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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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Sympathy for the Devilman: The Legacy of Go Nagai's Magnum Opus

I've always had a thing for villains. Unlike my brothers, as a kid I'd always choose the "bad guy" action figures. If they went for the ninja turtle Leonardo, then I'd go for the uber-buff Super Shredder. I personally identified with villainy because of how it connected to the idea of "evil." I personally see evil as a generalized concept that expresses antagonism toward violent and dominant societal structures. Due to a coercive religious upbringing, I now see how my younger self unconsciously found ideologically-oppositional comfort in "evil" art. This eventually led me to one of my most cherished pieces of fiction: Devilman.

Devilman has left an indelible mark on manga and anime creators over the last few decades, inspiring major industry heavyweights such as Hideaki Anno, Kentaro Miura, and Kazuki Nakashima. The series was created by Go Nagai, a manga auteur also responsible for Mazinger Z, Cutie Honey, and Violence Jack (which is a Devilman sequel). Although Devilman retains much of the explicitness native to Go Nagai's usual fare, it uses these graphic elements uniquely to deliver a haunting, unforgettable, and compassionate message.

Let's explore the surprisingly relevant political and social significance of Devilman, along with a few of its animated offshoots. Read on but be forewarned, this article contains major spoilers!

Devilman (original manga, 1972)

via Seven Seas Entertainment

The Devilman manga is a dark antiwar narrative in deep contrast to the standard monster-of-the-day, "evil fights evil" set-up of the anime (which ran at the same time as the manga). Ryo Asuka — who turns out to be Satan, the leader of all demons — helps convince the world that anyone dissatisfied with the status quo could turn into a demon and needs to be killed. Every nation starts a war with each other, and Japan creates the "Demon Busters" to murder anyone suspected of being a demon. This plot twist is the most explicitly political angle in Devilman and a clear critique against the genocide of marginalized peoples. One page features a taste of the global hate brewing around the world: a collective white desire to murder Black communities, the renewal of German anti-Semitism, and hatred for any protestor. There are also many moments that display the horrors of historical genocide when Akira and Ryo travel through time.

Devilman builds additional nuance around this theme with Ryo's character. In the manga's final scene, Ryo describes how demons were once oppressed by God, and that they in turn preyed upon humans in the same way that God preyed upon demons. Ryo recognizes that he continued the same cycle of genocidal hate and marginalization he once suffered. This is a striking moment that functions as a cautionary warning against abusing imbalanced power dynamics, and how even once marginalized groups are still capable of enacting horrors against those with less power.

via Seven Seas Entertainment

Ryo's character also made a groundbreaking stride in the representation of marginalized gender and sexual identities. His true form as Satan is easy to interpret as trans, possessing emotional, mental, and physical traits that defy the standard gender binary. The manga also makes it clear that Ryo considers Akira more than a friend, and is actually in love with him. Amazingly, Go Nagai does not use Ryo's trans-coded self or his queer love for Akira as fodder for insulting or disrespectful commentary from other characters. Ryo's gender-variant form is certainly mentioned, but it's never negatively framed or conflated with his murderous attitude toward humanity. Additionally, the manga never suggests Ryo is evil because of his romantic feelings for Akira (a simple, yet important distinction). It feels all the more impressive when you remember that this was made in 1972. Devilman's subversive portrayal of non-normative gender and sexual identity could still be considered groundbreaking even by today's standards.

Devilman OVAs

The first OVA, The Birth, covers Ryo and Akira's discovery of demon existence, with a very brutal early sequence that shows the bloody survival-of-the-fittest origins of life on Earth (which beautifully expands upon and mirrors the same sequence from the manga). It concludes with a gore-soaked finale where we see Akira's fateful transformation into Devilman. The sequence is filled with face stabs, top-notch body horror, and decapitations galore as Devilman rips apart demon after demon in a nightclub setting.

The second OVA, The Demon Bird, had the same crew that worked on the first OVA and contains a very similar feel. This OVA is more action-oriented than the first since it doesn't spend time on the build-up and exposition leading to Devilman's initial appearance. The animation and art design is probably even better than the first episode, which is most notable during the fight with Sirene. On a side note, the Manga Entertainment dubs for these first two OVAs are absolutely essential if you're seeking a fun evening with fellow anime nerds with a decent sense of humor. Their typically sleazy dubs — where Manga Entertainment excessively hyped up the seedier, more "adult" side of anime in order to market their products as wildly different from cartoons for kids — contain an assortment of unnecessary profanity and generally crude dialogue compared to the Japanese source material, to great comedic effect.

The third OVA, Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman, is based on Amon: The Darkside of Devilman manga, an alternate-universe offshoot by Yu Kinutani. This OVA contains a reworked version of the end of Devilman and has a much darker edge compared to the first two OVAs. This entry in the series has an ugly, grim quality to it – such as the horrific depiction of Miki and her brother getting slaughtered by an angry mob — that initially felt off-putting to me. I started to enjoy it more on subsequent viewings however, when I remembered that, well, the entire Devilman mythos is pretty damned bleak in general. I think the desolate mood would have been more bearable had Akira felt like the compassionate, tragic hero of the manga.

Actually, overall I'd say that Akira's portrayal is one of my biggest complaints about these OVAs. He displays a cold lack of care for human life — like in the Demon Bird when he unconcernedly tears through an airplane while fighting Sirene and allows its passengers to presumably plummet to their deaths — that for me, offsets one of the biggest strengths of Devilman's core: that although Akira has the body of a demon, he never loses the tender heart of a human. With that in mind, let's explore Devilman Crybaby.

Devilman Crybaby

Devilman Crybaby is my favorite animated incarnation of Devilman, period. I might be in the minority with that opinion, but I think there's a lot to love. Masaaki Yuasa is already one of my favorite recent anime directors — Kaiba, Mind Game, and Lu Over the Wall are highlights — so it's no surprise I'd be head over heels for his take on a classic Go Nagai story.

Yuasa impressively shifts the '70s setting of the original into modern-day Japan: The group of surly highschoolers from the manga are replaced with rappers and smartphones are everywhere. In the hands of a lesser writer, a modern setting would be no more than a cosmetic, surface-level change of scenery to an already-written narrative. In contrast, Yuasa avoids this trap by using the modern setting to make incisive social commentary relevant to our times: social media is the means for both horrendous and beautiful moments in the show. It leads to Miki's murder when she posts on Instagram to defend Akira, but also serves as the online catalyst that unites Devilmen across the globe (in contrast to the original manga, where a set of demon-possessed psychic monks unite the Devilmen). Yuasa explained this in a 2018 Japan Times article:

"Today's situation is a lot closer to 'Devilman' than it was when Nagai wrote it in the '70s," he says. "The popularity of social media means people are a lot more connected, for good and bad – like someone getting shot over a video game. We learn about unarmed black people being killed by police, people being tortured and the rise of nationalism in politics. In Japan, too, where a lot of problems are openly blamed on foreigners.

"But it can also help spread good that we wouldn't otherwise know about. We see people coming out as gay or trans on social media, and there's a greater opening up and acceptance of different opinions and lifestyles."

Another beautiful aspect of the show is how Yuasa amplifies the queer elements present in the manga. Ryo and Akira's relationship feels even more loaded with romantic undertones, and Yuasa also introduces two queer characters unseen in the original manga. One of the characters is named Miki Kuroda, initially portrayed as a jealous antagonistic foil to the Miki we all know and love. Miki Kuroda changes as the episodes progress and she becomes a Devilman, and we eventually see her sacrifice herself in an attempt to save Miki Makimura, who she confesses her love to before dying. It's refreshing to see a queer woman represented in a story that previously had none, and incorporated in a way that feels organic and thoughtfully integrated within the larger narrative.

In contrast to the Akira of the OVAs, I absolutely adore this incarnation. Yuasa did a stellar job showing not only Akira's horny goth-jock side but also his compassionate traits. As the name implies, there's a lot of crying in Devilman Crybaby, and Akira is responsible for at least half the tears throughout the brief 10-episode series. Akira evokes such intense compassion and cares for people around him, which is a noticeable deviation from his cold demeanor in the OVAs. The human heart at the core of Devilman is on full display here, taking the emotional elements from the original and turning the volume up to 11. Though the art style and setting might be drastically different from what you'd typically expect of a Devilman remake, Yuasa did a masterful job honoring the source material while injecting it with fresh life and even fresher modern resonance.

What other aspects of Devilman — or its many incarnations — did you find important or interesting? Let me know in the comments below!

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caveartfair · 5 years ago

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Long Demonized in Art, Eve Has Become a Pop Culture Icon

Divinely inspired or otherwise, the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is deeply rooted in the Western psyche. Eve occupies mere pages of the Genesis epic, but women have spent millennia atoning for her original sin. For the last 2,000 years, Eve has been invoked in the monotheistic world to suppress women’s rights and defame their characters. How many misogynistic stereotypes and prejudices stem from the reputation of the much-maligned, archetypal first woman?

The apostle Paul cited Eve’s narrative to justify women’s subservience to men, writing in the apocryphal book of Timothy that women should “keep silent” because “Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” In the Middle Ages, St. Bernard of Clairvaux sermonized to rapt audiences of men and women that Eve was “the original cause of all evil, whose disgrace has come down to all other women.” More recently, at a legislative dinner in 2015, South Carolina Senator Tom Corbin was confronted for his combative remarks about women’s right to participate in the state’s General Assembly. “Well, you know God created man first,” he quipped. “Then he took the rib out of man to make woman. And you know, a rib is a lesser cut of meat.”

Adam and Eve, 2015. David LaChapelle MARUANI MERCIER GALLERY

From these rigid perspectives, Eve is one-dimensional: inherently wicked and an afterthought to Adam. Yet across popular culture and the history of art, Eve appears as a paradox. She is guileful and naive, earth mother and fatal seductress; she is the problem of man, his downfall, his eternal scapegoat.

Such depictions have structured our ideas of beauty, gender, and morality. The oldest conceptions of Eve play out again and again in all reaches of contemporary culture. A judiciously placed apple in a woman’s hand in art, advertising, or film can immediately invoke Eve’s devious sexuality, and still other references abound. The Handmaid’s Tale (2017–ongoing), adapted by Hulu from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, features a young, religious character named Eden, who is expected to help repopulate the country. By the same token, in Pixar’s animated children’s movie WALL-E (2008), the title robot meets a fellow android who has come to bring new human life to Earth. Her name? EVE.

Forbidden fruit

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Adam and Eve, 1528. Courtesy of the Uffizi Gallery.

Though never explicitly named in the Bible, the apple has become the de facto “forbidden fruit”—powerful nomenclature for that which is fatally desirable, and therefore all the more tempting and worthy of moral rule-breaking. The apple’s shiny red skin and juicy interior make it an apt stand-in for sex, and the seductive way in which Eve is often depicted eating it only reinforces its libidinal connotations. Genesis records that after Eve takes a bite of the fruit, she simply “gave some to her husband and he ate.” St. Jerome, however, used the Latin word seducta to describe Eve’s transgression.

During the Northern Renaissance, German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder perfected the bewitching female nude. In his Adam and Eve diptych from 1528, the couple faces one another beneath the Tree of Knowledge, little red apples bobbing tantalizingly above their heads. A self-possessed Eve holds one perfect fruit out to her husband, who scratches behind his ear in apparent befuddlement. In Cranach’s depiction, it’s not the serpent whispering in Eve’s ear or even the apple that is dangerous, but the perfectly beautiful and alluring woman who will be his pleasure—and his downfall.

Domenichino, The Rebuke of Adam and Eve, 1626. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Men are often shown as helpless in the face of this female threat. In Domenichino’s 1626 painting, The Rebuke of Adam and Eve, God and his coterie of cherubim float down from heaven to reproach Adam. The first man throws up his hands in what looks like confusion or exasperation, diverting the entirety of the blame to his wife.

The image of Eve as sexual temptress has remained frighteningly constant, even in products and programs that purport to challenge ingrained sexist tropes. In the early aughts, for example, the soapy comedy-drama Desperate Housewives was lauded for casting five middle-aged women in the lead roles. The intended audience for the salacious TV show was presumably women, yet the impossibly fit, botoxed, and high-heeled characters seemed designed to appeal to men.

The apple’s shiny red skin and juicy interior make it an apt stand-in for sex, and the seductive way in which Eve is often depicted eating it only reinforces its libidinal connotations.

Red apples played prominently in promotional materials for the show. In the title sequence, an animated version of Cranach’s Adam is crushed by a giant falling apple as a blasé Eve looks on. In posters ahead of season five, the topless cast smiles coyly from behind a row of apples and the tagline “Even Juicier.”

So should one eat the apple or abstain? Designer Donna Karan exploited this ambiguity for her long-running DKNY scent Red Delicious. In the ads, a pouty model has just bitten into a green apple (how subversive), and the perfume packaging itself is shaped like the fruit. Sin is no longer the province of Eve alone: The “new temptation in fragrance” was marketed to both women and men.

Once in a while, the story of a woman with an apple doesn’t explicitly end with damnation or sex. In Disney’s Aladdin, the apples Princess Jasmine steals for a young, hungry boy lead to her meeting the titular male hero. They go on to have fabulous adventures together, but it’s Aladdin who reveals the world to Jasmine, and not the other way around. Sometimes apples—potent transmitters of dangerous information—are exchanged between women. In the 19th-century fairy tale that would later become a Disney classic, a witch proffers the poison apple that puts Snow White to sleep.

Snake charmer

In the book of Genesis, the tempting creature is explicitly referred to as “he” and is described only as a serpent. Yet Eve’s casting as an evil temptress gave rise to the belief that the duplicitous snake was female, too. In art, it was often depicted with a womanly upper body and a reptilian lower half. If wickedness is associated with femininity even before Eve gives Adam the Forbidden Fruit, which came first, woman or sin?

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel version of the Fall sees his muscular Adam and Eve joined by an equally hulking snake-woman wrapped around the tree. Her right arm grasps the trunk for support as she stretches out to meet Eve’s upraised hand. Both Eve and the serpent use their left, or “sinister,” hands, further signaling their deviousness.

Michelangelo, The Fall of Man, 1512. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Michelangelo was merely following a popular convention of his time. During the Renaissance, snake-women appear in Hugo van der Goes’s The Fall of Man and The Lamentation (ca. 1470–75); a terracotta sculpture of Adam and Eve by the workshop of Giovanni della Robbia (ca. 1515), which took inspiration from a famous Albrecht Dürer engraving; and the stone facade of Notre Dame. A blonde-headed serpent woman in Masolino’s Temptation of Adam and Eve (ca. 1425), a fresco in Florence’s Santa Maria del Carmine, is frighteningly funny: She snakes along the Tree of Knowledge with her comically tiny head popping out of the end of her skinny green body.

Left: Hugo van der Goes, The Fall of Man and The Lamentation, 1470–75. Courtesy of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Right: Masolino da Panicale, Temptation of Adam and Eve, ca. 1425. Courtesy of Cappella Brancacci.

Giovanni della Robbia, Adam and Eve, ca. 1515.

Even before the Bible story, snakes were associated with women in cultures around the globe. The hostility that is created between them in the Bible may have been a way to separate the nascent Jewish community from pagan traditions that had a snake as a powerful female goddess. The Canaanite cult of Baal-Asherah heavily influenced the newly formed Israelite nation. In the predominantly female cult, Baal appeared in the form of a serpent with his wife, Asherah, at his side. When the Israelites entered Canaan, pagan religions were demonized in lieu of monotheism.

In this light, the story of Adam and Eve has political undertones. The biblical narrator may have already witnessed an established association between the serpent and the woman in neighboring tribes. When God punishes them, a wedge is driven between the serpent and the woman, cursing everlasting “enmity” between them and their offspring. The story successfully alienates the woman from her longtime ally.

Left: John Collier, Lilith, 1887. Image via Wikimedia Commons. Right: Pantaleon Szyndler, Eve (Temptation), 1889. Courtesy of the National Museum in Warsaw.

They are indeed powerful together. Who can forget the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, when Britney Spears walked onstage with an albino python draped across her neck? Dressed as an exotic snake charmer and scantily clad in artfully tattered rags and glitter, Spears fully assumed her onstage persona as an outlet to embrace her newfound sexual freedom. The conflation of the pop star with a sexual goddess transpired before millions of girls and women in the public forum of television. With that scene from Genesis, snakes and women received their eternal reputation of immorality. The snake became an erotic symbol as “the bad girl” gained sex appeal.

The fall of (wo)man

Britney Spears performs at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.

Spears’s performance resonates with an artwork made over a century earlier by Pre-Raphaelite painter John Collier. With her perfect, naked body and long blonde hair, the woman in the 1887 painting who nuzzles the head of the giant snake sensually coiled around her looks like Eve. But in fact, it’s her alter ego, the legendary femme fatale, Lilith.

Fed-up women looking for a new matriarchal origin story have taken in Eve beneath their own gaze. They have embraced the qualities—independence, curiosity, sexuality—that once demonized her.

In Jewish literature, the enchantress Lilith is described as Adam’s first wife, before Eve. Lilith was man’s equal but was devilish in her sexuality. According to legend, she felt repressed by Adam’s side, and she eventually leaves him to cohabit with demons in deep waters. In folklore and pop culture, she has come to be known as the mother of demons and vampires, eater of babies, husband of Satan—in short, a dangerous, sexually liberated woman.

Lilith Fair, 1998, Mountain View California. Image by Tim Mosenfelder / ImageDirect via Getty Images.

Finally, in our modern era, fed-up women looking for a new matriarchal origin story have taken in Eve, and her alter ego Lilith, beneath their own gaze. They have embraced the qualities—independence, curiosity, sexuality—that once demonized her.

Kiki Smith’s take on Lilith (1994) is a powerful and disturbing sculpture—a black-bronze horror movie demon, nude and crouched in a spider-like position high up on the wall. The glass grey eyes startle any viewer. An unlikeable woman, who is not sexually available, nor coy, is a forcefully unusual statement.

Madam Satan from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Photo by Diyah Pera. Courtesy of Netflix.

Lilith appears in many guises in TV and movies: the progenitor of the vampire race in True Blood (2008–14); Madam Satan on The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–ongoing); the frigid, hated ex-wife of sitcom icon Frasier. The sci-fi movie The Fifth Element (1997) turns the concept of Lilith on its head by having the main character Leeloo—a variation on Lilith—save humanity instead of devouring it. Her name has also been invoked as a statement of feminist independence: The Lilith Fair of the late 1990s adopted the legendary woman’s name for a music festival that showcased only female artists or woman-led bands.

Villanelle from Killing Eve. Courtesy of the BBC.

One recent TV show has gone above and beyond in complicating our understanding of Eve, and women. The BBC series Killing Eve (2018–ongoing), which follows an M15 agent, played by Sandra Oh, as she tracks down a psychopathic female assassin portrayed by Jodie Comer. Guess who is Eve? It’s not the assassin. The delight of the show is seeing the intense connection unfold between the so-called good and bad guys. Who is on which side becomes impossible to understand—both women contain multitudes. The sexual drama lies between the killer, Villanelle, and Eve—not a man. Though the title of the show probably refers literally to Villanelle’s overarching plans, it’s also a fitting metaphor for the destruction of the story of Eve itself—and all the misery, unfair expectations, and misrepresentation that have come along with it.

from Artsy News

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addicted-to-darkness · 7 years ago

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The Second Coil of Bahamut Turn 4 Translation (German to English)

Playing the newest patch I noticed some massive differences in characterization between the English and German version (looking at you, Asahi), so I picked up the keyboard again and - much like with the Royal Menagerie - did some direct comparisons of both. But before looking at new content I decided to look at the wildly discussed cutscenes surrounding Nael van Darnus. So here it is, in case anyone ever wondered what Nael was like in another localization (and why apparently only those who played the English version of the game ever wondered about her gender).

Bold: English Localization

Plain: German transcription

Cursive: Literal translation

(Alisaie) That... that surely cannot be Dalamud? How-- Where are we!?

Dalamud?! Aber wir sind doch in seinem Kern! Wie können wir ihn dann von unten sehen?!

Dalamud?! But we're inside its core! How can we see it from down here?!

(Nael van Darnus) The final resting place of Nael van Darnus.

Darf ich präsentieren? Das luftige Grab von Nael van Darnus!

May I present you? The lofty grave of Nael van Darnus!

This is a grave for the undeserving.

Ein Opfer – zerstört vom Produkt seines eigenen kranken Geistes.

A victim – destroyed by the product of their own sick mind.

And for the crime of trespassing upon my god's sanctuary, this place shall serve as your grave too!

Und bald ist es auch das Grab von neun kleinen Würmchen, die sich vorwitzig bis hierher vorgewagt haben!

And soon it shall also be the grave of nine little worms, which had the audacity of daring to come here!

(Alisaie) No!

Oh, nein … Bei allen Göttern!

Oh, no! … By all gods!

(Nael deus Darnus) In the hour of his failure, Nael van Darnus felt the currents of aether begin to bear away his essence. But before oblivion could claim the last of him, a divine will reached out... and I was born.

Als damals mein Äther zerstob, rettet er meine Seele … Er gab mir meinen Körper zurück … und neue, wahrhafte Stärke!

Back when my aether dispersed, he saved my soul … He gave me back my body … and new, veritable strength!

Then did the words of my god resound in mine ears...

Nun ist der große Gott tief im Inneren verborgen, und ich bin seine Wächterin.

Now the great god is hidden deep within, and I am his guardian*. (Note: Guardian is expressed as explicitly female.)

“Bring unto mine enemies crushing defeat, that they might know despair without end! And claim thee thus the victory which thou wert once denied!”

Kein Sterblicher verdient es, einen Blick auf ihn zu werfen. Ihr habt es getan, und dafür sollt ihr büßen … Die gesamte verdorbene Welt soll es büßen! Die Zeit der Läuterung ist nah!

No mortal is worthy of gazing upon him. You did so, and for this you shall suffer... The whole putrid world shall suffer! The time of catharsis has come!

(Alisaie) ...'Twould seem that little remained of Nael's essence when Bahamut plucked him from the brink of oblivion. And the result was this strange... simulacrum. Nevertheless, her aura bespeaks great power. She channels the rage of the elder primal himself...

Nicht zu fassen – Nael ist eine Frau? Ich hätte schwören können, Großvater sagte … Aber viel wichtiger: Hat sie nun Bahamuts Stärke erlangt?!

Unbelievable – Nael is a woman? I could have sworn grandfather said... But more importantly: Did she gain Bahamuts strength?!

(Nael deus Darnus) Lord Bahamut! Thy wish is my command! None shall 'scape Thine unquenchable fury!

Allmächtiger! Erhebe diesen schwachen Körper zu deinem Werkzeug! Nimm mich und verleih deinem Willen Gestalt!

Allmighty! Ascend this weak body to be your tool! Take me and make your will manifest!

Come, ye dull, unthinking beasts... bare your teeth!

Ich bin die verkörperte Katharsis! Der Anfang und das Ende … euer Ende.

I am the embodiment of catharsis! The beginning and the end... Your end.

They will avail you naught in the calamity to come!

Nun wird die wahre Siebte Katastrophe über Eorzea hereinbrechen!

Now the true Seventh Calamity shall befall Eorzea!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Alisaie) Poor creature. Would that you had never been born.

Du hast dein Leben zum zweiten Mal verloren, Nael.

You lost your life a second time, Nael.

You had surrendered your physical form, and collapsed into aether... But Bahamut denied you death, and imprisoned what little was left of you in an aetherial shell resembling... what, I wonder? Images from your memory, perhaps?

Als dein Körper vor langer Zeit starb, verschlang Bahamut den Äther deiner Seele, und so lebtest du fort … Doch nun ist dieser Albtraum vorbei. Auch für uns.

When your body perished a long time ago, Bahamut devoured the aether of your soul, and this way, you lived on... But now this nightmare is over. For us as well.

But that shell is now broken. And your primal deity seems disinclined to sustain your existence.

Dein Gott hat dich verlassen.

Your god has abandoned you.

(Nael Deus Darnus) My “primal deity”? I kneel to no eikon! What need have I to beg the favor of such filth!?

”Gott”? Hah. Wer, der dem auch nur ein Funken Verstand, ein Rest von Stärke geblieben ist, huldigt verfluchten Götzenbildern?!

“God”? Hah. Which person, who is left with even so much as a sliver of sanity and strength, worships a fucking primal?!

I am Nael van Darnus! Legatus of the VIIth Legion...

Ich bin Nael van Darnus, Legatus der VII. Legion des Garleanischen Reichs. Niemand lenkt mein Schicksal außer mir selbst.

I am Nael van Darnus, Legatus of the VIIth legion of the Garlean Empire. Nobody determines my fate but myself.

No... A moment... My thoughts are clouded... and this body is not mine own. Could it be that you spoke the truth? Was I ensorcelled by the lesser moon's ancient prisoner? ...That will not happen again.

... Ausgerechnet mich musste dieses primitive Götzenvieh besitzen. Welcher Hohn! Mein Geist, die scharfe Klinge der Vernunft, betäubt und in die Knie gezwungen – von der Bestie, die mir dienen sollte!

… Of all people, this primitive idol* had to possess me. Which mockery! My mind, the sharp blade of reason, numbened and forced to its knees – by the beast, which was to serve me! (Note: Idol is actively formulated as an insult here. To express idol the word 'Götze' would have sufficed, but instead Nael chooses the compound word Götzenvieh. 'Vieh' literally translates to cattle, but is also used as derogatory word for any sort of undesirable animal.)

(Alisaie) You speak as if Bahamut no longer controlled you! But that's impossible! Once a primal ensnares a mind, it cannot be freed!

Sie erinnert sich … Bahamuts Einfluss ist verflogen.

She remembers... Bahamut's influence is gone.

Unless... Unless Bahamut simply relinquished his claim. What need has he of a broken spirit bound for the aetherial realm?

Jetzt, da sie besiegt ist, hat er keine Verwendung mehr für Nael. Endlich kann ihre Seele in den Äther zurückkehren.

Now, that she's defeated, he no longer has use for Nael. Finally her soul can return to the aether.

(Nael van Darnus) Ohhh...that I should fall prey to the very influence I sought to purge from the land. The irony is galling.

Hmph. Ich nutzlos für eine Götze der Wilden? Größer könnte die Schande nicht sein, die ich über mich gebracht habe - über die gesamte garleische Nation! Wäre ich nur zu Äther zerfallen, ohne jemals davon zu erfahren.

Hmph. Me useless for an idol of the savages? There is no way the shame I brought over me – over the whole garlean nation! – could be any bigger. If only I had disolved into aether without coming to know about this.

But do not assume that all of my actions were chosen for me. It was my will that the Meteor project be resurrected—mine and none other.

Aber glaub nur nicht, dass alles von Anfang an sein Werk gewesen sei, Mädchen! Das Projekt Meteor war die Frucht meines Geistes.

But don't think everything from the beginning was his doing all along, girl! Project Meteor was the spawn of my own mind.

Yet it seems that my grand designs were destined to fail. Even the ungentle release of death was denied me...

Wenn mir auch ein Tod in Würde nicht gewährt sein mag – die Größe meines Werks könnt ihr nicht leugnen! Mir steht die Herrschaft zu! Allein die Umstände waren gegen mich.

Even if I may not be granted a dignified death – the dimension of my opus cannot be denied by you! I deserve sovereignty! It was only the circumstances which were against me.

(Alisaie) Nael, please. You must tell us more of the Calamity. I must know the truth of what has befallen the world...and what has become of my grandfather, Archon Louisoix.

Wir wollen wissen, was bei der Siebten Katastrophe wirklich geschehen ist. Sag uns, was ist mit meinem Großvater passiert? Hat Bahamut ihn getötet?

We want to know what really happened in the Seventh Calamity. Tell us, what happened to my grandfather? Did Bahamut kill him?

(Nael van Darnus) You are Louosoix's grandchild? Ah, the fates are generous with their cruelty.

Ah, du bist das Enkelkind des Weisen Louisoix? Tja … wer hätte ihm ein solches Ende gewünscht? Zu schade.

Ah, you are the granddaughter of Archon Louisoix? Oh well.... who would have wished such an end upon him? Too bad.

Continue on, if you would have your answers—they await you at the terminus of your path. But know that this path leads only to despair. The light of truth was ever harsh and unforgiving...

Wenn du deine sogenannte Wahrheit ertragen kannst, dann geh nur weiter. Du wirst die finden … und bereuen, dass du je nach ihr gesucht hast.

If you can bear your so called truth, then go ahead and carry on. You will find it... and regret ever looking for it.

(Alisaie) Why do you say this? Grandfather will be free once we put a stop to Bahamut's restoration, will he not? What are you not telling us!?

Aber … wenn wir Bahamut töten, dann wird doch auch mein Großvater gerettet! Seine Seele wird sich befreien und zu uns zurückkommen, oder nicht?

But... if we kill Bahamut, my grandfather will be saved! His soul will free itself and return to us, isn't that so?

(Nael van Darnus) Steel yourself, child. Only unbending resolve and merciless strength can conquer what lies ahead.

Törichtes Kind. Stellst du dir so den lauf der Dinge vor? Die Welt folgt eisernem Willen und gnadenloer Macht, nicht den Wünschen kleiner Mädchen.

Foolish child. Is that how you imagine the course of things to be? The world follows steeled resolve and merciless power, not the wishes of small girls.

The weak can do naught but weep under the pall of their own misery. As did the frail child I once was...

Auch mir beugte sich niemand, als ich noch wünschte statt zu fordern. Tritt aber mutig ins Licht, und dein Name wird die Geschichte überdauern.

No one yielded to me either, when I still wished instead of demanded. But if you take a courageous step into the light, your name will outlive history.

(???) Silence, chattering raven. Your wretched wings are broken, and you shall soar no more.

Es ist genug, Silberschwinge. Du wirst diese Welt nun endlich verlassen!

That's enough, silver wing. You will finally leave this world now!

(Nael van Darnus) My crimson moon... Your brilliance sears mine eyes...

Nein … Verfluchter … gib mir meine Stärker zurück! … Sie gehört … mir!

No... Blasted... give me back my strength! …It is... mine! (Note: There's many ways to translate what Nael calls ??? here. Blasted, cursed, fucking, damned … take your pick, but she certainly isn't happy.)

(Alisaie) I recognize that voice, Warrior of Light. But never would he say such words...

Diese Stimme … sie klang so vertraut!

This voice... it sounds so familiar!

Come, let us finish what we came to do. All will be put aright when the final hulk lies dormant. Grandfather will be himself again.... I'm sure of it.

Wir dürfen unsere Mission nicht vergessen. Lass uns die Maschinen zerstören, die Bahamut erhalten. Das wird auch meinen Großvater befreien – egal, was Nael uns glauben machen will!

We can't forget about our mission. Let us stop the machines, which maintain Bahamut. This will free my granfather as well – no matter what Nael wants to make us believe.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Nael van Darnus #A look at this really makes you wonder what the supervisor of the English version was on for there to even be a need for a debate on gender #Also look at that snark and ego #Translations #Obscure's Stuff

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santheweird · 7 years ago

Text

Hey, Sarge! (Prologue)

Summary: Due to the lack of jobs because of World War 2, Alexander Sami Hale joined the army to keep her family’s head above the water.

She falsified her enlistment form, convincing the officials that she was actually a boy named Alexander Hale.

When her sergeant, James Barnes, was captured by the German forces during a battle in Azzano, Alex went AWOL to aid a man named Steve Rogers to rescue his best friend.

This is her story

Note: Some of y’all would recognize the following as my original chapter for Winter’s Disguise until I deleted it. This is because I really preferred this over my current chapter, and thought this would be a better opening than what I have right now, so I brought it back.

It took me three whole fucking weeks really, really long to finish Chapter 1 as I decided to rewrite it. I rrewrote it as it wasn’t flowing properly, and I really wasn’t satisfied when I was done (I made three different drafts till i was satisfied) By rewriting it, I also had to change some major scenes in Hey, Sarge. Because of that, it took me some time to finish it. but don’t worry, it’s already complete! (This sounds biased, but it turned out pretty good!

I posted this for those who have not read it before, and for those who have already read it, link to Chapter 1 is at the bottom!

P.S Go back and read the sneak preview. I made some (very few) edits.

Early-September, 1943

Alex heaved as she pushed herself partially off the ground in the alleyway, her amber eyes watering from a blow she received on her face.

“Maybe that’ll teach you not to ignore us, huh?” The leader spat as his lackeys laughed.

“Let’s see what this squirt has inside his bag which is so precious to him, shall we?” He asked, his pudgy fingers reaching for Alex’s satchel.

Alex retaliated when she heard that, yanking her satchel away from him. She flailed her legs desperately, tripping one person over, and nailing their fat leader in the nuts.

“Son of a bitch!” He heaved, clutching his crotch. His underdogs rushed to help him, and Alex took this opportunity to speed off, scooping up her bag and hat along the way.

“Get him!”

Alex turned back, glimpsing two people chasing after her, no doubt for revenge for hitting their leader.

“Fuck!”

She made several sharp turns to lose her pursuers, climbing over a wall in the end to a busy street so that she could blend in. Alex tucked her short black hair under her worn out newsboy cap, pulling it over her eyes to hide their unusual colour.

She slowed her pace, keeping it at a brisk walk, her breath coming out in short huffs. She had already lost her attackers, but she didn’t want to risk meeting them or others like them for the rest of the day, so she kept her gaze down for the entire walk home, hands gripping her satchel tightly.

“I’m home!” Alex announced as she stepped into the apartment, taking her cap off and running her hand through her hair.

“You’re back early! Oh- don’t tell me you got into another fight again!” Her fellow tenant, Aunt Grace exclaimed as she wiped her wrinkly hands on her apron.

“It was an accident, really.” Alex replied, wincing as she touched her tender cheek. “Bumped into their leader, and they insisted on compensation, which meant everything inside my bag, of course.”

“What did you have inside?”

“My last paycheck.” Alex replied, pulling out an envelope from her bag and handing it to Aunt Grace.

“What do you mean, ‘last paycheck’?” A gravely voice behind them asked. Alex looked over to see her father, Henry, sitting upright on his mattress.

Alex sighed and slid her shoes off, placing her bag on an old crate which they have been using as a table.

“I was retrenched from the factory. At least they were kind enough to give me my paycheck.”

There was silence as Alex walked over to the larder and opened it, taking note of the scarce amounts of food.

“I’ll head to the grocer’s first thing tomorrow. Did the doctor come today?”

“He did. He said that I was doing fine.” Henry replied, shifting on the mattress.

“He did not say that!” Aunt Grace exclaimed, walking over to one of the shelves.

“What? What happened?”

Aunt Grace sighed, silencing him with a glare. “Henry’s eyesight is getting worse. His legs are getting weaker and weaker everyday. At least his right arm is working fine. It’s the only one he’s got.” She took out a medicine bottle from the shelf.

“The doctor prescribed another medicine. It’s more expensive, but it slows down the symptoms.” She handed the medicine bottle to Alex. “He also increased his rates per hour.”

Alex looked at the bottle grimly, before handing it back. “It’ll be fine.”

“What do you mean?”

Alex ran her hands through her hair again, pausing before walking back towards her bag. She took out a piece of folded paper and handed it to Aunt Grace. She bit her lip as she waited for the older woman’s reaction.

“Alexandra Hale.” Aunt Grace hissed. “What is this?”

Alex gulped while her father sat up straighter, curious. “My enlistment acceptance letter.”

“You just enlisted into the ARMY?!” The elderly woman screeched as Alex pried the paper out of her hands in case she decided to tear it into bits.

“How did you even get accepted? Don’t tell me the army is willing to accept 5”2” boys? How did you manage to fake your gender?”

Alex frowned at the mention of her height, but let it slide. She handed the letter to her father when he beckoned for it, and turned to Aunt Grace.

“I signed up at a center which was really busy, so they rushed my examination so I didn’t need to take off my shirt.”

“But still-”

“You put your name as ‘Alexander Sami Hale’?” Her father asked, squinting at the paper.

Alex shrugged. “Best name I could come up with on the fly.”

“I’m still against this.” Aunt Grace said, crossing her arms. “Alex, this isn’t like the times when you were stealing at twelve years old! This is the war! You could get killed!”

“Then I’ll make sure that I don’t! What other choice do we have? There are lesser people wanting to hire a kid, even if he or she is already eighteen! The army needs people, we need money. It’s a win-win situation!”

“We don’t need the money that desperately-”

“No, we do need the money. I went to pay this month's rent, and our landlord said that he’s raising the rent soon. You also said it yourself, the medical fees are higher. The groceries are getting more expensive too.” Alex paused, pleading with the both of them with her eyes.

Henry sighed. “When do you leave?”

“Day after tomorrow. I’ll be in Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for about seven weeks before being deployed. I'm in the 107th”

Aunt Grace breathed out, giving up. “Write to us, alright?

Alex exhaled. “Okay.”

Chapter 1

Masterlist

Tags:

@mizz-kraziii @cami23593 @beautiful-aravis @buckybarnesneedscuddles @dottirose @katykyll @frittiefries @chipilerendi @fandomsandahintofmagic @jaditestuff

#ca:tfa #captain america #steve rogers #winter soldier #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #1940s bucky

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lodelcar · 5 years ago

Text

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE REGIONAL APPROACH

Picture: Jakarta

There is a translation in Dutch of this article on the blog: lodelcar2.tumblr.com: https://lodelcar2.tumblr.com/post/611739834189529088/duurzame-ontwikkeling-in-het-kader-van-de

We are now with almost 8 billion residents on this planet. These populate nearly 200 countries. And although much progress has been made in recent years regarding the living conditions of these nearly 8 billion residents, there is still much to be done to provide every inhabitant of this planet with viable conditions and to give his/her children an acceptable future. These are important objectives that governments have supported within the United Nations, who have set goals that they would like to see achieved by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs are seventeen goals[1] that have been formulated with great care by the United Nations and that can drastically improve many aspects of the life of the Earth's inhabitants. They focus on combating extreme poverty and hunger, on health care and education for all, on reducing world inequality, on promoting social inclusion by promoting gender equality, on combating global warming through sustainable energy, by safeguarding the biodiversity of nature. At the European Academy of the Regions, we are convinced that many of these objectives can be achieved more easily if they are supported as close as possible to the citizen. Many countries are too large in terms of population and area for national governments to be able to deal with it full-time. National governments are often more concerned with geopolitical objectives by claiming their place on the world scene, so that they are less concerned about the lives of their citizens, especially when they live in areas far from the capital, with a scattered population and only have marginal economic income streams.

This view is followed by the EU as an institution. The principle of subsidiarity fostered by the EU implies that decisions should be taken as close as possible to the citizen on issues that directly concern the citizen as an individual. This principle also means that the EU tries to convince member state governments to make decision-making powers and financial resources available to regional and local authorities. However, that principle also implies that the EU seeks to raise decisions to a higher supranational level when it concerns issues with which all EU citizens are confronted equally, such as customs policy and trade with third parties, fisheries policy and monetary policy at a first and exclusive level, as well as security. in all its aspects - food safety, cyber security, anti-terror, police cooperation, border security, agricultural policy, transport policy, energy policy, research policy, democracy and rule of law, climate change, citizen mobility, development cooperation, consumer protection at a second level in collaboration with the Member States.[2]

But how can sustainable development be reconciled with ensuring that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen? How could a regional approach benefit the achievement of sustainable development goals? We will try to work this out in the following article.

Decentralisation is mostly implemented within the EU Member states

Most countries of the European Union today have a decentralized policy that is legally structured. For some, such as Romania, this is still in full swing, for others this is organized within the nation state, while other countries are federal states: Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. Here are some examples.

Although the Netherlands is not known as a decentralized country, the 11 Dutch provinces have considerable powers. The package of competences of the Dutch provinces includes: regional economy, spatial planning, safety, education (including municipal and urban competences), culture and health (municipal competences for municipalities with hospitals).

Polish regional authorities (the 16 so-called voivodeships), another country that is not really known as decentralized, have authority over education, health care, culture and have the necessary budgets for this. They are also looking for energy initiatives such as CO2-neutral city buildings and public transport that runs on renewable energy.

Sweden is a unitary and decentralized state; the constitution recognizes local self-government in certain areas and delegates certain responsibilities to local authorities. There are three levels of government: central, regional (formerly counties) and municipal. There are twenty regional authorities, so-called landsting, which formally act as the authorities of the regions (formerly as the provincial authorities) and there are 290 municipalities (kommuner). Provinces and municipalities have no legislative powers; nevertheless, they have executive powers in taxation and administration at their respective levels. The regions are responsible for: public health - including healthcare and medical services -; cultural institutions; public transport and are responsible for growth and development. Swedish Municipalities have mandatory administrative powers in the areas of: transport - including local roads and public transport -; social welfare; education; planning and construction issues; emergency and rescue services; health protection; environment - including environmental protection, waste and waste management, water and sewage -; and housing. The municipalities can also take up responsibilities on a voluntary basis for: recreational activities and culture - except libraries -; energy; industrial and commercial services; work, and tourism. [3]

Spain, also, must be regarded as a highly decentralized unitary state. While sovereignty rests with the nation as a whole, represented in the central government institutions, the nation has transferred asymmetric power to the regions, which in turn exercise their right to self-government within the limits set by the constitution and their autonomous statutes. The 17 regions or comunidades autónomas have a certain amount of competences and have a budget. The regions have a decentralized tax policy and each region contributes to national affairs according to a ratio based on GDP. Only the Basque Country and Navarra have a separate grant and treatment. In general, the autonomous communities have competences in the areas of education, health care, culture and language, heritage, social assistance, town and county planning, environmental protection, public transport, agriculture, etc. Andalusia and the three "historical nationalities" - Basque Country , Catalonia and Galicia - took the "fast route" and immediately took the maximum level of competence; the rest took the "slow route".

Germany is the largest federal state (Bundesrepublik) in the EU, with states (Länder) as the highest regional level. According to the German constitution (Grundgesetz), some subjects, such as foreign affairs and defense, fall under the exclusive responsibility of the federation (ie the federal level), while others fall under the shared authority of the states and the federation; States retain the remaining legislative authority for all other areas, including "culture", which in Germany covers not only subjects such as financial promotion of arts and sciences, but also most forms of education and vocational training. Länder, in turn, have various levels of authority. There are Landkreise (rural districts) that are located at an intermediate level of government, between the German states (Länder) and the municipal authorities (Gemeinden). Most major cities in Germany are not part of a rural district, but fulfill district-like functions themselves. In this context, those cities are referred to as Kreisfreie Stadt (literally "district-free city") or Stadtkreis ("urban district"). Landkreise is responsible for the collection and treatment of waste, hospitals, energy supply, social and affordable housing and integration. Digitization and data protection and the management of the unemployed are also managed at this level. Just like the cities, Länder offer them the necessary subsidies for carrying out these assignments.

Let us now compare the powers that have often been transferred to lower levels across the EU with those for which the EU claims only supporting or no powers at all. The latter are then exclusively the domain of the nation states. These concern: Education policy, Social security, Public health policy, Taxes - with the exception of taxes that can disrupt the internal market -, Family law, Spatial planning - since the rules for the protection of flora and fauna are complied with at national level, Public order and Establishment of the public administration. [4] Many of these themes are " linked to private individuals".

Education is preparing the future of the next generation. But also the management of competencies that are important now and that will even become important for the economy in the future. Education is therefore aimed at every resident and must try to be as inclusive as possible. It focuses entirely on SDG goal 4: quality education, but also on goal 10: reduce inequality as well as on goal 8: decent work and economic growth

Public health focuses on the well-being of the population, the control of child mortality, the control of epidemics, but also the management of hospitals and elderly homes, in the prevention of diseases. This is in line with SDG goal 3: good health and well-being, but also with goal 6: clean water and sanitation and even with goal 9: industry, innovation and infrastructure.

Social security focuses on the well-being of citizens who fall ill, fall out of work or who become too old to work. It forms a safety net for lesser days. In more and more countries, also outside Europe, systems of solidarity are being set up to save people from the greatest disaster. It is social security that is primarily aimed at preventing SDG goal 1 extreme poverty and goal 2 zero hunger. But it also focuses on goal 3: good health and well-being. From this complete list, social security is the only topic that needs to be organized at a national level because of the required scale to keep the system affordable.

Taxes, on the other hand, can be perfectly organized at regional and even local level, with contributions being made to the higher national level for these things that need to be organized nationally. Switzerland is the example where the tax rate is determined per canton. In most countries, however, there is a centralized tax rate, which is increased by an assessment rate set by regions and municipalities. In practice, however, this means that multinationals and large corporates make every effort to avoid taxes. However, taxes enable a fair distribution of burdens by having the strongest shoulders take on the heaviest burdens. In the first instance, this aims for SDG goal 10, reduced inequality. But it also allows one to achieve many other objectives such as: goal 3: good health and well-being; goal 4: quality education; goal 6: clean water and sanitation; goal 7: affordable and clean energy and even goal 13: climate action.

Family law is at first sight a principle that should be dealt with nationally. Nothing could be further from the truth. There may be cultural and even religious differences within countries that have a different view of family law. Family law legislation can therefore be organized regionally. However, the rule of law must be organized in an identical nationally. This is in line with SDG goal 16: peace and justice strong institutions. In principle, this also fills in goal 10, reduced inequality and goal 5 gender equality, although these last items require explicit monitoring by the citizens of a region.

Spatial planning is a typical regional competence in which, within fixed contours and plans, a region or city protects itself against excesses and indicates where there will be housing, where there is an industrial zoning, where schools and hospitals can be established, where roads can be developed and where biodiversity can fully deploy. This answers goals such as SDG goal 9: industry, innovation and infrastructure, goal 10: reduced inequality but also: goal 15: life on land.

Although Public Order is the exclusive domain of the nation state, it is often organized on several levels. Cities and municipalities have their own police officers, who control all aspects of local public order. Cross-regional issues are tackled nationally or regionally. And in recent years, Europol has nevertheless emerged to tackle cross-border phenomena such as Mafia practices and terrorism. Goal 16 of the SDGs Peace, Justice and strong institutions is tackled here and an answer will be offered to goal 17 partnerships for the goals.

The same applies to Public administration. The EU does not wish to interfere in the way public administrations are organized. The countries are too diverse in terms of population, surface area, co-living cultures and languages, religions and social and economic development levels. It does, however, support administrative cooperation. The EU has also organized a Committee of the Regions (COR[5]) and a European Economic and Social Committee (EESC[6]) in which local authorities of all Member States can exchange best practices and try to achieve common objectives. However, the most important EU support for the establishment of regional authorities is provided by the cohesion funds. [7]

Decentralized organization to keep life level manageable

At the beginning of the 21st century, we are confronted with a whole series of challenges that in many cases are the result of large-scale and globalization.

Multinationals leave less and less room for smaller players. Uber pushes tens of thousands of taxis out of the market and obliges the newcomers to work for a hunger wage; Amazon has forced hundreds of thousands of stores to close and has only been making a profit since a couple of years; pharma giants are systematically raising their prices and became the most beneficial sector on earth[8] and are trying to milk the public social security system as much as possible, even if the latter spends more than it receives from individual contributions; AirBnB increases rents in city centers in such a way that the centers no longer attract permanent residents, so that the entire social fabric in city centers is lost. But cities are also declining to such an extent that the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables in many neighborhoods has become impossible due to the distance that farmers have to travel and residents in depraved quarters are only feeding themselves on junk food, creating a general epidemic of obesity. The economy is governed by sharks that regard service, quality and satisfied employees as ancillary.

News is no longer made by quality newspapers but by fake journalists who send invented messages to the world with the aim of demolishing people and institutions. News is completely privatized and is no longer brought to offer people the correct facts, but to make people buy physical and electronic newspapers. The British scandal press is the most excessive example of this. They respond to all the most primitive feelings that live in people and constantly respond to them. For that, they undermine people psychologically to the point that they commit suicide, which they regard as "collateral damage".[9] Moreover the global web plays nowadays an ambivalent role in which it both informs and hysterizes, with all the confusion that goes with it. The recent coronavirus crisis made it clear that we are able to switch lightning fast from the idea that we have everything under control to the panic fear that the world will go to hell.[10]

Technological development is increasingly being encouraged by billionaires who have such purchasing power that they buy top scientists and pursue commercial objectives even if they conflict with the public interest. The developments taking place in artificial intelligence (A.I.) could simply simplify human lives if they were inspired by the public interest. However, the first results that appear on the scene are so alarming that the new EU Commission is calling for the imposition of rules at such an early stage.

Politics is also practiced with cynicism. Smaller countries are blackmailed by large countries. To prevent a super-sophisticated lithography machine from being sold to the Chinese, President Trump is putting pressure on the Dutch government. If the Netherlands nevertheless issues an export license, then sanctions threaten. The message is clear: the Netherlands is a small country with limited sovereignty. That even applies to France. Macron wants to tax American tech companies. But Trump doesn't think a digitax is a good idea. A phone call with the threat that he will impose charges, for example on wine imports, was enough to let Macron withdraw his idea. [11] China's ambassador to Denmark threatened the Faroese prime minister by indicating that a trade agreement would be dropped if the autonomous Danish archipelago does not sign a 5G contract with technology giant Huawei.[12]

And last but not least: we are confronted with a fast-moving inequality in the world. Between 1980 and 2014, the average income of the American increased by 1.4 percent. Only about 85 percent of the population hardly benefited. Their income rose less than 1.4 percent. The working class was even completely excluded from growth. While the 0.1 percent richest people saw their income increase by 320 percent. In 1980 the share of the 1 percent richest in the national income was exactly 10 percent, both in the United States and in Western Europe. That rose to 20 percent in America. But it also went to 12 percent in Western Europe. [13] Why is the European Union so unpopular with so many people? Because they have not reaped the benefits of economic integration.

In addition, 190 billion dollars (173.5 billion euros) were lost worldwide for the tax authorities over the past ten years. Especially in Europe the evasion took on hallucinatory proportions. There, the governments saw 78 billion dollars (71 billion euros) of tax revenues blown through. Between 1985 and 2019, corporate income tax fell globally from 49 to 24 percent. But most major companies escaped even those much lower rates.

Should we then stop globalization?

You cannot drain the child with the bath water. There are too many positive sides to globalization. Moreover, in the last twenty years we have started to work together so comprehensively, between countries and especially between companies, that you put yourself on the edge of global society, like North Korea or Iran, if you want to produce on autarkic principles and do not want to accept anything from outside. [14]

Nevertheless, economists and geographers have been arguing for several years for a deglobalization and, in particular, a reduction in world trade. They point out that for thirty years Europe has pursued a strategy of transferring the most polluting activities to under-polluted continents, because the dead were cheaper there. [15] However, this resulted in Europe now becoming dependent on world trade for everything. Consequently, we have to import a lot of crucial raw materials and goods and are therefore almost no longer self-reliant. This not only concerns some made-in-China products which delivery can be brutally interrupted through natural catastrophes or epidemics, but also, for example, the uranium for our nuclear power stations, which used to come from France and now comes from countries such as Niger. Today, 40 percent of the food we consume in Europe is growing on a different continent.[16]

The Coronavirus crisis of the beginning of 2020 is to be considered as a wake-up call. All industries now realize that it is very risky to have their raw materials come from one specific part of the world. There is even an additional topic to consider for the pharmaceutical industry. After all, this epidemic also shows that too few resources go to the fight against infectious diseases, while they make the most casualties worldwide. This is of course because those cases are more prevalent in developing countries, where it is difficult to build a profitable model.[17]

What type of society should we pursue?

Although the EU is being questioned by a number of politicians, the departure of the U.K. made it clear to many that the EU is an asset, rather than an obstacle. In a world of confrontation in which the new major players on the world stage such as the US, Russia, China and Turkey often threaten smaller countries to force a decision in their direction, EU member states are becoming more and more convinced that they are only having a voice in the chapter thanks to the EU and thus are able to tackle to blackmail from outside.

The reputed British journalist Timothy Garten Ash wrote it recently: “In trade terms, the EU, as the representative of the largest and richest multinational single market, is already a superpower. She has trade agreements with major economies such as Canada and Japan that Brexit Britain can only dream of. Less sexy but vital: the EU is also a superpower when it comes to regulation. Just ask Facebook or Google. In terms of privacy, Brussels sets the standard for the entire internet. (…) There is still a lot of buzz in its external relations, but there is also efficient action. Certainly when dealing with smaller countries and poorer parts of the world. Nobody spends as much on development aid as Europe. "[18]

He will be joined by Prof. Rob Van Wijk, professor of international relations and security at Leiden University and founder of The Hague Center for Strategic Studies (HCSS). The latter writes about the Brexit: “Anyone who thinks that the British can do cherry picking, can disintegrate the common decision and close the best possible trade deal, is wrong. The economic distance with the EU, China and the US is too great for that. (...) Tomorrow the British will wake up in a world where they can no longer fall back on the EU, but have become the plaything of the great powers. "[19]

It is not for nothing that the remaining 27 countries of the EU have transferred a whole range of powers to Europe or share them with Europe. A few examples clarify this:

- In June 2017, the European Commission decided to provide additional protection for airlines from EU member states. The reason was that countries outside the EU gave state aid to their own airlines. Such companies can count on sanctions since then.

- Europe introduced GDPR (Directive 95/46 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data). California is implementing a similar privacy legislation that will come into force in 2020.

- Airbnb has improved and clarified the presentation of accommodation offers and is now in compliance with EU consumer law standards. The European Commission and the EU consumer authorities had demanded this from AirBNB in July 2018.

- The judgment of the European Court of Justice confirms that Uber is not an information company but a taxi service and can therefore be treated and punished by Member States. (2018)

Most politicians see the usefulness of this supranational organization, even though they play dirty and often overload Europe with the sins they have approved themselves.

Whoever comes under more pressure is the nation state. The new philosophical rock star Yuval Noah Harari writes in his book Homo Deus. ”In the 19th and 20th centuries, countries measured their success by the size of their territory, the increase in their population and the growth of their GDP, and not by the happiness of their citizens. Industrialized countries such as Germany, France and Japan set up huge education, healthcare and welfare systems, but those systems were meant to strengthen the nation rather than to promote individual well-being. " And he adds, "People are increasingly believing that the vast systems that were set up over a century ago to help the nation move forward should actually serve to increase the happiness and well-being of individual citizens." [20] Benjamin Barber's bestseller[21] “If Mayors ruled the world” says it in his subtitle: “Dysfunctional Nations, rising cities.” The nation state is therefore being questioned. Also in my own home country, Belgium, the debate is raging like never before because of the fact that democracy was taken over by particracy, which is aimed at strengthening one's own political party and weakening the other parties, without looking at common content and to the well-being of the citizen.

From the European Academy of the Regions, we have been arguing for several years for localization to compensate for globalization. But also to counsel decisions made by national governments inspired by quickwins without a vision of the future.

For example, Australian Prime Minister Abbott reversed environmental laws in force since 2014. However, the Australian state of Victoria approved further specifications of their Climate Change Act; another state, South-Australia, has been producing 54% of Australia's wind energy since 2011, although only 7.2% of its inhabitants live there. 31% of their energy already consists of renewable energy.

The same thing happened in the US where Trump stepped out of the Paris climate convention in 2016 and prompted numerous US states & cities to continue with measures to combat global warming: California, Pittsburg, New York,… Despite these efforts, the US is already struggling with the heavy costs of climate change, such as when a powerful ocean wave hit the north-east and destroyed lobster fishing in the region. Moreover, the blows of climate change are likely to aggravate social and economic inequality across the country. The poor, very young or very old and colored communities are already disproportionately confronted with the dangers of our climate-alien present - and will bear an even greater burden in the coming decades. [22]

Other examples of a local approach can be found in hot topics such as immigration policy and energy supply. Flanders and the Netherlands pursue a repressive confrontational policy towards migrants. Bart Somers former mayor of the city of Mechelen in Flanders, has developed a zero tolerance but also an integrated policy in his city for the last 10 years. The peace in the city has returned and the local economy has been booming in recent years. The mayor of Rotterdam, major city in the Netherlands, Aboutaleb has a parallel policy. The latter, for example, encourages entrepreneurship of migrants through EigenBaas Migrantenschool.

When it comes to energy, the Spanish Atlantic coastal region of Galicia has natural gas in Orense: Gas natural Fenosa. Moreover: the region almost 100% meets the goals set for 2020. Given the location and geographical features of Galicia, the creation of hydroelectric power stations, hydraulic power stations, wind farms and solar power stations is ideal. The regional authorities have already developed 2 wind farms and the region is on the eve of a remarkable growth in solar energy options. It also has 2 biomass plants.

The state of Flanders in Belgium is at the forefront of the circular economy. The principle is simple: use materials and products a second time, sometimes in a repaired way, sometimes with a different destination. However, successfully introducing a new product made from used material is a much greater challenge. The mere circular application does not necessarily promote sales. The customer must be seduced with e.g. the use of high-quality products without prior investment and without worrying about maintenance, with a product that can be adapted and that is always up-to-date, with cost savings. [23] Flanders as a region has so far made a lot of efforts to launch and promote circular initiatives in various economic sectors. For this it has an OVAM vehicle - the Public Waste Agency. This seeks projects from young people and looks for potential partners in the industry. It also organizes an annual competition for the best projects that are awarded the Henri Van de Velde prize enabling them to get notority. Henri Van de Velde himself is one of the best known Belgian Art Nouveau and Jugendstil designers from the first half of the 20th century.

Another fine example of intensive cooperation between public authorities and private initiators is Tampere. This Finnish city, which is not situated on the coast and is very northern, had nothing attractive fivty years ago to become a hub for technological and medical start-ups. Close cooperation between the regional government, the university and the business community has made the city and the urban region grow into a dynamic hub attracting even foreign young entrepreneurs. The whole is driven by the economic development program of the Tampere city region and offers expertise in the field of innovative industry, smart city solutions and experience economy. Tampere is a globally important location for R & D & I where medicine, biology and technology are combined. Life sciences in the Tampere region are driven by the development of medicines and vaccines, biomaterials and tissue technology, implants, medical devices and systems, and also health and welfare services.[24]

Regions are also closer to and encourage citizen movements

The latest economic crisis in 2008 made it clear that countries that had companies owned by employees or ordinary citizens were more resistant to such global economic shocks than countries whose most large companies depended on foreign headquarters and where SMEs were mostly suppliers were from these multinationals. Italy generally has a formidable cooperative sector. In 2011 there were more than 40,000 cooperatives with revenues of $ 160 billion, around 12.5 million members and more than one million employees. Compare this with the UK, where 7,000 registered cooperatives contribute around $ 45 billion to the economy. Or to the US, where 20,000 have a turnover of around $ 200 billion. Emilia-Romagna is one of the most prosperous regions in Italy. It is also home to perhaps the highest density of cooperative companies in the world - and they account for no less than 30% of the region's GDP. During the 2008 crisis, not only did cooperatives continue to recruit people, but many people who had lost their jobs decided to start their own cooperative. So to a certain extent, the cooperative sector had a stabilizing effect on the local economy. [25]

The mail sorting center in the buildings of the Brussels South Station closed in 1998. For twenty years, the NMBS, the owner, left the enormous space on the avenue Fonsny empty, without worrying about the impact that the slow decay had on the neighborhood. Until in 2019 a number of NGOs and technology bosses decide to take an initiative. BeCentral above the Central Station in Brussels is increasingly positioning itself as a locomotive for the Belgian tech world. More than sixty organizations - tech companies, schools and NGOs alike – were already attracted by the initiatives. [26] These types of initiatives are increasingly taking place in major cities such as Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Berlin. They provide an answer to a kind of dissatisfaction of the citizen that politicians take so few local initiatives or do not involve them in any way. But these types of citizens' initiatives, on the other hand, offer a creative local interpretation to a desire of the community to depend less on distant governments or self-centered managers in multinationals.

Particularly in European agriculture, which is under great pressure due to liberalization, citizens' initiatives have been set up to bring farmers and food products closer to their public. At "Boeren en buren", "La Ruche", "Marktschwärmer", "La Colmena", "L'Alveara", suppliers of fresh produce (fruit, vegetables, dairy, eggs, bread, meat...) and seasonal producers and their products are brought into contact via apps with an audience of citizens who like to buy directly from the farmer. Producers from the region collect the orders and deliver them at a set time to a set place. Payment has already been made via the internet. The network is active in France (618 suppliers), where it originated, in Belgium (125 suppliers), the Netherlands (10 suppliers), Germany (92 suppliers), Italy (224 suppliers) Switzerland (37 suppliers), Spain (88 suppliers) and Portugal (2 suppliers). [27] Eliminating most intermediaries such as supermarkets enables the farmers to be paid more decently for the quality products they supply.

Where energy giants do not succeed in installing (necessary) windmills in Belgium and France, mayors and "citizen cooperatives" do succeed. [28] Ecopower is a Belgian cooperative producer and supplier of renewable energy. Those who invest in the production can use their own Ecopower power at home. The cooperative strives for 100% renewable energy for electricity, heat and mobility. By making ordinary citizens the owners of wind turbines, solar panels, small hydroelectric power stations and a pellet factory, the support for renewable energy is increased. Together they take energy provisions into their own hands in order to become independent of energy imports and large commercial energy companies. [29]

KAISDER, an organization for female employers and industrialists is active in Turkey. Kaisder's goal is to achieve gender equality in the economic growth cycle. [30] Of the 15-40 year-olds, only 8.8% of the start-ups are realized by women. Their additional goals are to create a dialogue between societies and to close the gap with men - their slogan on Facebook is KADIN-ERKEK DE ÖIL ÖNCE "İNSAN" OLACA --IZ - WE BECOME "HUMAN" FOR WOMEN AND MEN - and women entrepreneurs unite in a national network. The aim is to bring all women's entrepreneurial organizations from different parts of Turkey under one umbrella in order to improve their communication power and solidarity, to establish a network between NGOs and the private sector and to make a promise to the labor and economy ministries. A consortium of 3 Turkish NGO organizations, of which Kaisder took the lead, is currently deploying the WBUN project throughout the country in different parts of Turkey, with the aim of developing a communication and solidarity network aimed at female entrepreneurs. The WBUN or Women Business Network Organization is a project that has been realized with EU funds. Expected output from WBUN is primarily to cover the whole of Turkey with W-BUN by creating websites and applications. Secondly, to prepare a policy proposal for a legal arrangement that would invite more women entrepreneurs to be held under the GRC. Thirdly, to prepare a major communication campaign to raise awareness about W-BUN. Fourthly, to increase the capacity of women's entrepreneurship NGOs through training and workshops, and firstly to develop the KAGIDER training module called COMPASS and make it available to online NGOs.

What about Switzerland now?

Switzerland is the decentralized country par excellence. Prior to its 1848 constitution, Switzerland was a federation of states, each of which was sovereign and independent, bound together by a treaty of mutual defense against external aggression. As a country it was the most economically developed in Europe. It was religious and ethnically diverse, very innovative and very productive. Huguenots expelled from France in religious wars started the Swiss watch industry and German Protestants who escaped Catholic oppression set up large industrial companies. There was a focus on knowledge and education to compensate for the lack of natural resources, and the Swiss were networked and energetic traders worldwide. [31]

It is also one of the most privatized countries in the world. Swiss governments give few subsidies, encourage the private sector to take initiatives based on a business model.

Although employment in Swiss industry continued to fall between 1990 and 2000, the share of value added remained constant at the same time. The explanation is obvious: the industrial sector has experienced strong productivity growth at this stage. And this not only continued after the millennium, but it even accelerated. Since then, the number of employees in the industry has increased again, albeit only slightly. Between 2000 and 2012, industry grew faster than GDP and many service segments. Switzerland was the only Western country that clearly exceeded the 2007 level after the 2008/09 economic crisis. Compared with other Western countries, industrial production in Switzerland scored well and increased by 6.6 percent - compared to the period between 2007 and 2013.

The country comprises 26 cantons divided into 2914 municipalities. Every canton has its own constitution and parliament. In addition, there is a federal government with 7 ministers and a federal president. Most powers lie with the cantons; some have been entrusted to the federal government. Cantons can impose taxes (even municipalities are allowed to do so within the norms). There is nevertheless a federal tax law on tax matters that are harmonized. Cantons are also responsible for education and justice and for socio-economic politics. There is financial solidarity between the cantons, but the social bill itself must be paid.

The Federal Swiss budget amounts to 11.08% of GDP (2018) and they have a surplus of 1.7%. The total Swiss government budget amounts to 33.8% of GDP (2018). In a federation where powers are decentralized, one wants to guarantee that all citizens of that federation can enjoy the same public service more or less. In most other countries this mechanism is called "equalization": it makes the possibilities of all regions to offer public services almost equal. In Switzerland this settlement amounts to almost 5 billion euros (4.8 billion euros). In Belgium, in 2019 it amounted to around 651 million for Wallonia and 397 million for Brussels, together just over 1 billion. Switzerland provides local governments with tax incentives to make housing development possible - a reason why there is almost twice as much housing construction per person as in America.

Proposals as a conclusion

If we link sustainable development to a regional approach, we should argue for stimulating local production of as many products as possible. This would be much less harmful to the environment and would also have positive social consequences.

We realize that governments prefer to talk to large companies rather than SMEs because the effect on the economy is visible much faster and therefore it is easier to be re-elected. Crony capitalism, that is, the ties that are forged between the big companies and the ruling political class and the fact that most international top conferences such as Davos and Bilderberg are excluded for small businesses or even small multinationals, is also morally reprehensible. By the way, most participants do not prefer the content, but the preferential contacts. That is why we argue for subsidiarity up to the level of SMEs where it is possible.

Avoiding taxes and putting pressure on national governments not to collect taxes in the country of consumption must be stopped, because it puts the entire expenditure flows, including roads, climate change, education, health care on the shoulders of individuals and small businesses. We know pretty well what people own in real estate but we hardly know anything about their financial assets - their money, their shares, their bonds. That has to be registered much better. We need this data to identify inequality or to fight corruption.

If we can improve the lives of a multitude of people with the money that is now in a few hands, there is even very clear profit. The concentration of fortunes in the hands of individuals cannot be justified morally or economically. It would not make our economy any less innovative if we tax these fortunes more. We therefore argue that we should no longer allow a tax difference between SMEs and multinationals at European level. And finally, we also argue that without social minimum standards, countries and companies should not be allowed to participate in the international economic game. [32] The threat of being confronted with a Singapore on the Thames should lead to drastic measures, even if this hurts the economies of the small, nearby European countries.

Louis Delcart, board member EAR-AER, www.ear-aer.eu

[1] https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html retrieved on 3-03-2020

The Sustainable Development Goals are:

1. No Poverty

2. Zero Hunger

3. Good Health and Well-being

4. Quality Education

5. Gender Equality

6. Clean Water and Sanitation

7. Affordable and Clean Energy

8. Decent Work and Economic Growth

9. Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

10. Reducing Inequality

11. Sustainable Cities and Communities

12. Responsible Consumption and Production

13. Climate Action

14. Life Below Water

15. Life On Land

16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

17. Partnerships for the Goals

[2] https://www.europa-nu.nl/id/vg9pn1p65vi9/bevoegdheden_europese_unie retrieved on 4-03-2020

[3] https://portal.cor.europa.eu/divisionpowers/Pages/Sweden-intro.aspx retrieved on 3-03-2020

[4] https://www.europa-nu.nl/id/vg9pn1p65vi9/bevoegdheden_europese_unie, retrieved on 3-03-2018

[5] The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is an EU advisory body composed of locally and regionally elected representatives coming from all 28 Member States. Through the CoR they are able to share their opinion on EU legislation that directly impacts regions and cities.

The CoR gives regions and cities a formal say in EU law-making ensuring that the position and needs of regional and local authorities are respected. The European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament must consult the CoR when drawing up legislation on matters concerning local and regional government such as health, education, employment, social policy, economic and social cohesion, transport, energy and climate change. If this is not done, the CoR can bring a case before the Court of Justice. Once the CoR receives a legislative proposal, it prepares and adopts an opinion and circulates it to the relevant EU institutions. The CoR also issues opinions on its own initiative. In short, the activities of the CoR are on 3 levels: opinions, events and studies.

[6] The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is an EU advisory body comprising representatives of workers' and employers' organisations and other interest groups. It issues opinions on EU issues to the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, thus acting as a bridge between the EU's decision-making institutions and EU citizens. The sections/commission of the EESC are:

• Economic and Monetary Union, Economic and Social Cohesion – ECO

• Single Market, Production and Consumption – INT

• Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society – TEN

• External Relations – REX

• Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment – NAT

• Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship – SOC

• Consultative Commission on Industrial Change – CCMI

[7] https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/what/glossary/c/cohesion-policy. Retrieved on 3/03/2020

[8] Dries De Smet: Geen sector zo winstgevend als de farma (No sector as profitable as the pharmaceutical industry), in: De Standaard, 4 maart 2020

[9] Kate Holton, Suicide of 'Love Island' host sparks demands for tougher UK media rules, Reuters, February 17, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-people-flack/suicide-of-love-island-host-sparks-demands-for-tougher-uk-media-rules-idUSKBN20B1JE retrieved on 4-03-2020

[10] Ignaas Devisch – Het coronavirus is geen Bijbelse straf (The coronavirus is not a Biblical punishment) in: De Standaard – 10 maart 2020

[11] Rob de Wijk : “De EU is machtig, ook zonder de Britten” (The EU is powerful even without the British ) in: Trouw - 31 januari 2020 - https://www.trouw.nl/cs-b312c296 - retrieved on 2-03-2020

[12] Simon Kruise, Lene Winther, Banned recording reveals China ambassador threatened Faroese leader at secret meeting, in: Berlingske, 10-12-2019 https://www.berlingske.dk/internationalt/banned-recording-reveals-china-ambassador-threatened-faroese-leader retrieved on 4-03-2020

[13] Ruud Goossens : “Een wereld zonder miljardairs zou een betere wereld zijn”, (A world without billionaires would be a better world) Interview met Gabriel Zucman, in: De Standaard Weekblad , 29 februari 2020,

[14] Rob de Wijk: “Globalisering is geen keuze, al laat de corona-epidemie precies zien waar de zwakke plek zit” (Globalization is not a choice, although the corona epidemic shows exactly where the weakness is), in; Trouw - 21 februari 2020 - https://www.trouw.nl/cs-b378d3c98 retrieved on 2-03-2020

[15] "World Bank Analyst Suggests Transferring Pollution to the Poor". Jornal do Brasil. 2 February 1992, quoted on page 135 of Nomination Of Lawrence H. Summers: Hearing before the Committee on Finance, Senate, 103rd Cong. 1 (1993).

[16] Nick Meynen: De wereld verhandelt zich kapot (The world trades itselve to pieces), in De Standaard 10 maart 2020

[17] Henk Dheedene: “Topvrouw farma: 'Er komen nog coronacrisissen op ons af” ("Senior woman pharma: ‘More Coronavirus crises will be coming our way’ "), Interview Marianne De Backer, Belgische topvrouw bij Bayer, De Tijd 6-03-2020

[18] Timothy Garton Ash, “Wat Europa van Nike kan leren”,( What Europe can learn from Nike) De Standaard - dinsdag 3 maart 2020

[19] Rob de Wijk : “De EU is machtig, ook zonder de Britten”( The EU is powerful even without the British) in: Trouw - 31 januari 2020 - https://www.trouw.nl/cs-b312c296 - retrieved on 2-03-2020

[20] Yuval Noah Harari: Homo Deus, Harvill Secker, London, 2016

[21] Benjamin R.Barber: If Mayors Ruled the World. Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities, 2013, Yale University Press

[22] Alejandra Borunda, Climate impacts grow, and U.S. must act, says new report, in National Geographic, November 23, 2018

[23] Louis Delcart, WASTE MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN FLANDERS – BELGIUM, in https://lodelcar.tumblr.com/post/180955829970/waste-management-and-circular-economy-in-flanders retrieved on 3-03-2020

[24] https://nordiclifescience.org/businesstampere/about-business-tampere/ retrieved on 04-03-2020

[25] The Italian region where 30% of GDP comes from cooperatives, in Apolitical - January 8, 2018

[26] Benny Debruyne, BeCentral verenigt techbedrijven, scholen en ngo's: 'Tech toegankelijk maken voor iedereen' (BeCentral unites tech companies, schools and NGOs: 'Making tech accessible to everyone'), in: Trends, 26/02/20, https://trends-knack-be.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/trends.knack.be/economie/bedrijven/becentral-verenigt-techbedrijven-scholen-en-ngo-s-tech-toegankelijk-maken-voor-iedereen/article-longread-1569643.html.amp?fbclid=IwAR2MVjqrZf6n-E2GCvoUNGuW6mffZljFSTR0XyOLEDpfoaLZCrIYy8UCtjQ retrieved 1-03-2020

[27] https://boerenenburen.be/nl-BE?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiofkx_z-5wIVFOJ3Ch1vzQo-EAAYASAAEgLR9_D_BwE retrieved 3-03-2020

[28] Jolien De Bouw: ‘Zelf windmolens bouwen om ons landschap te redden’ (Build your own windmills to save our landscape) in: De Standaard – 31-12- 2019

[29] https://www.ecopower.be/over-ecopower/onze-werking retrieved on 3/03/2020

[30] http://ear-aer.eu/2019/12/08/ear-aer-went-to-ankara-on-6th-december-2019-for-the-1st-one-day-workshop-with-ersiad/ retrieved on 3/03/2020

[31] https://mises.org/wire/economics-everywhere-politics-nowhere-benefits-swiss-decentralization retrieved on 3-03-2020

[32] Geert Noels, Gigantisme, Van too big to fail naar trager, kleiner en menselijker, Lannoo-Spectrum, 2019

#regional approach #regional development #subsidiarity #sustainable development goals

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airlinepolyglot-blog · 8 years ago

Text

another infrequent update

NOTE: a few links and whatnot are missing from this post, several YouTubes, etc. I will add them very shortly, and if I do not, then please remind me!

Hello everyone, I know it’s been awhile once again. It’s not that I haven’t been doing language things (quite the contrary), but rather that I don’t have time to tell you about them. A quick rundown of what I’ll be talking about here:

Travels and how language related:

-my trip to Toronto

-my trip to Hong Kong

-a brief mention of my trip to Cancun

What I have learned, language wise, since my last update:

-Norwegian

-German

-Welsh

-Hungarian

-Russian

-Turkish

I went to Toronto with my girlfriend Marisa since my last update. Toronto is of course an English majority city so there isn’t a ton to write about that, but it’s worth noting just how bilingual Canada is in many ways. Most people in Toronto can’t speak French, or rarely speak it, but it’s as prevalent as Spanish is in the US. Everything is cosigned in both languages, and of course the government enforces Canada’s bilingualism, which was extremely interesting. I’ll be interested to visit a really bilingual city in Canada, like Ottawa or Montreal, where everyone can speak both languages.

Hong Kong had been one of my top cities to visit after I got the airline job (and before that, too). There was obviously absolutely no way it was going to disappoint, and luckily it didn’t in the slightest. Definitely the best place I have been to to date (lovely English right there!), on so many levels. It’s extremely welcoming and inviting to an outsider, insanely easy to get around, very safe, etc. But to the world tourist, the level of English spoken in Hong Kong is extremely impressive. Literally everyone in Hong Kong spoke English that I spoke with, to a very good degree. Curiously, the Filipino domestic helpers spoke some of the poorest english (they stuck to Tagalog), and more obviously, the mainland tourists spoke very little (if any) English. I used Mandarin a few times, but interestingly I used German quite a bit (there’s apparently quite a bit of German expatriation in Hong Kong). I was caught off guard with the German, considering I was fairly out of practice (but usually made out just fine!), but I came armed with the Mandarin. Using HelloChinese and a few audio resources (Living Language) I had a conversational amount down, though I never used it to that degree (it would just be pointing someone in the right direction or making small talk), after really seeing Mainland Chinese in action in Hong Kong, I felt very motivated to really work on my Mandarin. Sadly, I haven’t much since my trip ended, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up at some point - I love Mandarin and always preach how simple it is to everyone and tell people it’s far easier than people think. Because it is...once you accept that the characters are an “over time” thing. And as expected, the little Cantonese I spoke (“ni ho”, “mh’goi”, “ching”, etc) was received very well, but considering how widely English was spoken, it was just my sign of gratitude to the natives.

I did visit Cancun, Mexico with Marisa as well, because it was affordable, accessible, and warm. While it wasn’t great (we had a good time together though), I’ll of course cover the language situation there. Largely of course English to cater to tourists, a few people did indeed lead with Spanish, which was surprising. I had an Uber driver who only spoke Spanish and so he and I pieced through a conversation together, and he was helping me learn. But still, the Spanish language and I don’t really click sadly. A shame, as I want to visit Madrid, Colombia (any city), Santiago de Chile, and of course return to Buenos Aires. But luckily Marisa knows and likes Spanish, so she can come with me and help out with that until I’m back on track.

Okay, now an update on my language study stuff. I could post Duolingo stats but eh I don’t think those give as accurate an estimation as me describing my progress. So, I’ve been focusing on Norwegian a lot recently, which is without question my favorite language. I’ve been really focused on finishing the tree, and am at Level 17 on Duolingo. Admittedly, Duolingo is the only resource I’m using for Norwegian right now. No books, no YouTube, no audio, just Duolingo. So the terrible robot voice that Duo uses is my only way of hearing the language at the moment, but I’m doing that on purpose. Going to finish the tree and really have this language down, and then see how quickly I really pick up on it when I hear it spoken by actual people. It’s such a simple and logical language on almost every level that it’s amazing. The grammar is just so much more simple than any other language. The verb conjugations (or relative lack thereof), definite articles (which are suffixes), word order, negation (just “ikke”) just all make so much sense. The amazing Paul (Langfocus) did an awesome video about Norwegian and its relation to Swedish and Danish, with a lesser extent Faroese and Icelandic (both of which are far more complicated grammatically than the other three). In an ideal world, the Vikings and their successors would’ve pushed for Norwegian (or Swedish, but I like Norwegian and the culture of Norway just a bit more) to be the universal language of the world instead of English. Norwegian is an easier and better language than English, and it’s far more logical in ways (grammatically and pronounced) than English ever could be. It (as well as Swedish and Danish) also lacks the case system that comes along with German, which makes it much easier to learn than the main language of its family. Through Norwegian, you can almost fully understand Swedish. I haven’t done Swedish on Duolingo at all, but I can read Swedish text incredibly well, point out and translate words in IKEA, and breeze through Memrise and Tinycards decks, thanks to my understanding of Norwegian. I can understand written Danish to the same degree, but it’s a wildly different language when spoken. I haven’t studied Danish much, but I’m sure once you’re used to how they pronounce things (like Spanish/Portuguese differences), you’ll be in great shape. I can’t wait to hopefully visit Oslo this summer, as I still have not gotten to speak Norwegian in real life at all yet, but am confident I can do so….well, confidently. We will find out soon.

I am returning to Germany in a few weeks, and in preparation I’m of course going through my German resources again. Reguilding Duolingo, going through some advanced levels on Memrise, playing around on Babadum, and things like that. German is annoyingly difficult/tricky in so many ways (and after learning one of the North Germanic languages, it will frustrate you more once you’ve learned just how simple it all can be!!!), but I’m convinced the language runs through my blood and is almost second nature to me at this point, which I’m extremely grateful for. I can jump into conversations often, understand it when I hear it (even Swiss German!), and generally carry myself along. I just wish it wasn’t so difficult for new learners who aren’t picking it up in a classroom setting - it really is a difficult language to teach yourself, especially if you’ve never dealt with a three gender language AND one that has a case system, no less. Plus, “sie” can mean she/formal you/they, which I’m sure can certainly trip anyone up. That’s just a bit impractical, but luckily I have that advantage I guess.

I dabbled briefly in Welsh on Duolingo. A very fun and surprisingly simple language, I put it on hold temporarily due to my desire to focus on other languages. Nonetheless, I found it super interesting, though of course often difficult to pronounce. The “dd” sound in Welsh is maybe the most difficult thing I’ve ever attempted to pronounce, and I’m convinced only natives will ever master it. I want to see this language kept alive, so certainly give it a shot - the Duolingo course is wonderful and very well designed, and this YouTube video (linked within the course) will teach you how to pronounce the language very well.

My last three languages I’ll sort of talk about together. They are Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish. Three languages from different families (but I guess a similar part of the world), but damn are they a lot of fun to me. I’m actually glad I waited a week to write this post, as I attempted to look at Turkish again last night for the first time in ages and it suddenly made tons of sense to me - being an agglutinative language and all, just like Hungarian and to a lesser extent Russian. All three of these languages are pretty “out there” for an English speaker, and I’ll agree, some of the trickiest for an English speaker to learn, as they have a lot of rules. But honestly that’s a lot of the fun, once you get the rules down and can form sentences and work with the case system (all three languages feature a case system), you feel really accomplished speaking these beautiful languages. Russian always tends to amaze me, the amount of loanwords and similar vocabulary in Russian will really surprise you. Once you master the Cyrillic alphabet, I bet you could look at a Russian text and point out so many words that are similar to the Romance or Germanic languages. This makes for fun learning once you figure out the Slavic twist to put on each word. The lack of articles in Russian and verb “to be” is of course a massive advantage - once you dig into the language you realize just how much of a blessing this is. I’m really enjoying Russian, and while I still make plenty of grammar mistakes and still struggle to pronounce some things, I can’t wait to really get this language down and be able to speak it with confidence. While I won’t be able to speak Hungarian with sure confidence probably for a long time, it’s an extremely fun language to me. It has something like 15 cases - definitely an extreme amount, and not a language for the faint of heart, but if you’re really into this kind of thing you may want to look into it. The alphabet and pronunciation are quite simple once you get them down, and word order is very free thanks to the case system (similar to Russian!). Plus, the Hungarian people are great and amazed anyone attempts to learn their very hard language. I’m going to see for myself when I go to Budapest next month and attempt to drag some Hungarian out (they’re also attempting to learn English widespread, as tourism in Hungary amongst Europeans is climbing), and we’ll see if the rumors are true about how happy Hungarians are that we even let out a “szia” (hello/goodbye) or a “köszönöm” (thank you) in conversation. If you’re scared off by Russian’s foreign alphabet and Hungarian’s crazy amount of cases, then maybe Turkish is a good place to start if you’re interested in an agglutinative language that differs wildly from English and the languages similar (romance/germanic). Turkish follows a Subject+Object+Verb order which is kind of fun because you know the action is always at the end, and the vocabulary is very cool (and apparently features tons of Persian and Arabic loanwords). While I haven’t dove too deep into Turkish, by the time my next update rolls around, I believe I will have more to tell you, as I plan to get right back to Turkish on Duolingo once I’ve posted this. While neither Turkey (political situation) nor Russia (complicated visa issues) would be suitable to visit now, Azerbaijan would be a good place I think, as a large part of the population still speaks Russian, a lot speak English (thanks to all the expats), and their native language, Azerbaijani (or Azeri Turkish) is apparently very close to Turkish, so someone who knows Turkish well can quickly pick up on Azerbaijani. I wonder if the differences are as close as Norwegian to Swedish or more like Spanish to Italian. Maybe I’ll know by the time I write here next.

I also am attempting to learn the Greek alphabet because why not (the lowercase letters are throwing me off big time - why must they be different from the uppercase?!) and of course still looking at Italian, French, etc from time to time. I don’t have any decent observations on these developments.

Hopefully I’ll write to you all again soon. Follow me on Instagram or something if you’d like more frequent updates about my life.

#langblr #langblog #norwegian #russian #german #hungarian #magyar

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thoushallfadenothere-archi-blog1 · 8 years ago

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lcvelymemes:

» character development meme

Reblog, fill in with your own character’s information, and tag your friends!

TAGGED BY: @shqxperi

B A S I C S

Full name: Arthur Kirkland Nickname: None regularly used nor that he likes Age: Physically 28, actually approximately 1605 Birthday: Celebrated 23rd April Ethnicity: White English Gender: Male/Man Romantic orientation: Grey-Aromantic Sexual orientation: Bisexual Languages: English, French, Polish, Punjabi, Portuguese, German, Spanish; others to lesser extents.

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

Parents: None that would claim him as theirs. Siblings: ‘British’ Isles Significant other: Absolutely not Children: None?

P H Y S I C AL T R A I T S

Hair: Ash/dirty blond, naturally wild and messy. Neither particularly thick nor thin but difficult to maintain and usually looks mussed to some degree Eyes: Green, a forest deep type colour and give away his age; but guarded. Height: 5′10 Weight: Around 144lbs Body build: He has a trim frame, though wide shoulders. He has in the past had more muscle, but even then he has more of a runner’s build than anything else; he’s fast, not sturdy. Now however, though he exercises, he lacks any particular muscle definition or much muscle at all. He’s fit, but not entirely healthy, and the majority of his body is soft atop strong but insignificant muscle.

Q U E S T I O N T I M E

What would you say are your character’s strongest traits?

Realistic, analytical, polite, dedicated, sharp, kind

What would you say are your character’s weakest traits?

Irritable, stubborn, dismissive, arrogant, repressed, closed-off

What is your character like when they’re in love?

Confused. Disoriented. Rather hopeless in not knowing what to do with his emotions and as a result uncomfortable with the fact. Upon the realisation he’s in love he tends to avoid all thoughts on the matter and the person in general if they are not in a relationship. Represses it, becomes more shut off and harsh than usual.

What kind of upbringing did your character have, and how did this affect them now?

Arthur’s upbringing was somewhat disjointed. He didn’t have parental figures in nations and didn’t have humans long enough around to properly raise him. He learnt through observation and was only provided the bare necessities when he was younger, though as time passed he was taken as a priority. It tends to mean that Arthur doesn’t expect anything from anyone; if something is to be done he must do it himself or he will never get anything. But it also means that he feels a sense of duty or that he owes something to the people who do help him without his request. This can also translate to blind loyalty simply because he feels it is something he ought to do, not because he actually wants to do it.

What is their relationship with their family like?

It’s a little paradoxical. There’s a lot of tension for various reasons but he also has a lot of affection and sympathy for his family. There’s plenty of friendly teasing and despite otherwise appearances he would do anything for them. It’s just not a matter he publicly expresses.

Is your character religious? What religion do they practice, if so?

For the majority of his life Arthur has been some form of Protestant. However he is somewhat agnostic these days. He occasionally goes to an Anglican service if he’s so inclined, but he’s rather sceptical of the existence of a God; he’s not sure what he believes anymore. But he was raised on Christian teachings, which are hard to shake, so while he wouldn’t call himself a Christian he is aware of its role in his life and sometimes feels inclined to revisit those teachings for guidance. Not in the sense of spiritual support for problems, but that it is a familiar and reassuring practise that allows him to clear his head.

How does your character deal with mistakes?

He is almost always immediately ashamed; though the first expression of it is usually in hot-tempered embarrassment. It depends on the depth of the mistake that he deals with it, but he always makes efforts to correct it, especially if he’s wronged someone. If it’s minor then he’s embarrassed but will try to move on quickly, but if it is something he’s stuck by that turns out terrible then he has more issue working through his pride to fix it. But when he does he’s dedicated to righting his wrongs.

What kind of friendships does your character have?

Few. But those he thinks he can consider real friends he treasures greatly -- though again if he doesn’t show it. Of course there’s a self-loathing complex of feeling he doesn’t deserve them and they should leave, but any friendships that he has, at all, are cherished.

Does your character forgive and forget or do they hold a grudge? Why?

It depends greatly on what it is that he thinks has been wronged. If it is him in some way he tends to believe he probably deserved it, or otherwise understands some things are simply politics, and it’s unfair for him to keep things against others who didn’t otherwise have a choice. If it is personal to a degree where the subject was of extreme importance to him, then it’s harder to let it go. On the other hand, if it is someone in his life who is important that has been wronged by someone else, it’s incredibly hard for him to forgive and forget.

How do they view the world they live in?

He tends for realism, but in the sense that he has a rather negative world-view. He finds it hard to see good in people, but at the same time wishes he could protect them. He doesn’t think the fundamentals of human behaviour have changed in all the years he’s been alive, which is why he can’t really bring himself to believe anything is truly good.

Does your character think with their head or with their heart?

With his head. His heart speaks loudly, but he refuses to listen to it.

Is your character well-schooled? What sort of education did they have?

Yes. He spent the majority of his life in the care of royalty and as a result was always provided with the finest education. And if not, bettered it himself in private.

Finish this meme with whatever you want to tell us about your character!

Arthur’s a terrible paradoxical man end him.

TAGGING: @glennisdair, @francisleseduisant (ha do it twice), @mrunitedstates, @kurwakurwakielbasa

#HC.

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peaceandsecurityin2018 · 7 years ago

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Yazidi women fighting against the Islamic State

In 2014, the Islamic State invaded Yazidi’s territories in the Mount Sinjar, slaughtering any opponent and sexually enslaving hundreds of women. In reaction, the ones who managed to escape their oppression took arms to defend their families but also their territories.

The Yazidi genocide

However, as their faith incorporates elements of different religions they have often been seen and described as a sect and were persecuted for it, with seventy-two genocidal bloodshed recorded between the 18th and 19th century (Jalobi, 2014). As many groups before, the Islamic State (IS) fighters see the Yazidi people as “devil worshipers” having heretical beliefs. The originality of Yazidi religion might be one of the reasons, why this population has been persecuted and still is.

A conception anchored in the past: women bodies like a “battlefield”?

In 2014, the auto-proclaimed Islamic State invaded Yazidi’s territories, forcing them to flee the Mount Sinjar and find refuges in nine different, recorded, places around the mountain (Jalobi, 2014). Many of those people were captured or killed. Among them, most of the women captured were used and sold as sex slaves for the members of the Islamic State.

Yet, this consideration of sex and women bodies has been instituted a few decades ago in the region. It was already the one during the Ba’th regime, concerning men and women opposing the regime who were sexually tortured. It continued during the 1980s Iran-Iraqi war during which horrifying practices were done to Kurdish women. Thus, according to Al-Ali, using women’s bodies began to be a way to install boundaries between communities and make the other suffer. This conception shifted to the patriotic one, seeing women as the bearers of future Iraqi citizens and fighters. International marriages were also forbidden and broken if already done. Finally, during the next decade, when the United States (US) invaded the country, the government partly justified it by highlighting sexual aggressions against women, but never really did anything against it.

Consequently, when the IS took command over important cities of Iraq in 2014, they did not invent, but perpetuated and worsened a pattern by sexually enslaving Yazidi women (Al-Ali, 2016). This historically derived interpretation of sexual relations and gender illustrates Peterson and Parisi’s theory showing that those are “mutually constitutive of institutionalized heterosexism” which is itself part of the way political and social life are organized. Thus, how the Iraqi government considered women body remained throughout the years because it was used to regulate the social and political life of the people, determining the way women would be considered and their role. It remained as an institutionalized principle that became a pattern within private and political socialization.

Moreover, The Guardian journalist Sarah Moroz reveals that most of the women that were raped refuse to share their own experience talking about relatives that experienced it but rarely involving themselves because of ‘the culture of shame around sex’ (Moroz, 2015). The way she describes it illustrates how women bodies are instrumentalized as a mean to weaken the local population and gain more power over the territory.

A lack of common humanity?

Indeed, most of Yazidi women, who succeeded to fly away from ISIS or who saw their families suffering from the treatment the IS inflicted them, decided to take arms. It mainly began when those attacked Yazidi villages, in August 2014. They destructed the inhabitations, enslaved women and slaughtered everyone who would oppose them. Interviews describe the massive rape of entire families, mother and daughters, no matter what their age is, selling them in slave markets, forcing them to marry a fighter or being massively raped daily to distract the men coming back from their ‘holy fight’. The latter seem to treat women as objects, raping them until they bleed to death. Natasha Marhia wrote: ‘some humans are more human than others’ (Marhia, 2013). It seems that IS fighters do not consider Yazidi as human. The system of beliefs that the IS gave them changes their value judgment that would guide the way they consider others and their bodies. Their conception of human beings is structured by ultra-gendered roles and hate towards other religions or cultures. The Yazidi MP intervening at the Iraqi parliament even evoked herself that those “had no humanity” (Cf video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=118&v=JHQCPF9Bz44

Women fighting for peace: a feminist perspective of Yazidis’ fight

Showing they are willing to act for a change, many Yazidi women join local Kurdish armed groups, which might also make the reader wonder if they are ideologically involved in the Kurdish territorial claim or not. The groups where women are the most involved are the Kurdish Worker Party and the allied People’s Protection Units (YPG) (Reed and Thomas, 2017). However, the Kurdish population is divided into different ideological, political and armed groups bearing different conception of the fight for their territory with competing leaders. The Kurdish Workers Party or PKK, the one mostly involved in the fight against the Turkish government is also one of the most involved against the IS. Its actions are source of many controversies as it is described, by both the Turkish government and the European Union, as a terrorist organization. It bears a Marxist ideology and its leader: Abdullah Ocalan is imprisoned since 1999.

The Democratic Union Party and People’s Protection Unit (PYD or YPG) was involve during the Syrian civil war, created a little state split in three parts in the North of Syria and is described and obeying to the orders of the PKK.

Since 2005, the Kurdistan is an autonomous province of Iraq and has for president Massoud Barzani since 2014. It integrated the Peshmerga as their army that became one of the allies of the Iraqi government in its fight against the Islamic State (BBC, 2017).

Yazidi women first joined the Kurdish Women Protection Unit or YPJ and the YPG because those two organizations were also crucial for the rescue of Yazidi people in the Mount Sinjar’s region. They were also helped by the Peshmerga and the PKK in a lesser extent and did not recruit as many Yazidi as the latter. Yazidi women also tried to create their own armed group, called “Daughters of the Sun” in which they use their anger to defeat the IS. Most of them lost everything and are sometimes the only survivor in their family and their fight appears as a way to give a sense to their everyday life. A Kurdish singer even described it as a job, for a part of her life, until the group will disappear (Graham-Harrison, 2015). These facts go against the international relations tradition that war and even “political violence” is not a feminine concept. On the contrary, the mobilization of Yazidi and other Kurdish women, illustrates the fact that, according to Christine Sylvester, “women can even war for peace”. The Yazidi case seems to confirm that allegation as they are trying to reestablish a form of order to protect their families and to regain their territory and sovereignty at the same time (Sylvester, 2010).

The groups are well organized as they provide them with a three months training, involving an ideological transmission that might serve the Kurdish cause. Even though the Yazidi brigade mostly has a defensive position, women are completely devoted to their cause, always prepared for an attack, even sleeping with their uniform. What encourages them to keep on fighting is also the attitude of the IS towards female fighters saying that “for ISIS it’s haram. If you’re killed by a woman you don’t go to paradise” (Moroz, 2015). For those women, taking arms is also a form of empowerment, a way to be able to provide them and their families a future without depending on anyone else. Consequently, this decision of taking actions instead of remaining submitted or flying away, demonstrates what Schmitt would qualify their will to regain their sovereignty (Michaels, 2005). This exceptional situation made them react to stop those massacres and not to be dominated by a never-ending violence. Their actions and organization demonstrate their determination to regain the capability of self-governing their lives and later the territory where they used to live.

Yazidi women and the media:

Social media are widely used by the IS militants. The most widely known form of it is to enroll and contribute to the radicalization of new fighters. However, there have also been Facebook profiles, Whatsapp groups and messenger conversations recorded while trying to sell Yazidi women online. A documentary made by NDR and SWR, two German TV channels explains how both women and young girls are sold on an online slave market, dehumanizing them as sex objects (Giannangeli, 2015).

One of the issues is also that a majority of women that were affected by the IS are forced to talk by the media whereas some of them feel ashamed and do not really want to talk about what happened. Nowadays, the estimated Yazidi hostages hold by the IS is around 3 500 children and women. Their testimony is important to give a human and real appreciation of the situation. In August 2014, the United Nation Security Council confirmed that those involved in the persecution of the Yazidi population would be judged for crime against the humanity, and by so showed that what the Islamic State fighters was perpetuating is a form of genocide (Jalobi, 2014).

Bibliography:

Al-Ali Nadje (2016), Sexual violence in Iraq: challenges for transnational feminist politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies

C Williams Michael (2005), The realist tradition and limits of international relations. Cambridge Studies in international relations

Costello Norma (2016), Isis in Iraq: The female fighters that strike fear into jihadis - because they’ll rob them of paradise. The independent, from : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-in-iraq-the-women-kurd-and-yazidi-fighters-that-put-the-fear-into-jihadis-because-theyll-rob-a6977761.html (read 14.02.2018)

Dearden Lizzie (2015), ‘Isis are afraid of girls’: Kurdish female fighters believe they have an unexpected advantage fighting in Syria, The independent, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-are-afraid-of-girls-kurdish-female-fighters-believe-they-have-an-unexpected-advantage-fighting-a6766776.html (read 15.02.2018)

European Parliament (2016), Iraqi Yazidi activists Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar receive 2016 Sakharov Prize, News European Parliament, from:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/world/20161209STO55334/iraqi-yazidi-activists-nadia-murad-and-lamiya-aji-bashar-receive-sakharov-prize (read 13.02.2018)

Giannangeli Marco (2015), Daesh kidnaps women and children to sell as sex slaves on social media. The express. From : https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/629563/Daesh-kidnaps-women-children-sell-sex-slaves-social-media (read 19.02.2018)

Graham-Harrison Emma (2017), Women warriors: the extraordinary story of Khatoon Khider and her Daughters of the Sun. The observer, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/12/women-warriors-khatoon-khider-yazidi-isis-battle-iraq (seen 17.02.2018)

Hay Mark (2014), Why Is the Islamic State Trying to Eradicate Iraq’s Yazidi Minority?. Vice, from : https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/bn5573/why-is-the-islamic-state-trying-to-eradicate-iraqs-yazidi-minority-813 (read : 15.02.2018)

Hawramy Fazel (2014), Peshmerga forces heave Isis away from Mount Sinjar, The Guardian, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/21/peshmerga-forces-isis-mount-sinjar (read 18.02.2018)

(2018) Islamic State and the crisis in Iraq and Syria in maps, BBC news, from : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838034 (read 31.01.2018)

Jalobi Raya (2014), Who are the Yazidis and why is Isis hunting them?. The Guardian, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/who-yazidi-isis-iraq-religion-ethnicity-mountains (read 18.02.2018)

(2017), Kurdish People Fast Facts. CNN, From: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/18/world/kurdish-people-fast-facts/index.html (read 18.02.2018)

Marhia Natasha (2013), Some humans are more Human than Others: Troubling the ‘human’ in human security from a critical feminist perspective. Security Dialogue

McKernan Bethan (2017), 'We want revenge’: Meet the Yazidi women freeing their sisters from Isis in the battle for Raqqa. The independent, from : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/raqqa-latest-yazidi-women-fighters-ygs-isis-massacre-syria-iraq-a7988461.html (read 14.02.2018)

Moroz Sarah (2015), The women taking on Isis: on the ground with Iraq’s female fighters. The Guardian, from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/11/women-taking-on-isis-iraq-yazidi-female-fighters (read 18.02.2018)

Spencer Richard (2015), Who are the Kurds? A user’s guide to Kurdish politics. The Telegraph, from : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11198326/Who-are-the-Kurds-A-users-guide-to-Kurdish-politics.html (read 17.02.2018)

Sylvester Christine (2010), Tension in Feminist Security Studies. Security Dialogue

(2014) Who are the Peshmerga? BBC, from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28738975 (read 18.02.2018)

Wood Reed M, Thomas Jakana L (2017), Women on the frontline: Rebel group ideology and women’s participation in violent rebellion, Journal of Peace Research

http://www.visapourlimage.com/en/festival/exhibitions/le-corps-des-femmes-yezidies-comme-champ-de-bataille

http://www.alfredyaghobzadehphoto.com/-/galleries/gallery/iraq-yazedis/yazidi-women-fighters/-/medias/895ee2c1-4137-4e9e-af68-51bd88f07d5d-military-training-of-yazidi-girls-formation-militaire-des-jeune

Léa C.

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