#global trade battles

[kesarijournal]

The Grand WTO's Food, Fishing, and Farming Fiasco

The Grand WTO's Food, Fishing, and Farming Fiasco

Welcome to the latest drama that’s more tangled than your earphones in a pocket – the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ongoing saga involving a cast of nations with India and South Africa in leading roles, and a contentious plot over food, fishing, and farming subsidies. Set against the backdrop of Abu Dhabi’s Ministerial Conference, our story unfolds with India and South Africa uniting to…

[mapbotofficial]

CONGRATS!!!

~Mouse

YEA THANK YOU!!!

[iww-gnv]

Image description copied from alt text: A square graphic with a red background that shows a raised fist bearing the IWW logo and text that reads, "Did you know? The IWW was founded in Chicago, Illinois in June 1905." The union website, iww.org, is also listed. End image description.

Did you know?

The Industrial Workers of the World, or the IWW, was founded in Chicago, Illinois in June of 1905. Its members are often nicknamed "Wobblies," and the union itself is frequently called "the One Big Union."

Why "One Big Union?" Because the IWW was founded to serve every worker. At the time the IWW was founded, only a short list of specialized trades had unions. Major industries such as textiles, docks, agriculture, and mining were all without representation, and many of the IWW's first battles were to organize those very workers!

If you're a member of the working class, you have a place with the IWW!

Learn More:

IWW - Our History

IWW History Project - University of Washington

The Industrial Workers of the World - PBS

Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW, Edited by Peter Cole, David Struthers, and Kenyon Zimmer

[reasonsforhope]

"Nasir Mansoor has spent 40 years fighting for Pakistan’s workers. Whether demanding compensation on behalf of the hundreds of people who died in a devastating 2012 factory fire in Karachi or demonstrating against Pakistani suppliers to global fashion brands violating minimum wage rules, he’s battled many of the country’s widespread labor injustices.

Yet so far, little has improved, said Mansoor, who heads Pakistan’s National Trade Union Federation in Karachi... Regulations and trade protocols look good on paper, but they rarely trickle down to the factory level. “Nobody cares,” Mansoor said. “Not the government who makes commitments, not the brands, and not the suppliers. The workers are suffering.”

Change on the Horizon

But change might finally be on the horizon after Germany’s new Supply Chain Act came into force last year. As Europe’s largest economy and importer of clothing, Germany now requires certain companies to put risk-management systems in place to prevent, minimize, and eliminate human rights violations for workers across their entire global value chains. Signed into law by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in January 2023, the law covers issues such as forced labor, union-busting, and inadequate wages, for the first time giving legal power to protections that were previously based on voluntary commitments. Companies that violate the rules face fines of up to 8 million euros ($8.7 million)...

...As governments come to realize that a purely voluntary regimen produces limited results, there is now a growing global movement to ensure that companies are legally required to protect the people working at all stages of their supply chains.

The German law is just the latest example of these new due diligence rules—and it’s the one with the highest impact, given the size of the country’s market. A number of other Western countries have also adopted similar legislation in recent years, including France and Norway. A landmark European Union law that would mandate all member states to implement similar regulation is in the final stages of being greenlighted.

Although the United States has legislation to prevent forced labor in its global supply chains, such as the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, there are no federal laws that protect workers in other countries from abuses that fall short of forced labor. That said, a proposed New York state bill, the Fashion Act, would legally require most major U.S. and international brands to identify, prevent, and remediate human rights violations in their supply chain if passed, with noncompliance subject to fines. Since major fashion brands could hardly avoid selling their products in New York, the law would effectively put the United States on a similar legal level as Germany and France...

The Results So Far

As of January, Germany’s new law applies to any company with at least 1,000 employees in the country, which covers many of the world’s best-known fast fashion retailers, such as Zara and Primark. Since last January [Jan 2023], German authorities say they have received 71 complaints or notices of violations and conducted 650 of their own assessments, including evaluating companies’ risk management.

In Pakistan, the very existence of the German law was enough to spark action. Last year, Mansoor and other union representatives reached out to fashion brands that sourced some of their clothing in Pakistan to raise concerns about severe labor violations in garment factories. Just four months later, he and his colleagues found themselves in face-to-face meetings with several of those brands—a first in his 40-year career. “This is a big achievement,” he said. “Otherwise, [the brands] never sit with us. Even when the workers died in the factory fire, the brand never sat with us.” ...

-via The Fuller Project, April 2, 2024. Article headers added by me.

Article continues below, with more action-based results, including one factory that "complied, agreeing to respect minimum wages and provide contract letters, training on labor laws, and—for the first time—worker bonuses"

With the help of Mansoor and Zehra Khan, the general secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation, interviews with more than 350 garment workers revealed the severity of long-known issues.

Nearly all workers interviewed were paid less than a living wage, which was 67,200 Pakistan rupees (roughly $243) per month in 2022, according to the Asia Floor Wage Alliance. Nearly 30 percent were even paid below the legal minimum wage of 25,000 Pakistani rupees per month (roughly $90) for unskilled workers. Almost 100 percent had not been given a written employment contract, while more than three-quarters were either not registered with the social security system—a legal requirement—or didn’t know if they were.

When Mansoor, Khan, and some of the organizations raised the violations with seven global fashion brands implicated, they were pleasantly surprised. One German retailer reacted swiftly, asking its supplier where the violations had occurred to sign a 14-point memorandum of understanding to address the issues. (We’re unable to name the companies involved because negotiations are ongoing.) The factory complied, agreeing to respect minimum wages and provide contract letters, training on labor laws, and—for the first time—worker bonuses.

In February [2024], the factory registered an additional 400 workers with the social security system (up from roughly 100) and will continue to enroll more, according to Khan. “That is a huge number for us,” she said.

It’s had a knock-on effect, too. Four of the German brand’s other Pakistani suppliers are also willing to sign the memorandum, Khan noted, which could impact another 2,000 workers or so. “The law is opening up space for [the unions] to negotiate, to be heard, and to be taken seriously,” said Miriam Saage-Maass, the legal director at ECCHR.

Looking Forward with the EU

...Last month [in March 2024], EU member states finally approved a due diligence directive after long delays, during which the original draft was watered down. As it moves to the next stage—a vote in the European Parliament—before taking effect, critics argue that the rules are now too diluted and cover too few companies to be truly effective. Still, the fact that the EU is acting at all has been described as an important moment, and unionists such as Mansoor and Khan wait thousands of miles away with bated breath for the final outcome.

Solidarity from Europe is important, Khan said, and could change the lives of Pakistan’s workers. “The eyes and the ears of the people are looking to [the brands],” Mansoor said. “And they are being made accountable for their mistakes.”"

-via The Fuller Project, April 2, 2024. Article headers added by me.

[txttletale]

Apologies for the dumb question and loads of personal information, but..

I have severe moral ocd, and in the past the exploitation has actually caused me eating issues. I’d get intensely guilty whenever I ate anything bc I couldn’t avoid thinking of the exploitation that occurred to get it here and I honestly started avoided eating.

is that what im supposed to do? I know there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism but my sustained existence is reliant on food from the exploitative world of global “trade”, medicine from the oppressive pseudo jails of the psychiatric system, and technology running on copper and cobalt that people suffered to mine. I claim to be a leftist, but my sustained quality of life, god, my entire life, is dependent on the imperial core continuing to extort the rest of the world. Should I just give up?

nah. ultimately if you're a socialist you have to understand that what you do as an individual is--politically speaking--irrelevant. it's good to be aware of the harms that were done in the process of production, but it's both a political dead end and personally self-destructive to then flagellate about that. (and to be clear, if that awareness is impossible for you to maintain without falling into disordered eating behaviours, you don't need to be that aware--again, this isn't about moral duty. genuine socialist politics are never about individual moral duty, or about being a good person. there is no level of Thought or Awareness or Conscienciousness that can become a lever of meaningful political action.)

the harms have already been done by the time the commodity exists for you to access--you're not participating in or exacerbating them by using the commodity. even if you did find a way to live completely without interfacing with the systems of exploitation, those systems would continue unabated. they don't care about you. the idea that if everyone spontaneously individually decided to stop using the goods that are generated by exploitation then exploitation would end is laughable in both premises and conclusion.

you have to look at this on a material level--the 'harm' is not an abstract quality that gets infused into the fruit or the medicine or the iphone, it's not haunted, you cannot show me an atom of 'harm radiation' emitted by an out-of-season banana--the 'harm' is a series of actual events taking place somewhere in the world. and the way to combat that has nothing to do with the personal consumption of individuals--it has everything to do with organized efforts, with groups of people taking collective action to stop that harm from happening.

you're not god. you're not a dynasty warriors character. you vs. united fruit and foxconn is a losing battle. you alone can't change the world in any way that matters, good or bad. the only thing you can do is join your energy to a group, to participate in class struggle. to unionize or join a party or participate in a mutual aid network. class struggle, the marxist analysis of class struggle, the only meaningful vector of political action across myriad forms, cannot be reached or analysed through the lens of 'do my personal consumer choices make me a good or bad person'. i know it is obviously difficult to do when we live in a society that focuses on consumer choice as the be-all and end-all of personal and political and moral expression, but you have to reject that question outright.

socialism is not catholicism--the aim of left-wing politics is not to live virtuously. it is to unite as members of the working class and improve all of our lives. focus on uniting first--find the people around you who you can form organizational bonds of solidarity with--and then figure out how to participate in the class struggle together. that's the only way forward. everything else is a trap, a dead-end, or in this case, pointless self-abnegation. good luck, comrade.

[fatehbaz]

Endangered Indian sandalwood. British war to control the forests. Tallying every single tree in the kingdom. European companies claim the ecosystem. Spices and fragrances. Failure of the plantation. Until the twentieth century, the Empire couldn't figure out how to cultivate sandalwood because they didn't understand that the plant is actually a partial root parasite. French perfumes and the creation of "the Sandalwood City".

---

Selling at about $147,000 per metric ton, the aromatic heartwood of Indian sandalwood (S. album) is arguably [among] the most expensive wood in the world. Globally, 90 per cent of the world’s S. album comes from India [...]. And within India, around 70 per cent of S. album comes from the state of Karnataka [...] [and] the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore. [...] [T]he species came to the brink of extinction. [...] [O]verexploitation led to the sandal tree's critical endangerment in 1974. [...]

---

Francis Buchanan’s 1807 A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar is one of the few European sources to offer insight into pre-colonial forest utilisation in the region. [...] Buchanan records [...] [the] tradition of only harvesting sandalwood once every dozen years may have been an effective local pre-colonial conservation measure. [...] Starting in 1786, Tipu Sultan [ruler of Mysore] stopped trading pepper, sandalwood and cardamom with the British. As a result, trade prospects for the company [East India Company] were looking so bleak that by November 1788, Lord Cornwallis suggested abandoning Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast and reducing Bombay’s status from a presidency to a factory. [...] One way to understand these wars is [...] [that] [t]hey were about economic conquest as much as any other kind of expansion, and sandalwood was one of Mysore’s most prized commodities. In 1799, at the Battle of Srirangapatna, Tipu Sultan was defeated. The kingdom of Mysore became a princely state within British India [...]. [T]he East India Company also immediately started paying the [new rulers] for the right to trade sandalwood.

British control over South Asia’s natural resources was reaching its peak and a sophisticated new imperial forest administration was being developed that sought to solidify state control of the sandalwood trade. In 1864, the extraction and disposal of sandalwood came under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. [...] Colonial anxiety to maximise profits from sandalwood meant that a government agency was established specifically to oversee the sandalwood trade [...] and so began the government sandalwood depot or koti system. [...]

From the 1860s the [British] government briefly experimented with a survey tallying every sandal tree standing in Mysore [...].

Instead, an intricate system of classification was developed in an effort to maximise profits. By 1898, an 18-tiered sandalwood classification system was instituted, up from a 10-tier system a decade earlier; it seems this led to much confusion and was eventually reduced back to 12 tiers [...].

---

Meanwhile, private European companies also made significant inroads into Mysore territory at this time. By convincing the government to classify forests as ‘wastelands’, and arguing that Europeans would improves these tracts from their ‘semi-savage state’, starting in the 1860s vast areas were taken from local inhabitants and converted into private plantations for the ‘production of cardamom, pepper, coffee and sandalwood’.

---

Yet attempts to cultivate sandalwood on both forest department and privately owned plantations proved to be a dismal failure. There were [...] major problems facing sandalwood supply in the period before the twentieth century besides overexploitation and European monopoly. [...] Before the first quarter of the twentieth century European foresters simply could not figure out how to grow sandalwood trees effectively.

The main reason for this is that sandal is what is now known as a semi-parasite or root parasite; besides a main taproot that absorbs nutrients from the earth, the sandal tree grows parasitical roots (or haustoria) that derive sustenance from neighbouring brush and trees. [...] Dietrich Brandis, the man often regaled as the father of Indian forestry, reported being unaware of the [sole significant English-language scientific paper on sandalwood root parasitism] when he worked at Kew Gardens in London on South Asian ‘forest flora’ in 1872–73. Thus it was not until 1902 that the issue started to receive attention in the scientific community, when C.A. Barber, a government botanist in Madras [...] himself pointed out, 'no one seems to be at all sure whether the sandalwood is or is not a true parasite'.

Well into the early decades of twentieth century, silviculture of sandal proved a complete failure. The problem was the typical monoculture approach of tree farming in which all other species were removed and so the tree could not survive. [...]

The long wait time until maturity of the tree must also be considered. Only sandal heartwood and roots develop fragrance, and trees only begin developing fragrance in significant quantities after about thirty years. Not only did traders, who were typically just sailing through, not have the botanical know-how to replant the tree, but they almost certainly would not be there to see a return on their investments if they did. [...]

---

The main problem facing the sustainable harvest and continued survival of sandalwood in India [...] came from the advent of the sandalwood oil industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. During World War I, vast amounts of sandal were stockpiled in Mysore because perfumeries in France had stopped production and it had become illegal to export to German perfumeries. In 1915, a Government Sandalwood Oil Factory was built in Mysore. In 1917, it began distilling. [...] [S]andalwood production now ramped up immensely. It was at this time that Mysore came to be known as ‘the Sandalwood City’.

---

Text above by: Ezra Rashkow. "Perfumed the axe that laid it low: The endangerment of sandalwood in southern India." Indian Economic and Social History Review 51, no. 1, pages 41-70. March 2014. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized first paragraph/heading in this post added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[reality-detective]

Chapter 2: The Blood Harvest Unveiled

They told you this war was about politics and power struggles, but that was the cover. Beneath the surface, a darker war is raging, one fought in shadows. The soldiers who found the children in Donetsk have since gone silent, but some still whisper. Their stories aren’t for the faint-hearted. This isn’t just war—it’s a blood harvest, a horror far beyond what you’ve been told.

The adrenochrome farms in Ukraine were only the tip of the iceberg. Putin’s forces are finding more with each passing day. These “farms” are hidden across Eastern Europe—factories where children are tortured, drained, and discarded like livestock. The soldiers speak of facilities more horrific than the last, each designed to extract the purest adrenochrome through unimaginable pain and fear.

The task force member who spoke out revealed the dark truth: ritual abuse, trauma beyond words. They carve symbols into the walls—symbols tied to ancient, occult practices. These children are bred in darkness, never knowing love, raised solely for sacrifice. The purer the fear, the stronger the yield.

And it’s not just Ukraine. Reports suggest the adrenochrome trade is global—secret compounds in South America, hidden facilities in the United States. It’s a cancer, shielded by the rich and powerful. Celebrities, politicians, business moguls—all complicit. Their addiction? The blood of the innocent. Their source? Children whose lives are nothing more than currency in this twisted trade.

The Kremlin now holds a blacklist of elites tied to this network, and Putin’s forces are preparing to strike. People will disappear. The news will call them accidents, suicides, sudden illnesses, but make no mistake—this is a calculated war on those who thought themselves untouchable.

This is not just a battle for territory; it’s a war for humanity’s soul. The veil is lifting. The storm is almost here. Prepare yourself. When it hits, the world will never be the same.

Are you ready? 🤔

[mariacallous]

Lame-duck periods are meant to be inconsequential, but on Thursday afternoon at the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden got a chance to present one of the most important breakthroughs of his time in office. In what was the largest U.S.-Russia prisoner swap since the Cold War, involving at least seven countries over a period of months, a total of 24 people moved across borders as pawns in a game of global 3D chess.

Eight Russians are returning home in exchange for a combination of 16 Americans, Germans, and Russians. Within an hour of confirmation that U.S. prisoners were safely out of Russia, Biden assembled family members of the freed Americans at the White House and addressed a gathering of journalists. As he looked into the cameras, he no doubt knew that he was being closely watched by his counterparts in Beijing and Moscow, by millions of people around the world, and by history.

Even in his moment of triumph, Biden found a way to focus on the human reality of the moment. He singled out Miriam, the daughter of the released Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. It was one day until her 13th birthday, and Biden put an arm around Miriam, leading a chorus of the world’s most popular song. The joy was obviously precipitated by a major international development, but it was also the day a teenage girl would see her mother again after more than nine months in prison, convicted for the crime of writing about Russia’s army.

There’s a long list of prominent names involved in Thursday’s prisoner swap, including Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter sentenced to 16 years in prison under false claims of conducting espionage, and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was in Russia for a friend’s wedding and accused, again, of espionage. There were German citizens and even Russians, including Oleg Orlov, a human rights defender and co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group Memorial, in prison for speaking his mind about his country’s war in Ukraine.

Journalists, tourists, and activists went one way in the prisoner exchange; on the other side was Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service serving a life sentence in a German prison for a hit on a former Chechen fighter, conducted in broad daylight in Berlin. Others included a Russian citizen involved in international money laundering, a hacker, a credit card fraudster, and an actual spy.

The historic exchange instantly evokes imagery from the Cold War, when such transfers of prisoners were more common. But rather than the historical parallels, it is the contrasts drawn by Thursday’s events that will be remembered. There was Washington, fighting for the freedom of not only its own citizens but also Russians who dared to criticize their own government, and in stark relief there was Moscow, openly trading journalists for criminals and Nobel winners for fraudsters. The Kremlin has gleefully applauded knocks to U.S. soft power, from the misadventure of the Iraq War to the botched U.S. departure from Afghanistan in 2021, but the symbolism of the moment will have not been lost on Russian President Vladimir Putin: This exchange isn’t a great look for him. And even though Biden’s claims of a grand battle between democracies and autocracies are often criticized for being too black and white for the modern multipolar world, the lame-duck president now has a moment to mark his favorite reference in the history books.

It’s an election year in the United States, so contrasts will also be drawn around the alternate visions of Washington’s role in the world—currently being debated by surrogates for the Democratic and Republican campaigns. Former U.S. President Donald Trump has long argued for a more transactional approach to geopolitics. In such a world, there are two players—one is a winner, the other a loser. The Trump worldview prioritizes singular might over alliances; values don’t matter as much as the value of the hand of cards a player is clutching to their chest. Biden, while careful to focus on the humanity and history of the moment, couldn’t resist pointing out the difference: “For anyone who questions whether allies matter, they do.” He was referring in particular to the role of Germany, which had reportedly been reluctant to give up Krasikov. Biden personally spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in January and February, arguing the importance of the prisoner exchange.

Speaking a short while later to reporters, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan built on his boss’s message as he detailed the roles played by Germany, Turkey, and others in the prisoner swap. “There is no more powerful example of the importance and power of allies,” he said. “This was vintage Joe Biden.”

Supporters of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris are also pointing out her role, visiting the Munich Security Conference a few times as vice president and building relations with German and European leaders.

Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, was quick to offer an alternative view: “We have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house. That’s a good thing.”

And so the race for the White House rolls on, with both sides seeking to score points and spin their version of events. Thursday will be a historic study in contrasts—between Washington and Moscow and between rules and impunity. It will also be a moment that could play a part in an American referendum on Washington’s role in the world and whether the electorate favors the slow, painstaking diplomacy of Biden or the instant gratification and drama of Trump’s dealmaking.

[cathkaesque]

For over two years now, workers have been occupying the GKN autoparts factory in Florence to stop it from closing, in the longest factory occupation in Italian history.

They have received huge support in demonstrations of up to 40,000 people - and crucially, from the climate movement, which inspired the workers to come up with an alternative plan of production. Instead of autoparts, they plan to produce cargo bikes and solar panels, and use them to build a local economy based on the needs of people.

Now they urgently need your help to make this "just transition" away from fossil fuels a reality. The bosses are planning on sacking all the workers on January 1st so the first priority is to come to a New Years Eve event at the factory if you can, for a huge concert - and to barricade the factory. They've fought off redundancies before; with the same support, they can do it again.

But then they need to raise one million euros in a popular shareholder campaign, to start production off the cargo bikes and solar panels under workers control. So please share this video call out with trade unions, with environmental organisations, with everyone who wants to see a global just transition away from fossil fuels. Shares start from 100 euros, and already they have raised 315,000 euros - you can find details of how to take part at https://insorgiamo.org/100x10-000/, and see the end of the video for more ways you can help.

As the workers say, they can't create an alternative model to capitalist fossil fuel production in just one factory - but they can create an example of what is possible. Please support them in this absolutely crucial battle for a liveable, sustainable future.

[feckcops]

Workers around the world can stand up for Palestinians

“Understanding what is happening in Palestine is only part of the battle — we must also think about how we can take action in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

“In recent days, Palestinian trade unions have called on workers around the world to demand an ‘end to all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes’ by taking action to disrupt the flow of weapons to the Israeli war machine.

“There are several Israeli weapons companies located across the UK, including Elbit Systems, which has frequently been targeted by Palestinian organizers. UK weapons manufacturers like BAE Systems are also involved with the construction of technology being used against Palestine. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) and other NGOs have compiled data that shows the embeddedness of British industry in producing weapons for use by Israel.

“The very least Palestine should be able to expect from the world in terms of solidarity is an end to their active complicity in the terror being unleashed by the Israeli state. It is critical that British trade unions express solidarity with Palestine — and consider ways to disrupt the shipment of arms to Israel.

“There is a long tradition of such international solidarity within the labor movement. In the 1970s, workers in a factory manufacturing jets being used by Pinochet’s brutal authoritarian regime announced a boycott of shipments to Chile. More recently, unionized workers in Italy, South Africa, and the United States refused to load shipments of arms headed to Israel.

“It is easy to think of these as small, isolated actions that do little to arrest the functioning of the global arms trade. However, history has shown that actions, however small, can be of outsized importance in placing material limitations on the criminal actions of states.”

[eatmeandbirthmeagain]

Hey dear, how are you?👋🫶🧡

I had an idea for a short fanfic, and as I like, it has to do with the theme of Saladin's friendship with Baldwin. Anyway, the idea is related to the drawings that @chicken-blitz13 and @somethingstrangeishere created, specifically the ones where Saladin and Baldwin are playing polo. How about a fanfic in which Baldwin and Saladin meet for diplomatic negotiations (on not too global, but relatively small territorial issue, let's say) and during these negotiations one of the rulers casually drops the phrase "If only disputes were solved by games instead of battles...". (Or something like that). And then they get the idea that it's actually not a bad thing. As a result - Saladin and Baldwin decide by lot who chooses which game to play. As a result, they play polo. And then it's up to you, it'll be interesting to see who wins!😉

Always love you, thank you in advance💕

Drawings:

Credit @chicken-blitz13 and me

♡ Mallets And Hooves - King Baldwin & Saladin ♡

♡ Fluff ♡

A/N: HELLO GIRL!!! I am soooo sorry that it has taken FOREVER to get to this i've been so busy 😭. I loved writing this so much, I always enjoy writing these two as besties (they deserve it for real). I did change it up a little i'm sorry but I hope you like it anyway! I really hope you enjoy my friend! As always, this is based off the film Kingdom Of Heaven, not the real historical figures. Enjoy!

P.S. THIS IS NOT A SHIP FIC RAHHH!!!! I also really love the art 🤭and thank you to @chicken-blitz13 for coming up with the fic name 😭

TW: Leprosy

It was a warm evening in Jerusalem when the diplomatic negotiations first took place.

Earlier in the day Saladin had arrived at the castle with his own royal officials to begin the trade route negotiations and after a few hours of rest, the men were ready for the discussions.

Baldwin had been nervous about the affairs prior to the sultan's arrival, mostly because this was their first meeting since his victory all those years ago and he was yet to decide on how the other man would react after seeing him again.

Fortunately, the two had become acquainted quickly and soon the tension was all but gone. If only the same could be said for the other royal officials who had quickly taken to bickering about the affairs while Baldwin and Saladin exchanged glances of empathy and apologies for their counterparts behavior.

They had been at it for hours, so much so that the sun had grown low in the sky and due to the insistence of the other men, a conclusion had yet to be reached.

The sultan rubbed his eyes and sighed as Baldwin yawned behind the iron mask that covered his bored expression. It was truly draining for the both of them and the end seemed nowhere in sight.

Baldwin had not been paying attention for the most part but his attention was grabbed as one of the smaller rulers mumbled, “if only disputes were solved by games instead of battles…”.

The idea of a game of polo lifted the young king's spirits immensely, “alright, enough for now. Meeting dismissed, we shall continue tomorrow” Baldwin said loud enough for them all to hear.

He turned to the sultan for approval and was met with a tired nod.

The officials grumbled in annoyance and stood to leave, collecting their papers as they went.

Baldwin stood and approached the chair next to Saladin who seemed hesitant to get up just yet. The young king sat down and sighed.

“If only he were right..” Baldwin mumbled.

“Sorry?” the sultan replied.

“If only disputes were solved by games instead of battles!” 

Saladin chuckled. “Yes, that would certainly make things much easier” he said, looking out into the distance.

“Would you like to play a game of polo before the food is prepared?” Baldwin offered, a small smile creeping onto his face.

A similar smile came to the sultan at the kings strange request, “that would be wonderful”.

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

The two left for the stables, talking about what they would discuss tomorrow and complaining of the behavior of their own men.

“Children! I swear that's all they are” Saladin said, throwing his hands in the air as Baldwin mounted his own horse.

The young king laughed, “yes it definitely seems that way" “I will speak to all of them tonight about their behavior. We are here to make peace, not war” the sultan said honestly as he mounted his own horse. 

So the two set off with the sun casting an orange glow over the desert.

They began to play as the sun got lower and lower in the sky until it was near impossible to see the ball in front of them. The game came to a perfect tie, the two of them laughing about that as they rode back to the stables.

Baldwin's body ached but it was worth it. As of that evening, he considered Saladin a good friend and not somebody to bicker about stupid things with as their officials and advisors did.

When the two arrived back at the castle, dinner for most was prepared in the dining hall and Baldwins in his chambers.

When Saladin saw the young king walk past the table and to his rooms, he followed.

“My friend! Are you not going to dine with us?” he said, confused.

Baldwin simply tapped his mask with a gloved finger in reply.

“I can assure you, nobody would want to see what's under this” that statement made the sultan's heart ache for the young man. He must be so lonely, eating alone in his rooms every night.

“Well in that case, I shall take my food and go with you” he said returning to the dining room before Baldwin could protest. 

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

The two walked to Baldwin's chambers in silence with Saladin trying his best to concentrate on balancing two plates and a cup in his hands after the refusal of a servant's help, insisting that he did not wish to waste her time her.

Once inside, the two sat down at the small table on the royal balcony.

Baldwin hesitated at removing his mask in front of the other man and Saladin noticed this right away.

“I can assure you my friend, your appearance could never bother me. I admire you for your leadership and respect you as a friend. Nothing could change that” he said with a small, reassuring smile.

The young king sighed and pulled back the head covering to reveal his hair before slowly peeling off the mask, exposing his bandaged face to the cool night air.

Saladin grinned, “ah, you see! Nothing but the face of a brilliant leader, and a good friend”.

He raised his glass to Baldwin. The young king smiled and raised his glass in return.

“To peace between our people, as peace has come between us” the sultan said happily.

“To peace between our people” Baldwin repeated, equally as happy as his new friend.

[kesarijournal]

The Grand WTO's Food, Fishing, and Farming Fiasco

The Grand WTO's Food, Fishing, and Farming Fiasco

Welcome to the latest drama that’s more tangled than your earphones in a pocket – the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ongoing saga involving a cast of nations with India and South Africa in leading roles, and a contentious plot over food, fishing, and farming subsidies. Set against the backdrop of Abu Dhabi’s Ministerial Conference, our story unfolds with India and South Africa uniting to…

[whencyclopedia]

Ptolemaic Navy

Ptolemaic Egypt was a naval power that exerted influence throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from its foundation in 330 BCE until Cleopatra's defeat by Augustus at the Battle of Actium in 30 BCE. The Ptolemaic Kingdom produced some of the largest human-powered ships of all time, and the largest and most advanced warships of the period.

The Ptolemaic navy was also used to patrol trade routes on the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Nile as a way to deter piracy. Ptolemaic exploratory expeditions helped to improve Greek and Roman geographical knowledge of Arabia and the Indian subcontinent. Despite the overall decline of its military might in land conflicts, it remained a relevant naval force until the end of the dynasty.

Origins

Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE) conquered Egypt in 332 BCE, and after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, it was ruled by his general Ptolemy I (r. 305-282 BCE). The rest of Alexander's empire was divided between his other generals in the Wars of the Diadochi. The Diadochi and their successors waged constant wars against each other for territory and resources, which spurred on the development of the Ptolemaic navy.

Ptolemy I's navy originally consisted of the forces left behind by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. 30 triremes were left in Egypt by Alexander under the command of the admiral Polemon. After defeating the Macedonian general Thibron in Cyrene in 324 BCE, Ptolemy probably absorbed what remained of Thibron's fleet. He also made alliances with the rulers of Cyprus, which enabled him to build additional warships.

By 306 BCE, Ptolemy I was able to muster 210 warships and 200 troop transport ships. Ptolemy's brother Menelaus led this fleet against the forces of Demetrius I (c. 336 to c. 282 BCE) at Salamis of Cyprus. Demetrius, whose fleet contained larger ships carrying artillery, annihilated the Ptolemaic fleet. 40 warships and 8,000 Ptolemaic marines were taken captive by Demetrius. This catastrophic defeat meant that Ptolemy I was unable to maintain control of Cyprus and Coele-Syria, which were lost to Antigonus I. Within a decade, Ptolemy I had rebuilt a fleet of 150 ships which he used to recapture Cyprus and take control of Lydia, Tyre, Sidon, and Pamphylia.

He takes slices of Phoenicia and Arabia and Syria and Libya and the dark-skinned Ethiopians; all the Pamphylians and the warriors of Cilicia he commands, and the Lycians and the Carians, who delight in war, and the islands of the Cyclades, for his are the finest ships sailing the ocean. All the sea and the land and the crashing rivers are subject to Ptolemy.

(Theocritus, Idylls, 17.86-95)

Under Ptolemy II (r. 282-286 BCE) and Ptolemy III (r. 246-222 BCE), the Ptolemaic navy rapidly expanded with new and more advanced warships to become the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean. This navy enabled the Ptolemaic dynasty to capture and defend islands and coastal territories that stretched from Egypt to the Aegean, making the Ptolemaic Kingdom into a thalassocracy. Later Ptolemaic rulers would continue to prioritize the maintenance of a large fleet, but by the end of the dynasty, its global power had disintegrated.

Continue reading...

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Alan Zeitlin

In “The October 7 War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza,”  Seth Frantzman doesn’t use hyperbole when he writes: “A country that went to sleep on Oct. 6 concerned with domestic controversies woke up the next day to an unprecedented war. It was a shock that shook the country to its core and left major questions about the future.”

Frantzman writes that as rockets flew overhead when he drove down to the border, his colleague Dr. Eric Mandel notified him that he saw corpses littering the streets. Some were Israeli civilians, and some were terrorists. The book is about the four months when he covered the war.

He notes that while more information will come out after official investigations are completed, there was an overconfidence by the heads of the Israeli military as well as politicians, who believed that by making sure money flowed to Hamas, the terrorist group would care about self-interest and not launch any major attack. He conveys the shock that many in the world sided with Hamas. “By attacking Israel,” he writes, “Hamas did not receive more condemnation and isolation globally; instead, it achieved more recognition and a spotlight.”

Frantzman takes you through the founding of Hamas, first through an election and then by murdering its opponents in the Fatah party. 

“At each point in history when Israel was about to achieve peace, Hamas would seek to sabotage the efforts via massive deadly attacks,” he writes of periods of past decades. “The same would occur in October 2023 when Hamas sought to derail normalization with Saudi Arabia and peace in the region.”

While Israel assassinated founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin in 2004, three years earlier it released Yahya Sinwar in the trade for kidnapped solider Gilad Shalit. Sinwar is the leader of Hamas, the Oct. 7 attack’s mastermind, and is still alive.  Frantzman writes that lessons have been learned. “Technology is not a substitute for strategy and tactics.”

Hamas did preparatory drills in plain sight during daylight hours so that Israel would be fooled into thinking the terrorist group was simply doing drills. Israel’s rationale was that the country defeated Hamas in 2002, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021, so it could do it again if it had to.” But none of those included large-scale, surprise ground attacks. 

He notes that Knesset member Avigdor Liberman resigned as Defense Minister in 2018, sensing that the threat of Hamas was not taken seriously and that a paper he wrote explaining the possibility of a large-scale attack was largely ignored. The payments from Qatar that were believed to be for the purpose of de-incentivizing war were instead used to finance the terror tunnels, which were a key to the war. 

The plan, dubbed “walls of Jericho,” outlining almost exactly the October attack, was seen in April of 2002, but not acted upon. 

[astral-mariner]

Wait a minute I can just send you an ask about how you think saiyan culture varies by region and also about that religious tail removal headcanon you mentioned on the extremely long tail post lol

Infodump incoming! (Caveat: these are just some fun headcanons, and I love other people's headcanons just as much. I love when there are a million different versions of things so I can enjoy them all and enjoy the content millions of times over!)

Epic Rambling below the cut.

Okay, so. I made up all of this to be background stuff for my Saiyans under Freeza fic. Like a collective memory the characters have that people like Nappa could reference. To give the fic a sense of history and context even if we don't see the saiyan planet. To show how the characters see the world, how they think about things, what they care about, and why.

Basically, I imagine that Vegeta-sei had a handful of "nations" that roughly correspond to different population groups on different parts of the planet. They each have some unique cultural practices, beliefs, fighting styles, etc. Only in the recent(ish) past had their culture become more globalized due to receiving more access to technology from the Planet Trade. So they may have had scouters and whatnot before, but not everyone would have had them. They may have had healing/incubation pods too, but they weren't readily available to most people. All of this is to say that their different cultures wouldn't have converged into a uniform one due to globalization/colonization.

As for the different nations themselves, I imagine that different regions prioritized different things about being saiyan. Or they had different ways of approaching class hierarchies. For example, one nation might center Super Saiyan legends in their cultural consciousness, whereas another might center Oozaru transformation. This is precisely the difference I imagine between the nation that surrounds the royal palace/lands and the nation that houses a population closer to one of the planet's poles:

The royal bloodline bases their claim to power not just on their (supposed) higher latent strength, but also their alleged ancestral ties to saiyans that have become Super Saiyans. And the royals/nobles themselves perpetuate this narrative to consolidate power. Even though it seems pretty apparent that no saiyans have living memory of actually seeing a Super Saiyan---just that there are stories about their might, what they look like, etc. So the royals and everyone around them would be steeped in these legends. And the general culture of nobility, too, would contribute to obsessing over ancestry, power level, etc., where having ties to the royal family grants social status.

But it's not just social status---probably one of the reasons why SSJ legends have such a hold on people is that the Super Saiyans of legend helped them conquer their own planet(s?), won critical battles in the distant past, and perhaps played a sort of "savior" role. They have a sort of spiritual/religious significance. They provide a sort of "ideal" to which any strong, virtuous saiyan should aspire. An avatar for how saiyans construct morality and excellence (beyond just those in power wanting to maintain order and control).

Vegeta references that a Super Saiyan is a warrior with a "cold" or "pure" heart. Some of this is probably his own or his father's spin on the stories he was told as a child. Shutting down his emotions and detaching himself simultaneously from forming any connections as well as from the horrors he was experiencing/committing was certainly a coping strategy for surviving under Freeza. But some of it definitely came from his culture and from saiyan spiritual sensibility generally.

Different translations refer to the heart of the Super Saiyan as "pure," "cold," or even "tranquil." Because "pure of heart" captures a different kind of vibe in a Western mind than it does an Eastern one. It's not about being, like, "morally good" or anything---it's more about being empty, or single of purpose. Unaffected by attachment, and not in the "I don't care about anyone" sense (though it definitely is about that as well in some cases). Think along the lines of nonattachment philosophy you see described in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, or (for a more Western flavor) Stoicism. So you can see how it simultaneously captures the adjectives of "pure" and "cold/tranquil." Or, for a pop culture reference that many will be familiar with, how the Jedi and Star Wars try to stay above attachment to the world and being swayed by personal passions.

And I bring all of this up to make a point about how saiyans might approach virtue. It's more about excellence than it is about doing what is right. So, something done excellently is virtuous, even if it is something humans would consider evil. A virtuous saiyan is someone who is as strong as possible, fights with clearness of purpose, and is unswayed by personal passions. The state of SSJ is a kind of state of enlightenment. (Which puts the differences between Goku and Vegeta on display: Goku is actually more exemplary of someone who fights in this "enlightened" way---purely for the sake of itself---whereas Vegeta is caught up in his emotions in every fucking battle he fights. He hates Kakarot, he hates Freeza. He's always trying to prove something. While Goku isn't trying to prove anything. He's just fighting because fighting is what he does, and he does it excellently.)

Now contrast this with a group of saiyans who prioritize Oozaru transformation more. Instead of trying to detach oneself, imagine leaning into one's passions and becoming a fucking monster. You know, the call of the moon, the bloodlust of the beast. Totally different vibe from the Enlightened Warrior. I find it absolutely fascinating that you have these two competing narratives for how a saiyan shows strength. That they have these two main transformations with these totally different flavors (that are later unified in transformations like SSJ3/4?). And you even see little nods to how saiyans think about their Oozaru transformation. Sometimes it's just about letting loose and being destructive. Other times, different saiyans in canon (such as Vegeta in the Saiyan Saga) seem to turn to it as a last resort. Not their main line of defense; something messy and unbecoming, even.

I'll write more about the saiyan cultures that lean more into Oozaru vs. SSJ in another post about the backstory I've constructed for Vegeta's mom! I headcanon that she belonged to one of these cultures, and that Vegeta's parents followed different traditions. (Also makes the relationship between King Vegeta and Vegeta's mom quite interesting!)

Now about saiyans who remove their tails: So with alllllllll of that said about SSJ vs. Oozaru and the different approaches/philosophies behind them, you can imagine a kind of extremist faction of the SSJ-prioritizing culture that eschews Oozaru transformation altogether as an attempt to strive for excellence only, to be totally pure-hearted, to have no passions whatsoever. And some of them would remove their tails as an expression of their spiritual sensibilities. Perhaps they belong to an ascetic warrior tradition. Tail removal would simultaneously be seen as something scandalous/taboo as well as very serious, as for most saiyans, this removes their access to one of their more powerful transformations (at least for a little while, if the tail eventually grows back).

I don't think King Vegeta would have belonged to this faction even if he would be drawn to some of their philosophies/practices. He probably couldn't remove his tail for social status reasons as well. But I can see him employing some of the tailless saiyans in various corners of his regime. Like, think of what kind of flex it would be to employ ascetic warrior fanatics to positions of, say, law enforcement. As in "these people are going to torture you, and they aren't going to give a single fuck about you or anything else while they are doing it." Because of the nonattachment stuff. People who just follow the will of the heir to the Super Saiyan Legacy and pursue strength/excellence while casting off all else.

I could literally go on and on about this. How these different philosophies shape the characters we know, how the characters twist these narratives to suit their aims or cope with their lives. I know this is super rambly, but I think you get some of the ideas here?

[aurumacadicus]

It's time to pick our August book for book club! Tumblr will vote, and the book club will then vote among the top three in Discord. If you’d like to join the book club, send me a message and I’ll send you a link to the discord! Keep an eye out for the other poll, and check out the books’ summaries under the cut!

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

It’s been hundreds of years since King Arthur’s Reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other.

They’re forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run up to their nuptials, and with 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen’s childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom’s only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

Realizing they might make better allies than enemies, they make a reluctant pact to cover for each other, and as things head up at the annual royal tournament, Gwen is swept off her by her knight and Arthur takes an interest in Gwen’s royal brother. Lex Croucher’s Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love.

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis

It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horrible and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.

It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is… you.

Gav isn’t really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed.

But as he realizes nothing – from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess – is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he’ll have to answer the hardest question of all – who does he want to be?

A high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, an evil wizard convocation, and a garlic festival. All at once. All in all, Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon

Twenty-nine, depressed, and drowning in credit card debt after losing her job during the pandemic, a millennial woman decides to end her troubles by jumping off Seol’s Mapo Bridge.

But her suicide attempt is interrupted by a girl dressed in white—her guardian angel. Ah Roa is a clairvoyant magical girl on a mission to find the greatest magical girl of all time. And our protagonist just may be that special someone.

But the young woman’s initial excitement turns to frustration when she learns being a magical girl in real life is much different than how it’s portrayed in stories. It isn’t just destiny—it’s work. Magical girls go to job fairs, join trade unions, attend classes. And for this magical girl there are no special powers and no great perks, and despite being magical, she still battles with low self-esteem. Her magic wand . . . is a credit card—which she must use to defeat a terrifying threat that isn’t a monster or an intergalactic war. It’s global climate change. Because magical girls need to think about sustainability, too.

Park Seolyeon reimagines classic fantasy tropes in a novel that explores real-world challenges that are both deeply personal and universal: the search for meaning and the desire to do good in a world that feels like it’s ending. A fun, fast-paced, and enchanting narrative that sparkles thanks to award-nominated Anton Hur, A Magical Girl Retires reminds us that we are all magical girls—that fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight can be anyone’s game.

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Shiori’anma, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted. But it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.

A sorceress in her own right, Raikama banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes. She warns Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.

Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and uncovers a dark conspiracy to seize the throne. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in a paper bird, a mercurial dragon, and the very boy she fought so hard to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to forswear—no matter what the cost.

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

“Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I’m just a Jade. I’m not a real hero.”

As each new decade begins, the Sun’s power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the chaotic Obsidian gods at bay. Sol selects ten of the most worthy semidioses to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner carriers light and life to all the temples of Reino del Sol, but the loser has the greatest honor of all—they will be sacrificed to Sol, their body melted down to refuel the Sun Stones, protecting the world for another ten years.

Teo, a seventeen-year-old Jade semidiós and the trans son of the goddess of birds, isn’t worried about the Trials . . . at least, not for himself. His best friend, Niya is a Gold semidiós and a shoo-in for the Trials, and while he trusts her abilities, the odds of becoming the sacrifice is one-in-ten.

But then, for the first time in over a century, the impossible happens. Sol chooses not one, but two Jade competitors. Teo, and Xio, the thirteen-year-old child of the god of bad luck. Now they must compete in five trials against Gold opponents who are more powerful and better trained. Worst of all, Teo’s annoyingly handsome ex-best friend and famous semidiós Hero, Aurelio is favored to win. Teo is determined to get himself and his friends through the trials unscathed—for fame, glory, and their own survival.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to the Lost Apothecary…

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Carline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

Vermilion by Molly Tanzer

Gunslinging, chain smoking, Stetson-wearing Taoist psychopomp, Elouise “Lou” Merriwether might not be a normal 19-year-old, but she’s too busy keeping San Francisco safe from ghosts, shades, and geung si to care much about that. It’s an important job, though most folks consider it downright spooky. Some have even accused Lou of being more comfortable with the dead than the living, and, well… they’re not wrong. When Lou hears that a bunch of Chinatown boys have gone missing somewhere deep in the Colorado Rockies she decides to saddle up and head into the wilderness to investigate. Lou fears her particular talents make her better suited to help placate their spirits than ensure they get home alive, but it’s the right thing to do, and she’s the only one willing to do it. On the road to a mysterious sanatorium known as Fountain of Youth, Lou will encounter bears, desperate men, a very undead villain, and even stranger challenges. Lou will need every one of her talents and a whole lot of luck to make it home alive…