#they're not prisoners after all

[beardedmrbean]

European Union members discussed on Wednesday ways to increase the voluntary return of Syrian refugees to the war-torn country, an idea that has gained traction in recent months but that remains controversial.

The talks among ambassadors were promoted by Hungary, the country currently chairing the EU Council's presidency, and were based on a document presented by the European Commission, several diplomats said.

The document stressed the role played by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in supporting the return of Syrian refugees, which the EU is looking to strengthen.

These returns would take place on a strictly voluntary basis. The bloc cannot forcibly deport Syrians because they are almost always granted asylum. Additionally, the principle of non-refoulement forbids authorities from deporting migrants to nations where they could face persecution, torture or any other form of ill-treatment.

Ambassadors also touched on the lack of diplomatic relations with the autocratic regime of Bashar al-Assad, who has publicly called on his citizens to return, and the fraught situation in the Middle East, where hostilities between Israel and Lebanon have triggered the movement of tens of thousands into Syria.

The start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011 prompted millions to flee their homes and seek international protection in nearby countries, with many crossing into Europe.

The UNCHR estimates that European countries host over one million Syrian asylum seekers and refugees, with 59% of them based in Germany alone. Sweden, Austria, Greece, the Netherlands and France also host significant populations.

Last year, about 38,300 Syrian refugees chose to go back, the agency said in an annual overview, noting the conditions inside the country "were not yet conducive for the facilitation of large-scale voluntary returns in safety and dignity."

Concerns over security, livelihoods, basic services and housing were cited as reasons for the low rate of repatriations. About 90% of people in Syria live in poverty.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has warned that "Syrians fleeing violence in Lebanon face risks of repression and persecution by the Syrian government upon return, including enforced disappearance, torture and death in detention."

A similar assessment is shared by the Commission, which has repeatedly said current circumstances in Syria cannot ensure safe and dignified repatriations.

Talks are expected to continue among member states in the coming months, with no immediate breakthrough in sight. However, the fact the discussion is happening at all signals a growing political willingness to address the controversial matter.

Earlier this month, EU leaders endorsed a hardened approach to migration management and tasked the Commission with exploring outsourcing projects and reviewing the concept of "safe third countries" to speed up deportations.

The summit in Brussels featured Syria as one of the items on the agenda. "The European Council reaffirms the need to achieve conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified returns of Syrian refugees, as defined by UNHCR," leaders said in their conclusions.

In July, Italy and Austria led a joint letter of eight member states asking for a new EU strategy on Syria that should be "more active, results-oriented, and operational."

The European External Action Service (EEAS), the bloc's diplomatic arm, has confirmed it is considering appointing a special envoy for Syria, one of Italy's key demands.

Since 2011, the EU and member states have allocated more than €30 billion in humanitarian and development aid to support Syrians in the country and the region.

[baalzebufo]

honestly the funniest gideon to me might be immediately post-show. where hes fresh out of jail on parole and trying to be a better person. my headcanon is they commuted his sentence to a mixture of therapy and community service (they uh. had no choice after the decision to both ignore weirdmageddon and also the prison got destroyed) and he accepted this in his attempt to Be Nicer

but also it means hes walking around town like this for a while

[astridsbirdskulls]

They probably fell asleep after a game

Here's more jerejean, including the projectile squean @emry-stars-art

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I wanna know ur Fontaine msq criticisms 👁️👁️👂I’m all ears

I'm not sure if you wanted me to talk about this secretly or publicly but! Here I go!

The TLDR: Fontaine MSQ aestheticised prison, poverty, child abuse, the justice system/court and didn't properly address any of it.

More:

Focalors/Furina has way too much of a sympathetic angle for a dictator who's lets people drown with her inaction.

Neuvillette feels Bad for sentencing some people to death/prison, but that's it. He's one of the most powerful people in Fontaine. If he felt like there are systemic injustices, I.E sending an abused Child to prison, he should be the first person to DO something about it, not just cry and be sad so the audience can be like aw, that's complex character writing isn't it? No it's not! And guilt doesn't absolve you!!!!!!! (These are stuff we deal with in OTCOJ read my fic now /j)

Meropide has children in it, both Sentenced there (Wriothesley) and BORN THERE (Lanoire), and this is just a quirk of the place. Not only that, Meropide accepts prisoners of all genders and crimes. There are abusers and abuse victims in one place. Do you know how bad that is? How much potential for crimes to happen in a place like that— oh wait, Meropide isn't under Fontaine's jurisdiction. If you are assaulted as an inmate it literally means nothing to the court.

Wriothesley had no qualifications when he took over. Depending on how long he lived on the streets, how old he was when he killed his parents, how old he was when he was first taken in by the orphanage, etc, the man might never have more than 4–5 years of formal education. Sigewinne probably had to teach him how to write reports. And do Meropide's spreadsheets. Edit because I forgot to elaborate on this one: This isn't a point brought up anywhere, which is bad, because when poverty and incarceration robs you of a proper education (and the rights to vote in many places too, too, by the way), it reduces your prospects for jobs, reduces many people's ability to get a home etc etc. Wriothesley was just, narratively, Given his position.

Meropide is an industrialized prison, and they portray this as a good thing. Prisoners are paid in coupons for their labour, and this is also portrayed as a good thing.

The One-Meal-A-Day reform was something Paimon gushed about being so great of a perk, that people might want to go to jail for food (could be interesting and reflective of systemic poverty if MHY had brains, but they don't, so I was just Pissed because essentially all Paimon wanted to say was "Prison isn't so bad, but still don't go to prison guys! Prison labour is really hard!"). By the way, in most real-world prisons they are obligated to feed you three meals a day. Because that's how much food a human needs. MHY went with one meal just so they can say "if you want to eat more, you have to work." And then the welfare meal is a goddamn gacha. So imagine you're a starving child who's too weak to work in the fucking robot assembly line, and you wander up for your first meal in 24 hours, only to luck in with a shit one. I'd kill myself.

They wrote Wriothesley, who's a victim of the system, into a guy who's say shit like "I'm the Duke I can do whatever I want" for a cool moment where he choke-slams an inmate (I know he was a bad guy. But also, in copaganda when cops are violent/disregarding protocols, they are always only portrayed to do that against bad guys, so what does our critical thinking tells us about this one?) They wrote Wriothesley, who was an inmate of a prison so bad, so notorious that it is the literal boogeyman of Fontaine, that has a legal (???) fighting pit, with an administrator who abuses his position to be unreasonable, to willingly stay in the place and become an Administrator who would choke-slam an inmate while saying a cool line about how he has the power to do whatever he wants. They wrote him, the guy who had to be fed on the streets by melusines, to think one-meal-a-day was a good enough reform (while he spends god-knows how much on his boat). This wasn't a victim-turns-into-abuser narrative either, they want all this to be seen as positive character growth.

And then, the final kicker is, they gloss over his entire abuse. You can only read about these shit in his profile, which most people don't because they don't Have Him or doesn't care to unlock it/read it online, and they jammed his entire backstory into a flaccid info-dump at the end of his character story quest. This man isn't Allowed to feel abused and neglected and show any reaction to it within the narrative of Fontaine itself, because if they actually Gave Weight to what happened to him, they'd have to confront THE FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM they had NO PLANS on criticising. I don't think they ever explicitly said the fucking Crime-Theatre nonsense was Bad either.

I could go on, but this is already so long. But yeah, I hope this gave you an idea.

[esteemed-excellency]

ok i'm almost done with the new firmament chapter, i have So Many thoughts 👀

[kingdom-creatin]

Benjamin and Kasidy are talking, Julian stops by their table to deliver something to Ben.

Kasidy: Why hello stranger! I haven't seen you in days.

Julian: I've been filling out reports for Starfleet Medical.

[He hands a padd to Ben]

Kasidy: I knew there was a reason I didn't join Starfleet, I couldn't do this paperwork.

Julian: Smart.

[He receives the padd back and walks away. His tone is flat and tired.]

Kasidy: Well, there was a time when you couldn't get him to shut up!

[She glances at Julian, confused and slightly concerned.]

Ben: I think I like him better this way.

Kasidy: That's mean.

[Her tone is reproachful.]

Ben: I was just kidding.

[He laughs breathily and smiles.]

Kasidy: No, you weren't.

[She looks unhappy and shakes her head softly.]

[Ben's smile drops and they look at each other, both bothered.]

---

I don't even know what I want to say about this moment rn, just, every time I see it, it makes me love Kasidy more and simultaneously really want to just shake Sisko around.

Edit from reblog:

I've decided at least one thing I do want to say about this scene: it shows beautifully how not well both Sisko and Bashir are in one fell swoop. This is a wonderfully done setup for the tone of the rest of the episode, finally really pointing out how severely they've all had to change and how they've all been traumatized and hardened by the war. Any smaller interpersonal issues aside, Sisko is not the kind of guy, the kind of commanding officer, to make that sort of comment out loud about one of his officers in cruelty or disregard for their well-being, certainly not about one he trusts and respects professionally. Something is wrong with Sisko at this moment. But still too, we see it really being addressed that something has been wrong with Bashir. It's the fact that this assessment has to be made by someone outside of his fellow senior staff that makes it suddenly more prominent of an issue, and adds to the meanness and strangeness of the comment Sisko makes about him.

[pushing500]

It is day 26.

Twenty. Six.

Immediately after the wedding, Vasso set off on a quest to find a persona monosword named Fracturedivine (a very cool name) with our newly purchased donkey, Shamrock. He was getting antsy about not travelling because of his wanderlust trait, and I thought a persona monosword was as good a reason as any to go on an adventure.

It looks like the newlyweds will have to wait a while for their honeymoon.

As Vasso was travelling, Blackdragon and Duchess (who have known each other for a grand total of four days) decided to get engaged. Nobody on this planet knows how to take things slow.

I also imagine Socks is extremely frustrated having to share a cell with these ridiculous lovebirds.

Vasso arrived, got ambushed by a lone naked woman wielding a shiv, killed her with a headshot, and left again with Fracturedivine. I don't think I'll have anyone bond with it yet, as nobody in this colony is particularly good at melee, so perhaps we'll wait until we recruit someone more suited to such a weapon.

Also, I got this screenshot of Vasso pouting and being irate in this whimsical forest of giant flowers and thought it was funny/cute enough to share. Maybe he has hay fever, and that's why he's so grumpy. <3

First | Next | Previous

[firestorm09890]

accidentally made myself angry thinking about The Stranger just now but idk how to explain what I'm thinking about

[dnalt-d2]

Alright I have one more thing to say about this event (Though I'll admit now it's partly just me stating the obvious)

So as far as I remember, this Prison event was supposed to be four days, right?

Yet on the itinerary, it only has three days (ENDING IN PLAYER CRUCIFIXION??????)

This could mean one of two things

(One is a miscommunication/translation error, in which case, whoopsie and whatnot. I don't speak Spanish after all, which makes me rely on all the Spanish speakers for translations regarding events that Quackity announces)

But the other is that whatever happens on the third day is gonna be huge

So huge, that it will in fact carry over to the next day, and basically be a kind of fourth day for the event

And considering that Quackity keeps saying that this is about to be a new era for the QSMP, and keeps INSISTING it isn't clickbait, that seems like it's becoming more and more likely

Especially with that calendar we saw, with most of the week crossed out in Yellow

Something REALLY BIG is about to happen on the QSMP, and I can't wait to see what it is

(Okay so I just thought of this right before I hit post, but what if the Eggs are about to hatch?? Like I LITERALLY just thought about this, I was gonna put it in the tags, but what if?? It might explain why the Egfs are suddenly shifting back to the old type of tasks. It's been a REALLY long time since that was brought up. And that's JUST the thing that would cause a straight-up Era Shift that Quackity keeps implying. Maybe at the very least the Dragon shows up? Or at least gets brought up. Idk this is obviously just speculation, but wouldn't that be cool???)

[imminent-danger-came]

CAN YOU BELIEVE CALLUM AND RAYLA WEREN'T WITH EZRAN, SOREN, ZYM, AND CORVUS IN THAT CLIP

[imaginarianisms]

more asoiaf comparisons, parallels & antiparallels to the first dance of the dragons vs the second & final dance of the dragons (& possibly the sixth blackfyre rebellion): the blacks being daenerys i targaryen's supporters, the golds being aegon vi targaryen's supporters, tommen baratheon being a close equivalent to gaemon palehair & his mother essie & sylvenna sand which may be interpreted as a parallel with queen cersei lannister & taena merryweather of myr, trystane truefyre being a close equivalent to aegon/young griff & perkin being jon connington & the shepherd being the new high septon the high sparrow, dalton greyjoy being euron i greyjoy's ancestor & the latter surpassing him, alyn waters later alyn velaryon resembling aurane waters later aurane velaryon & finishing what their ancestors started. history repeats itself.

[oh-meow-swirls]

was looking through old posts and i'm surprised to see that i seemingly didn't have any commentary on anything in 3 in chapter 7, 8 or 9, the posts related to 3's story go from "my first reaction when i saw yopple-bot was 'i love you. but also you are definitely the boss for this chapter-'" to "i have been in hell all day. hell being bada-bing tower." funny to me cuz those chapters are like, the best ones sdfkljsdfjfsdkjlfsdjkl-

[paris-geller-was-straightwashed]

I feel like I'm losing my fucking mind.

while the absolute horror continues to bombard palestine - the nonstop bombings, the dead bodies in the street and trapped under rubble those living can no longer get to, the restriction of health care, newborn babies left to die, starvation and thirst, literal sewage in the streets spreading disease, all of this in gaza and even in the west bank, the increased bombings there and raids - daily, meanwhile, here in canada, we apparently have nothing fucking better to do then arrest people for using pro-palestine chants under the guise of it being hate motivated.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

I wish this was a fucking joke, but no. a protestor in calgary was arrested for using 'from the river to the sea, palestine will be free.' apparently the cops stopped by to 'inform' the protestors what chants were allowed and what were ~no no's~ which included 'from the river to the sea', and when a protestor used it anyway (because it's NOT FUCKING HATE SPEECH) they arrested him. for calling for the freedom of people under an occupation.

this is canada, supposedly one of the most free places to be (built atop the blood of indigenous people but anyways). but with pro-israel propaganda and the weaponizing of anti-semitism being repeated by our media and leaders, shit like this happens.

someone tell me right now where in the phrase 'from the river to the sea, palestine will be free' there is a call for an extermination of jewish people. look me in the fucking eyes and try to find where in that call for freedom it shows hatred for jews. this is fucking pathetic. this is a call for freedom. this is a call for liberation of a people who've been oppressed and assaulted for years, since before both my 60+ parents were born. this is a call for them to be able to walk freely within their own homes, within their own land, to be able to control their own lives. liberation for their safety and for their children, from the constant risk of arrest, assault and raids by the israeli army.

this is about ending an occupation, not the jewish people & their way of life.

many new sites like cbc and global reported on this as well as others; the global article also interviewed a jewish man, who claimed the chant was anti-semitic. it mentioned that he was the president of an organization called 'Federation CJA' - one google search of their website, and wouldn't you fucking know it, they're in partnership with israel, from 'birthright' trips to allowing you to send goddamn postcards to their poor, sad soldiers who're exhausted from bombing innocent civilians all day.

so while we sit here in safety, humming over think-pieces about whether a demand from an exhausted people to finally let them be free secretly means slaughtering every person of another marginalized group in site, the death toll in gaza has gone above 11,000.

of all the fucking absurd things canadians could be talking about right now, this has to take the first-place blue ribbon.

frankly, what this does mean at least, is one thing - when the occupier starts crying because the people they've trampled on for years demanded they stop & it hurt their feelings, it means they're scared. it means that the marches and support are working. when the oppressors start weaponizing language used for liberation and claim it's a cry to hang them from the gallows, then they're getting desperate. it's a reminder to us all to keep pushing and fight for a liberated palestine.

from the river to the sea, palestine will be free

(I s2g if any zionists come in my notes trying to claim some bs that is just the regurgitated rhetoric of the propaganda you've swallowed it's on fucking site I will block you).

[shattered-pieces]

Владимир Осечкин и Алексей Ануля: интервью с Алексеем Шугаевым. Сегодня ...

[confused-stars]

thinking about the dissonance between water being the element of change and healing, and Fontaine being stagnant and unyielding in the ways of its justice system

[dragonlights]

Sometimes you see a post that makes you want to sleep for a century cause of the sheer 'missing the point' of it all.