#icelandic politician

[maturemenoftvandfilms]

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Born: May 14, 1943, Ísafjörður, Iceland Physique: Average Build

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is an Icelandic politician who was the fifth president of Iceland from 1996 to 2016. He was previously a member of the Icelandic Parliament for the People's Alliance and served as Minister of Finance from 1988 to 1991. Since the end of his presidency, Ólafur has been serving as Chairman of the Arctic Circle, a non-profit organization, and as Chairman of the International Renewable Energy Agency's Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation.

Tall, handsome and a head full of thick white hair. This is a man I I'd love to grind on... in multiple ways. And with me saying that, you know he's married with children, which is a standard for all the men I lust after now days. But that does not matter when your mentally fucking them.

[radykalny-feminizm]

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (born 15 April 1930) is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996.

Vigdís is the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as president.

[higherentity]

[i-am-dulaman]

Okay I'm riled up about this rn so time for a history of economics lesson (rant) from me, a stranger on the internet

I'm a communist, I hate capitlism, so lemme just put that out there. But capitlism had its moments. Even marx had some praise for parts of capitlism.

And by far the most successful form of capitlism was Keynesian economics, as evident by the enormous increase in living standards in those countries which adopted it between the 1930s and 1970s.

What's Keynesian economics? The idea that capitlism can't survive on its own, and must be supported by government spending at the poorest ends of society and taxes at the richest ends of society (essentially the opposite of trickle down economics) as well as strong regulations on certain industries like banking.

It basically started in 1936 with President Roosevelt who was a personal friend of John Keynes (who the theory is named after).

Roosevelt implemented Keynesian economics to great effect; he raised the top tax rate to 94% (he actually wanted a 100% tax rate on the highest incomes, essentially creating a maximum wage, but the senate negotiated down to 94%) and similarly high corporate tax rates, he created the first ever minimum wage, created the first ever unemployment benefit, created social security in America, pension funds, and increased public spending on things like public utilities and infrastructure, national parks, etc. Which created about 15 million public sector jobs.

This ended the great depression and eventually lead to America winning world War 2, after which many countries followed suit in implementing similar policies, including UK, Australia, and NZ (apologies for the anglosphere-centric list here but they're the countries I'm personally most familiar with so bare with me)

Over the next 40 years these countries had unprecedented growth in living standards and incomes, and either decreasing or stable wealth inequality, and housing prices increasing in line with inflation. Virtually every household bought a car and a TV, rates of higher education increased dramatically, america put a man on the moon, and so on.

Then it all abruptly ended in the 80s and the answer is plain and obvious. 1979 thatcher became UK prime minister. 1981 reagan became US president. 1983 the wage accords were signed in aus. 1984 was the start of rogernomics in NZ (Someone link that Twitter thread of the guy who posts graphs of economic trends and points out where reagan became president)

(Also worth noting those last two in NZ and Aus were both implemented by 'left' leaning governments, but they are both heavily associated with right wing policies.)

This marked the beginning of trickle down economics: tax cuts, privatization of publicly owned assets, reduction in public spending, and deregulation of the finance sector. The top tax rates are down to the low 30s in most of these countries, down from the 80s/90s it was prior. Now THATS a tax cut.

And what happened next?

Wages stagnated. Housing prices skyrocketed. Bankers got away with gambling on the economy. Public infrastruce and utilies degraded. And wealth inequality now exceeds France in 1791.

I don't know how anyone can deny the evidence if they see it, but there's so much propaganda and false information that a lot of people just don't see the evidence.

Literally all the evidence supports going back to Keynesian economics but now that the rich have accumulated so much wealth it's virtually impossible to democratically dethrone them when they have most of the politicians on both the right and the left in their pocket.

Unfortunately it was the great depression and ww2 that gave politicians the political power to implement these policies the first time around. Some thought the 2008 crash would spur movement back towards Keynesianism (which it actually did in Iceland, congrats to them), I hoped covid would force governments to now, but nope.

All these recent crises' seem to have just pushed politics further and further right, with more austerity and tax cuts.

I don't really have a message or statement to end on other than shits fucked yo.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

On God of War and "canon" in Norse mythology

Playing God of War: Ragnarök and reading writing about it reminds me of something a lot of people have trouble internalizing about Norse myth, which is is that

The vast, overwhelming majority of Norse mythology is lost and

There is no "canon" in Norse mythology

The concept of "canon" in religion is, at least in the west, very much a Christian thing (yes, it's also a feature of other religions). The idea that there is an authorized, central, divinely ordained, "official" central set of facts which are true, and everything else is fanfiction at best or heresy at worst.

And this is something we've taken with us into our general media criticism, hundreds of thousands of words exchanged between people debating which parts of Star Wars or the MCU are canon, or endlessly cycling through interpretations of what parts of Tolkien's mythos apply to each part of the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit. I've participated in those discussions, and they can be a lot of fun, but it's worth remembering that this is only one of multiple ways to approach writing and narrative.

Norse mythology has no canon. There is no set of texts that have been declared by any central authority to be "the truth" of the Allfather, or the most correct depiction of Thor. Even in its own time, before its suppression by Christianity, Viking-age sailors, farmers and warriors would not have understood their religious practise as bounded by a finite and defined set of stories. It was an oral tradition, transmitted by telling and re-telling.

Your skjald knows some stories of the gods, maybe the guy the next town over knows some different ones, and maybe you go on a trading journey with a guy from Norway who knows completely different stories and you take those home with you where they become a part of the local rotation.

The primary sources for most Norse mythology (and certainly for God of War: Ragnarök) are the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, two collections of texts compiled in the 13th century in Iceland by Snorri Sturluson, a Christian poet and politician, as well as possibly other contributors at the same time.

They are limited by their geography, consisting only of those stories that survived in Iceland, and limited by their time period. The Viking Age is generally considered to have ended around 1050 CE, so Sturluson was compiling these stories two hundred years after the time when Norse paganism would have been the dominant religious practise in Scandinavia or indeed Iceland.

We have other sources than the Eddas, of course, but they are painfully limited: Runestones and archeological artifacts, as well as stories told about the Vikings by people who weren't them, which obviously comes with a lot of biases. The Viking-era Scandinavians themselves simply didn't leave any substantial body of written sources that survived.

Sturluson being a Christian, writing for Christian audiences, also introduces a lot of suspicion of tampering. He might have had incentive to avoid recording certain stories, for fear of being accused of spreading heresy, and he may have edited or altered aspects of the stories he did record to make them palatable to his audience, or to serve his own political purposes. This, of course, is a concern with any author writing anything ever, but since Sturluson is quite literally our only source for so many of these stories, it is impossible to check his work against competing narratives.

The consequence of all of this is that the vast majority of Norse mythology is lost. We do not know the vast majority of what that old religious practise was, we do not know the vast majority of its stories. This was a set of beliefs and stories told and transmitted across populations ranging from what is now the inland plains of Germany to the heights of the mountains of Norway to the shores and harbors of Denmark to parts of modern day Russia. These disparate populations would have had an absolutely enormous range of shared and local religious practises, they would have emphasized and cared about different gods, they would have absorbed and incorporated stories from neighboring religious groups.

This has a couple of consequences. For one thing, the whiny pissbabies crying about Angrboða being portrayed as a person of color in God of War: Ragnarök because "there were no black people in Norse mythology!" are, indeed, full of piss and expired baby oil. They don't know that, because nobody knows that.

Viking sailors made it as far as Constantinople and old Norse was once spoken in parts of Crimea. They even managed to make it across the goddamn Atlantic to found a settlement in Newfoundland, so the idea that old Norse peoples wouldn't know what a person of color is or tell stories about them is just absurd on the face of it. We have no direct evidence that they told stories about gods of color, but to look at the tiny snapshot provided by one Christian poet writing for a Christian audience in Iceland two hundred years after the Christianization of Scandinavia and confidently concluding that people of color couldn't possibly have existed in the Norse imagination is like finding the Q key off a keyboard lying on the ground and concluding there can be no such thing as vowels or the letter L.

The tiny sliver of Norse mythology that has survived to the modern day should to a modern reader be a prompt to imagine the vast possibility of what has been lost, not a reason to reduce the entire culture of my ancestors to whatever bits that were left by the time some dude in Iceland found it interesting and convenient to write them down.

Which leads us on to the other interesting consequence of the facts of Norse mythology.

It is an oral tradition, with no central canon and no central authority, whose religious practises were local and varied, whose stories were designed to be shared and picked up by whoever finds them compelling. Which means that any story we tell, now, about the gods that we find compelling is every bit as "canon" as anything that survives in the Eddas.

Which is to say: not canon at all, unless you decide to believe in it. Or, hell, even if you just find it enjoyable.

God of War: Ragnarök is as canon as Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology is as canon as Jul i Valhal that ran on Danish TV in 2005 is as canon as the MCU Thor, is as canon as the Prose Edda, is as canon as the half-remembered re-telling of Norse myth I heard from my Danish teacher in class in 1998.

It is often very difficult for a lot of modern audiences to free themselves from the idea of "canon." We seem to instinctively want a certain set of stories to be "the real ones," a certain narrative to be the "official" one, and set adrift without that sense of central authority to guide us, a lot of people exhibit what I would call an almost resentful anxiety. If none of it is definitely true, then what is even the point of any of it? If you can't know for sure which story is the most real, then all of it must be meaningless!

And yeah. It's easy to feel that way. We live in the Age of Canon, the era of the cinematic universe and the franchise, the epoch of copyright. But that is only one way to understand stories and narrative.

If you listen to the stories of the old gods, whether out of the Eddas or re-told in pop culture, and you take some of that with you, and you pass the good bits on to someone else, then you are participating in the oldest and most sacred tradition of Norse mythology. These stories do not belong to any one author (especially not the goddamn Mouse!) or even to any one people. They were telling stories of Thor along the rivers of Russia a thousand years ago, Viking sailors scratched their names in runes in the Hagia Sophia, Islamic artifacts have been found in Viking burials. Those who look at the tradition of my ancestors and feel compelled to do enclosure around them are fools and charlatans, fearful and small-minded.

Our stories are monopolized these days by capital. Canon to them is a tool of enclosure, a way to shut people out of participating in the modern mythology they are trying to build, except with their permission and profit in mind. But there is another way.

Listen to the stories and pass them on. The story you believe in won't be the one everyone likes, and the version you tell won't be the same version someone else passes on from you. But every telling takes the soul of the teller with it, and the stories we weave together in communal tradition become a picture of every storyteller who has contributed to them. And you spite the fucking Mouse.

[contemplatingoutlander]

Interesting proposal by Nate Loewentheil in a guest column in The New York Times. Not only was his proposal thought provoking, but two of the comments regarding it by readers were also worth contemplating. Below are some excerpts from the column, followed by the two comments.

Here is a proposal for the environmental movement: Pool philanthropic funds for a day, buy a small plot of land in Washington, D.C., and put up a tall marble wall to serve as a climate memorial. Carve on this memorial the names of public figures actively denying the existence of climate change. Carve the names so deep and large, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren need not search the archives. This is not a metaphor. The problem with climate change is the disconnect between action and impact. If politicians vote against construction standards and a school collapses, the next election will be their last. But with climate change, cause and effect are at a vast distance. We are already seeing the consequences of our past and present greenhouse gas emissions. In coming decades, those emissions will wreak their full havoc on the climate, and it will take hundreds, possibly thousands, of years for those pollutants to fully dissipate. But in the short term, the most immediate burdens are borne mostly by the poor in America and distant people in distant lands. Misaligned incentives are at the heart of why some political and business leaders deny and delay. [...] I would first nominate those who have sown confusion over climate science, like Myron Ebell, who recently retired as director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, where he sought to block climate change efforts in Congress, and served as the head of Donald Trump’s transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Ebell has argued that the idea that climate change is “an existential threat or even crisis is preposterous.” Then there are lawmakers who have consistently stood in the way of federal action, like the recently retired senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the author of the book “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.” [color emphasis added]

Below is the first thought provoking comment to this article:

There is, in Iceland, a memorial to a dead glacier - the Ok Glacier. It reads: "Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it." [color emphasis added] --Chris D., Colorado

Photo of the plaque at the at the Okjökull (OK Glacier) memorial.

Here is the second thought provoking comment to this article:

For reference this graph https://i.redd.it/ljifc828iui31.jpg is from the Exxon internal scientific report on climate change, 1982, produced by scientists working for that fossil fuel corporation. Look at what their graph predicted for 2020. Approaching 420 ppm CO2 and a rise of 1.2 C degrees above pre-industrial temperature - very close to what we actually got in 2020. Then look at what the graph shows for later this century, based on not reducing emissions. Very serious temperature rises, that could make agriculture very difficult in many countries. Yes, and then Exxon, having seen this, got involved in PR campaigns to "cast doubt" on climate science, to protect their assets. [color emphasis added] --Erik Frederiksen, Ashville, NC

1982 Exxon graph depicting average global temperature increases over time correlating with increases in atmospheric CO2. NOTE: Graph color was modified for greater clarity.

Fossil fuel companies like Exxon, and fossil fuel oligarchs like the Koch brothers should be included in any "Climate Wall of Shame."

[broomsick]

Hi! I’m an agnostic with an interest in learning more about Norse polytheism, and I have a question about the way that the sagas and myths are interpreted.

Are the sagas (and other Norse myths) viewed as having actually happened at some point, or are they viewed more as symbolic/metaphorical, like a fable or an allegory?

Hi there! Thank you for the ask! This a topic I very much enjoy discussing, and I'll be glad to give you my thoughts on the matter.

Before I can properly explain what the sagas are, I'll determine what they aren't. They aren't to be confused with myths, such as the ones that make up nordic mythology. They are not part of that mythology for a plethora of reasons. While mythology pertains to deities we know have been worshipped as such at some point in time, the sagas are stories of human beings. More often than not, they mean to tell historical events, which represents a major difference with the myths. A saga often recounts the history of a particular dynasty, or family, and a lot of the characters who appear in them are either: 1. folk heroes, such as Wayland the Smith, who appears in the Þiðreks saga, or Sigurðr Sigmundsson, who appears in the Völsunga saga; Or 2. famous, historically attested figures, such as Erik the Red, whose story is told in the Eiríks saga rauða, or Harald Fairhair, who appears in Snorri's Haralds saga hárfagra.

This is another parrticularity which differentiates a myth and saga: the latter often brings to life real life historical figures, or even attested events. Still, these stories are steeped in folklore. They mix magic and history, and the line quickly blurs between reality and fiction. And considering that many of the sagas' authors remain unknown to this day (that is the case for the Icelanders' sagas), there is a limit to how much we can trust their writings. In fact, there is very little historical fact to be found in the sagas. However, some of the events they describe seem to hold some amout of truth! For example, it's speculated that the viking remains found in Dorset could have been the bodies of captured men who appear in the Jómsvíkinga saga. And Eirik the Red did in fact sail from Norway to Greenland and North America, making him and his crew the first Europpeans to land in the Americas. And when it comes to the stories of famous Scandinavian dynasties, the sagas serve to explain, using both fact and fiction, how this or that famous king has earned a throne.

Now, what makes these stories interesting to us as pagans? Well, as is often the case, the answer varies from one practionner to the next. To read the sagas is not a necessary part of the nordic pagan path. But to me, it helps to get to know the faith a little better. It allows us to better understand the cultural and historical context behind certain beliefs ad practices. They often showcase the very last accounts of ancient festivals, rituals, or famous temples. They are a tool of choice for many scholars, who, of course, are still forced to try and tell truth from fiction. But they're a fun read overall, and I highly recommend looking into them!

As for the myths, by which we mean the stories which compose what's called norse mythology, they are generally viewed as metaphors. They're a way for us to see our Gods come to life, and to find out some of their most prominent characteristics. The amount of credit you choose to put into mythology is entirely up to you, but I can confidently say that most pagans don't take them at face value. They're a fun way to help us imagine what the Gods might be like! For example, most agree that Týr is brave, Freyja, headstrong, and Frigg, caring. These are examples of details we can try to figure out if we read between the lines of these myths. What's most important to keep in mind, however, is the fact that many of these myths were heavily influenced by their authors. For example, Snorri, famously a Christian priest and Icelandic politician, would manipulate certain stories to better serve his political goals. It's widely accepted for example, that elements of the myths such as Angrboða and some other such lovers of the Gods were most likely invented during the 12th century, era during which a lot of the myths we know today were being compiled by priests. These changes often served to fill in the gaps left by a tradition of exclusively transmitting folklore orally. We can only speculate as to how much of the myths were truly part of pre-Christian oral tradition, which makes it even more relevant to exercise skepticism around mythology.

[comicsansstein]

On Democracy

A recent post made me think about finally writing an effortpoast from a series that's been bouncing around my head for years.

What does it mean to Believe in Democracy? Because, uh, I don't think I do.

If I would, I think it would mean something like this: I am a citizen, and I have sort of a partial share of the country. I am able to identify my interests and causes that are important to me, and I want to redirect my share of governance towards those interests and causes. Constant direct voting is cumbersome and costly. (Is it? The Swiss manage it. We may get to it later.) So I look for reasonably like-minded people to band with in a party, and get representatives.

As in, people who represent me. As in, people who are my subjects. Who are supposed to defer to us. And if they don't represent my interests and causes I owe them jack shit.

It seems that the median person has this relation inverted almost exactly. Instead of treating politicians like they're public's servants, they treat them like celebrities! Like movie stars, Taylor Swift (I'd say "music stars" here, but she's the last remaining western one) or top sportsmen. They think that the public has an obligation to the political class, that the public owes them to vote in certain ways that'll give certain politicians more power.

Politicians who act like they're kowtowing to the public's most voiced demands are called "populists", and I'm led to believe that it's a bad thing that we're supposed to minimize.

So I don't know what is it that you people believe, but it sure doesn't look like what I would call "democracy".

Step 2: ??? Step 3: Policy!

The usual way people try to square this circle is pointing that nobody can be a completely informed voter. Economy is fractally complicated, therefore you can't intuit your economic interests! Biology if fractally complicated, therefor you can't know what's good for your health! Etc.

The thing is, how are politicians supposed to be better at that than genpop? By education, they're primarily lawyers, i.e. people who operate in the symbolic space to get what they want from a bureaucratic system, and not in any object-level knowledge domain. Map, not territory. The typical answer to that is that the domain knowledge is supposed to come from either "experts" or policy wonks.

But even if we assume: that the median voter cannot be informed about their best interest, that the experts interfacing with politicians operate not with their immediate interests in mind, but with the goal of allowing the politicians to make the best decisions (ahahaha), and that the politicians listen to the wonks and experts to the best of their ability (ohohoho).

Even if we assume all that, how are the voters (who we've established as not informed) are supposed to know which politicians to trust? At which point of the process the not-knowledge is supposed to be transmuted into knowledge and expertise?

If only the emperor knew!

But sometimes there are discrepancies large enough that they can't be explained away by parts of the public not knowing what's good for them. Things like banks not being allowed to fail in wake of a financial crisis, or Disney getting another copyright extension. In that case, it's because democracy has been corrupted, you see. It cannot be that a system may be suitable for governing 300 thousand people (Iceland, which managed to basically expel the banks after the crisis, or so I'm told) but less so for governing 300 million people. Not, the system is flawless, definitionally flawless! The flaws mean we've strayed from true democracy, towards corrupted one!

And then sometimes you get a mix of the two, when the corruption exists because some voters (who don't know what's good for them) have been deceived by the Evil party and are voting against their interests. They cannot possibly have different fundamental irreducible values which are split 40+%/40+% in the population because obviously my values are the only correct ones, and true democracy would mean tiling the country with my values.

(Dropping the snark for a moment and being explicit: if you believe something that's even passably familiar to the above paragraph, and if you want to centralize the bureaucracy e.g. by removing the US senate, you don't actually value democracy. Never have, never will, and it would do us all some good if you dropped the façade.)

...except for all the others that have been tried

Surprise! Despite all that, I'm still glad that I'm living in (some approximation of) democracy. This is an inversion from my teenage edgelord years, where I believed in the democracy but nonetheless wanted to supplant it with something more efficient. I like it now because there's a huge upside: peaceful transfer of power. But as the (social media-induced? that's the leading hypothesis, right?) gap between values widens, that center may not hold in the future.

So what do I want? These are all a bit pie-in-the-sky, but:

I want people who are softly authoritarian to be honest with themselves (obviously won't happen because they have a tremendous amount of energy invested in not thinking about themselves as authoritarians, but sill, putting this out there)

I want people to turn off fandom brain when thinking about politics. Have a healthy dose of disdain for politicians on your "team".

Decentralization! Direct representation! Switzerland has direct voting about tons of stuff, and it works! Cantons' population ranges from 1.5 million to 16 thousand, so they can vote on things that matter to them without intermediate assholes inserting themselves into the situation.

Fuck first-past-the-post! Let's do ranked voting! Down with thresholds, let's have 50 parties in each parliament! "But that would severely disrupt the process of passing new laws and regulations!" Precisely.

Sortition! Because why the hell not, the current system of career politics is an industrial-strength asshole filter, random people would genuinely improve the situation.

If I were good at writing essays, there would be a sentence here that ties everything together. But I'm not.

[real-bucky-barnes]

Now I’m kind of interested in knowing what other weird things Steve has said or done

Here’s my little list titled “Insane shit the love of my life has said/done”

1. “Baby, would you still love Alpine if she was a chicken? She wants to know.”

2. I found him watching Buzzfeed Unsolved at 3 AM while furiously writing notes. When I asked him what he was doing he said “I gotta figure ‘em out.”

3. Was fully convinced our house was haunted by a poltergeist because he kept finding dead animals at our door. Once I caved and put up a camera to record “paranormal activity” we realized it was just Alpine.

4. “I feel like we celebrate Halloween because we have clown blood in us.”

5. He’s tried to watch The Conjuring by himself and ran into our room sobbing

6. Has sobbed over Grimace, the McDonalds mascot

7. Has once tried some of Alpine’s food “just for kicks”

8. “Are we trojan horsing Iceland?”

9. “Listen, Sam, it doesn’t matter when I die, just that I don’t do it in a coal related incident.”

10. “Italians are a lot hotter than they were in the 40’s” (he was talking about the band Måneskin)

11. Has called multiple politicians “motherfuckers” on live TV

12. Started singing The Beatles in his sleep, and had no memory of it once he woke up

13. Has rescued multiple sheep and then just continued on the mission without a word.

14. Once solved a decades old murder because he was bored

15. I’ve caught him listening to gruesome cult podcasts while baking in a frilly apron.

I love getting asks, and this was so fun to answer!! Thank you!!!

[rjalker]

here in iceland theres been protest about palestine for a bit now but the government is considering shutting it down or is considering passing new laws about how protesters should behave because...they are putting up tents to sleep in. no violence, just chants and tents but they say the tents make the politicians "feel unsafe" i heard people talking about this on the radio and it made just really mad. like i guess if tents are too much why dont we just hurls bricks through your windows

Wow, that's terrible. I hope those politicians feel unsafe for the rest of their lives if they're more offended by protests than they are genocide.

[watchmegetobsessed]

WONDERWALL (part 3)

A/N: part 3!! thank you guys for the nice words on the story, they truly keep me motivated to keep writing! just so you know, im not planning this fic too long, probably around 5 parts total.

PAIRING: Royal!Harry X Maid!Reader

WORD COUNT: 6k

SERIES MASTERPOST | SUPPORT ME!

The following week is kind of chaotic, especially for Harry. Anne has started handing over several tasks to him, so he would gradually take over the leading role in the kingdom by the time the crown ends up on his face. From one meeting to the other, politicians, leaders, lords and everyone who is important in Eroda follows after the other in the palace, discussing the future he hope to work on together.

But one thing is consistent. His nonstop racing thoughts about you.

He catches glimpses of you here and there throughout the week, riding your bike through the yard with the fresh flowers when he is in the study, running into you with a basket of laundry when he’s walking out guests or seeing you across the hall as you bring up the queen’s afternoon tea when he is on the phone with a president, these tiny moments brighten his days and he is looking forward to when he can see you again.

On Wednesday he is in the middle of a meeting in his mother’s study, standing by the window when he spots you out in the garden with the gardener, helping him with the yellow rosebushes. You notice him as well and the two of you share a knowing smile when no one is looking. But he keeps staring at you and you take the chance to entertain him.

Taking a rose from your basket you act as if it was your magical wand and start poking around in the air with a serious face, making him chuckle when he should be listening to the meeting. Harry covers his smirk with his hand as he turns back and checks if anyone has noticed the scene, but some old guy is still talking about his plan of strengthening the currency in the upcoming year.

So Harry turns back towards you.

This time you’re pretending like the rose is a microphone, silently singing your heart out as you give a private concert. He watches you in awe as you keep dancing around until the gardener notices you and asks if everything is alright with you.

“I’m fine, totally fine,” you nod with a shrug, but he gives you a weirded-out look before turning back to his task and you shoot a wide-eyed look at Harry.

He could watch you all day, but he feels someone poking his side and when he turns away from the window he sees his mother with a warning look on her face. He pays one last apologetic look to you before returning all of his attention to the meeting.

On Thursday he uses his free thirty minutes to help you stack the laundry room and fold the clean towels, only to be found with one of the other maids, so then Harry pretends he needed a new towel and that’s why he was there.

These stolen little moments are the highlights of your and Harry’s days as well. It’s a shame this is all you get with each other.

Friday evening Harry finally gets some time to spend with his friends. He hasn’t been able to meet them since he returned, so he is looking forward to finally have a couple of beers at a pub down the pier.

Mitch and Sarah have been his friends for a long time. Coming together when Harry went through a phase in high school when he wanted to be in a band, the drummer and guitarist quickly became his friends and stayed even after the band was over and Harry left Eroda to travel the world. In the meantime they got married and now have a son, but they still make time for the prince that was once the front man of their band.

One beer after the other and they are discussing everything that happened to them since the last time they saw each other, which was in the summer last year. Harry tells them about his last trip he took to Iceland, Sarah enthuses about the new house they just moved into on the edge of town and Mitch mostly sits in silence, as always.

“So, tell us about her,” Sarah turns to Harry quite randomly, causing him to almost choke on his beer.

“I’m sorry? About who?”

“Come on, we know you well enough to see the signs,” Mitch mumbles under his breath.

“You met someone, right?” Sarah smiles.

Harry clears his throat as he leans back in the booth. The three of them are sitting in the back of the place, seemingly just like ordinary people, though two guards are keeping their eyes on them from near the entrance while they enjoy their night out.

“I guess… I guess I did,” he admits. It feels odd to talk about you to anyone, he has kept everything about you to himself up until now.

“A royal wedding is around the corner?” Mitch teases him and Harry just rolls his eyes.

“Not likely.”

“A wedding might be too soon, but why are you so hesitant about her?” Sarah asks.

“Because it’s a bit complicated. Just a week ago we couldn’t even be in the same room without getting into an argument.”

“But it’s not the case now, I assume.”

“No, we’re… we’re friends now, I guess.”

“That’s a great start,” she smiles.

“She works at the palace. She’s a maid,” he then adds and the silence quickly turns heavy around them.

Your job as a maid in the palace wouldn’t mean a single thing to him if it was just about you and him. He couldn’t care less, but with his title and coronation coming up, it’s something he needs to consider. No matter how much he loves to spend time with you, the thought of judgment is always in the back of his mind. What will the people of Eroda think if they find out the future king has rejected every eligible single woman in the kingdom and chose someone from the palace’s staff?

People can be cruel and blind, they don’t see what truly matters, only the surface. He would never put you through the judgment you’d get if word got out he had feelings for you. They wouldn’t spare you of their thoughts about how you’re not good enough for the king.

“Does your mother know?” Sarah asks, breaking the silence.

“I haven’t told anyone, but she’s not blind.”

“She is an exceptionally smart woman, I bet she knew it before you did,” Mitch chuckles under his breath.

“I didn’t want to tell her, because I’m not even sure what it is,” Harry admits.

“What do you think it is?” Mitch questions. 

“We’re… Sometimes she is the most impossible person I’ve ever met, she knows exactly how to get under my skin and she is not afraid to go against me. And I think I like that a lot about her.”

“I’m not surprised you fell for someone like that,” Mitch chuckles and Saras smirks, nodding in agreement.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Harry furrows his eyebrows.

“It means that you didn’t experience it much. Your word was always the most valuable, so having someone who is not afraid to call you out must be quite the change,” Sarah explains. “And we all know you like challenges.”

“So what is she like when she is not fighting with you?” Mitch returns to the original discussion.

“She is… It’s hard to describe. She is energetic, always down for some fun and a new adventure, selfless and so easy to be around. Not at all like anyone I’ve ever met. Maybe she is like this because she’s younger.”

“How much?” they both ask.

“She’s twenty-five. Not too classy from me, but I read her personal file,” Harry admits. He was running through some paperwork when he came across the boxes filled with the staff’s files and curiosity drove him to take a look at it, though he didn’t learn much of it. He took it as a sign that everything he wants to know should be asked from you.

“I mean, it’s not that young, but I’m sure some people will have something to say about it,” Sarah sighs and Harry knows she’s right. “But I can tell you have a connection with her.”

“I genuinely do,” Harry nods. “I’m just not sure what to do.”

“Maybe just go with the flow for now. It’s not like you need to drop on one knee in an instant. Explore it, see if she really is what you want. You’ve been on your own for a long time now, you need to ease yourself into it.”

“You’re right, it’s just my mother wants me married as soon as possible. She threw last weekend so I could meet women,” he rolls his eyes at his mother’s attempt to end his bachelorness.

“Man, I’m so happy I wasn’t born a royal,” Mitch huffs, making all three of them laugh. 

“You’ll figure it out, I’m sure about that,” Sarah smiles at Harry, giving his hand a squeeze.

The evening stretches a little long, it’s past two in the morning when Harry returns to the palace, ditching his guards that have been watching his every step throughout his outing. It felt nice to reconnect with his old friends, experiencing a bit of his past before such a major change in his life.

And the beer was nice too. When he is approaching his room he can definitely feel the dizziness from the alcohol buzzing through his veins. He makes it to his room, but as soon as he starts to change into some more comfortable clothes his stomach rumbles so loud, he can’t help but laugh at the noise.

“Alright, I guess we are taking a late night trip to the kitchen,” he sighs, pulling a hoodie over his head that matches his gray sweatpants. 

There’s no one out in the hallways other than the guards here and there, but none of them questions the prince as he wanders down to the kitchen with a funny skip in his steps. He is already fantasizing about cookies, chips or some carrot soup he had for lunch, hoping to find anything edible to end his fun night with a full tummy.

What he wasn’t expecting is to find you sitting at the kitchen island with a bowl of cereal, watching some kind of video on your phone. Your eyes widen when he walks in and you spot each other while he is enamored by the sight of you, your uniform is nowhere in sight, instead you’re wearing an oversized shirt with some kind of logo on the front along with a pair of loose light pink sweatpants, no makeup, no braiding in your hair, just simply you.

Simply beautiful.

“Woah! Seems like I can’t escape you, not even in the middle of the night!” he chuckles as he makes his way to one of the fridges, shaking his head with a chuckle.

“You’re trying to escape me? And are you drunk?” you huff with a smirk as you put your spoon down.

“Just a little bit.”

“You’re trying to escape me a little bit or you’re drunk a little bit?”

“Both,” he snorts, grabbing a piece of cake, then snatching a fork he climbs to the stool next to yours with a deep sigh.

“Alright, I’ll try not to feel hurt about the first part,” you chuckle.

“What are you doing out here so late?” he asks, all while focusing on the cake in front of him as he starts to eat.

“Couldn’t sleep,” you shrug and make sure not to add the part that you’ve been thinking about him and the lessons you’ll be having together on Sunday according to your deal.

“Are you afraid?” Harry asks with a lazy grin as he finally looks at you and stuffs his mouth with cake.

“Afraid of what?” you huff.

“Of your lesson. I honestly can’t believe you’re afraid of a sweet creature like Ladybug,” he keeps laughing.

“I’m not afraid of Ladybug specifically, it’s the whole species!” you defend yourself, but Harry just chuckles again shaking his head. “Very funny, I hope you’re already bracing yourself for your dance class!”

“I’m not afraid of dancing,” he shrugs.”

“No, but your posture is terrible and you don’t move too gracefully.”

“What’s wrong with my posture?” he gapes, pretending to be offended by the comment you made.

Instead of answering, you slip off of the stool and copy the way he slumps his shoulders forward, showing him a more dramatic version of his posture to emphasize what’s really wrong with it.

Harry purses his lips as he drops the fork, he is not hurt by you mocking his figure, but he likes to tease you and be a drama king. His mind is still not free from the haziness and it makes him do something he probably wouldn’t if he was sober.

He grabs the rest of the cake with his bare hand and simply pushes it into your face, smearing the sugary dessert all over it, while laughing like a hyena as you just stand there and let him paint you as much as he wants.

“See, this is what you get for criticizing the future king!”

“Are you done?” you ask, wiping some of the frosting out of your eyes. It’s all over your face, you lick some off your lips as Harry just stares at you with the smuggest grin you’ve ever seen from him. But you’re not one to just give up without a fight.

Expecting his reflexes to be numbed by the alcohol, you gather as much of the frosting off of your face as possible and before he could react, you wipe it onto his face, leaving a trail of frosting on it, his grin fading from his lips only to appear it on your face.

“Your majesty, I think you have something on your face,” you tell him and then decide to add some more onto his forehead just to make it equal.

If it was anyone else, Harry would have flipped. He probably wouldn’t have even gotten into a situation like this, but messing around with you in the kitchen with no one around is bringing out a side of him he thought was dead for a long time. It’s carefree, fun and happy, everything he has ever wanted to be.

Time seems to stop existing as the two of you finish up your late night meals. You’ve cleaned your face while Harry chose to eat the frosting off of his. There is something private, so intimate about how the two of you are sitting at the kitchen island and talk about all kinds of things. Knowing that everyone in the palace is fast asleep while you’re sharing stories and memories with each other, it’s definitely strengthening the bond that has started forming between you and the prince.

It’s past four in the morning when you realize how late, or more like early it is, so you head to your rooms. By now Harry’s dizziness has dissolved and his thoughts cleared out, well, as much as they could since all he can think about is you. Coming to the main hall you need to part ways since you live at opposite ends of the palace, though neither of you wants to end the night, even if you’re practically falling asleep standing up.

“Get some rest, you’ll need all your energy for the class on Sunday,” you smirk at him, tugging your hair behind your ears to occupy your hands and look less anxious, though it might be making the situation worse.

“I think you’ll need more energy for what I have planned for you.”

The words roll off his tongue without a second thought and he only realizes the meaning they could hide when they are said out loud. You don’t miss it either, heated thoughts flooding your head of all the activities you could possibly need so much energy for and they include the prince as well. 

The silence is heavy and holds a lot, but neither of you acts up to elevate the situation. Instead, just share another moment of staring at each other before moving in the direction of your rooms.

“Good night, Harry,” you breathe out, your body facing the hallway that leads to the East wing, but your head is still turning in his direction. 

“Good night, Y/N,” he smiles with a small nod before turning around and heading to his room, paying one last glance at you, only catching your swaying form down the hallway before you turn the corner and disappear from his sight. 

After Sunday’s brunch Queen Anne has requested to take a walk out in the beautiful weather with her son, hoping to have a heart-to-heart conversation with him privately. The rose bushes are breathtakingly beautiful and as they walk through the garden Harry can’t help but think of you looking everywhere, knowing you make bouquets from these flowers to decorate the palace.

“Tell me, Harry, how are you really feeling? I know it’s such a big and fast change, I just want to make sure you’re okay,” Anne speaks up, her arm linked together with Harry’s as they wander around in the garden.

“It’s nothing new, mum. I knew I would be doing this.”

“But I shortened your time to explore before you get tied down to Eroda,” she answers with obvious guilt in her tone. 

“You already gave me so much time, mum. I should have taken the throne after dad’s death and you gave me another decade to live my life and do what I wanted to do. I hope you know how thankful I am for that.”

“I’ll be here to help you through it. Would never leave you alone,” she adds and Harry just nods, knowing well he could always count on his mother no matter what. “So, have you thought about that other little thing we’ve discussed lately?”

“Mum,” Harry sighs.

“I’m not trying to rush you, but once you’re on the throne it might get harder to find your partner. I’m just asking if anyone has caught your eyes.”

“No one at the ball, but thank you for gathering every single woman in the kingdom,” he grumbles under his breath, though Anne doesn’t get offended by the comment.

Two girls rush by on the path that leads next to the garden, they are wearing maid uniforms and Harry is quick to check if either of them is you, but he is out of luck, however the queen definitely notices how he picked his head up as soon as they appeared.

“And what about someone who wasn’t at the ball? Or to be more precise, who was working during the ball?”

Harry looks at his mother with a frightened expression at first, it seems like his growing affection towards you didn’t stay as unnoticed as he hoped, but he shouldn’t be surprised about it. Anne is the biggest expert of him, there’s nothing he can fully hide from her and she just proved her abilities once again. Even in the midst of the craziness their lives have been, she spotted what’s been going on behind his curtains.

“Are you gonna tell me to never talk to her again?” he asks, clenching his jaw, afraid of what he is about to hear, but the queen’s answer is a heartfelt laughter.

“Son, you’re not a child anymore. You’re about to lead a whole kingdom and you think I don’t trust you with choosing who you want to be with?” She smirks up at him as they reach a little bench between two red rose bushes, taking a seat to admire the blooming garden. “I just don’t want you to get hurt,” she adds on a more serious note.

“Hurt in… what way?”

“Every and any. I’m sure I’m not saying anything new if I bring up how complicated the situation could get. Regarding her origin, her lack of title, her age…”

“Do you care about all these things?”

“I don’t. But others do.”

“So are you saying I shouldn’t get involved with her?”

“I’m saying that you need to make a decision and you’ll have to live with that. Be aware of it.” She reaches over to take Harry’s hand and give it a gentle squeeze, something she used to always do when he was just a little boy. An act of encouragement, to let him know she is there to support him no matter what.

It’s nice to know he’s got his mother’s support, but this is a battle he’ll need to fight with himself at the end.

And so far, he has no idea what side is winning.

You arrive at the one of the silver ballroom earlier than what you agreed on with Harry. This room is about five times smaller than the main one and the name comes from the silvery decoration that runs around the walls and massive curtains as well. The staff often holds meetings here, it can fit everyone nicely, but you don’t feel like the room swallows you. Today however it’ll be just the two of you.

Ever since your late night fun with a slightly drunk Harry, you haven’t stopped thinking about him. No minute passes by when you don’t find your mind wandering over to the prince that’s been growing on you more and more lately.

It’s hard to believe that not that long ago the two of you were so spiteful towards each other, the meeting at the lake now makes you laugh, the way he snapped at you and how you sassed back without remorse. The dynamic has changed but not entirely, the sass and temperament is still very much present, but in a more pleasant way.

The heavy door opens when you’re busying yourself with the objects you brought for today’s class, Harry steps inside wearing simple jeans and a black shirt, he looks so casual yet so endearing after seeing him in suits and shirts almost all the time. There’s something in it when you see him so loosen up and carefree.

Your heart skips a beat when you see him approach you with a charming smile, his arms folded over his chest. You need a moment to collect your sane thoughts before speaking up.

“Welcome to your first dance class!” you beam at him and try to hide the effect he has on you just by showing up.

“I’m a little afraid of what you have planned for me,” he smirks, looking around in the room as he walks closer and stops a few feet away from you. 

“Have I ever given you a reason to worry?” you gasp dramatically as he just gives you a look.

“Do you actually want me to answer?”

“No time, let’s start,” you smirk.

You were completely serious when you criticized his posture, it could be so awful when he is not paying attention so today will be more about the perfect form and less about the dancing. And your tactics? The old-fashioned way.

Not even ten minutes later Prince Harry Edward Styles is walking around the room with two encyclopedias on his head, trying his best to balance them and not let them fall. It’s definitely a sight for sore eyes and you wish you could take a picture of it, but you agreed not to document anything that goes down during your classes.

“Keep your shoulders rolled back, you look like a candy cane!” you warn him, watching him walk back and forth like a hawk. Somehow he still manages to look hunched, even with the books on top of his head.

Harry shoots you a grumpy look, but you see a hint of a tiny smile hiding in the corners of his mouth as he rolls his shoulders back as you asked, however the movement makes him lose balance and a moment later the encyclopedias fall to the floor with a loud thump. Harry looks at you as if he is questioning if he could just ditch the books, but you put your hands to your hips and wait for him to pick them up and try again.

When he finally corrects his form you let him put the books aside and finally get closer to the dancing part.

“Okay, let’s see how well you can feel the rhythm,” you announce as you step over to the record player you set up, but you miss the smug smirk Harry tries hard to hide.

A soft, instrumental music starts playing, similar to the kind that’s usually played by a band at balls. You walk back to Harry and stand facing him.

“Let’s just sway to the rhythm at first, alright?” you ask and start moving, Harry joining you just moments later, but it seems like he finds it funny. “What are you smiling at?” you narrow your eyes at him.

“Nothing, nothing.”

“You’re not taking it seriously!”

“I am!” he protests, but the smirk is still there on that handsome face of his. You stop and give him a serious look that just seems to be entertaining him even more.

“If you won’t take the classes seriously then there’s no use to waste time and—“

Harry rolls his eyes before he grabs a hold of you, one hand on your back, the other one clasping together with your hand as he bends you back, making you gasp from the sudden movement as you hold onto him, fearing you are about to end up on the floor, but he is holding you securely. It’s the same move he did after the ball, but it gets to you again.

“I’m serious. But let’s do more dancing, how about that?” he suggests as he straightens up and brings you with him as well.

Once the initial shock of his little move is gone, you do more dancing as he requested, but he tends to make a joke out of everything you do. You barely get to go over the basics of waltzing. With every passing minute he turns into a grumpy kid who tries to sabotage the class more and more, so you give up to get him do anything before your time is over.

“If you’ll act like this every week we’re gonna have problems,” you warn him as you start packing your stuff.

“I did everything I could,” he shrugs smirking. “Are you ready for your class now?”

“I should sabotage your time like you did with mine,” you scoff.

Harry helps you pack up in the room and once everything is put back to its place, you head out to the stable.

Even despite the positive outcome of your last encounter with Ladybug, you still feel anxious as you’re on your way out. Horses still scare the hell out of you and you can’t see it changing in the near future.

“Alright. Today you’ll learn a bit more about Ladybug and by the end of the class you’ll learn to feed her,” Harry announces as the two of you stop at the entrance of the stable, you hear the horses neighing in there and it makes your muscles flex and twitch. Harry notices the change in you. “Hey, it’s gonna be fine. I’m here with you and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You can’t promise that. What if one of them just goes crazy? You’ll throw yourself in front of me?” you scoff, folding your arms over your chest. He purses his lips before nodding with a cheeky smile.

“Exactly. Now come on, she can’t wait to see you again.”

You keep your distance as Harry walks Ladybug out of the stable and lets her roam out to the field stretching behind the stable while he focuses on you.

“Her absolute favorite is carrots, so you’ll befriend her with that, but I have some other snacks for her as well,” he explains to you, grabbing a bucket of veggies he got ready way before the class.

“How about I’ll just watch you feed her?” you suggest, but Harry just chuckles shaking his head no.

“That’s not happening. Come on, let’s get started.”

He places a hand to your lower back, leading you behind the stable and with just one touch you forget what he is about to make you do. His palm is so warm and big and you can’t help but wonder what his hand would feel on other parts of your body. Your hips, thighs, face… ass… between your le—

“Hold this for me, please,” he hands you over the bucket, but as soon as you’re holding it, you want to get rid of it.

“Hey! She’ll fucking attack me for the food!” You protest, trying to hand it back to him, but he is already approaching Ladybug with a sinister chuckle. He is getting on your nerves more and more with each passing moment.

“She’s well mannered, don’t worry.”

Just to be sure you put the bucket down and take a few steps away from it, watching him cautiously as he pulls Ladybug closer, forcing her to forget about the grass. She is already eyeing the food in the bucket and you pat yourself on the shoulder for getting rid of it in time. Ladybug stops as Harry pats her head before he walks over to you, grabbing the bucket.

“Okay, now we’re gonna feed her. Well, you’ll feed her, I’ll just help you.”

“What if she bites my arm off?”

“Stop making her look like a monster!” he chuckles. Holding the bucket in one hand, the other reaches out and takes yours, his warm touch sending spikes of electricity through your body in an instant and you notice how you both freeze for a moment.

His eyes snap down at your hands touching and he runs his thumb over your knuckles softly as you suck on your breath. When his gaze returns to your face, you feel that pull again, but just like every time before, it ends abruptly. Ladybug neighs impatiently, nodding towards the bucket and you both snap out of the moment.

Harry clears his throat as he pulls you closer to him, making you stand in front of him as he hands you a carrot, while you keep your eyes focused on the animal staring back at you.

“It’s alright, she’s not gonna hurt you. Just offer her the carrot and she’ll take it from you. Easy as it is.”

“How do you know she won’t bite my hand off?” you whisper and as you lean back, your backside hits his chest which makes you gasp. Harry mistakes it for your fear of Ladybug and his hand comes to cover yours that’s holding the carrot. His palm is so large it lapels over yours as he lifts it up, holding the carrot out for Ladybug.

“Then she’ll have to bite mine off first,” he murmurs into your ear.

Your attention is switching back at forth between Ladybug and Harry right until Ladybug bites half of the carrot off and you squeak at the sound of it, even flinching, but Harry’s hand is keeping yours firmly and doesn’t let it move until Ladybug takes the other half too.

“Oh my God,” you breathe out.

“See? It wasn’t that bad,” he chuckles and you can just silently nod as he gives you another carrot.

One after the other, you feed Ladybug all the veggies and she happily munches on them. After a while Harry stops holding your hand which is a pity, but then you get too busy with Ladybug to wallow about it.

“So, when did you learn to ride a horse?” you ask when the bucket has emptied out and she is back at grazing the grass while Harry is brushing her fur.

“At around five, I think. My mum taught me.”

“Because you had to learn or because you wanted to?”

“Both,” he chuckles. “I liked riding out into the forest when I felt like being a prince was getting a bit too much. I could clear my head out but I also wasn’t alone, you know? They are so clever and empathic.”

“Do you have your own?”

“I did. His name was Dusty, but he had to be put down after he got scared during a thunderstorm and ran away. We found him with two broken legs on the other side of town, couldn’t be saved.”

By the way he is talking about him, you know that animal meant a lot to Harry and the pain he felt after losing him is still there, it probably always will be.

“I’m sorry.”

“It happened a long time ago,” he shrugs.

You’re about to say something when Ladybug takes interest in you and before you could even react she is right there in front of you, sniffing around your face, like it’s one big carrot.

“Oh my God, oh my god, oh my god!” you mumble, completely frozen and petrified as she nudges with her nose, you shut your eyes closed and just wait for the end.

“It’s okay, she’s just being friendly,” Harry chuckles and you hear his voice coming from closer and closer so you know he is about to save you.

In the meantime Ladybug messes your hair up, at this point you’re barely breathing, but then she pulls back and you gasp for air in relief. Opening your eyes you see that Harry pushed her back from you, a smug smirk on his face. Ladybug gets distracted by the grass once again and Harry steps closer chuckling as he smoothes your hair down.

And now your breath is taken away for a whole different reason.

He is staring down at you, his fingers gently taming your hair, tugging the strands behind your ear, but his hand doesn’t leave your face. Instead, he runs his knuckles down the side of your face until he has your chin between his thumb and index finger.

You’re all he wants in that moment. You’re all of his desires and need, you’re drawing him in like nothing before. The feeling is both scary and fulfilling at the same time. His heart is racing and he is not thinking straight, especially when he runs his thumb along the line of your bottom lip, the action making you open your mouth, your hot breath hitting his finger and he is one second away from either pushing his thumb into your mouth to feel your wet tongue against it or just simply kiss you and make all of his fantasies come true finally.

But before he could cross the line, he remembers his mother’s words, because he is just about to make a decision he’ll have to live with later on, but he hasn’t thought it through enough just yet. He has no plan, what will happen after he gives in to his desires? When others find out about you and him? And what will you even be? Is it just a game? A momentary thing or something more?

He can’t just act without thinking, not anymore, not when he is about to be king.

Meanwhile you’re ready to finally cross the line, there’s no question in you. You don’t want to keep yourself away from him any longer, the pull is way too strong. He is so close, the touch of his thumb on your lip is maddening and you’re convinced it’s about to happen finally.

But then he pulls back.

“I’m sorry, I—uh…” he clears his throat as he steps back and your mouth hangs open, the air is knocked out of your chest and your stomach drops.

He doesn’t want you, it was all just in your head.

“No, I’m sorry,” you mumble, your cheeks heating up. You were so stupid! “I-I gotta go.”

“Y/N, wait,” he reaches after you, but you’re already backing away in a rush.

“T-thanks for the class, uhh, see you around,” you choke out before you start running back inside. Harry shouts after you one last time, but you don’t stop.

“Fuck,” he mumbles, mad at himself for bringing you into this mess that wouldn’t have happened is he just figured his shit out.

But now you probably don’t want anything to do with him. And he wouldn’t blame you.

Thank you for reading, please like and reblog if you enjoyed and buy me a coffee if you want to support me!

[paradoxcase]

I've been reluctantly going back to reddit because I just can't follow Eurovision without it

Let me see if I have the current Israel situation understood at this point

Germany and Ukraine are threatening to leave if Israel is *banned*, Germany being one of the Big Five and Ukraine being Eurovision MVP

An Icelandic musician's association of some kind is against Iceland participating if Israel participates, but the broadcaster has said nothing and has no reason to listen to them particularly

An Irish politician from a party that is favored by 4% of the population is against Ireland participating if Israel participates but no one really cares about him

The EBU has stated that the Israeli broadcaster has not violated any rules and this will not be banned

The Finnish broadcaster has made a statement that they are "considering the situation" but mostly just want to assure the fans that UMK will happen regardless

Morrocanoil, Eurovision's main sponsor at the moment, is an Israeli company

Not looking great, I guess

[ranmagender]

A protestor threw ice at a politicians car here in iceland and now the media is like "this is too far. Dont protest violence and then resort to violence"

They were protesting the genocide in Palestine.

"Throwing ice makes people not want to listen to your views on genocide. All violence is the same :c" is how the reaction came across.

Like bro

[mariacallous]

European lawmakers are issuing increasingly bleak warnings about the future of the war in Ukraine and the continent’s security as a $60 billion U.S. aid package for Kyiv continues to languish on Capitol Hill and the war is set to enter its third year later this month.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Washington has welcomed a steady stream of lawmakers, government ministers, and heads of state from Europe amid transatlantic efforts to coordinate military and humanitarian support for Ukraine. But there has been a palpable ratcheting up in the intensity and urgency of their message. 

“You can’t help but wonder what has happened here. We seem to have drifted apart,” said Diljá Mist Einarsdóttir, chair of the Icelandic parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Einarsdóttir and a delegation of six other chairs of the parliamentary foreign affairs committees of the Baltic and Nordic states spoke with a small group of journalists on Thursday morning as the U.S. Senate voted to advance a stand-alone aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. It remains unclear whether the bill will be able to garner enough votes to pass the Senate and House. 

A bipartisan effort to combine the aid with an immigration reform package was shot down by Senate Republicans on Wednesday evening after former U.S. President Donald Trump urged his party to reject the legislation. 

“Dear Republican Senators of America,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, following the vote. “Ronald Reagan, who helped millions of us to win back our freedom and independence, must be turning in his grave today. Shame on you.” 

Dire warnings from European lawmakers come as Ukraine has stalled on the battlefield and Russia is making significant investments in defense spending and production. In the early days of the war, Moscow appeared to be on the back foot as its economy was pummeled with international sanctions and its armed forces struggled through a poorly planned invasion. 

But two years on, the Russian economy is projected to grow, albeit marginally, in the coming year fueled by a significant boost in defense spending. One-third of the country’s state budget has been allocated for defense in 2024, and arms manufacturers have been urged to work around the clock. 

“If we cannot manage, together with the U.S., to stop Russia in Ukraine, it’s a matter of time if it is a war against NATO in general, and that will be much higher cost,” said Aron Emilsson, chair of the Swedish parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Emilsson’s Latvian counterpart, Rihards Kols, said he was struck by the lack of urgency in Washington about the war. “I got the notion that the war in Ukraine is something very far away, distant from the U.S.,” said Kols, who noted that by comparison, Latvian public discourse had been dominated by the possibility of a wider war. 

Last month, top military officials in Sweden and the United Kingdom warned their populations to prepare for a potential war.

Zygimantas Pavilionis, chair of the Lithuanian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, who has made several trips to Washington since the beginning of the war, said that the reception he and his colleagues get on Capitol Hill is “getting worse with every visit.” Pavilionis, like many lawmakers and officials from the Baltic states, sought to sound the alarm about Russia’s revanchist intentions long before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Our argument is simple: If you don’t want another Pearl Harbor, you better listen to us,” he said. 

Ahead of this week’s visit, the delegation reached out to the offices of around 20 congressional Republicans who have to varying degrees been skeptical of U.S. aid for Ukraine. Just three offices responded, Kols said.

The visit follows a trip by the chairs of the parliamentary foreign affairs committees from six NATO member states last month who brought a similarly stark message. “The reality is the U.S. also needs a wake-up call,” said Alicia Kearns, chair of the U.K. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the Hill reported.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also in Washington this week and is set to meet with President Joe Biden and members of Congress to make the case for continued support to Ukraine. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, he laid out his case about the dangers of a Russian victory. 

“We have to do our utmost to prevent Russia from winning. If we don’t, we might soon wake up in a world even more unstable, threatening and unpredictable than it was during the Cold War,” he wrote. 

The United States has provided more than $75 billion in aid to Kyiv since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, of which $46 billion has been military support. Analysts have warned that a collapse in U.S. support would deal a significant blow to Ukraine. 

“We are not able to fill the gap if the U.S. pulls out,” said Ine Eriksen Soreide, chair of the Norwegian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, who stressed that there would be wide-ranging ramifications if Russia were to emerge victorious. “If [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wins the war, it would embolden him; it would embolden China; it would embolden Iran; it would embolden [North Korea],” Soreide said. 

[beardedmrbean]

Organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have said that abuse and harassment of artists over Israel's participation in the competition is "unacceptable and totally unfair".

This year's competition will take place in Sweden in May, amid calls for Israel to be banned over the war in Gaza.

Several contestants, including the UK's Olly Alexander, have rejected calls for them to boycott the show.

And it has been reported that Israel's Eden Golan has faced death threats.

The 20-year-old has received several messages directly to her Instagram account, reported celebrity website Walla Celebs.

The Jerusalem Post said the singer would arrive in Malmo, Sweden, with "three times" the usual number of security guards.

In a statement, the European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, acknowledged "the depth of feeling and the strong opinions that this year's Eurovision song contest - set against the backdrop of a terrible war in the Middle East - has provoked".

"While we strongly support freedom of speech and the right to express opinions in a democratic society, we firmly oppose any form of online abuse, hate speech, or harassment directed at our artists or any individuals associated with the contest," the statement continued.

Where and when is Eurovision 2024 taking place?

Israel reveals its rewritten Eurovision song

Olly Alexander rejects call to boycott Eurovision

Jean Philip De Tender, deputy director general of the European Broadcasting Union, added that the decision to allow Israel's participation was "the sole responsibility of the EBU's governing bodies and not that of the individual artists".

"We urge everyone to engage in respectful and constructive dialogue and support the artists who are working tirelessly - on what is a music and entertainment show - to share their music with the world," he added.

Israel's public broadcaster, Kan, is a member of the EBU, giving it the right to participate in the contest.

Organisers have resisted calls for it to be suspended, saying the show "is not a contest between governments".

However, the EBU did force Israel to change the lyrics of Golan's song October Rain, after deciding the original was too political.

The first version was widely considered to be a reference the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, with several lyrics paying tribute to the victims.

Kan initially refused to change the song, saying it would prefer to withdraw from the contest - but Israel's President, Isaac Herzog, later called for "necessary adjustments" to ensure the country could participate.

Now renamed Hurricane, the dramatic piano ballad is ninth favourite with bookmakers to win the competition.

However, Israel's participation is unlikely to go unremarked when the contest takes place next month.

Swedish police are preparing for multiple protests in Malmo in the week of the competition, and nine competitors have called for "an immediate and lasting ceasefire" in Gaza.

The statement, signed by Olly Alexander, Ireland's Bambi Thug and Danish entrant Saba, among others, came in response to calls for musicians to boycott the show.

"We firmly believe in the unifying power of music, enabling people to transcend differences and foster meaningful conversations and connections," the artists wrote.

One person who has pulled out of the competition, however, is Iceland's long-running commentator, Gísli Marteinn.

The TV personality and former politician, who has helmed 15 editions of the song contest, announced his decision on Instagram, citing the organisers' "lack of reaction" to the situation in Gaza.

"For me, Eurovision is about atmosphere and joy, and I feel neither in this year's competition," he wrote.

Sweden won last year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, with pop star Loreen taking home her second trophy for the stormy electro-ballad Tattoo.

[coochiequeens]

The politicians who made this possible have the suffering of womrn and minors on their hands

Germany considers ban on buying sex as the country is dubbed 'the brothel of Europe'

Germany is considering partially re-criminalising the sex work industry 

Buying sex is currently legal and legislation aims to give sex workers more rights 

But opponents say that the current laws benefit pimps and human traffickers 

By PERKIN AMALARAJ

PUBLISHED: 11:34 EST, 21 November 2023 | UPDATED: 23:23 EST, 21 November 2023

German politicians are pushing to ban prostitution, more than two decades after it was legalised, amid harsh warnings that the nation is quickly becoming the 'brothel of Europe.'

The centre-right CDU party is among those calling for the practice to be partially re-criminalised, claiming that the 2002 legalisaion failed in its aims of giving sex workers more rights and recognition under German law. 

Selling sex was legalised in 2002 by a previous centre-left government, with the aim of giving the now-250,000 sex workers working in Germany employment rights, access to welfare benefits and the right to sue clients who refuse to pay for services. 

But leading politicians have claimed that in practice, the vast majority of sex workers in Germany are not afforded these increased rights and protections. 

Dorothee Bär, the deputy leader of the parliamentary group for Germany's two main Christian Democratic parties, the CDU and the CSU, said that almost all of the country's sex workers are from abroad and do not have documents, and are therefore at the mercy of exploitative human traffickers and pimps. 

Selling sex was legalised in 2002, with the aim of giving the now-250,000 sex workers working in Germany employment rights, access to welfare benefits and the right to sue clients who refuse to pay for services (File image)

'There can be no real equality as long as we accept that hundreds of thousands of women are treated like slaves. It is an offence against human dignity that we urgently need to end,' Bär told Bild. 

She said that pimps and human traffickers have been the biggest beneficiaries of the legalised sex industry. 

'Germany has become the brothel of Europe. The women are mistreated in the worst possible way by their clients and pimps' she warned. 

The CDU, Germany's opposition party, wants to adopt what is known as the Nordic model, whereby customers can be prosecuted for buying sex, but sex workers are not penalised. 

It was first enacted by Sweden in 1999. Following a government appointed special committee into the effects of the partial decriminalisation of sex work which found that between 1999 and 2008, street prostitution was reduced by half. 

Shortly after this, a string of countries, including Norway, Iceland, Canada and Northern Ireland, adopted some form of Nordic-modelled legislation to partially decriminalise sex work. 

The CDU's proposed legislation would see brothels being shut down, and the renting of apartments to sex workers being outlawed.

These measures, Bär claims, would reduce but not eradicate sex work in Germany. 

The proposal has been gaining traction with Germany's ruling party, the Social Democrats. Leni Breymaier, an SD MP, called the opposition's proposal 'a step in the right direction.'

Leading politicians claim the legalisation of sex work in Germany has largely benefitted pimps and human traffickers

It appears to have made a significant impact on Germany's top political echelons, with the country's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, claiming last week that he has always been 'morally outraged' by men purchasing sex.

The government later backpedalled, with Germany's families minister Lisa Paus saying that there were no plans to change the current laws. 

Organisations representing sex workers aren't happy with the proposals, claiming that there is no evidence that Nordic-modelled legislation helps women or lowers sex work.  

The Professional Association for Erotic and Sexual Services, which represents brothels and independent prostitutes, said punishing clients would only make the work more dangerous.

It said: 'Since Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce a sex purchase ban 25 years ago, there have been no studies to suggest that the Nordic model has been a success.

'It is always remarkable to see the means by which the opponents of procuring sex try to realise their moral ideas — at the expense of the rights of sex workers, customers and brothel operators and ultimately at the expense of a tolerant, free and rights-based society.' 

OK let's compare human trafficking into Sweden v Germany

"in 2020, police investigated 191 trafficking cases (109 sex trafficking, 41 labor trafficking, 41 uncategorized) and 80 human exploitation cases, compared with 272 and 47, respectively, in 2019. Authorities prosecuted 21 traffickers (seven sex trafficking, 14 labor trafficking) and convicted 12 traffickers (seven sex trafficking, five labor trafficking), a significant increase from four prosecutions and convictions in 2019. Of the 12 convicted traffickers, seven received sentences ranging from two to six years’ imprisonment; three received fines; and two received suspended sentences.

State law enforcement completed 335 pre-trial trafficking investigations of 470 suspects in 2021, the most recent year for which the government had comprehensive statistics; this was similar to 325 investigations into 421 suspects in 2020 and 313 investigations into 472 suspects in 2019, but less than 386 investigations into 602 suspects in 2018.  Of the investigations in 2021, 44 were for labor trafficking (compared with 34 in 2020), including six for forced begging and 10 for forced criminality, and 291 were for sex trafficking, including 55 investigations for child sex trafficking, compared with the same number of overall sex trafficking investigations, 291, in 2020.  Authorities attributed the recent increase in labor trafficking investigations to the 2019 extended mandate of the Federal Customs Financial Control of Illegal Work Directorate (FKS), which was expanded to include human trafficking.  In 2021, law enforcement initiated investigations into 16 organized crime groups (10 for sex trafficking and six for labor trafficking).  In 2021, German law enforcement and international partners (including EUROPOL and Slovakia) conducted at least six targeted operations against Vietnamese criminal organizations involved in human trafficking and smuggling, resulting in the arrest of at least six suspects and identification of at least 13 victims.  Police in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) continued to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in the Wermelskirchen child sex trafficking case and investigated 73 suspects in 14 states, identifying 33 victims.