kemebradikumu while being explored by the House Committee on NDDC.”

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She said there was no refuting, the way that claims of pay off during oversight exercises could be the explanation behind the officials’ powerlessness to check the decays in the MDAs

She said government required a political will to diminish debasement to the barest least as advocated by previous President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who presented the Banking Verification Number, for each financial balance holders in the nation and its credit only approach.

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She additionally focuses on the requirement for the computerization of the finance of local officials has diminished the act of paying phantom laborers the nation over.

Odumakin stated, “Arraignment and enrolling of the names of proof based degenerate pioneers and residents the same in the Corruption Index vault of the nation is important to stop us a people from voracity.

“There is likewise, the need to set up solid foundations, autonomous legal executive and free press to have the option to escape this dooming circumstance that we are in as of now in as a people envious of improved economy and way of life.”

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Also, the Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, demands that the administrators are coming up short in their oversight capacities as accommodated under Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution (as corrected in 2010), which engages the governing body to do examinations inside its fitness to forestall and uncover defilement, shortcoming or waste in the execution or organization of laws.

He, in any case, says the nineth Assembly is relied upon to devise a system for a compelling oversight obligation to cover the usage of activities, consistence to laws, requests, and strategies inside state and non-state entertainers.

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He says the officials should delineate explicit authoritative oversight to hinder monetary spillages in government, given the ongoing unaccounted inflows and outpourings of unfamiliar and homegrown help on COVID-19 pandemic.

Rafsanjani stated, “The Assembly has not displayed huge improvement in its oversight work on observing incomes accumulating to the public authority from other income streams separated from the oil and gas area including usage of gave and obtained assets by the Government of Nigeria to guarantee that the crisis subsidizing fills the expected need of saving the wellbeing and job of the country.

“Additionally, the National Assembly has not founded an observing and assessment framework to assess the execution and effects of laws in guaranteeing laws are couple with cultural desire.

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“We are as yet anticipating earnest administrative exertion to reinforce the Accountant General’s Office to guarantee consistence with the different proposal by the Office and advance responsibility in the portion and use of public finances expected to counter COVID-19 and to give monetary improvement bundles.

“It has not indicated the necessary responsibility and ability to examine and survey the yearly reports of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation and make a move against MDAs that didn’t present their inspected accounts as ordered by the Law.

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“It has additionally yet to guarantee that obtainment measures directed by the individual MDAs are straightforward and in accordance with existing lawful and strategy structures.”

He mourned that the oversight elements of the officials are enduring an extraordinary arrangement notwithstanding the quantities of standing boards of trustees at the two offices of the National Assembly settled to do the task of checking the exercises of the MDAs.

He said the administrators are not doing what’s needed to guarantee that MDAs are not messing with the spending plan, execute extortion, fumble reserves or mocking the Federal Character Act across MDAs.

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He stated, “There are industrious charges and reports on pay off and defilement that overwhelm oversight exercises directed by some authoritative councils both in the at various times. These are sufficient to be credited to the lawmakers’ failure in oversight responsibility over the MDAs.”

Pushing ahead, he stated, “the governing body must feature full straightforwardness and responsibility while heightening administrative oversight to impede monetary spillages across MDAs and charge its important Committees to comprehensively examine the revealed instances of pay off and debasement with proper approval without dread or nepotism.”

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He stated, “Through oversight work, it must draw in intensive compromise of MDAs’ spending plan with explicit thoughtfulness regarding the presentation.

“The governing body must reinforce oversight on Defense and security area as a panacea to reestablish respectability, lessen spillages and advance responsibility in the area.”

The Chairman, Senate public Accounts Committee, Senator Matthew Urhogide, concurs that the alarming disclosures in the reports of the AuGF being considered by his board has prosecuted the administrators of not really doing what’s necessary to check the exercises of the MDAs, through oversight capacities.

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Urhoghide stated, “To an exceptionally enormous degree, the disclosure from the Auditor General report is an arraignment with respect to the National Assembly standing board of trustees that should be oversight the different MDAs.

“We don’t have to trust that defilement will be fulfilled before we capture it. At the point when consumption is fulfilled that is when inspectors come in . For example the disclosures in the Foreign Affairs service is incredible. Someone will simply remain outside the nation and begin going through cash intended to run the workplace on close to home requirements.”

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He, anyway promised that SPAC would meet people’s high expectations, by ordering its discoveries and make its report accessible at whole.

He stated, “The different boards would perceive what has been going on in the MDAs they are oversighting without their insight.

[thefutureprimaeval]

You May Not Be Interested In Politics, But Politics Is Interested In You

by Raymond Brannen

Plato once said, “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

Actually, that’s not quite what he said. It’s a summary that’s floating around on the internet. He really said:

But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule. It is from fear of this, as it appears to me, that the better sort hold office when they do, and then they go to it not in the expectation of enjoyment nor as to a good thing, but as to a necessary evil and because they are unable to turn it over to better men than themselves or to their like. For we may venture to say that, if there should be a city of good men only, immunity from office-holding would be as eagerly contended for as office is now, and there it would be made plain that in very truth the true ruler does not naturally seek his own advantage but that of the ruled; so that every man of understanding would rather choose to be benefited by another than to be bothered with benefiting him.

In Plato’s city of good men, the virtuous compete to avoid political office. Nowadays, our virtuous men compete to be as independent of politics as possible. They may call themselves “independent”, “moderate”, “skeptical”, “centrist”, or “altruistic.” They avoid political office, they avoid voting, and they even attempt to avoid thinking about politics.

If more virtuous men participated in politics, would politics get better? Is this the implication of Plato’s quote? No, the political problems in our current age are due to incentives from the political system, not just due to a lack of good men. Placing virtuous men in a bad political system eventually corrupts them.

Good men are a necessary, but not sufficient condition for good government. Although they may not be effective as political leaders or voters, they could be effective as political thinkers, if they could get over their aversion to political thought.

Plato’s quote may not imply that we can improve politics by sprinkling in a few virtuous men here and there. Politics is too broken for that. But the quote does imply something else:

Ignoring politics doesn’t make it go away.

When good men attempt to opt-out of politics, they do not actually avoid politics. They are still in a polity, a polity run by bad men. Now they are subjected to the bad politics of bad men. In our case, these are people like politicians, journalists, bankers, bureaucrats, professors, and social engineers at the big foundations.

You can’t opt out of politics.

If you are the kind of independent, moderate character that I am speaking to, then it may mildly aggravate you when I make pronouncements like this. However, I think it’s quite likely that some of the observations I’m about to make will resonate with your experience.

This article is for the independent thinkers of the world who are tired of getting pushed around by politics, and who are tired of living in a world that seems to suddenly be going crazy while they don’t understand why.

Why not just ignore politics?

When virtuous thinkers first see people rolling around in mud of the political playing field, their first instinct is to run as far away as possible. We could call this the “ostrich heuristic.”

But sticking your heading in the sand doesn’t work anymore. Many independent thinkers are discovering that even if you aren’t interested in politics, politics is interested in you.

Although you might try to avoid it, politics has a way of worming itself back into your business and decreasing your quality of life. Even if you try to ignore politics, it will get into people around you in your community. It’s getting harder and harder to have sophisticated, nuanced conversations about controversial matters, thanks to politics.

Politics puts different tribes of people at odds with each other. Politics divides family members. Politics whips up your friends in culture wars. Politics hijacks your organization.

Our independent, moderate-minded intelligentsia has been trying to ignore politics, but it’s getting harder and harder to do so. You would have to ignore all politicized information sources and politicized people, which would require being a hermit.

Because you are not a hermit, trying to ignore politics inevitably fails, because you eventually encounter some form of politics. And when you do, you don’t have any defenses. Paradoxically, trying to ignore politics makes you easily influenced by politics because you have no political immune system. The first bacteria that get into your system have a heyday.

Let’s switch to another analogy. In driving school, they teach you about “defensive driving.” We could say that “defensive politics” is the study of politics for the purpose of defending yourself from other people’s atrocious politics. Defensive politics would include resisting any political attempts to emotionally browbeat you, to confuse your understanding of the world, to poison your community, to take over your organization, to beat you in zero sum games, or to otherwise harm your interests and people you care about.

Politics has gotten a little bit out of hand. It’s time to face politics and figure out what the heck is going on.

Why does politics matter?

The study of politics is the study of human power and agency. By claiming that politics matters, I am arguing that power is powerful. Agents exercise agency.

This sounds like a tautology, but the independent, moderate, altruistic crowd fail to grasp it, because they think in terms of reason, utility, and humanitarianism, not in terms of agency, incentives and power. We could say that they are “power-blind,” like a form of mind-blindness.

Non-elite, powerless people pursue ideals like truth, justice, or altruism (at least, they believe they do). The politically powerful are different. They pursue power. That’s how they got power in the first place and how they hold onto the power they have. There is nothing inherently wrong with this behavior. It is best to view it as amoral rather than immoral. Of course, politics is full of moral language, and powerful people are perfectly capable of parroting humanitarian language when it suits their goals, but it’s important to note that this moral posturing is often empty.

If you want to understand the world, if you want to do good, if you want to have an impact on the future, then you cannot afford to ignore politics. You cannot afford to ignore power. Politics touches everything.

The state of a society at any given time is a function of the powerful agents in that society. If you want to understand a society and get anything serious done inside it, then you will need to understand the political actors and factions in that society. You will need to understand their goals, incentives, and history.

You will especially need to understand the conflicts of political forces, because political conflict damages society, alienates friends, tears apart families, exacerbates ethnic tensions, and causes nations to fund weapons development. Once you understand competition over power, then you have begun to understand politics.

By studying human agency, you will become more powerful yourself, even if you just use that power for defensive politics. By studying the history of the exercise of human power, you will greatly improve your model of the world by learning to sniff out propaganda and spin. You will become much better at resisting all the moral posturing in politics instead of getting browbeaten by the latest campaign.

What should you do?

What should you actually do about politics? Should you vote? Should you run for office? Should you support other people running for office? Should you donate to some political cause? Should you go to a march? These are the actions that most people associate with politics. But they are mostly ineffective.

What most people should do about politics is play defense.

When you don't have responsibilities that touch the political arena, and when you don’t have sophisticated political goals and a plan to achieve them, then there is nothing constructive to do as an individual. Play the game of passive resistance to avoid being sucked in. Political ambition without understanding will only make things—and you—worse. Go with the flow, mime the social signaling of the masses around you, and try not to think too hard.

What if you do have goals or responsibilities, like a decision-making position in an organization or community? Then your defensive politics can become even more active. You can’t fix politics, but you can resist political forces that would seek to conscript you into conflicts, and you can avoid jumping on bandwagons. You can protect your organization, community, and family from ideological hijacking, or at a minimum, you can refrain from saying “faster, comrade!” and burning them down for the sake of political signaling.

If you have goals that demand actually understanding the world, or you are cursed with burning curiosity, then what? Then there is another useful thing you do: understand political theory. You have to understand how politics works if you want to discount its corrosive intellectual effects. If you study politics in a deep way, then eventually you may be able to make your own contributions to political theory.

Although we can’t fix politics by getting a few more virtuous men involved in holding office or voting, we do need virtuous men involved in political thought to figure out how to fix our rapidly decaying political system. If virtuous men don’t engage in political theory, then they will be ruled by the political theory of worse men.

Archived from The Future Primaeval.

[brajeshupadhyay]

The post-pandemic world will be a curious one. Not only will the virus usher in behavioral, social and political modifications at a micro level and trigger indelible domestic changes, it will also impact nation-states at a macro level. Economic vulnerabilities will be exposed, and the shifting of geopolitical sands will be accelerated. It will also level the playing field, making the global order susceptible to the rise of middle powers. If geopolitical standing stems from a nation’s economic prowess, then one may have already seen COVID-19’s lopsided impact where the damage caused by the virus is directly proportional to a nation’s economic status. The pandemic is affecting all economies of the world but the major ones — based on the data points that we have at this stage — seem to have suffered greater damage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SAARC Leaders video conference. ANI Using latest IMF and World Bank data, Dhruva Jaishankar, director of the US initiative at ORF, shows the ‘potential vulnerability’ of each major world economy and finds that “India is moderately placed on almost every criterion, with neither excessive vulnerabilities relative to others nor major causes for complacency” and posits that the pandemic may serve to actually reduce India’s current account deficit. Though conjectures about the post-pandemic global order has so far been dominated by the relative decline or rise of the world’s superpower and its challenger and their struggle for dominance over the international system, one may do well to stop defining the world solely through the US-China prism. It is now evident that both nations will suffer considerable damage to their global standing and their power projection may be affected. Not only may American and Chinese national power be hit by the crisis — some of it might even be exacerbated due to increasing strategic rivalry between the two nations and likely economic decoupling. Writing in Foreign Affairs, former prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd posits that “neither a new Pax Sinica nor a renewed Pax Americana will rise from the ruins. Rather, both powers will be weakened, at home and abroad. And the result will be a continued slow but steady drift toward international anarchy across everything from international security to trade to pandemic management.” But where Rudd sees “steady drift towards international anarchy”, it is possible to decipher securing of interests and projection of strategic altruism by regional powers who are willing to seize the diplomatic opportunity provided by the pandemic. These middle powers appear ready to influence the material and ideational trajectory of international politics. Foremost among powers such as France, Germany, Australia, South Korea and Japan is India, which has so far managed to both contain the scope and scale of the pandemic within its own shores and present a humanitarian face abroad — even flexing a bit of diplomatic muscle by initiating a limited, collective response. In this, India has taken a path less travelled. While the nations of the world, including major powers, sought to tackle the virus on their own and even ran into a desperate collision with other states over critical medical equipment — nowhere has this behavior been more evident than in Europe where the pandemic ripped European ‘union’ into shreds — India resurrected a couple of moribund and obsolete platforms to present a united front against COVID-19. This was smart diplomacy. I would like to propose that the leadership of SAARC nations chalk out a strong strategy to fight Coronavirus. We could discuss, via video conferencing, ways to keep our citizens healthy. Together, we can set an example to the world, and contribute to a healthier planet. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 13, 2020 In reviving the SAARC and holding the first summit since 2014 (though a virtual one) and creating a COVID-19 emergency fund where India pledged $10 million — more than half of the total contribution — Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a message of regional unity that was duly noticed elsewhere. Global challenges require coordinated and agile responses. The recent videoconference among #SAARC leaders on #COVID19 showed how leaders can present practical proposals, such as establishing a regional fund. Let’s all keep working together to fight this worldwide outbreak. AGW — State_SCA (@State_SCA) March 16, 2020 Similarly, the NAM platform — that Modi had ignored in the past, refusing to even attend the summits in 2016 and 2019 — was suddenly transformed from a Nehruvian and Cold War-era relic to a platform to project India’s diplomatic outreach and humanitarian response. In a virtual summit, Modi highlighted how India has promoted coordination in the immediate neighbourhood, organised online training to share India’s medical expertise with smaller neighbours and ensured medical supplies to over “123 partner countries, including 59 members of NAM". In shaping a collective response, dispatching consignments of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to African, Latin American and Central Asian nations including even developed economies such as France, Russia, US and the UK, in “extending online training to health care professionals in South Asia and other neighbouring countries on COVID-19 management strategies” and sending “teams of Indian military doctors to countries like Nepal, Maldives and Kuwait”, India has shown a diplomatic outreach, political will and a capability to safeguard its own interest and of those in its sphere of influence. As professor Harsh V Pant and Paras Ratna point out in Livemint, “New Delhi has also played a crucial role in evacuating stranded Indians as well as foreign nationals. Its rapid deployment of C-17 Hercules transport aircraft indicates a growing response-projection capability and a matching appetite to take on the responsibility of regional leadership.” While this aspect of Indian diplomacy has been evident, navigating the post-pandemic world will require a more nimble-footed response when it comes to managing great power relationships. Here, India’s mettle will be tested on several parameters and sustained questions will be asked of its ability to explore strategic responses. A quick look at the trajectory of India’s bilateral relationships with China and the US is warranted. Managing the China puzzle While ties with China has historically involved elements of competition, cooperation and conflict, these edges may become sharper in a post-pandemic world. In absence of democracy, the legitimacy of China’s authoritarian leadership rests on economic progress for its people. The pandemic has struck at the very root of that foundation by not only slowing down economic activity but also inflicting a sustained and massive economic damage. As Rudd calculates in his Foreign Affairs article, China’s overall “2020 growth is likely to be around zero— the worst performance since the Cultural Revolution five decades ago.” This presents a tricky problem for the Chinese Communist Party that is also witnessing a simultaneous uptick in global antagonism towards China, and facing the prospect of large-scale exodus of foreign investment, manufacturing and exports from its shores. Japan has already made its move, pressure is growing in the US to decouple its economy from China-dominated global supply chain and chorus of a similar sentiment is growing in the EU which is also looking to diversify its interests. File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese president Xi Jinping. PTI The collective weight of these moves will have a bearing on Chinese economy that is already under strain, and the decline in Chinese economy may translate into a frontal pressure on the CCP whose credibility may see a concomitant decay. Since China’s politics and security policy are closely tied to its economic performance — as Jaishankar points out in the piece mentioned above — this raises the possibility that China may double down on a diversionary tactic such as the one India witnessed in 1962 when conflict coincided with the calamitous ‘Great Leap Forward’. Though both India and China have since grown more powerful, the power differential between both nations, if anything, has widened even more. The emergent crisis from the pandemic may incentivise the CCP to be more assertive and probe India’s responses to threats to its external security environment — the likes of which we saw during the Doklam crisis. For instance, China seems to have suddenly become quite aggressive on its maritime periphery. A spate of recent incidents has come to light. These curiously timed incidents indicate an opportunistic behaviour by the Chinese that seeks to exploit perceptions of weakness or distraction in its adversaries and advance own interests through gradualism. China sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel, “established” new administrative districts for the contested Spratly and Paracel island chains, raided Taiwanese airspace in a daring nighttime flyby, forcing Taiwan to scramble its jets, a Chinese ‘fishing vessel’ collided with a Japanese destroyer, and CCP’s cynical adventurism was on display during a tense standoff with US Naval forces alongside Malaysia’s Borneo coast. These behaviours, taken separately, hardly indicate a flare up of epic proportions but the pushing of envelop by “gray zone tactics” is notable. As Abraham Denmark, Charles Edel, and Siddharth Mohandas write in War on the Rocks, “This approach reflects a maxim of Vladimir Lenin, whom the Chinese Communist Party continues to revere to this day: ‘Probe with a bayonet: if you meet steel, stop. If you meet mush, then push.’ In multiple instances, Beijing has continued to push when it perceives that its actions are unlikely to cause a significant response. But when Chinese assertiveness has been met with resolute counterpressure, Beijing’s response has not been predictably escalatory.” Chinese behaviour here is of particular interest to India. New Delhi successfully deployed denial of access mechanism to stymie Chinese design on Bhutanese territory during the Doklam incident, and it must be ready to encounter similar misadventures as Chinese Communist Party seeks to distract disaffected population through a dose of assertive behaviour. India must continue to explore hedging and hard-balancing options while engaging the top Chinese leadership to manage the relationship. The Trump unpredictability This is where India’s relationship with the US assumes more importance. China is a hegemon in unipolar Asia, a competitor and threat to India, and it makes sense therefore for New Delhi to deepen its partnership with Washington in areas other than defence and strategic partnership. For the US, developing its partnership with the world’s largest democracy with which it shares values and interests is reason enough, and ties have become increasingly more broad-based as Washington gets involved in a long-term strategic rivalry with China. File image of Donald Trump and Narendra Modi. PTI Along with dovetailing of India-US interests, China’s aggressive behaviour, missteps on COVID-19, attempts to rewrite the narrative on the pandemic and publicity efforts over a global health and economic crisis have made India-US cooperation easier. There is scope for extension and deepening of the relationship, powered by mutual bipartisan goodwill and intense people-to-people connections, but the pandemic may push the relationship into some areas of discomfort. More so at a time when the US is going for presidential elections and all issues are on the table, including the issue of immigration that — along with trade — have proven to be particularly tricky to solve. As the US economy tanks over the crisis, chorus will grow inside the US to double down on economic nationalism and the impulse will most likely be a bipartisan one during the election time. Already, four Republican senators have written to Donald Trump, asking him to suspend all immigration work visas to the US until the unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic returns to “normal levels”. There is also the possibility that a severe downturn in the Indian economy may force the hand of the Modi government in postponing arms deals with the US, drawing the ire of an unpredictable US president who places great score on these parameters. Finally, Trump’s random mood swings may grow more frequent as elections draw near, and darker as US economy grapples with pandemic woes. So far, this White House has shown a marked inability to insure foreign policy from such unpredictable presidential behavior. That will likely be an added challenge for India. On the flip side, India is aware of its asymmetric capacities in managing the great power relationships and has stitched a careful mosaic of strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific that will allow for hedging and policy flexibility. If India remains focused on its objectives without letting domestic political compulsions come in the way, the pandemic may propel India’s rise.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/05/beyond-medical-diplomacy-new-delhis.html

[versatilepoetry]

Full Stop.

Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every ounce of diabolically demented lies; the profanely beleaguered manipulation of the tongue which was the greatest of living parasite, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every shade of pathetically impoverished racial indiscrimination; the sanctimonious boundaries of caste; creed; color and race; which irrevocably crippled resplendent earth; for an infinite more of its destined lives, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every act of heinously committed crime; those countless innocent screams which wafted till eternity and without the tiniest of respite, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every gutter of commercialism from oozing its cadaverous streams; the robotically unemotional arms of sacrilegious monotony; forever crucifying the idol of divine human sensitivity, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every insinuation of tawdrily devastating politics; the tireless mockery of priceless living beings being made; by a handful of egocentrically bald world leaders, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every salaciously ribald desert of adulteration; foolhardily wanton human contraptions; unforgivably plundering into the unconquerable virginity of mother nature, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every war that happens in the name of spurious religion; those boundless children who're mercilessly orphaned; as an aftermath of abhorrently penalizing meaninglessness, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every deliriously jinxed imagination of the sinfully satanic brain; the horrendous ramifications of inconsolably brutal bloodshed that it irretrievably led to, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every graveyard of self inflicted decay; the morass of disdainfully unbearable obsolescence; which inexorably massacres even the most infinitesimal desire to exist, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every ingredient of baselessly non-existent pride; the inevitably burying downfall that immediately followed it; without the slightest of innuendo, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every shade of fecklessly livid gloom; the vindictive daggerheads of inexplicable depression; that unsparingly ripped apart even the most sacrosanct lining of the soul, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every footstep of ludicrous insecurity; the germs of ignominiously baseless fear starting to unceasingly gobble you; even before you could alight a single foot, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every impression of dogmatic impotence; the morbidly unthinkable corpses of stagnation that arose; when you chauvinistically and selfishly conserved your seeds in your own body, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every bit of delinquent lacklusterness on this fathomless planet; the innumerable innocuous deaths that took place every unfurling instant; in the prisons of besmirched unemployment, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every robust tree being heartlessly felled; the most preposterously unbearable metamorphosing of every meadow of celestial green; into a crematorium of inconspicuously malicious ash, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every breath of ominously squelching betrayal that surreptitiously eloped from the nostril; a indefatigably violent and mournfully pugnacious civilization that culminated therein, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every anecdote of uncouthly pulverizing the unfortunately poor; erecting castles of worthless gold on the foundations of unimpeachably truthful humanitarian blood, Put a perpetual FULL STOP; to every submissive defeat infront of the unjustly marauding devil; those uncountable moments of castrated imprisonment whilst surrendering; whereas the head should only bow down on the feet of the Omnipotent Creator, And then; immediately after every FULL STOP that you put; start each new sentence of your symbiotically redolent and benign life; afresh and majestically replenished with the blessings of the Omnipresent Creator and the magical words of "Immortal Love"

[dustchest09-blog]

The Death of Humanitarianism

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

THIS IS THE 24th in a series of dialogues with artists, writers, and critical thinkers on the question of violence. This conversation is with Mark Duffield, Emeritus Professor at the Global Insecurities Centre, University of Bristol, and Honorary Professor, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Outside of academia, Mark was Oxfam’s country representative in Sudan during the latter half of the 1980s. He has extensive experience of conflict and humanitarian disasters in Africa, the Balkans, and Afghanistan. His books include Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of People (Polity, 2007), Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security (Zed Books, 2014), and Post-Humanitarianism: Governing Precarity in a Digital World (Polity, 2018).

¤

BRAD EVANS: For many decades you have been writing about the dangers of humanitarian interventions, especially the way in which aid has become complicit in the politicization of very particular notions of endangerment and how this leads to the de-politicization of containment of populations. What do you think have been the most significant changes when dealing with such issues in recent times?

MARK DUFFIELD: The world has changed. Or at least, late capitalism arrived with the comprehensive penetration of all aspects of social, economic, and political life made possible by information and logistical technologies. We know that global interconnectivity has been accelerating for decades. What’s new — or late in the case of this stage of capitalism — is that the digital world no longer requires the direct intellectual mastery, management, or even the skilled labor it once relied upon. Humans are out of the loop, as it were. But rather than resist, we seem to be exchanging what autonomy we had for — at most — the promised security of a social-robotic future. This is not the world of science fiction. It is the exclusionary violence of our digital present.

My current work has been examining the global implications of this computational turn. In particular, I have been interested in looking at the leapfrogging of mobile telephony into the vast informal economies of the Global South. While important differences remain — not least in terms of the speed and reliability (including surveillance) of technology — North-South distinctions have narrowed and blurred.

With China’s Belt and Road Initiative as an example, huge privately financed continental, even transcontinental infrastructural mega-corridors are emerging globally. These logistical conduits interconnect transnational archipelagos of smart-hubs, high-bandwidth portals, and fast inter-connectors. Special economic zones have stretched into multi-juridical ribbons stretching across and between the Global North and South, while integrating commodity chains with growing hinterlands of grounded production, assembly, distribution, and marketing infrastructures. We cannot underestimate the impact this is having on all aspects of our shared planetary existence.

Matching this revolution in business logistics (which has been championed for some time, just think for example of Bill Gates’s Business @ the Speed of Thought that also has a disturbing chapter on war), a global precariat has emerged to service these sites and infrastructures. Global precarity marks the advent of what could be called a post-social world. Associated with the casualization and disappearance (if not outright obliteration) of formal work and its contractual protections, precarity now thrives in an economy that has become a site of permanent emergency. An economy that seamlessly shifts from crisis to crisis. So compared to our modernist past that at least offered some semblance of equilibrium, volatile market forces are unmediated by any national-, public-, or company-based forms of collective social protection. The zeitgeist of this re-wilding is resilience.

Mega-corridor investment bypasses the precariat. Or at least, the growing hinterlands of urban decay, slums, camps, and ruins that have no access to a fixed-grid of services. It works by constructing the physical network that is necessary for a connected world, while excluding most humans from its processes. In particular, the boundary architectures that distinguish corridors of international mobility from hinterlands of terrestrial immobility. These corridors simultaneously demarcate and interconnect the smart city and the wired slum, so to speak.

How does all this force a reconceptualization in the understanding of “underdevelopment,” which, although often reduced to economic concerns, has more often been a catalyst for political intervention?

As you point out, in the past, the vast informal economies in the South were seen as epitomizing “underdevelopment.” Given that poverty was argued to increase the probability of violence, the parallel economy was often depicted as a source of endangerment. Development was about the formal incorporation and regulation of informal behavior. This is no longer the case. Slogans like “inclusive capitalism” or the “gig economy” have helped positively revalue the casualization of work. As one of its greatest achievements, late capitalism has captured connectivity and repurposed it to exploit precarity itself.

All of this has been made possible with the introduction of smart technologies, which have the ability to fold downward, if you will, into the social fabric of society. Smart-design adapts to and personalizes the inequalities, speed differentials, and mobility entitlements encountered on the ground. What we also see is how connectivity continually unearths new behavioral profiles while building smart-architectures to contain and exploit them. Rather than eliminate precarity, it encodes and reproduces it. And in doing so, it normalizes insecurity across the planet.

These broad structural changes are the foundations of a design-driven post-humanitarianism. Rooted in the business sector, it is concerned with trialing the technologies and nomadic infrastructures that can govern and support life in an off-grid post-social wilderness.

In separating itself from the failure of past development efforts, post-humanitarianism changes the meaning of “indignation” and “community.” The political scorn once directed against want has been transferred to indignant automated humanitarian technologies. Rather than reconstruction, they aim to resolve the absence of fixed utilities, services, and social protection through the medium of personalized smart survivalist solutions. If the state won’t save you in times of crises, there is an “app” fit for purpose. Whereas communities once aspired to local self-management, smart technology creates “user” communities permanently enrolled in prototyping their data-dependent governance. While this post-humanitarianism may be logoed, glitzy, and smart, it has to be questioned.

In mapping out the changing nature of humanitarianism — not least the advent and legacies of humanitarian warfare and the violence carried out upon and yet mobilized in the name of the globally dispossessed, you have shown how the concept has, through its own hubris and enthusiasm to govern global populations, put itself into crises. I am thinking in particular here of the ways aid policy remains racially coded and continued to operate by seeing “Others” as a problem to be solved. How do you think this all connects to the history of colonialism and so-called “enlightenment” principles?

The world we have inherited has been shaped by colonialism and the struggle against it. Since the mid-20th century, each new generation has continued to think and respond to that struggle anew. Today, colonialism is popularly depicted by referencing its violent and exterminatory episodes, like King Leopold’s infamous Belgian Congo. In answering your question, this understanding has to be enlarged. Importantly, there is an enduring relationship between colonialism’s exterminatory impulse and what 19th-century liberals celebrated as an enlightened “new imperialism.”

Liberal imperialism during this period defined itself as morally superior to the exterminatory excess of the time. While willing to use force, it publicly embodied a more enlightened, even progressive, evolutionary and paternalistic tutelage. Liberals imagined the colonial future as a process whereby representatives drawn from the “better” racial stock (those capable of being trained and “ordered”) would incrementally assume — in the fullness of time — more self-management responsibilities.

When anti-colonial struggle was at its peak in the 1960s, the disappearance of old colonialism overlapped with an expanding aid industry. Many former colonial officers, especially those wanting to give something back, transferred to the new UN agencies and NGOs. Liberal imperialism was reborn as an even more “enlightened” education-based developmental tutelage. Through the pastoral teacher/pupil categories of information, skill, and technical know-how, old race, class, and gender divisions were reworked and reimposed in the nuanced distinction between “development” and “underdevelopment.”

In response to the multiple expressions of resistance in the Global South, more recently an assertive liberal interventionism emerged. Compared to the past, however, this was different. Rather than promote or impose “civilization,” it was a call to defend a civilization now felt to be exposed to widespread new threats. Is it possible to read in this loss of confidence a defeat? Does it explain why late liberalism appears to have reached back, as it were, and become more exterminatory?

When one takes into account the vast destruction of urban infrastructure, social dislocation, and associated blowback (the refugee crisis being an obvious example), the violence and political bankruptcy of liberal interventionism has been extraordinary. Working through a range of forces, since the 1980s, modernizing countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, and Syria have been, counter to the political proclamations, subject to urbicidal de-development. Mixtures of physical destruction, punitive sanctions, and external intervention have scattered their professional and scientific classes, collapsed public life, destroyed fixed services, and shortened life expectancy. Established multicultural milieus have been torn and divided into their competing component groups.

This violence seems intrinsic to a polarizing world, a world that is pulling apart just as connectivity is deepening. Borders are being entrenched, architectures of containment are spreading while, at the same time, xenophobic currents are mobilizing around the expulsion of difference.

If there is today a connection between colonialism and enlightenment principles, it is that these principles have died. Or at least, they no longer hold back the exterminatory techno-barbarism that was always lurking within modernism. While there are many dangers, however, it is also a call and opportunity for recalcitrance.

While you have always shown a healthy suspicion with the triumph of technical modes of thinking, more recently you have been addressing the explicit technologization of humanitarian interventions to show how we are becoming increasingly remote from the intimate realities of suffering at an all-too-human level. Why does this focus on the technological now concern you as a critical theorist?

My worry is that the possibility of critical theory and critical agency is being eliminated. Technology is usually thought of as prosthesis. It is seen as a force multiplier for human will and effort. With humans out of the loop, this is difficult. Moreover, reflecting the rise to dominance of a cybernetic episteme, the different historic potentialities of knowledge and data are now becoming clearer.

Knowledge is framed by deductive narratives of history, causation, and reciprocity. It can be used for good or ill — from the most remarkable cultural and scientific achievements to genocides and unspeakable evil. Knowledge is essentially ambiguous because it is not closed on itself. It allows doubling-back, reflection, and critique. Since knowledge can reorder the past in order to call forth the future, it is political. Unlike a machine, even the slave can dream of freedom.

Data is different. As an aid to sense-making, it privileges inductive reasoning and algorithmic pattern recognition. Thinking becomes calculation. Let’s not forget that cybernetics emerged in the mid-20th century as a New World solution to the ideological catastrophes of the Old World. To achieve mathematical objectivity, ambiguity was designed out of an increasingly black-boxed human-machine interface, as pessimism regarding the human condition grew.

Reinforced by the shock of the Anthropocene, the “necessarily ignorant” neoliberal subject has replaced the rational homo economicus to become our new guide to the connected world. Save for our own backyards, it is a world now deemed too complex for human comprehension.

The rise of an empirical and behaviorist post-humanism within the academy reflects this renunciation of knowledge. Necessarily ignorant individuals exist in a direct and unmediated cognitive relationship with the signals and alerts of their unique environments. The only knowable world reduces to what, when, and where of an individual’s changing network connections.

Post-humanism casts doubt on the distinction that knowledge draws between a lived reality and a shared world. Without this separation, there is no space for a political commons of contrasting life chances, disputed histories, and resolution mechanisms that are essential for sharing the world with Others. Rather than see this as a departure or a new beginning, for me it feels more like arrival and an end point. Instead of freedom, what we are witnessing is the advent of a new authoritarianism. And this reflects the logic of late capitalism’s long downturn. A desperation to squeeze the last from a dying system, even to the extent of embracing precarity and uncertainty, in order to survive.

One of the principal lessons I take from your work is the idea that those of us still living in relatively prosperous zone of affluence no longer see ourselves in a system of progressive completion; rather our fears are born of the dystopian notion we might all be going “South.” I have also been thinking about this with the case of Haiti, which, enduring catastrophe upon catastrophe, seems to offer a prophetic model that could be illustrative of all our collective futures.

Such fears point to a tension within late capitalism. An existing compulsion for risk has now embraced catastrophe and disruption as necessary for survival itself. Shocks eliminate the useless while helping “the resilient” bounce back better, as it were. A line has been crossed between believing disasters promote adaptive renewal and a dependence upon them to reinvigorate an otherwise disappointing human condition.

Capitalism is now bent on finally eliminating all autonomy and opposition to itself. Rather than governing through freedom as such, late liberalism harnesses freedom to the uncertainties of its own survival. Shocks and disruption are needed, even celebrated as essential, in order to better mediate, exploit, and direct their impacts. To this extent, as a model for our collective future, the dystopia of permanent emergency has to be resisted.

This challenge has appeared at a time when the possibility of revolution has long passed. We know from the Frankfurt School, there is no natural law of progress. While early capitalism may have battered down Chinese walls, late capitalism is more likely to degenerate into an entropic techno-barbarism. Now faced with such a reality, rather than revolution, the more urgent and practical task is that of resistance, of helping something new emerge by holding back the gathering shitstorm.

The disruption that late capitalism has unleashed presses disproportionately on a contained global precariat. There is no renewal or betterment through disaster — just cumulative loss and abjection. This negative outcome, however, is occluded and suppressed by a positive techno-design culture. This denial reveals the depth of liberalism’s detachment and retreat.

Pacing the celebrated densification of the electronic atmosphere — terrestrial border fences, check points, holding areas, biometric portals, and secure enclaves have globally exploded. International space has striated into surveilled and automated fast, slow, and stopped lanes as grounded architectures of containment have spread.

To conclude, as someone who has spent considerable time working in zones of crisis and conflict, I’d like to ask: How do you think all this has transformed the role and possible engagement of the researcher?

One evident example relates to the difficulties of completing face-to-face research in today’s challenging environments. Increasing university risk aversion, insurance requirements, and ethical demands have seen travel restrictions and safe-channeling grow. This limiting of circulation is reinforced from the other end, as it were.

Difficulties in obtaining entry visas, travel permits, and independent access have also increased across the Global South. During the 1980s, for example, NGOs in Sudan could travel relatively widely — but their use of short-wave radio was controlled and restricted. Given the computational turn, however, non-liberal states now struggle to limit connectivity. Today, they instead control the ground and restrict circulation that way. While the ability to geo-spatially sense the Darfur crisis from outer space was celebrated by techno-science — you can no longer independently “go there.”

Late liberalism’s turn to catastrophism is a response to global recalcitrance. A quarter-century ago, an emergent liberal interventionism boasted that the age of absolute sovereignty was over. As a result of pushback, however, such exceptionalism has evaporated. Coupled with the downturn, liberalism seems but one among many competing powers and truths. Greeted with alarm in the West and dismissed as so much backward or populist reaction, we have to be more open to the run of the present.

If the computational turn has allowed a post-humanist vision of a world that is smaller than the sum of its parts to consolidate, then late liberalism has authored a realist ontopolitics of accepting this world as it is — rather than worrying how it ought to be. It is a connected world of disruptive logistics, mobility differentials, data asymmetries, vast inequalities, and remote violence: a world of precarity.

Populism is seemingly an inevitable response to an unwanted future through the reassertion of autonomy. As a political model, it is instructive. Resistance requires the active recreation of autonomy. During the 1960s, large areas of social, economic, and cultural life still lay outside capitalism. The university campus, the shop floor, and the “Third World” as it was termed, already existed as areas of effective autonomy. For the New Left, this made them potential sites for liberation and revolution. In a connected world, such nurturing autonomy no longer exists.

Political pushback involves the recreation of autonomy via the repoliticization of ground and place through their imbrications with history, culture, and the life that should be lived. It is a resistance that seeks to renegotiate its position and reconnect with the world anew. And so the question we confront is: Can we reassert a progressive autonomy, or at least a humanitarian autonomy based on a resistance to the dystopia of permanent emergency?

When post-humanism holds that design has supplanted revolution, perhaps it’s time to imbue a new humanitarian ethic based on resisting design. A resistance that privileges more the sentiments of spontaneity, circulation, and necessary difference. We cannot imagine the yet to be. We can, however, encourage its arrival by resisting the negative loss and abjection of precarity through a politics of humanitarian critique.

¤

Brad Evans is a political philosopher, critical theorist, and writer, who specializes on the problem of violence. He is the founder/director of the Histories of Violence project, which has a global user base covering 143 countries.

Source: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-death-of-humanitarianism/

[nicolasninenien]

The Proclamation

I often had manifestos readily declared frustratingly under the veil of night, attempting to reconcile the cacophony of life. This quandary found itself seeking reason and have heard the cries of prolific authors in their shrouded pages. I ponder madly about the destitute state of being, frequently striving to comprehend the precarious affairs of the world. In the silent mercy of disquietude, I wish the coming of humanity’s inception towards the advancement of a great civilization; a glorious bulwark that thrives on the spirit of attaining spiritual awakening, the masses flourishing in the bliss of enlightenment.

This dream conceived under the banner of mutual goodwill and solicitude, is far from reality. The demand for we humans to collect ourselves is excruciatingly difficult to prove in light of our callous ways. I have been dismissed numerous times on the account of my idealism, ridiculed for its naïvie loftiness. The struggle to be understood is yet to be surmountable in the face of this decaying world. The world order, as I perceive, seems to be plunged into eternal damnation forever neglected in the dark corners of history.

Rhetoric brewed from hatred proclaimed aeons ago lingers freshly in the memories of the young who are left betrayed and painfully banished into the absurd uncertainty of the future for slaughter. Barbarism continues to take a new form in the absence of robust morality, its compass misaligned and distorted.

The only freedom I can salvage in this unforsaken existence is to retreat; to return to the untainted imagination where no bounds are recognized. This limitless platform; it heals and guides me towards ambitious transcendence. I may be born into this insufferable mess but shall never stand as an ally to the status quo. I have been sent here from the cosmos for a peculiar reason and I will spend this lifetime finding that particular answer somehow. My consciousness has been plagued by external forces, ceaselessly colliding with my ingrained conscience as I live and breathe.

There are those who feel this torment under the guises of their respective self-constructed characters; the kind that inauthentically roams into bitter confusion and fictitious illusions. I too am a victim of this. I too am in conflict with the universe within my troubled vessel of flesh and blood. I wish no human being would experience this sort of ordeal. No one should walk amongst us mutely with the weight of worrisome anguish upon their shoulders. No one should come accustomed to their demons and live off its soul-crushing exploits.

The burden of living has often led me into the cold realm of the cynics, crippling and depriving the heart to envision possibilities in the temple of nihilism. I refuse the doubtful sceptics to claim victory! Some may seek shelter in their Gods but I choose to believe in mere mortals!

I chose to be faithful to the cause of ridding brutish enmity in order to secure a wholesome environment where we can learn to live harmoniously among ourselves with the rich blessings of what mother nature has endowed us with. We are not independent of this lovely planet, we owe to its wondrous treasures and timeless elegance. Instead, our sacrilegious methods of abuse is a dire prelude to imminent extinction. We have laid the path towards catastrophe, our descend to downfall has begun.

Crises welcome misfortune with a solid embrace and we are caught in between them unceremoniously. The repercussions of the aftermaths find residence in our routine lives, an undeniable presence that lurks sinisterly in the hopes of breaking the tenacious vitality of our human idiosyncrasy. It may invite itself in our desperate times of tribulations but we shall not back down. We must audaciously take on this common nemesis, against all odds.

I sincerely hope that we can rise to the occasion; to confront our wrongs with kindness and reconciliation instead of blame and indignation. We can no longer hold grudges and remain in the past. Our Tomorrows cannot be held back on the basis of resentment and intolerance. We must have the agency and the responsibility to address problems with ethical practices and proper decorum. It is true that this pursuit is a gruelling task but it is a noble undertaking; a righteous duty for the betterment of our society so all may live their precious lives with dignity and decency.

May we all find the roads to free ourselves from our selfish, ignorant and rotten qualities. May we zealously participate in the collective action to liberate our oppressed selves; from the dangerous pitfalls of ego that we have come to mindlessly exhibit. May we courageously tear down the foundations of passive conformity and attack its nucleus on the grounds of attaining the sublime fruits of self-actualization.

Many before me had espoused the tranquil words of regeneration with intrepid eloquence. Their romanticism of our worldly misgivings has been a source of solace and comfort whenever my mind is occupied with unguarded thoughts. They were the lovers of principle and virtue, the formidable exponents that exude grace and stature against the vices of their time. The undying devotion and commitment of their service have left a huge crater in me, an unshakable passion that has successfully moulded my humanitarian outlook.

Let the efforts of our immaculate saviours not fall into the gutters of vanity! Their impeccable traits should be emulated each and every day, to steer us from our treacherous defilements. I must admit, I have strayed away numerous times from their exemplary. I have made countless of remorseful mistakes that cost me many promising ventures but I have never been swept away to the side of unscrupulous villainy! We may have our deplorable flaws that might cause unwanted outcomes but it should not be utilized as excuses to hinder us from self-improvement. It should mend us, it should aid us to become better individuals!

We may put up an artificial front, a façade on display to indicate normalcy. Frankly, no great feat has ever been normal. Monumentous moments of our tumultuous human narrative was bore out of determined will; the desire for accomplishment and merit, to taste success, to relish and rejoice in the exquisite splendour of tiresome labour. Although this indisputable characteristic should be celebrated, many have settled for comfortable habits that resulted in bitter monotony where their lives are saturated into lifeless stagnation. Alienation is a common feature in our offices and the graveyards of aspirations. It must be stopped urgently. A new fearless paradigm must be implemented in our lives, a code of conduct to conquer ourselves to oppose the tendency to submerge into an unexamined life. 

The human experience is a beautiful tale of misery and jubilance. It is our quintessential and definitive oddity, loaded with unique eccentricty and culture. Generations hitherto have contributed to destruction and salvation and we managed to become the heirs of their deeds. Therefore, to all the people of the world, the stage has been set to curve the course of our destinies to an honourable odyssey, an adventure awaits us and may we all ascend to the heavenly shores of happiness, prosperity and deathless emancipation. 

[soshenko33]

Hot shower for the anarchist. Ukrainian artists at documenta 14

text: Nataliya Matsenko

translated by Volodymyr Polegin

Intro

Kassel is a wealthy, peaceful, and respectable city. The documenta art exhibition, which began back in 1955 as a revitalizing event in a decaying post-war industrial centre experiencing crisis, today is a crown, or rather a punkish mohawk decorating the head of an officially dressed businessman, which adds an air of nonchalance to the successful image.

Beginning from the revolutionary fifth documenta in distant 1972, when Harald Szeemann turned it into a hundred day-long event and made a breakthrough in media (photography, happening and performance were put on display equally with painting and sculpture), every five years, along with every new edition of documenta, another institutional step is taken towards expanding geographical (and other) limits in order to demonstrate the open nature of the initiative and the sensitivity to relevant global needs and challenges. Catherine David (documenta X) became the first person of non-German origin (as well as the first woman) to be appointed as the Artistic Director for the event. Since documenta 11, on Okwui Enwezor’s initiative (this time the first Artistic Director of non-European origin) aimed at the struggle with Europocentric and colonialist tendencies, the project first went beyond not only the limits of Kassel and Germany, but also of Europe itself. Adam Szymczyk, the Artistic Director for documenta 14, went even further, for the first time in the project’s history achieving a split between two different locations enjoying truly equal rights, and making Athens not only a supplementary platform, but also a symmetric full-fledged hosting partner for Kassel.

Szymczyk and ‘The castle’

By the concept for documenta 14 titled ‘Learning from Athens’, underpinning the European and worldwide socio-political and economical crisis, among other things Szymczyk meant a withdrawal from the established domination of a certain world view paradigm, longing to ‘forget what we know’ and questioning the existing ‘chauvinist white male nationalist and colonialist ways of being and thinking’1. Furthermore, many efforts were made to refuse the previously shaped idea of documenta 14 as another iteration of ‘the world’s most famous and discussed art exhibition’ and to blur the clear and predictable program for the event: ‘I would argue that, rather than only being a tool of German cultural policy and an event expected to have a significant impact on Kassel and the region, documenta must be considered an autonomous, commonly owned, transnational and inclusive self-organized artistic undertaking-one that is carried out by a multitude and not limited to any location in particular’.

Considering the principal messages and aims declared by the Artistic Director for documenta 14, he accepted a rather difficult challenge, for not only did the ambitious reforming curator attempt restructuring the very foundation for the established and clearly predefined scheme of the institutional machine called documenta, but also he encroached on the functional mechanics and economical management of documenta gGmbH2, Kassel, and the whole Hesse region. By doing this, he effectively infringed on the global system of socio-political and economic relations, pinning his hopes on artistic means that, instead of simple reproduction of the existing social connections, could create and populate spaces, facilitating the discourses beyond the limits of common knowledge, and challenge the predictable and dull course of contemporary global political and social developments that deprive us of sleep and constantly keep us edgy.

Such a humanitarian interdisciplinary declarative concept was of a rather utopian nature. Clearly realizing the impossibility of achieving the declared goals, in his curatorial notes, Szymczyk himself foresightedly notifies the reader/spectator of this, describing the conditions he was put into and the obstacles he encountered: ‘I believe that such insight into the organizational constitution of documenta 14 is necessary in order to understand how near impossible it is to realize a project that aims at making a political statement from within the organizational structure and constrained position of a state-subsidized cultural institution’. Despite all the tremendous professional efforts made by the Artistic Director and his team to overcome routine and create new connections, the starchiness of the monopolistic institution along with the faint notes of despised colonialism steadily echoed throughout the whole melody of the project. Regardless of skillful theoretical foundation, a vast amount of worthy works displayed, ingenious solutions and subtle references, the degree of pomp accompanying every opening ceremony, the admission fees, Kassel’s domination (economical at the very least) over Athens, its ‘symmetric partner’, and an air of nearly academic traditionalism pervading many expositions left an impression that the stronghold is well fortified, and its inhabitants feel far too comfortable to change something drastically. Besides, a constantly growing level of attendance reached its peak during documenta 14, attracting an audience of more than a million people, which was ten times bigger than the audience of the first documenta directed by its founder Arnold Bode in 1955. Such popularity, being a considerable source of income, by no means facilitates leaving the pre-established schemes.

However, such a general analysis of documenta 14 is not at all the primary goal of this work, which makes the aforegoing digression only necessary for a better understanding of peculiarities and the context surrounding the main subject, i.e. the first time a group of contemporary Ukrainian artists participating in documenta. This event, despite having been nearly unnoticed within the local artistic situation, in fact seems to be an influential precedent worthy of attention. Fortunately, the fact that the famous series of 14 ‘Books of schemes’ written by Ukrainian artist Valeriy Lamakh (1925-1978) were also exhibited at documenta 14, has already been reported by media.3

Soshenko 33 at documenta 14. Prelude

The story began in 2015, when, during the ‘Kyiv School’ biennale, the Artistic Director for the future documenta Adam Szymczyk quite unexpectedly to himself visited one of the remotest locations of the exhibition at 33 Soshenko str., where he was totally impressed by the project that was exhibited there as well as by the specific atmosphere of Kyiv’s outskirts. Soshenko 33 is an informal institution (or an irregular group, according to the name the artists use for themselves) founded by Taras Kovach and Anna Sorokovaya at a postgraduate education studio building belonging to the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture. This post-war structure resembling a private country house has been a symbolic location for a few generations of Kyiv’s artistic community. During another development spate in the capital, the studios were facing a pull down in order to construct a residential complex instead, but due to lots of active efforts made by the artists, the building is still standing and functioning according to its purpose. Protecting the territory of art from hostile acquisitions not only developed into preserving the studios belonging to the Academy, but also into created an exhibition area and even an international residence.

During the Kyiv Biennial 2015, a project called ‘The common frontier’ created by a curatorial group consisting of Taras Kovach, Anton Lapov, Anna Sorokovaya, and Alina Yakubenko with the participation of Sasha Dolhy, Alexandr Yeltsin, Dobrinya Ivanov, Larion Lozovyi, Mitya Churikov, Anna Scherbina, and Dmytro Vulfius, was realized at the Soshenko 33 studios. The project was seen as an extension of activism practice and was dedicated to critical reconsideration of the historical heritage, local and global contexts, and a search for strategies of implementing real changes. Regarding the idea of documenta 14, which at the time was being devised by Szymczyk, an interest towards the artistic initiative becomes completely clear. As a result of a long-term dialogue started when the curator got to the studios, the Soshenko 33 team was invited to participate in the famous art event.

Soshenko х Tokonoma

Insofar Soshenko 33 is an irregular formation without a permanent team, this time it consisted of Sasha Dolhy, Dobrynia Ivanov, Taras Kovach, Anna Sorokovaya, Mitya Churikov and Alina Yakubenko. In November 2017, during the ‘Kyiv international’ biennale, which was organized for the second time by the Visual Culture Research Center, a presentation of the ‘mocumenta’ project took place at the Soshenko studios. The project, which represents the Soshenko 33 collective experience of participation in documenta 14, alludes to mockumentary, a pseudo-documentary movie genre, featuring a short film made by Alina Yakubenko with the assistance of the rest of the team, where they are shown as Gastarbeiter artists making a living in Kassel. The short was shown at the Soshenko studios along with the documents concerning the main project completed in Kassel.

During the two weeks of documenta 14, Soshenko 33 as a team of artists and as an alternative space occupied in the premises belonging to the Tokonoma group in Kassel (29.07 – 12.08). Together with Termokiss (Kosovo), Toestand (Belgium), and HappyPositive (Switzerland), the group participated in the project called ‘Title on the spot’. The aim of the project was to build a ‘settlement of ideas’ based on cooperation and clear creative collaboration. These collaborative practices were an attempt to create a common communication field among groups and initiatives originating in various contexts, yet at the same time connected by the principles of self-organization, partnership, and non-profit activity.

Tokonoma, that hosted Soshenko 33 in Kassel according to the curatorial plan, is a platform for youth art and club culture. It was founded by the students of School of Arts and Design Kassel and initially supported by their Alma Mater. Probably, this fact has predetermined the local partner of choice for residential cooperation with Soshenko 33. Having arrived to Kassel, the Ukrainian artists were granted a gallery space that was to become not only a platform for creative partnership, but also a temporary accommodation for all six members of the team. The project participants almost immediately faced some difficulties of basic everyday nature, such as a lack of a bathroom and hot water supply. In fact, these details could have been ignored, but they became a starting point for the project that in its essence would completely fit the dynamic experimental aspect of documenta 14. Proceeding from the existing conditions, the artists had to deal with practical, conceptual, and aesthetic matters, that shaped and eventually materialized the project. Finally, a functioning shower provided with hot water and built-in lighting was constructed and installed directly amidst the exposition space. ‘Our actions were not predesigned but driven by raw necessity and, as a result, we constructed a shower. Establishing domestic environment on an artistic territory, making it habitable, claiming and extending our private area, we were nevertheless remaining in a public space intended for presentational usage. Thus the shower can be called an emergency work of contemporary art predetermined firstly by purposefulness. Although, at the same time, such practice could potentially bring about new ways of non-verbal communication not only among participants, but also in and with the audience’, the authors explain.

Private. Public. Common

This project, being situated exactly along the boundary between the artistic and the quotidian, the public and the private, designed partly as a conceptual decision, partly as a solution to the existing problem, was accomplished within a tight horizontal communication space bordering social experiment, which embodied the main ideas of documenta 14 quite precisely. Attempting to overcome the resistance of the self-preservation mechanism embedded in documenta, Szymczyk sought to organize its fourteenth edition as a continuous process of aesthetic, economical, political, and social experiments. He transformed the exhibition into a huge collective lab research yielding unpredictable outcomes, turned it into a platform intended to reconsider the role of culture in the system of supply & demand, aesthetical interpretation & investments: ‘documenta 14 is conceived as a project driven by the urgent need to rethink and transform our everyday experience, to reimagine the role of artistic production (both material and immaterial) beyond its application as the currency of the art market and the culture industry…’.

The shower made by the Ukrainian artists in Tokonoma gallery became an instance of such experimental reconsideration of both the role of artistic production and socio-artistic relations, even of the ‘radical subjectification’ act meant to incorporate common interests in a common business. Being at the same time literal and symbolic, a function and a statement, the shower worked not only as an object, but also as a situation, resembling Simon Starling’s practices: ‘Performing such intimate actions like having a shower or sleeping in public is both an ironic consideration on collaborative practices and a reflection on whether the idea of collaboration can tackle disconnection and alienation. The common ground we created directly while ‘experiencing situation’ is impossible to chart or document comprehensively’, as the artists put it in their post factum note.

In their short-term live experiment featuring their colleagues from Germany, Kosovo, Belgium, and Switzerland, Soshenko 33 tested quite a few principles declared by documenta 14, partially confirming both efficacy and utopianism of the latter, at least in a certain moment within a certain context. Paradoxically enough, the Ukrainian project that appeared at a ‘great artistic celebration’ in rather questionable conditions, proved to be quite convincing exactly because of its unsettledness, situational nature, vivid collaboration along with all its side effects and outcomes that can be viewed as both an interdisciplinary message between the social and the artistic and witty trolling, absolutely genuine in its irony and self-irony.

During their residence at the Tokonoma art space, apart from constructing the shower, Soshenko 33 performed a number of other public collaborative activities including a discussion, an audioperformance, an experimental music gig by Sasha Dolhy and the Tokonoma participant Jan Grebenstein, and a party featuring the whole Soshenko team and other local artists. One of the most peculiar points is the fact that, during the project until its final ‘Shower Party’, apart from the Soshenko 33 team, no one used the shower but anarchist guests from the fellow organizations participating in the ‘Title on the Spot’ project.

At the same time, local community members retained the spectator’s position, metaphorically demonstrating an awkward yet unsurprising fact: the international invitees chosen by their similarities actually managed to establish communication and share common aims, but being put into the Kassel situation, they mainly remained detached from it due to the closed nature of the system, the preexisting local context, and its complacent ‘colonial’ wellbeing. But despite all the associated nuances being an integral part of the experiment, the artists tried and, to a certain degree, succeeded in creating the much desired post-colonial ‘teaming up from below’ (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak) and ‘learning from others in order to live together’ (Souleymane Bachir Diagne), intended to promote creating a symmetrical situation for a rendezvous of the equal (one of the basic ideas of documenta 14), and to show ‘how to shake the foundations of our positive and passive understanding of the world, […] and how to care about the way in which we work and what we do with the fruits of our labors’ (Adam Szymczyk).

Notes:

1. Quotations taken from: Adam Szymczyk “Iterability and Otherness. Learning and Working From Athens” /  The documenta 14 Reader. - Prestel, 2017. - 712 p.

2. gGmbH - gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (limited non-profit company)

3. Contemplation as a way of thinking: Valery Lamakh at documenta 14 / Prostory. - Access:

https://prostory.net.ua/ua/krytyka/234-sozertsanie-kak-forma-myshleniya-valerij-lamakh-na-documenta-14

[brajeshupadhyay]

Beyond medical diplomacy, New Delhi's ability to manage China, Trump will decide India's standing in post-COVID-19 world

The post-pandemic world will be a curious one. Not only will the virus usher in behavioral, social and political modifications at a micro level and trigger indelible domestic changes, it will also impact nation-states at a macro level. Economic vulnerabilities will be exposed, and the shifting of geopolitical sands will be accelerated. It will also level the playing field, making the global order susceptible to the rise of middle powers.

If geopolitical standing stems from a nation’s economic prowess, then one may have already seen COVID-19’s lopsided impact where the damage caused by the virus is directly proportional to a nation’s economic status. The pandemic is affecting all economies of the world but the major ones — based on the data points that we have at this stage — seem to have suffered greater damage.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SAARC Leaders video conference. ANI

Using latest IMF and World Bank data, Dhruva Jaishankar, director of the US initiative at ORF, shows the ‘potential vulnerability’ of each major world economy and finds that “India is moderately placed on almost every criterion, with neither excessive vulnerabilities relative to others nor major causes for complacency” and posits that the pandemic may serve to actually reduce India’s current account deficit.

Though conjectures about the post-pandemic global order has so far been dominated by the relative decline or rise of the world’s superpower and its challenger and their struggle for dominance over the international system, one may do well to stop defining the world solely through the US-China prism. It is now evident that both nations will suffer considerable damage to their global standing and their power projection may be affected.

Not only may American and Chinese national power be hit by the crisis — some of it might even be exacerbated due to increasing strategic rivalry between the two nations and likely economic decoupling.

Writing in Foreign Affairs, former prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd posits that “neither a new Pax Sinica nor a renewed Pax Americana will rise from the ruins. Rather, both powers will be weakened, at home and abroad. And the result will be a continued slow but steady drift toward international anarchy across everything from international security to trade to pandemic management.”

But where Rudd sees “steady drift towards international anarchy”, it is possible to decipher securing of interests and projection of strategic altruism by regional powers who are willing to seize the diplomatic opportunity provided by the pandemic. These middle powers appear ready to influence the material and ideational trajectory of international politics.

Foremost among powers such as France, Germany, Australia, South Korea and Japan is India, which has so far managed to both contain the scope and scale of the pandemic within its own shores and present a humanitarian face abroad — even flexing a bit of diplomatic muscle by initiating a limited, collective response.

In this, India has taken a path less travelled. While the nations of the world, including major powers, sought to tackle the virus on their own and even ran into a desperate collision with other states over critical medical equipment — nowhere has this behavior been more evident than in Europe where the pandemic ripped European ‘union’ into shreds — India resurrected a couple of moribund and obsolete platforms to present a united front against COVID-19. This was smart diplomacy.

I would like to propose that the leadership of SAARC nations chalk out a strong strategy to fight Coronavirus.

We could discuss, via video conferencing, ways to keep our citizens healthy.

Together, we can set an example to the world, and contribute to a healthier planet.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 13, 2020

In reviving the SAARC and holding the first summit since 2014 (though a virtual one) and creating a COVID-19 emergency fund where India pledged $10 million — more than half of the total contribution — Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a message of regional unity that was duly noticed elsewhere.

Global challenges require coordinated and agile responses. The recent videoconference among #SAARC leaders on #COVID19 showed how leaders can present practical proposals, such as establishing a regional fund. Let’s all keep working together to fight this worldwide outbreak. AGW

— State_SCA (@State_SCA) March 16, 2020

Similarly, the NAM platform — that Modi had ignored in the past, refusing to even attend the summits in 2016 and 2019 — was suddenly transformed from a Nehruvian and Cold War-era relic to a platform to project India’s diplomatic outreach and humanitarian response. In a virtual summit, Modi highlighted how India has promoted coordination in the immediate neighbourhood, organised online training to share India’s medical expertise with smaller neighbours and ensured medical supplies to over “123 partner countries, including 59 members of NAM".

In shaping a collective response, dispatching consignments of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to African, Latin American and Central Asian nations including even developed economies such as France, Russia, US and the UK, in “extending online training to health care professionals in South Asia and other neighbouring countries on COVID-19 management strategies” and sending “teams of Indian military doctors to countries like Nepal, Maldives and Kuwait”, India has shown a diplomatic outreach, political will and a capability to safeguard its own interest and of those in its sphere of influence.

As professor Harsh V Pant and Paras Ratna point out in Livemint, “New Delhi has also played a crucial role in evacuating stranded Indians as well as foreign nationals. Its rapid deployment of C-17 Hercules transport aircraft indicates a growing response-projection capability and a matching appetite to take on the responsibility of regional leadership.”

While this aspect of Indian diplomacy has been evident, navigating the post-pandemic world will require a more nimble-footed response when it comes to managing great power relationships. Here, India’s mettle will be tested on several parameters and sustained questions will be asked of its ability to explore strategic responses. A quick look at the trajectory of India’s bilateral relationships with China and the US is warranted.

Managing the China puzzle

While ties with China has historically involved elements of competition, cooperation and conflict, these edges may become sharper in a post-pandemic world. In absence of democracy, the legitimacy of China’s authoritarian leadership rests on economic progress for its people. The pandemic has struck at the very root of that foundation by not only slowing down economic activity but also inflicting a sustained and massive economic damage. As Rudd calculates in his Foreign Affairs article, China’s overall “2020 growth is likely to be around zero— the worst performance since the Cultural Revolution five decades ago.”

This presents a tricky problem for the Chinese Communist Party that is also witnessing a simultaneous uptick in global antagonism towards China, and facing the prospect of large-scale exodus of foreign investment, manufacturing and exports from its shores. Japan has already made its move, pressure is growing in the US to decouple its economy from China-dominated global supply chain and chorus of a similar sentiment is growing in the EU which is also looking to diversify its interests.

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese president Xi Jinping. PTI

The collective weight of these moves will have a bearing on Chinese economy that is already under strain, and the decline in Chinese economy may translate into a frontal pressure on the CCP whose credibility may see a concomitant decay. Since China’s politics and security policy are closely tied to its economic performance — as Jaishankar points out in the piece mentioned above — this raises the possibility that China may double down on a diversionary tactic such as the one India witnessed in 1962 when conflict coincided with the calamitous ‘Great Leap Forward’.

Though both India and China have since grown more powerful, the power differential between both nations, if anything, has widened even more. The emergent crisis from the pandemic may incentivise the CCP to be more assertive and probe India’s responses to threats to its external security environment — the likes of which we saw during the Doklam crisis.

For instance, China seems to have suddenly become quite aggressive on its maritime periphery. A spate of recent incidents has come to light. These curiously timed incidents indicate an opportunistic behaviour by the Chinese that seeks to exploit perceptions of weakness or distraction in its adversaries and advance own interests through gradualism.

China sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel, “established” new administrative districts for the contested Spratly and Paracel island chains, raided Taiwanese airspace in a daring nighttime flyby, forcing Taiwan to scramble its jets, a Chinese ‘fishing vessel’ collided with a Japanese destroyer, and CCP’s cynical adventurism was on display during a tense standoff with US Naval forces alongside Malaysia’s Borneo coast.

These behaviours, taken separately, hardly indicate a flare up of epic proportions but the pushing of envelop by “gray zone tactics” is notable. As Abraham Denmark, Charles Edel, and Siddharth Mohandas write in War on the Rocks, “This approach reflects a maxim of Vladimir Lenin, whom the Chinese Communist Party continues to revere to this day: ‘Probe with a bayonet: if you meet steel, stop. If you meet mush, then push.’ In multiple instances, Beijing has continued to push when it perceives that its actions are unlikely to cause a significant response. But when Chinese assertiveness has been met with resolute counterpressure, Beijing’s response has not been predictably escalatory.”

Chinese behaviour here is of particular interest to India. New Delhi successfully deployed denial of access mechanism to stymie Chinese design on Bhutanese territory during the Doklam incident, and it must be ready to encounter similar misadventures as Chinese Communist Party seeks to distract disaffected population through a dose of assertive behaviour. India must continue to explore hedging and hard-balancing options while engaging the top Chinese leadership to manage the relationship.

The Trump unpredictability

This is where India’s relationship with the US assumes more importance. China is a hegemon in unipolar Asia, a competitor and threat to India, and it makes sense therefore for New Delhi to deepen its partnership with Washington in areas other than defence and strategic partnership.

For the US, developing its partnership with the world’s largest democracy with which it shares values and interests is reason enough, and ties have become increasingly more broad-based as Washington gets involved in a long-term strategic rivalry with China.

File image of Donald Trump and Narendra Modi. PTI

Along with dovetailing of India-US interests, China’s aggressive behaviour, missteps on COVID-19, attempts to rewrite the narrative on the pandemic and publicity efforts over a global health and economic crisis have made India-US cooperation easier.

There is scope for extension and deepening of the relationship, powered by mutual bipartisan goodwill and intense people-to-people connections, but the pandemic may push the relationship into some areas of discomfort. More so at a time when the US is going for presidential elections and all issues are on the table, including the issue of immigration that — along with trade — have proven to be particularly tricky to solve.

As the US economy tanks over the crisis, chorus will grow inside the US to double down on economic nationalism and the impulse will most likely be a bipartisan one during the election time. Already, four Republican senators have written to Donald Trump, asking him to suspend all immigration work visas to the US until the unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic returns to “normal levels”.

There is also the possibility that a severe downturn in the Indian economy may force the hand of the Modi government in postponing arms deals with the US, drawing the ire of an unpredictable US president who places great score on these parameters.

Finally, Trump’s random mood swings may grow more frequent as elections draw near, and darker as US economy grapples with pandemic woes. So far, this White House has shown a marked inability to insure foreign policy from such unpredictable presidential behavior. That will likely be an added challenge for India.

On the flip side, India is aware of its asymmetric capacities in managing the great power relationships and has stitched a careful mosaic of strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific that will allow for hedging and policy flexibility. If India remains focused on its objectives without letting domestic political compulsions come in the way, the pandemic may propel India’s rise.

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