to the people who want to have a conversation about john's being an indigenous man, a māori man, i would like to remind you that the first time we see māori spoke onscreen it goes as follows.
one person in this room is interested in the cultures and languages of the world that came before, to the point her name and mission in life are respectively a human chain reaching back ten thousand years and justice for the destroyed earth: a mission that allowed her to persist beyond death, which brings her to being in control of cytherea the first's corpse. the other is john, who is disinterested in her idea of justice for them and speaks over her multiple times.
that human chain, her name? he doesn't respect it just as he doesn't respect her. this conversation is beneath him and so is her full name. he is annoyed into reciting it.
māori is spoken by john here, and it is spoken with contempt for the woman who wishes to avenge earth and whose name preserved a part of the language that he helped annihilate, along with aotearoa and all other māori people.
the first time māori is spoken in the series it is spoken by an indigenous man—who received an extensive colonial scholarship, who was alienated from his culture and sought respect and recognition in predominantly white academia, who was burned time and time again by the systems of oppression that formed the basis for climate change and the earth's abandonment by the trillionaires—who speaks it with a tone of condescension and a complete lack of gravitas because it is irrelevant to him. genuinely sad, bordering on very funny.
the second instance of māori is when he renames gideon the transliteration of her name into māori. she does not identify with it and she likely does not know its significance.
she is also a corpse: killed indirectly by cytherea the first, who presented a threat to harrow's life that could only be dealt with via her ascension to lyctorhood via gideon's death, who groomed gideon into accepting her role as cavalier primary to harrowhark nonagesimus.
killed by one of the emperor undying's fists and gestures, killed by the ideals of cavaliership which he societally instituted, killed due to cytherea the first's disillusionment with him leading her to go on a killing spree at canaan house in order to gain his attention, killed due to john and john's actions and the systems of the society he created.
the only time we see john use the māori language in a way that isn't dripping for contempt is when he renames his daughter's corpse, wherein he clarifies that she is prince kiriona gaia, heir to the emperor divine and the emperor's only daughter, the emperor's construct.
construct, like the skeletons that farm leeks on the ninth. she is not entitled to resurrection: she is to ownership, to being the ninth's chattel in life and her father's construct in death. he uses the language to declare her his.
gideon is the name of his saint, his oldest friend, spoken by the ghost of the woman that birthed her, to the nuns of her house—kiriona is john declaring a corpse his heir, and his daughter his construct.
there is a conversation i would love to have about john's indigeneity: it's the one where we acknowledge that after wakes death he has preserved the legacy of the māori language by using it to name his daughter, a māori woman killed by his society and the consequences of his actions, something she doesn't feel any connection to.
john is an indigenous man, a māori man, who was born into a land settled by colonisers who rendered it rife with systems of oppression that alienated him from his culture, and led him to fall back on the same systems of oppression when he founded the nine houses. indigeneity describes a relation to colonisation and settler capital, primarily in the form of dispossession; when john declared kiriona his, did he do so as an indigenous man or as the emperor of an empire that ships populations between planets like cattle?
All the reports coming from Rafah from the early hours of April 29 are literally identical: "Israel targeted the house of [family name]"
The same title, over and over again.
All within a couple of hours last night, three family homes in Rafah have been struck, killing at least 20, the majority of whom are women and children.
We now know about Project Lavender and we know about Israel's constant surveillance of Gaza so when I tell you that Israel had targeted civilian homes last night in Rafah, you know that there is absolutely no room for questioning Israel's intent here and always.
The situation of the Congo Genocide is complicated because we are all implicated in it. We can’t ascribe it to a foreign policy state interest as we can regarding Palestine. It is something we, as consumers, all have a hand in and given the ubiquity of the resources involved, a lot of us are caught off of guard by this premonition of the type of wars to come. This is that nasty intersection of neo-colonialism and hyper capitalism that pits the Global South against the Global North. It’s a war of sustaining a way of life means imposing slavery and genocide on others. This is an instance of global capitalism and hyper consumption as a lifestyle and convenience is being pitted against the humanity of those we deem expendable.
Will say that I see the "binational democratic state" a lot, even on anarchist threads (which... lol) but genuinely if you think that a binational state in which the status as an "israeli" exists in contrast with the status as a "Palestinian" and you genuinely think an "israeli" political system will allow for the right of return for Palestinians (which the whole plan hinges on) then you are naive at best and at worst, have no real intent in providing Palestinians with any real alternative to self determination and are a liberal zionist wanting to preserve the israeli state.
Palestinians are currently called "demographic threats" in their own land. What makes you think that will magically go away, along with systematic oppression? Be for real.
The latest numbers coming from Gaza state that there are about 77,575 injured Palestinians as of April 28, 2024.
I honestly see this number as a very humble one, but regardless, I said this in 2014 and it bears repeating: considering the types of weapons Israel is using in Gaza, the overwhelming majority of these injuries are severe and critical. So when we say that well over 77,000 people are injured in Gaza, we're talking about tens of thousands of people who have ended up with a lifelong disability. Thousands of amputees with no proper care. Thousands who will not be able to walk or see again. Many won't be able to go back to school or work again. Burn victims without the means to reduce or take the pain away. Many on life support and many more who will not even make it.
So many open wounds, both literally and figuratively, that we need to keep present in our conversation about Gaza.
This bloodbath has gone on for far too long. At the start of this aggression, the school year had barely just started. The academic year ends in just a month. Everyone, from first graders to university seniors, have lost an entire year at least. I say at least considering even if there is a ceasefire today, Israel had destroyed literally all universities in Gaza and damaged over 400 schools. Lest we forget also Israel's deliberate targeting of university professors and academics.
You absolutely cannot mistake the intent behind all of this.
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