#vanuatu american soldier

[moonincapricorn]

Waiting for John Frum...

[miamiartdistrict]

KAMROOZ ARAM

on the ancient arts of Iran

Achaemenid (Iran, Susa). Bricks with a palmette motif, ca. 6th–4th century B.C. Ceramic, glaze. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1948 (48.98.20a–c)

The Artist Project

Vito Acconci on Gerrit Rietveld's Zig Zag Stoel

Ann Agee on the Villeroy Harlequin Family

Diana Al-Hadid on the cubiculum from the villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale

Ghada Amer on an Iranian tile panel, Garden Gathering

Kamrooz Aram on the ancient arts of Iran

Cory Arcangel on the harpsichord

John Baldessari on Philip Guston's Stationary Figure

Barry X Ball on an Egyptian fragment of a queen’s face

Ali Banisadr on Hieronymus Bosch's The Adoration of the Magi

Dia Batal on a Syrian tile panel with calligraphic inscription

Zoe Beloff on Édouard Manet's Civil War (Guerre Civile)

Dawoud Bey on Roy DeCarava

Nayland Blake on boli

Barbara Bloom on Vilhelm Hammershøi's Moonlight, Strandgade 30

Andrea Bowers on Howardena Pindell

Mark Bradford on Clyfford Still

Cecily Brown on medieval sculptures of the Madonna and Child

Luis Camnitzer on Giovanni Battista Piranesi's etchings

Nick Cave on Kuba cloths

Alejandro Cesarco on Gallery 907

Enrique Chagoya on Goya's Los Caprichos

Roz Chast on Italian Renaissance painting

Willie Cole on Ci Wara sculpture

George Condo on Claude Monet's The Path through the Irises

Petah Coyne on a Japanese outer robe with Mount Hōrai

Njideka Akunyili CROSBY on Georges Seurat's Embroidery; The Artist's Mother

John Currin on Ludovico Carracci's The Lamentation

Moyra Davey on a rosary terminal bead with lovers and Death's head

Edmund de Waal on an ewer in the shape of a Tibetan monk's cap

Thomas Demand on the Gubbio studiolo

Jacob El Hanani on the Mishneh Torah, by Master of the Barbo Missal

Teresita Fernández on Precolumbian gold

Spencer Finch on William Michael Harnett's The Artist's Letter Rack

Eric Fischl on Max Beckmann's Beginning

Roland Flexner on Jacques de Gheyn II's Vanitas Still Life

Walton Ford on Jan van Eyck and workshop's The Last Judgment

Natalie Frank on Käthe Kollwitz

LaToya Ruby FRAZIER on Gordon Parks's Red Jackson

Suzan Frecon on Duccio di Buoninsegna's Madonna and Child

Adam Fuss on a marble grave stele of a little girl

Maureen Gallace on Paul Cézanne's still life paintings with apples

Jeffrey Gibson on Vanuatu slit gongs

Nan Goldin on Julia Margaret Cameron

Wenda Gu on Robert Motherwell's Lyric Suite

Ann Hamilton on a Bamana marionette

Jane Hammond on snapshots and vernacular photography

Zarina Hashmi on Arabic calligraphy

Sheila Hicks on The Organ of Mary, a prayer book by Ethiopian scribe Baselyos

Rashid Johnson on Robert Frank

Y.Z. Kami on Egyptian mummy portraits

Deborah Kass on Athenian vases

Nina Katchadourian on Early Netherlandish portraiture

Alex Katz on Franz Kline's Black, White, and Gray

Jeff Koons on Roman sculpture

An-My Lê on Eugène Atget's Cuisine

Il Lee on Rembrandt van Rijn's portraits

Lee Mingwei on Chinese ceremonial robes

Lee Ufan on the Moon Jar

Glenn Ligon on The Great Bieri

Lin Tianmiao on Alex Katz's Black and Brown Blouse

Kalup Linzy on Édouard Manet

Robert Longo on Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)

Nicola López on works on paper

Nalini Malani on Hanuman Bearing the Mountaintop with Medicinal Herbs

Kerry James MARSHALL on Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres's Odalisque in Grisaille

Josiah McElheny on Horace Pippin

Laura McPhee on Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Harvesters

Josephine Meckseper on George Tooker's Government Bureau

Julie Mehretu on Velázquez's Juan de Pareja

Alexander Melamid on Ernest Meissonier's 1807, Friedland

Mariko Mori on Botticelli's The Annunciation

Vik Muniz on The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art

Wangechi Mutu on Egon Schiele

James Nares on Chinese calligraphy

Catherine Opie on the Louis XIV bedroom

Cornelia Parker on Robert Capa's The Falling Soldier

Izhar Patkin on Shiva as Lord of Dance

Sheila Pepe on European armor

Raymond Pettibon on Joseph Mallord William Turner

Sopheap Pich on Vincent van Gogh's drawings

Robert Polidori on Jules Bastien-Lepage's Joan of Arc

Rona Pondick on Egyptian sculpture fragments

Liliana Porter on Jacometto's Portrait of a Young Man

Wilfredo Prieto on Auguste Rodin's sculptures

Rashid Rana on Umberto Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

Krishna Reddy on Henry Moore

Matthew Ritchie on The Triumph of Fame over Death

Dorothea Rockburne on an ancient Near Eastern head of a ruler

Alexis Rockman on Martin Johnson Heade's Hummingbird and Passionflowers

Annabeth Rosen on ceramic deer figurines

Martha Rosler on The Met Cloisters

Tom Sachs on the Shaker Retiring Room

David Salle on Marsden Hartley

Carolee Schneemann on Cycladic female figures

Dana Schutz on Balthus's The Mountain

Arlene Shechet on a bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer

James Siena on the Buddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru

Katrín Sigurdardóttir on the Hôtel de Cabris, Grasse

Shahzia Sikander on Persian miniature painting

Joan Snyder on Florine Stettheimer's Cathedrals paintings

Pat Steir on the Kongo Power Figure

Thomas Struth on Chinese Buddhist sculpture

Hiroshi Sugimoto on Bamboo in the Four Seasons, attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu

Eve Sussman on William Eggleston

Swoon on Honoré Daumier's The Third-Class Carriage

Sarah Sze on the Tomb of Perneb

Paul Tazewell on Anthony van Dyck's portraits

Wayne Thiebaud on Rosa Bonheur's The Horse Fair

Hank Willis THOMAS on a daguerreotype button

Mickalene Thomas on Seydou Keïta

Fred Tomaselli on Guru Dragpo

Jacques Villeglé on Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso

Mary Weatherford on Goya's Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga

William Wegman on Walker Evans's postcard collection

Kehinde Wiley on John Singer Sargent

Betty Woodman on a Minoan terracotta larnax

Xu Bing on Jean-François Millet's Haystacks: Autumn

Dustin Yellin on ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals

Lisa Yuskavage on Édouard Vuillard's The Green Interior

Zhang Xiaogang on El Greco's The Vision of Saint John

[vanuaturesorts-blog]

Vanuatu Resorts

Things to do Whilst on Your Holiday to Vanuatu

Vanuatu is without doubt one of the most beautiful places on earth. This Pacific Island has been bestowed with immense beauty by Mother Nature. Besides the stunning scenery, there is still a lot for tourists to enjoy here. You can engage in any number of water activities ranging from swimming to snorkelling to even surfing. If you are an adrenaline junkie, try zip- lining in the Jungle. Interacting with the locals will also prove to be a memorable experience all by itself. You can also enjoy local food and of course drink some Kava, which is a popular local brew. Well, here are the top 3 things you must do on your Vanuatu holiday:

1.Visit Mount Yasur

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Vanuatu is Mount Yasur, which is an active volcano crater that has been spewing lava for well over 800 years. The crater is only 45-minutes from Port Villa by air, which makes it one of the most accessible attractions in the country. Climbing to the top of the crater will only take about 10 minutes, and it is also not too steep a climb. Once you get to the rim, you will be rewarded by mind- blowing views of the erupting volcano. It is a scenic view to say the least, and one that will certainly remained etched in your mind for decades to come.

2.Zip-Lining

If your idea of a perfect holiday is getting the adrenaline pumping, then going on a Jungle Zip-line in Vanuatu is simply a must-do for you. This is a thrilling experience in very sense of the word. You get to see the Mele Bay beneath you as you cruise above it on your lofty zip-line. There’s no need to worry about your safety since you will be always connected to a safety line with a harness. Nevertheless, this is one of the most exhilarating things to do in Vanuatu.

3.Swim in the Blue Holes

The Blue Holes are breathtaking springs that offer you a chance to relax in the most tranquil environment. Swimming in these springs will invigorate your whole being, and you will completely forget all your worries for a while. The springs are an incredible blue; almost too beautiful to be natural. But the turquoise waters get their jaw-dropping colour from the erosion of limestone over the course of millions of years. Nothing spells beautiful better than this.

4.Meet the Locals

Finally, spare some time to interact with the friendly Vanuatu locals. They are hospitable and will gladly share with you the history of their land. Get to learn unusual things about this country such as the tribes that worship an American soldier from WW II and about a fully functional underwater post office. Intriguing, isn’t it?

Conclusion

Vanuatu has a lot to offer the discerning tourist. Whether you prefer a coastal holiday destination or are more intrigued by the mountains, Vanuatu has it all. Make sure to savour local delicacies and drinks while you are in the country. Your holiday would be incomplete if you didn’t.

CONTACT US

Island Magic Resort

Address: Devils Point Road, Mele Bay, Port Vila Vanuatu

Phone: +678 29015

Website: https://www.islandmagicresort.com/

External Links:

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[dontcallmecarrie]

Fic Idea: Welcome To The Family

[In Which Natasha Is A Better Friend]

Warnings: Natasha Romanov’s background and POV [which…yeah, be careful because child soldiers are the least of it; plus a different take on what Graduation consists of], canon-typical violence, mental health issues [hi, Tony’s PTSD and Co.], loss of trust, probably OOC in some places, gradual canon divergence [wow isn’t that familiar], not Steve friendly, not Wanda friendly, closer-to-Skynet-than-is-comfortable!JARVIS, dubious morality, some pretty unhealthy things in general [childhoods, coping mechanisms, etc], mercy-killing [mentioned as a past thing, rather brief but in the context of Natasha’s Graduation]

Main changes here from canon: Natasha’s characterization [as in, it doesn’t change on the turn of a dime]. Her relationship with Bruce isn’t something I’ll delve into, because guess who can’t write romance to save my life? 

Also, JARVIS lives, because the day I acknowledge his death is pencilled in for never. And in this AU, Zola implied something a bit less specific than he did in canon.

Full thing’s under the cut because you guys know how I roll when it comes to fic ideas [read: very, very, very long outlines]. I’ll get to writing the fic on this sometime in the future, but in the meantime here you go. 

Natasha Romanov was a very dangerous person. In more ways than one.

It came with the ‘was raised as a living weapon during one of the most politically terse times in history’ package, after all, only a complete and utter fool would claim otherwise. And with it, came an appreciation for some things other people might take for granted, like the various applications of duct tape, the lifespan of granola bars, and even more fundamental things. Like trust. 

No, make that especially trust, and faith in humanity in general; just what kind of  childhood did these people have, to just believe someone’s word? To take a known assassin and just…extend their hand like that? [Weird. But strangely adorable, too, there was that.]

…Yeah, years later, and Clint Barton is still very baffling.

Point is, Natasha’s…unique background meant she had a perspective very few people ever got. The Stark Industries/Natalie Rushman mess meant she got a front-row seat as to the show Tony Stark put up. And that was what it was; a front, she knew. [Like knew like, after all.]

The entire fiasco had also been a case of “I know” and “you know I know” and “you know I know you know”, because Stark Industries apparently had a very unique stance on corporate espionage, and SHIELD hadn’t been very subtle in their attempts to get her in. 

The “Iron Man yes, Tony Stark not recommended” bit was a convoluted snarl of politics and dynamics and if Natasha hadn’t been born and raised in this, and if Tony hadn’t been a genius with Maria Stark and Peggy Carter as role models, he might’ve missed some of the nuances in what went unsaid. As it was, neither Fury nor Natasha missed the laughter in his voice, when he’d gotten to that bit.

 Natasha didn’t blame him; years in, and she still didn’t get why SHIELD loved melodrama so much.

But it wasn’t until the Avengers assembled, that her observations started paying off. Clint’s being compromised had been jarring, to be sure, and none of her training had ever covered huge green monsters, but Natasha had done her best to roll with it. 

If anything, Tony’s presence had been a comfort; yes, he was a pain in the ass, but he was familiar, an ally, and tended to come with a side of explosions and breakthroughs. The man was a force of nature, and Natasha sometimes wondered how things might’ve gone if he’d been born to anyone else, or anywhere else…then again, that sounded like nightmare fuel, never mind. [Don’t imagine him as a trainer in the Red Room, don’t imagine him as an enemy operative—no.]

Steve Rogers might have been an icon, might have been a bastion of principles and what it meant to be American—but Natasha was Russian, and she’d known to see past the propaganda to see the dazed and confused man who was still learning how to pick up the pieces when his world turned to ash.

He looked like he needed a friend. [Which…huh. There’s an idea.]

New York had been…interesting, to say the least. But it wasn’t until later, until Tony set about with cleanup after the invasion was over, that their friendship really kicked off. 

It helped, that they were very similar to each other; Clint might have noticed, if he wasn’t busy trying to piece himself back together, but as it was Tony tossed her a business card and sauntered away with Dr. Banner in tow, with a faux-careless “keep in touch if you want, Pepper wanted to talk to you about going out for drinks sometime” over his shoulder.

But Natasha had noticed the guarded look in his eyes, even if nobody else did, and she knew, without a word being said, that, despite all his trust issues [which she’d only glimpsed during her stint at SI, but had seen enough of to know it was a beast], this was Tony making an attempt to reach out.

Well…it’d be rude not to, after that, right?

And…Tony looked like he could use a friend, too. Not to knock Happy or Pepper, but this was something few could relate to, trying to atone for past sins [and failing miserably], plus the ‘hey we fought aliens together that one time, now what?’ thing. 

So, Natasha did what she could, to keep in touch. It was very off-again-on-again, because of missions and general work-related issues, but she managed. Things were rather rocky and awkward at first, but enough late-night phone calls thanks to time differences and downtime and boring stakeouts meant a very convoluted friendship soon bloomed. 

Which…Natasha couldn’t quite wrap her head around it, actually. The man had trust issues and one of the most full-blown cases of PTSD she’d ever seen, and yet he somehow mustered up the strength and kindness to reach out and befriend the person who literally stabbed him in the neck?! 

What even.

Tony Stark was added to Natasha’s “Weirdest Humans Ever Met But Would Gladly Murder For” list, because of that. It wasn’t very long, there were only three names, now, because Clint’s wife was just as baffling as he was.

Time passed, and while work at SHIELD meant that Natasha’s social life was 85% work-related [counting Clint and Steve], the other 15% had Natasha glued to her phone while keeping tabs on Tony and Pepper and JARVIS. [Which…she hadn’t known the AI was so sophisticated, before. Actually, she’d be surprised if anyone outside Tony’s inner circle knew, and treasured the show of trust like the rare thing it was.] 

Time passed, and Natasha was feeling pretty good about everything; work was going well, Steve seemed to be settling in and making good progress in moving on [now if only he’d let her help him get a date], Clint and his wife were expecting their first baby and had asked her to be a godmother, and though Tony was having a hard time, he looked like he had things well in hand [and she couldn’t exactly visit him while in the middle of an op in Vanuatu]. 

So, of course, Murphy’s Law struck with a vengeance. 

HYDRA hit with all the force of a sledgehammer, and the Winter Soldier had rattled Natasha badly. If she’d trusted her [SHIELD-issued, when’d she gotten so complacent, dammit?!] phone, she would’ve called Tony for help, but as it was she didn’t doubt someone was monitoring his communications, since doubtlessly someone up the chain had noticed his friendship with the Level 7 Special Agent. 

The reveal that the Nazis weren’t as gone as the world had hoped, that she’d been working for them, that her efforts to atone for all the red in her ledger had been for nothing, tasted like ash. It was a cold, bitter realization, and Natasha couldn’t imagine how Steve must be feeling. She, at least, had practice with this, after all: with realizing that everything and everyone she’d been surrounded with was an enemy agent, with the feeling of nothing was safe, not when empires crumbled and regimes turned to ash. 

Steve really hadn’t taken it well. 

In retrospect, she should’ve seen it coming, really. 

But Natasha carried on. Though…Zola had mentioned something, back at the bunker, and what he’d implied had left her feeling cold.

And…Tony needed to know. 

Natasha had heard him talking about his parents, once, when he’d been running on two carafes of coffee and not much else, mid-way through his 27-hour-long engineering binge, and the mention of how much of an ass Howard had been had stuck with her, nearly as much as how much he’d clearly cared for his mother. 

Natasha might not have have the kindest of childhoods [ha-understatement of the decade], but she did her best to be as supportive as possible, even if she went ‘that sounds fake but okay’ to what others claimed were normal childhoods [jury was still out in regards to Tony’s mentions of having built a bomb before puberty, though, no matter how relatable that experience was].

Steve must’ve told him, though, right? Because he might have been understandably hyperfocused on Bucky, there was no way he’d missed HYDRA’s hand in the death of Howard Stark. And though Steve and Tony might’ve had their differences, there was absolutely no way the man Natasha knew would keep something this huge from her other friend. 

Not when Steve’s searching for the Winter Soldier, not when Tony’s moving heaven and earth to clean up after them in DC. Not when the team started to regroup, and work together to take down every last vestige of HYDRA once and for all. Time passes, and things continue in this vein. 

Sokovia’s where the rose-tinted lenses came off.

Ultron caught everyone off-guard, really. Natasha had talked to Tony often enough to know he hadn’t been remotely close to interface, and while the Iron Legion was intimidating, she approved of its various applications. 

And yet the team tried to blame Tony. 

No, strike that, they did blame Tony, and that she hadn’t seen the cracks in the team before Thor nearly snapped his neck [because she’d seen that technique before, in the Red Room, and it had never been in a nonlethal application], she tasted bile in the back of her throat because how had she missed this?!

The Red Witch’s recruitment didn’t exactly help, either. Ignoring the dredging up of memories best left forgotten [Graduation and the mercy-killing of the only childhood friend she’d ever had because she wouldn’t stop screaming and wouldn’t have survived the Serum and remained sane], Natasha recognized the look in Wanda’s eyes. She saw it in the mirror, after all, and was intimately aware of her capabilities, of what it felt like to have nothing left to lose. 

Of how to use people. 

She didn’t get why Steve had recruited her, really; he already had a hard time just adjusting to life in general, why the hell did he invite a viper into the fold?

…again, it was one of those things that were embarrassingly obvious in retrospect.

It was no surprise Tony’d retired, really. Not when the only other friend besides her had flown the coop, not when everyone else had seen him being choked by an ally and hadn’t batted an eye, not when nobody else seemed to care that JARVIS had nearly died. 

But at least they were still friends. 

Even if Wanda threw a contemptuous look her way whenever Natasha’s phone started to play AC/DC [because Tony’s sense of humor knew no bounds and Natasha didn’t have the heart to say no when he’d offered to program in a few ringtones], or Steve frowned when she laughed at a Snapchat from Tony showcasing DUM-E’s latest attempt at a smoothie. [Sure, it was when she should’ve been sparring, but he’d been running late and she’d been bored.]

It’s not until after he retired, that it came up. 

In her defense, Natasha had been busy with cleanup, since depressingly few STRIKE teams had actually been SHIELD rather than HYDRA and she’d been one of the only agents with enough clearance to access the more sensitive areas. 

In one life, Natasha never told Tony, had trusted in Steve’s judgement and called it a day. 

In this life, however, Natasha was a far better friend.

She’d referred to it in passing, because it’d been months since HYDRA’s fall and weeks since Sokovia and cleanup was still being a bitch for both, when she’d caught the look of confusion on his face.

“What?” He’d asked, and Natasha felt ice at the pit of her stomach. 

“Steve didn’t tell you?” She asked, and abruptly realized she didn’t know Captain America nearly as well as she’d though, and that—oh shit. “You don’t know.”

“Know what?” But there was a look of growing suspicion, and…

“You might want to sit down for this, Tony. And call Pepper and James, too. Hey, JARVIS? Gear up, too.” 

Natasha didn’t know how to do this. [Why couldn’t she have had to fight a death squad with her bare hands instead? It was so much easier!] 

But Tony was her friend. He trusted her, and she refused to betray that trust again. 

“Tell me what.”

In this life, Natasha told Tony, of HYDRA’s involvement in murdering his parents.

Tony didn’t take it well, of course. 

[Perfectly understandable, what with having nearly made his peace with Howard’s alcoholism having been what killed his mother.]

Natasha ended up being used as a impromptu teddy bear, while JARVIS immediately made arrangement for Pepper and James’ arrival, because Tony’d need all the support he could get. Even though this was way, way out of her comfort zone, and she didn’t know what the hell one did when a friend started crying, she did what she could to support him, and quietly cursed Steve Rogers and Zola to hell and back for putting her in this situation.

And Tony…Tony lost all respect for Captain America, that day. 

“You know, he said something about teammates not telling him things?” He managed to get out, after the initial shock wore off. [Pepper and Natasha shared a dark look, at that.] “Looks like he didn’t have much room to talk, after all.”

It was no coincidence, that the Compound’s funding got cut, after that. Or that Natasha’s gear was top-of-the-line while everyone else’s barely got the basics of maintenance, afterwards. Or that team dynamics weren’t so much frayed at the seams so much as ‘even existing in the first place’, because Vision had the same sense of humor as JARVIS and Steve seemed to find that off-putting for some reason, and Natasha never let Wanda at her back.

There’s a few different ways this could go from here, of course. 

Maybe Civil War doesn’t even happen, because Tony’s not on the back foot when it comes to all the hurdles life’s throwing at him, not with his friends at his side and JARVIS in his ear. 

Maybe Civil War does happen, except Natasha never lets the super soldier duo go, takes them down instead, and Siberia never happens, and reality and consequences ensue.

If, somehow, someway, Siberia were to happen, however, it wouldn’t go down like it did in canon.

Instead, Tony, having been able to wrap his mind around the ‘HYDRA killed my parents’ reveal with enough time and support to be able to cry about something that happened half a lifetime ago and ever-so-slowly start to heal from the still-raw wounds, would take it differently. 

Here, Tony would still be horrified and shocked by the video of what happened. But here, Tony’s not on the verge of breaking down, isn’t scrambling for a moment of peace, isn’t desperate for a peaceful resolution. Tony’s doing this in memoriam of the man his father had spent decades and millions on, and…

Here, Tony’s furious.

But, having had the warning from Natasha, he takes it differently. The video’s still shocking, of course, and he’s fighting down nausea as he’s hearing his mother’s screams and his father’s desperation, but…here, Tony’s not on the verge of losing it when he turns to Steve.

“You knew.” But here, it’s not tinged with shock, isn’t colored by the hurt of fresh betrayal. Instead, it’s accusatory, it’s wrathful and Tony knew Steve was an ass but this was beyond the pale. 

In one life, Tony might’ve snapped, and lunged after the man who he’d just seen kill his mother. In this life, however, it’s the other supersoldier who gets decked with all the force of a pissed-off Iron Man.

“Son of a bitch, you knew it was him.”

Here, there’s no hurt “He was my friend/So was I”; instead, this might’ve been how it went down:

“He was my friend.”

“And she was my mother.”

But either way, Tony’s not losing it, here. Or, at least, not the way he did in canon. Because, here, JARVIS is a comforting voice in his ear, but he’s also support, and the Iron Legion is at hand to help apprehend these criminals with minimal fuss, so even if he’s repulsed by just how much of a hypocrite Steve turned out to be, he’s not alone in the bunker.

And afterwards, Tony’s not alone either. 

Here, it’s a new future, a new day, and with Pepper, James, Natasha, and JARVIS at his side, Tony’s helping forge a new tomorrow.

Here, Thanos arrives to an Earth with a team of Avengers who have been preparing for his arrival for years, and with all the efficiency that bone-deep trust engenders. 

…there’s so much more I could do with it, of course. 

I haven’t even touched on the shenanigans and puns that ensue when Natasha hears about their newest recruit, meanwhile Spiderman’s leaning back wide-eyed as Natasha takes down a room in less than a minute and tosses a casual “I’ll teach you how, spiders need to stick together” over her shoulder. 

Stephen Strange’s low-key terrified by the women Tony’s surrounded himself with [and resolves to either keep Christine and Pepper as far away as possible, or simply lay low for when they inevitably take over the world through sheer competence], and Hope Pym’s very happy to have someone capable of keeping up with her on the sparring mats. 

James Rhodes, meanwhile, is  sitting back with Vision and watching these dorks and wondering what the hell went wrong with his life choices to lead to movie nights with assassins and sorcerers and teenagers who thought “the new Star Trek movies were awesome” [and thus sparking the movie marathon to teach him otherwise].

Tony, of course, is very relieved to have people he can trust to have his back, and so proceeds along with his plans to take over safeguard the Earth. [Then again, the Accidental World Domination fic’s already in the works, so maybe not.]

Another thing I changed: the Red Room’s Graduation process. 

Not sure what canon’s involves, but here it features their version of the Super Soldier Serum. It’s not graceful, it’s not elegant, it’s pure brute force and painful and only the strongest survive the first 12 hours [and renders the person sterile, because of the drastic changes]. 

The low survival rate is only part of why it’s considered graduation; the other part’s killing the other girls who got dosed with the Red Room Serum, because most of them are halfway out of their minds with agony [and also because the Red Room’s Serum’s effect on sanity is really hit-and-miss, too].

There’s more to this, but cutting it short for now because this is supposed to be the outline only and at this rate the fic’s only going to be a repost of this.

Hammered this out because I’ve got a lot of fix-it/break-it-differently ideas on the brain, and got sick of Natasha’s fluctuating characterization. It also led to my different take on Graduation, because wanting to have kids isn’t exactly every female’s life goals, [hated that scene…I could go on for hours, I s2g] and to consider oneself a monster implies something that goes a lot deeper than that.

[bnvupdates]

6 Countries with the Fewest Wars

Certain countries around the world are known for their almost nonexistent war records. Many other countries that are involved in regular military conflicts can learn a lot from these peaceful nations on how to settle disputes without having to go to battle. Here are a few countries in the world that have had the least wars.

Switzerland

It’s no secret that Switzerland has had a long history of peace and consistently remains neutral during times of war. Even as both World Wars were fought near the country’s borders, Switzerland never sent troops into action and remained safe from the fighting. The last war to be fought in Switzerland was the Sonderbund War, which was a civil war that occurred in 1846 and resulted in less than 150 deaths and fewer than 500 soldiers being wounded.

Sweden

Sweden is another European country where no one alive today can remember a war being fought within the country’s borders. Although the country has provided some military support for conflicts in Afghanistan and Mali in recent years, Sweden is known to regularly refrain from engaging in all-out war. As with groups like the National Endowment for Democracy, Swedish diplomats frequently work with international governments to promote world peace.

New Zealand

This beautiful country has remained peaceful throughout much of its history. The government has been known to organize peacekeeping missions to try to settle military conflicts abroad, but the country’s recent history of fighting and bloodshed is minimal. The country does keep an active military to defend its borders if needed, but foreign powers have little interest in engaging in war with New Zealand.

Costa Rica

Even though some Central and South American countries have long histories of fighting, Costa Rica is considered to be one of the world’s most peaceful nations. The country’s constitution prohibits the formation of a standing military. Due to the country’s conflict-free nature, the United Nations established the University for Peace in the city of Cuidad Colón. The Costa Rican Civil War, which occurred in 1948 and claimed the lives of roughly 2,000 people, was the last war to be fought by the country.

Vanuatu

Known for its beautiful beaches and laidback vibe, the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has enjoyed a mostly peaceful existence throughout the years. U.S. military troops were stationed here during World War II, but none of the islands were ever attacked directly. The most recent military conflict to occur in the nation was the Coconut War, which occurred for a few weeks in 1980 shortly before Vanuatu declared its independence.

Liechtenstein

In 1868, this landlocked European principality decided to abolish its military over budgetary concerns. Liechtenstein has never been involved in a war since becoming independent from the German Confederation in 1866. Like Switzerland, Lichtenstein was spared from the fighting that occurred just outside its borders during both World Wars.

These nations prove that peace can be a reality in the world and war can be a thing of the past. If governments learn to follow suit, much of the bloodshed from war can be stopped.

________

For more information, check out a speech by former President George W. Bush in which he discusses the War on Terror at the National Endowment for Democracy.

from http://ift.tt/2zuwVY4

[brajeshupadhyay]

Galwan Valley clashes may have been China's pushback against efforts to thwart its ambitions for Indo-Pacific region

A few days before Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, three American aircraft carriers, accompanied by Navy cruisers, destroyers, fighter jets and other aircraft, began patrolling the Indo-Pacific waters.

According to AP, for the first the first time in three years, American carriers were spread across the Pacific. The USS Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group was operating in the Philippine Sea near Guam. The USS Nimitz strike group was in the Pacific off the US West Coast. The USS Ronald Reagan had left port in Japan and was operating in the Philippine Sea south of there.

As predicted, China portrayed the massive show of naval force by the US as an example of American provocation, and evidence that the US is a source of instability in the Indo-Pacific region.

On the surface, there may appear to be no connection between the presence of US warships in the Indo-Pacific and what transpired in the Galwan Valley. But when one considers India's recent foreign policy decisions, the growing ties between the US, India and Australia — three of the four members of the Quad formed to defend the openness of the Indo-Pacific — in the context of China's ambitions for the resource-rich Pacific waters and its growing assertion amid COVID-19, and the reciprocity becomes clear.

What's the Indo-Pacific?

According to The Diplomat, the Indo-Pacific is a mental map that stretches from the eastern shores of Africa to the western coast of the US. However, countries differ on the expanse of this 'imagined' region, depending on their geographic position there.

The Indo-Pacific region has gained importance in the last few years largely because of China's rise as a superpower, India's growing economic and strategic clout and the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean in global trade.

According to Reuters, China has been more active in the resource-rich Pacific in recent years, seeking to extend influence with aid and encouraging countries away from diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which China regards as renegade province with no right of state-to-state ties.

According to AFP, "Between 2011 and 2018, China committed loans to the region worth $6 billion – around 21 percent of regional GDP".

"A majority of that money, $4.1 billion, was earmarked for Papua New Guinea. Only a fraction, less than $1 billion, has so far been disbursed but China is still the single largest creditor in Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu," the article said.

Two  other island-nations in the Pacific — Solomon Islands and Kiribati — have already switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing.

China’s increasing assertiveness in the energy-rich South China Sea, an important constituent of the Indo-Pacific, has raised US and regional concerns.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which some $3.4 trillion in shipping passes each year. Several countries including Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei have overlapping claims to parts of the sea.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which had hit the US hard, has further heightened the need for Washington to keep the Indo-Pacific "free and open", especially among reports of China capitalising on the pandemic-led lockdowns.

According to reports, while the US and China's rival Southeast Asian claimants of the disputed waters, Philippines and Malaysia, conducted military drills, China extracted natural resources and even deployed large-scale military assets in South China Sea.

In April, there were reports of a confrontation on the sea between a Chinese government survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 and an oil exploration vessel of Malaysia's state oil company Petronas.

The vessel, Reuters said, was earlier also spotted off Vietnam, where it had last year conducted suspected oil exploration surveys in large expanses of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. Beijing, however, denied the reports.

The US has been conducting its own routine 'freedom of  navigation' exercises to enforce 'free and open Indo-Pacific'. In April, amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, USS Barry, a US warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait for the second time in a month.

“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” Lieutenant Anthony Junco told Reuters.

According to the US naval officers, China is slowly and methodically building up military outposts in the South China Sea, putting missile and electronic warfare systems on them. China already operates in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, and has plans to increase its Marine Corps to 1,00,000, from existing 20,000, a large chunk of which are likely to be stationed there.

It also owns the world's largest coast guard, which has often been at the centre of most stand-offs in the disputed waters, according to Asian Military Review.

It's perhaps because of these reasons that in less than a month after 5,700 of its servicemen tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the US was in the Pacific with three warships. And that too on the same day the US Senate cleared a $7 billion fund focused on competition in the Indo-Pacific (Pacific Deterrence Initiative or PDI) in the 2021 National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA).

The PDI aims to make funds available to "improve military and defence infrastructure, basing, logistics, and assured access in the Indo-Pacific region" in order to "respond to adversarial threats in a timely manner".

The idea of  a 'free and open Indo-Pacific', however, is not one that is espoused by the US alone. It's something India has often expressed its commitment to protect, both at home and internationally for years.

New Delhi not only shares the US view of the "free and open Indo-Pacific", but has in the past, openly supported it to the extent that it even backed out of the China-backed economic agreement RCEP.

India is also part of the Quad grouping, which also includes Japan and Australia as well as the US. The grouping was most recently upgraded to Quad Plus with Vietnam, an ASEAN country, and  New Zealand and South Korea, also extending their support.

Australia, which long enjoyed unrivalled influence in the Pacific, too in recent years become more assertive in maintaining its standing in the region. In 2018, it launched an A$3 billion fund to offer Pacific countries grants and cheap loans for infrastructure.

From South China Sea beef to actual beef, China-Australia ties had soured long before onset of COVID-19

Australia has also been slowly upgrading its armoury in the Pacific. In February this year, Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that his government will spend A$1.1 billion ($725.9 million) to upgrade an airbase in the country’s tropical north.

Most recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, signed a Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), which will allow militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation. This agreement will give Indian warships and aircraft enhanced reach towards the Pacific.

India has already signed similar agreements with the US, France and Singapore.

The Galwan Valley connection

In the days since the violent face-off took place between the soldiers of the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army, the Chinese media has time and again brought the US and Indo-Pacific Strategy into the conversation. The propaganda has been three-pronged: first, downplay the US' presence in the Pacific, second, portray that a huge gap exists between the military capabilities of the India and China, and third, present the US and the deepening India-US ties as the problem.

This approach is clear in a Global Times editorial published on 17 June.

The editor says that India has "misjudged" the situation in thinking Beijing lacks the will to "hit back provocations from the Indian side" because of increasing strategic pressure from the US.

It also warns New Delhi against relying on US, stating that Washington will extend help only to worsen ties between the two neighbours and make India "dedicate itself to serving Washington's interests".

In an article that appears simultaneously in the PLA Daily, the official daily of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Global Times, Dr Qian Feng of the National Strategy Institute, Tsinghua University, makes Beijing's disgruntlement with the US' Indo-Pacific Strategy and India clear as it proclaims: the US plans to use “use” India to “contain” Beijing.

Feng goes on to say that "some countries in the Indo-Pacific region have mounting suspicions about China’s rise, and more or less want to leverage the US to balance China’s growing influence in the region".

While these "countries" have not been named specifically, the attempt to dissuade India from taking sides in the Indo-Pacific amid a border clash, is evident.

The article says that the best option for New Delhi to safeguard its interests is to "maintain current balance among major countries" such as the ASEAN countries, Japan and China.

Japan is part of the Indo-Pacific grouping Quad that includes India, Australia and the US.

It then adds that India's "'strategic independence' principle goes counter to 'America first'" and hence the US Indo-Pacific Strategy is not a suited for New Delhi.

Needless to say, the biggest gain for China would be to keep India out of the US-led military grouping in the Indo-Pacific. Some Chinese projects in the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean Region as part of the Belt and Road Initiative — Gwadar Port in Pakistan, a port in Myanmar's Kyaukpyu town, Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, infrastructure projects in Nepal, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and its investment in modernising the Chittagong port — are believed to have been designed to encircle India in the south Asian region.

China appears to perceive the growing size of the Quad Plus and India's increasing presence in the Indo-Pacific as a threat to its ambitions. Its objective, therefore, would be to keep India out of the US' Indo-Pacific strategy.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2NqX4eQ

[newstfionline]

A New Battle for Guadalcanal, This Time With China

By Damien Cave, NY Times, July 21, 2018

GUADALCANAL, Solomon Islands--When Toata Molea looks to the sea and his fleet of fishing boats on the island of Guadalcanal, he imagines the possibilities from a new connection to the outside world: a planned undersea internet cable to be built by Australia.

When he turns the other way, however, to the main road passing through Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, he sees another form of foreign investment: dozens of buildings and businesses bought or built by Chinese immigrants.

“They own everything,” Mr. Molea, 54, said of his ethnic Chinese neighbors. “My fear is that in the next 10 years, this place will be taken over by the Chinese.”

The last time Guadalcanal concerned itself with a takeover, 60,000 American troops were fighting Japanese soldiers for control of the island in one of the fiercest battles of World War II. Now, this stretch of jungle--a linchpin of the Australian-American alliance with a long history of naval importance--has become the stage for a new cold war of strategic competition.

After years of largely unchecked Chinese investment and immigration throughout the South Pacific, Australia and the United States are stepping up their efforts here and across the region--warning local officials against relying too much on China, and pushing to compete with more aid, infrastructure and diplomacy.

There is no denying that “strategic competition for influence in the Indo-Pacific region is on the rise,” said Matt Matthews, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. As a result, he said, “we must not take our longstanding friendships with the Pacific islands for granted.”

The United States has committed more than $350 million to Pacific island countries, in the form of law enforcement assistance, help with managing fisheries and other aid. The World Bank more than doubled its main development budget for the Pacific too, increasing it to $808 million over a three-year period.

But Australia has gone even further. Pacific aid jumped to 1.3 billion Australian dollars ($960 million) in this year’s budget, an 18 percent increase. Nearly a third of Australia’s aid budget is now set aside for the Pacific--a region of nearly two dozen countries and territories with around 11 million people spread across more than 20,000 islands.

A large portion of that money will go toward installing the undersea cable connecting Guadalcanal (and Papua New Guinea) to Australia’s global internet hub.

Experts consider Australia’s spending spree the strongest example yet of its intensified push to counter Chinese efforts in the region.

The Chinese networking company Huawei announced last year that it planned to lay a cable and provide the Solomon Islands with a high-speed internet connection.

When Australia learned of that plan, it threatened to withhold a connection license when the cable reached Sydney because it considered Huawei a cybersecurity threat.

Australian officials immediately offered an alternative: Australia would pay for a cable and it would be up and running by 2019.

“The Australian government had been tracking that very closely,” said James Batley, a former Australian high commissioner to the Solomons and other countries in the region.

When they saw the Chinese cable proposal, he said, the Australians “made an intervention and said, ‘Sorry, that’s a red line for us.’”

For business owners in particular, the undersea cable is long overdue. Connectivity is so weak across the Solomons that storm clouds often interfere with the satellites that currently provide internet access.

“It’s important,” said Mr. Molea, the fish wholesaler, who also praised a small grant program from Australia that helped him build an ice factory for his sustainable fishing business. “With that cable, hopefully we can set up electronic banking and payment.”

But to truly compete with China, many people said, Australia, the United States and their allies need to do more, more visibly, with less bureaucracy.

Many Solomon Islanders still see Australia through the lens of a security intervention that ended last year after more than a decade of mixed reviews for its effort to establish stability in the wake of chronic ethnic violence.

And just as some Pacific islands have become more vocal about Australia’s “paternalistic aid,” officials in the Solomons often complain that the Australian and American governments do more dictating than developing.

Regional officials often argue that too much of the aid money is tightly restricted or boomerangs back to foreign consultants and contractors, leading many to ask: Well, why not try our luck with China?

Anthony Veke, 41, the ambitious premier of Guadalcanal, counts himself among those pushing toward a future with various partners.

He told me he has gone to China twice in the past year to pursue investment for a tourism development on the island’s west coast that would include a new airport.

He added that he would like to see a new road circumnavigating Guadalcanal, and an upgrade for the international airport.

“We can’t be boxed in,” Mr. Veke said, sitting in his office on the main road through Honiara, where dust and potholes still dominate. “We have to be given an opportunity to look at other places for things that are good for our people.”

The airport Mr. Veke wants to upgrade was originally Henderson Field, the airstrip that thousands of American Marines in particular fought and died to capture and defend.

Naval Construction Battalions, better known as Seabees, built most of the city’s roads, its major bridges and what was until recently its largest hospital.

Little development has occurred since--the airport still feels like a World War II relic--but much of what is new or prosperous seems to be owned by someone from China.

In Honiara’s Chinatown, a small strip of shops that has existed since the first wave of Chinese migrants arrived a century ago, signs of growth are visible: Scaffolding climbs above a new Chinese school that has received financial support from the Chinese government.

Matthew Quan, 52, the president of the Solomon Islands’ Chinese Association and a third-generation Solomon Islander who runs a large wholesale business across from the school, said Chinese expansion had been organic, driven by migration and economic factors rather than political or military direction from Beijing.

Centrally planned or not, the influx has not always been welcome. Frustration with Chinese shop owners flared up in 2006, leading to riots, and in 2014 Chinatown was set ablaze during another spasm of violence.

The main concern for many people on Guadalcanal involves not Chinese government interference, but rather cronyism and corruption fueled by Chinese wealth. No one knows the extent of Chinese property ownership in the Solomons; even the size of the Chinese population is a mystery, Mr. Quan said, since many migrants come in as tourists and bribe officials for visas that let them stay.

“I suppose you could say they’re a lot more ruthless in how they do things,” Mr. Quan said, referring to the recent migrants. “And the government of the Solomon Islands is easily manipulated.”

Mr. Molea called what’s happening “a different form of colonialism that’s a consequence of democracy.”

He has called on officials to halt all Chinese purchases and investment until there is a public accounting of who owns what.

But such an audit is unlikely. For Guadalcanal and many other islands in the region, this is a moment to embrace competing offers from world powers, not spurn them.

It is a contest seen across the South Pacific in countries like Vanuatu, where a new wharf has spurred a heated debate about China’s ambitions, and even in communities far from major cities.

[dreamersusan]

Journey to a New Land

Can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I last wrote. So much for calling myself a writer!

It’s been two days since I arrived back from the Solomon Islands.

It was a hectic Monday afternoon where both my office and the Solomon office scrambled to book my ticket. Searching for flights online, making phone calls and Skype calls… The reason for all this ‘madness’ was because there was an important event on Thursday and flights to the Solomons were only 1 or 2 times a week.

I almost didn’t make the trip as there were only Business and First Class tickets available and prices were expensive. Luckily, a passenger travelling by invitation of the Solomon office couldn’t make the trip and the ticket was transferred to me. Thanks to all those involved who made it possible for me to travel to the Solomons!

When I went home to pack, imagine my parent’s surprise when I told them I was to travel to another country the next morning! Nothing can get more last minute than that!

A colleague drove me down to the West and arrived at a resort where we’d spend the night before heading to the airport. We met the rest of the team at the airport and another colleague and I flew out to the Solomons on Nauru Airlines. I guess that’ll be the first and last time I’ll ever travel on a Business Class ticket!

We made a stopover at Vanuatu to pick up passengers and refuel the plane. I’ve never been to another Pacific Island, so I guess I can say that Vanuatu was the first? Even though I was on a plane in the airport, I’m still on Vanuatu soil, right?

Arriving into Honiara, there was an outdoor area called the Observation Deck where one can see the arrival and departure of travellers. As we walked into the airport, I felt we were being ‘welcomed’ by the people watching us.

We were greeted by two staff of the Solomon office, both who made my trip possible. As we made our way to the hotel, the Solomons looked a bit like Fiji though underdeveloped. It took about half an hour to get to the hotel due to roadworks and traffic.

We checked into our rooms and settled in until we met up with our colleague who had arrived the previous week and took us around the area. The Melanesian Arts & Cultural Festival commonly known as MACFEST was being held as we toured. We then met some of the team at the Solomon office.         

The King Solomon Hotel where we were staying had a cable car that travelled up and down from the rooms. I hardly took it as it was easier to climb stairs, although I’d be a bit puffed out ahahaha…but it was good exercise.

The next morning we had a breakfast meeting with the Solomon office CEO at Heritage Park Hotel. The rest of the day was spent working on getting the website done which we were doing for them. That afternoon I also finally met the person who I had mostly been liaising with regarding the branding project. It was good to meet the face of the voice I had only spoken over the phone with and had been emailing.

In the evening we attended a cocktail for the Mi Save Solo translated as ‘I Know Solomons’ at Honiara Hotel. This inaugural event was to be held the next day where international travel agents known as buyers will meet with local sellers of tourism operators to promote the country as a travel destination.

I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and my tummy was growling. How happy I was when the finger food came out! As the night progressed, the visiting delegates received gifts of baskets, hats, fans and a traditional cloth from the Solomon office. I was surprised to also receive them too.

The event was at the Coral Sea Resort and Casino. It was a beautiful place especially with a boardwalk where directly in front was the historic Iron Bottom Sound which is the final resting place of WW2 gunned down planes and sunken ships during the Battle of Guadalcanal in the early 1940s.

I spent the day helping the team of the Solomon office, and coincidentally I met my USP History tutor. After it was over, I was dropped back at the hotel and then the most unfortunate thing happened… there was no water. Great. I had to pack some stuff and head over to the Solomon Kitano Mendana Hotel to shower (the Solomon team had booked a room there as they spent the day preparing for the brand launch party in the evening)

It was pretty exciting in the moments leading up to that evening. About a month of late nights at the office until crazy hours, frustrating and stressing situations all came down to this launch event. However it was delayed almost an hour as we had to wait for the Prime Minister’s arrival. The rest of the evening flowed from there. Speeches and presentations were made, and after the end of a video I created, the audience clapped and cheered as the new Solomon Islands tourism brand was launched. It was a proud moment for my colleagues and I as we witnessed the fruit of our hard work being praised and appreciated.

The next day I was headed out to Gizo with a colleague from the Solomon office and a travel agent. It was also the 40th anniversary of independence for the country. An hour later by plane, we arrived and took another 15 minutes by boat to our destination. Our accommodation for the night was Gizo Hotel, conveniently located across where the boats were.

We went island/resort hopping and our first stop was Oravae Cottage. Out of all our short visits, this was where we spent a good amount of time as we had our lunch here. It was sad listening to the story of how the tsunami destroyed everything the owners had and the difficult process of rebuilding. 

Imagination Island, Fatboys Resort and Sanbis Resort were the other places we visited. Travelling by boat was fun. You feel the wind in your hair, seawater spraying onto you and enjoying the beautiful scenes of Gizo. But the part I disliked was having to get in and out of the boat, afraid that one slip could result in me flying into the water. We felt the drizzle as we made our way back to land and good thing too as it rained quite a bit soon after. I definitely would be scared to still be out at sea while it rained.

During dinner, there were dance performances and this group of men drinking at the bar making much noise. Outside, there were also performances happening and we decided to check it out. Later, I sat at the pool and chatted with my colleague from the Solomon office. I quite enjoyed it compared to all the noise from the two mentioned events. When I looked up into the sky, I seriously had goosebumps from all the stars I saw. No joke. No matter where you are, we all look at the same sky.

After breakfast, we made our journey back to Honiara with the rain greeting us as we landed. Back at the hotel, I went exploring the area until I got hungry and went in search of food. The hotel café had closed and the restaurant open served only dinner. I walked about until I came to a small eatery that was closing and managed to get fish and chips. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it wasn’t actually chips but pieces of sweet potato! Oh well… it’s still food.

It rained all day Sunday, so I spent it in my room doing some work. Funny how when you start doing research and you end up reading instead of writing.

On Monday after doing some work at the Tourism Solomons office, I met up with a colleague from USP. We visited one of the MACFEST locations and had lunch, the Solomon version of ‘lovo’ called ‘motu’ (food cooked underground). Then we checked out the Solomon Islands USP Campus and while walking back to the office, met another USP colleague who we both knew (she was related to her too!) Such a small world we live in.

We made plans to meet the next day where we had lunch at the Breakwater Café and discussed a lot of stuff. It’s nice to have a drink and talk in a quiet environment. That evening while waiting for my dinner, I met one of my high school classmates who was in the country for work purposes too, turns out she also stayed in the same hotel.

Wednesday we went out to visit the Vilu War Museum. It was a 30-minute journey driving around potholes and going past villages. Seeing all the planes, cannons and other war relics was sad. Imagine the men who flew those aircrafts. Think about what they must have went through. History sat staring back at me with stories untold. Stories that one may not bear to hear or that we’ll never know.

We then headed to see the Japanese and American war memorials that were in two different locations. Their respective flags flying high, a reminder of the people who fought and sacrificed for the future generations.

That evening a group from Fiji was performing. It reminded me of home. I made a note to sit in during dinner to watch, as usually I’d get takeaways to my room.   

The next day was my last and the final time I’d be making my way to their office. I had planned to visit a café but at 3pm they were closing! Ended up getting some food from a small eatery and checked out the national museum before heading back to the office. Took a group photo with the team and promised to say goodbye before I headed to the airport. It was also the last time I’d be walking back to the hotel after work.

After dinner, I began to pack. It was a good trip and learning experience. Met some great people and enjoyed my time there. Having checked out had breakfast and farewelled colleagues; I waited in the lobby for my transport. Made a quick stop at the office and said my goodbyes to the team there.

The journey back home began. The traffic was less congested and reached the airport in good time. I farewelled the driver and made my way to check in. There was a memorial garden outside and it was a nice place. Tall trees in perfect alignment each with a stone tab inscribed with a soldier’s name.    

As I walked out to board the flight, I remembered when we first arrived. The people were there watching us leave. Taking a final look, I silently said goodbye to the Solomons as I stepped on board Air Niugini. Window seats are the best as you can look out and see the land and sea below.

Soon we arrived in Nadi. A colleague picked me up and the final leg home began. We stopped over at a restaurant for a tea break before continuing on. I enjoy travelling at night. You get to see the stars shining in the darkness. You get to see lights as you pass by. It also rained along the way.  

I finally reached home before 11pm. The trip will now be another chapter etched in my memories. 

[mayorgalvan]

H. L. Mencken Interview

Cancel the F-35

A petition to the United States Congress and the governments of Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, and Canada from the world and from the people of Burlington, Vermont, and Fairbanks, Alaska, where the F-35 is to be based. Initiated by Vermont Stop the F35 Coalition, Save Our Skies Vermont, Western Maine Matters, Alaska Peace Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks Peace Club, North Star Chapter 146 Veterans For Peace, World Beyond War, RootsAction.org, Code Pink, Ben Cohen. Supported by: Centro Documentazione Manifesto Pacifista Internazionale, International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Nej tak til nye kampfly (in Denmark), Peaceful Skies Coalition (in Santa Fe, NM), Straits Area Concerned Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment (in Michigan).

Please add your name below:

The F-35 is a weapon of offensive war, serving no defensive purpose.

It is planned to cost the U.S. $1.4 trillion over 50 years. Because starvation on earth could be ended for $30 billion and the lack of clean drinking water for $11 billion per year, it is first and foremost through the wasting of resources that this airplane will kill. Military spending, contrary to popular misconception, also

hurts the U.S. economy

(see below) and other economies.

The F-35 causes negative health impacts and

cognitive impairment in children

living near its bases. It renders housing near airports unsuitable for residential use. It has a

high crash rate and horrible consequences

to those living in the area of its crashes. Its emissions are a

major environmental polluter.

Wars are

endangering the United States and other participating nations rather than protecting them.

Nonviolent tools of law, diplomacy, aid, crisis prevention, and verifiable nuclear disarmament should be substituted for continuing counterproductive wars.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, call for the immediate cancellation of the F-35 program as a whole, and the immediate cancellation of plans to base any such dangerous and noisy jets near populated areas.

We oppose replacing the F-35 with any other weapon or basing the F-35 in any other locations. We further demand redirection of the money for the F-35 back into taxpayers' pockets, and into

environmental and human needs in the U.S., other F-35 customer nations, and around the world,

including to fight climate change, pay off student debt, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, and improve education, healthcare, and housing.

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Why this matters: The F-35 will kill and destroy while making us all less safe. The F-35 is a first strike stealth weapon designed to penetrate air space undetected. It will be used for massive killing and destruction in more wars like Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Vietnam in which millions of civilians have been killed and wounded and millions of refugees created. Despite the misery they caused, these wars did not make people in the United States safer, and they made things worse in each of the countries that U.S. warplanes and soldiers attacked. In fact, CIA director John Brennan told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on June 16, 2016, that the wars since 2001 have not worked: “… despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach.” In fact the war on terrorism has predictably and demonstrably increased rather than reduced terrorism. Gallup polling now finds that much of the world considers the United States the greatest threat to peace on earth. Nor is a fighter/bomber, like the F-35, capable of protecting anyone against nuclear ICBMs, cruise missiles, cyber attacks, global warming, or any individual acts of terrorism. The F-35 is designed for, among other things, delivery of the B61-12 nuclear weapon. Alaska's Congressional delegation has indicated several times that the F-35 is right for Alaska because of its proximity to Russia, making this weapon part of the new and perilous cold war. The F-35 is a damaging trade-off. 1. Cost: The U.S. Air Force says the F-35 program will cost $1,400,000,000,000 over 50 years. The F-35 strips public money to pay private war contractors, like Lockheed Martin, that could better be spent to alleviate suffering, erase student debt, rebuild roads and bridges, defend against global warming, and provide education, health care, and housing. The money taken from such vital public use goes instead to war profiteers, increasing inequality and social division in the United States and elsewhere. 2. The F-35 destroys far more jobs than it creates: Researchers at the University of Massachusetts* report that each billion dollars spent on military preparations costs the United States between 4 and 16 thousand jobs as compared with tax cuts for working people or identical spending on clean energy, healthcare, or education. Thus, the $1.4 trillion, 50-year F-35 program means fewer jobs in the 45 U.S. states involved. * http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_study/PERI_military_spending_2011.pdf * http://www.ciponline.org/research/entry/promising-the-sky-pork-barrel-politics-and-the-f-35-combat-aircraft 3. The F-35 causes cognitive impairment of children: The U.S. Air Force says the F-35A is more than four times louder than the intensely loud F-16 that it is replacing. A World Health Organization (WHO) report says that noise at the level of the F-35 on takeoff for just one minute is sufficient to cause health consequences: The WHO report states that children are more sensitive than adults, and the report cites data showing that the effects of such aircraft noise on children include cognitive impairment: adverse effects on reading, memory, auditory discrimination, speech perception, and academic performance, as well as other health effects, including increased blood pressure and increased stress hormones.* * http://www.who.int/ceh/capacity/noise.pdf * http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/136466/e94888.pdf 4. The F-35 makes houses unsuitable for residential use: The Federal Aviation Administration says there is no effective mitigation for this noise besides families leaving. In Burlington Vermont, where F-16 jets are now based, the federal government paid to purchase and demolish 150 affordable homes to protect the people from damaging F-16 noise. The U.S. Air Force says that basing 18 F-35 jets at the airport in Burlington will cause 2,252 acres of land holding 2,963 households with 6,663 people to be in the “unsuitable for residential use” noise zone. 5. The F-35 has both a high crash risk and high crash consequences: The U.S. Air Force says all new military jets have a very high risk of crashing. The F-35 has far worse consequences when it crashes in or near people than older jets. Whereas older military jets were made of aluminum, the body of the F-35 is made of military composite materials with a stealth coating which emit highly toxic chemicals, particles, and fibers when set on fire during the inferno when thousands of gallons of jet fuel burst into flames. An Air Force report says this catastrophe should not be allowed to happen near people. The only way to prevent this tragedy from happening is to prevent basing of such military jets in or near densely populated areas, like Burlington Vermont or any of the other towns and cities planned for basing.

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[brajeshupadhyay]

A few days before Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, three American aircraft carriers, accompanied by Navy cruisers, destroyers, fighter jets and other aircraft, began patrolling the Indo-Pacific waters. According to AP, for the first the first time in three years, American carriers were spread across the Pacific. The USS Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group was operating in the Philippine Sea near Guam. The USS Nimitz strike group was in the Pacific off the US West Coast. The USS Ronald Reagan had left port in Japan and was operating in the Philippine Sea south of there. As predicted, China portrayed the massive show of naval force by the US as an example of American provocation, and evidence that the US is a source of instability in the Indo-Pacific region. On the surface, there may appear to be no connection between the presence of US warships in the Indo-Pacific and what transpired in the Galwan Valley. But when one considers India's recent foreign policy decisions, the growing ties between the US, India and Australia — three of the four members of the Quad formed to defend the openness of the Indo-Pacific — in the context of China's ambitions for the resource-rich Pacific waters and its growing assertion amid COVID-19, and the reciprocity becomes clear. What's the Indo-Pacific? According to The Diplomat, the Indo-Pacific is a mental map that stretches from the eastern shores of Africa to the western coast of the US. However, countries differ on the expanse of this 'imagined' region, depending on their geographic position there. The Indo-Pacific region has gained importance in the last few years largely because of China's rise as a superpower, India's growing economic and strategic clout and the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean in global trade. According to Reuters, China has been more active in the resource-rich Pacific in recent years, seeking to extend influence with aid and encouraging countries away from diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which China regards as renegade province with no right of state-to-state ties. According to AFP, "Between 2011 and 2018, China committed loans to the region worth $6 billion – around 21 percent of regional GDP". "A majority of that money, $4.1 billion, was earmarked for Papua New Guinea. Only a fraction, less than $1 billion, has so far been disbursed but China is still the single largest creditor in Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu," the article said. Two  other island-nations in the Pacific — Solomon Islands and Kiribati — have already switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing. China’s increasing assertiveness in the energy-rich South China Sea, an important constituent of the Indo-Pacific, has raised US and regional concerns. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which some $3.4 trillion in shipping passes each year. Several countries including Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei have overlapping claims to parts of the sea. The COVID-19 pandemic, which had hit the US hard, has further heightened the need for Washington to keep the Indo-Pacific "free and open", especially among reports of China capitalising on the pandemic-led lockdowns. According to reports, while the US and China's rival Southeast Asian claimants of the disputed waters, Philippines and Malaysia, conducted military drills, China extracted natural resources and even deployed large-scale military assets in South China Sea. In April, there were reports of a confrontation on the sea between a Chinese government survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 and an oil exploration vessel of Malaysia's state oil company Petronas. The vessel, Reuters said, was earlier also spotted off Vietnam, where it had last year conducted suspected oil exploration surveys in large expanses of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. Beijing, however, denied the reports. The US has been conducting its own routine 'freedom of  navigation' exercises to enforce 'free and open Indo-Pacific'. In April, amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, USS Barry, a US warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait for the second time in a month. “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” Lieutenant Anthony Junco told Reuters. According to the US naval officers, China is slowly and methodically building up military outposts in the South China Sea, putting missile and electronic warfare systems on them. China already operates in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, and has plans to increase its Marine Corps to 1,00,000, from existing 20,000, a large chunk of which are likely to be stationed there. It also owns the world's largest coast guard, which has often been at the centre of most stand-offs in the disputed waters, according to Asian Military Review. It's perhaps because of these reasons that in less than a month after 5,700 of its servicemen tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the US was in the Pacific with three warships. And that too on the same day the US Senate cleared a $7 billion fund focused on competition in the Indo-Pacific (Pacific Deterrence Initiative or PDI) in the 2021 National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA). The PDI aims to make funds available to "improve military and defence infrastructure, basing, logistics, and assured access in the Indo-Pacific region" in order to "respond to adversarial threats in a timely manner". The idea of  a 'free and open Indo-Pacific', however, is not one that is espoused by the US alone. It's something India has often expressed its commitment to protect, both at home and internationally for years. New Delhi not only shares the US view of the "free and open Indo-Pacific", but has in the past, openly supported it to the extent that it even backed out of the China-backed economic agreement RCEP. India is also part of the Quad grouping, which also includes Japan and Australia as well as the US. The grouping was most recently upgraded to Quad Plus with Vietnam, an ASEAN country, and  New Zealand and South Korea, also extending their support. Australia, which long enjoyed unrivalled influence in the Pacific, too in recent years become more assertive in maintaining its standing in the region. In 2018, it launched an A$3 billion fund to offer Pacific countries grants and cheap loans for infrastructure. From South China Sea beef to actual beef, China-Australia ties had soured long before onset of COVID-19 Australia has also been slowly upgrading its armoury in the Pacific. In February this year, Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that his government will spend A$1.1 billion ($725.9 million) to upgrade an airbase in the country’s tropical north. Most recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, signed a Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), which will allow militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation. This agreement will give Indian warships and aircraft enhanced reach towards the Pacific. India has already signed similar agreements with the US, France and Singapore. The Galwan Valley connection In the days since the violent face-off took place between the soldiers of the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army, the Chinese media has time and again brought the US and Indo-Pacific Strategy into the conversation. The propaganda has been three-pronged: first, downplay the US' presence in the Pacific, second, portray that a huge gap exists between the military capabilities of the India and China, and third, present the US and the deepening India-US ties as the problem. This approach is clear in a Global Times editorial published on 17 June. The editor says that India has "misjudged" the situation in thinking Beijing lacks the will to "hit back provocations from the Indian side" because of increasing strategic pressure from the US. It also warns New Delhi against relying on US, stating that Washington will extend help only to worsen ties between the two neighbours and make India "dedicate itself to serving Washington's interests". In an article that appears simultaneously in the PLA Daily, the official daily of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Global Times, Dr Qian Feng of the National Strategy Institute, Tsinghua University, makes Beijing's disgruntlement with the US' Indo-Pacific Strategy and India clear as it proclaims: the US plans to use “use” India to “contain” Beijing. Feng goes on to say that "some countries in the Indo-Pacific region have mounting suspicions about China’s rise, and more or less want to leverage the US to balance China’s growing influence in the region". While these "countries" have not been named specifically, the attempt to dissuade India from taking sides in the Indo-Pacific amid a border clash, is evident. The article says that the best option for New Delhi to safeguard its interests is to "maintain current balance among major countries" such as the ASEAN countries, Japan and China. Japan is part of the Indo-Pacific grouping Quad that includes India, Australia and the US. It then adds that India's "'strategic independence' principle goes counter to 'America first'" and hence the US Indo-Pacific Strategy is not a suited for New Delhi. Needless to say, the biggest gain for China would be to keep India out of the US-led military grouping in the Indo-Pacific. Some Chinese projects in the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean Region as part of the Belt and Road Initiative — Gwadar Port in Pakistan, a port in Myanmar's Kyaukpyu town, Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, infrastructure projects in Nepal, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and its investment in modernising the Chittagong port — are believed to have been designed to encircle India in the south Asian region. China appears to perceive the growing size of the Quad Plus and India's increasing presence in the Indo-Pacific as a threat to its ambitions. Its objective, therefore, would be to keep India out of the US' Indo-Pacific strategy.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/06/galwan-valley-clashes-may-have-been.html