#mazoe

[r0entgen]

"Why won't Venezuelans just address the blockade?"

If you're wondering why, read below.

Let me start by saying that I wrote this after I finished work, with less than three hours of sleep and a single meal in my body, so if you find any grammar mistakes, my apologies.

This is the comment that kickstarted this post. I believe I've mentioned this before, but when you're living in a country that weaponizes propaganda and hijacks every single media outlet, you have to master the fine arts of fact checking and cross-referencing. Which is exactly what we're going to do right now, addressing the claim that 40,000 Venezuelans have been killed by the US sanctions, and why We Won't Engage with You In This Particular Argument.

*Note: click the underlined text for links and sources.

In the paper Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela by Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs (who will be referred to as WS in this post), WS mention that between the years of 2017-2019, the economic sanctions caused a 31% increase in the general mortality rate in Venezuela, a number that they calculate may be of about 40,000 deaths. While they cite ENCOVI and a UN report from 2019 as the sources of this statistic, they clarify the following in the footnotes:

The ENCOVI 2018 survey has not been made public, the mortality statistic cited here is from the UN Report (2019).

As of this date, WS has not made public the data source for this estimate, and the UN report used as a source (Venezuela: Overview of Priority Humanitarian Needs, March 2019) is not publicly available.

So let's take a look at some sources that ARE publicly available.

The World Bank Group World Development Indicators registers at least a 30% increase in the infant mortality rate in Venezuela from the dates of 2013 to 2016. Similar numbers are reported in this paper, seeing a 40% increase in the infant mortality rate in Venezuela between the dates on 2008-2016. Here's an excerpt from the paper Impact of the 2017 Sanctions on Venezuela:

While different than other overall mortality rates, increases in infant mortality rates are generally interpretable as a preventable consequence of inadequate pre- and post-natal care for otherwise healthy but vulnerable infants. Thus, infant mortality is often recognized as a good proxy measure of the quality on overall public health provision.

What this tells us is that THERE HAS BEEN an increase in general mortality rate - one that started long before the 2017 sanctions.

However, this doesn't mean that in the periods of 2017-2019 there wasn't a high death toll. Let's look at another publicly available source.

The National Hospital Survey (2019) found that between November 2018 and February 2019, 1557 people died owing to the lack of supplies in hospitals [...]. 40 patients died as a result of the power outages in March 2019.

We see the first mention of a number in the 2019 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Something interesting this report mentions is that 40 deaths were caused by the blackout in March 2019. A blackout that lasted 7 days and affected our 23 states.

The energy crisis which caused this nationwide blackout started in 2010. The Wikipedia article is a good summary, if a bit simple, of the events that led to and took place during and after the energy crisis (which affects us Venezuelans living in the country to this day)

Back to the UN Report. Something else this report indicates is the following:

In 2018, the Government registered 5,287 such killings, while the non-governmental organization Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia reported at least 7,523 killings under this category. Between 1 January and 19 May 2019, the Government reported 1,569 killings for resistance to authority. The Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia reported at least 2,124 such killings between January and May 2019. Information analysed by OHCHR suggests many of these killings may constitute extrajudicial executions.

[...] Six young men executed by the Special Action Forces (SEBIN) in reprisal for their role in anti-government protests in 2019.

This means that between the dates of 2018-2019, there have been approximately 9,647 deaths in the context of security operations - which includes Venezuelans that took part of the protests in 2019. Very similar to what we have been reporting since after the elections in July 28.

2017 to 2019 was one of the most difficult periods in Venezuelan history, marked by the sanctions imposed by Trump which affected oil export, access to diesel, and food and medicine imports. Some people argue that the economic recession in Venezuela was caused by the sanctions - failing to notice the negative trends in the years prior to these.

Bahar, Bustos, Morales and Santos (who will be referred to as BBMS in this post) conclude in their paper, Impact of the 2017 Sanctions on Venezuela, that while the sanctions had a negative effect in the oil production, "it is quite impossible to attribute the fall [...] to one single event (i.e., the sanctions), when many other confounding events were happening at the same time."

Oil production: Oil prices dropped during 2015, and oil production decreased as a result of lack of maintenance and investment.

Energy crisis: By 2009, when the energy crisis was first declared, the electrical grid had already been suffering from the lack of maintenance and investment since 1998. The Chávez administration distributed million dollar contracts [...] that enriched high officials of his government and the works were never built. [1] [2] [3]

Economic decline and hyper-inflation: Actions taken by the Chávez administration such as expropriation and price control, as well as the PDVSA purge in 2002 led the country to depend almost entirely on its already declining oil industry, causing shortages and price rises in common goods, food, medical supplies and so on. By 2015, 60% of the Venezuelan population was living in poverty. [1] [2] [3] [4]

From only these three points, we can establish a negative trend starting way before the first US Sanctions. Thus, we can conclude that by the time the devastating 2017-2019 sanctions took place, Venezuela was already deep in a state of generalized crisis.

WS conclude in their paper:

[...] One of the most important impacts of the sanctions is to lock Venezuela into a downward economic spiral. [...] An economic recovery could have already begun in the absence of economic sanctions.

While Bahar, Bustos, Morales and Santos declare:

[...] Our analysis finds insufficient evidence to conclude that they [sanctions] were responsible for the worsening of the socio-economic crisis. [...] The weight of evidence seems to indicate that, rather than being a result of US-imposed sanctions, much of the suffering and devastation in Venezuela has been, in line with most accounts, inflicted by those in power.

In conclusion - both papers seem to agree that the crisis in Venezuela started before 2017, but where WS claim that it worsened due to US sanctions, BBMS place a higher blame on the deterioration caused by the Venezuelan government.

Now, you may keep whichever analysis you prefer, but one thing we know for sure: the 40,000 Venezuelans that WS claimed died due to the sanctions cannot be found in any public report, while the death toll of protests and extrajudicial killings has been extensively reported.

Why is this relevant?

Contrary to what some people on this site would say, Venezuelans generally agree on the negative impacts of US-imposed sanctions (note: this poll accounts only for Venezuelans in Florida, as polls aren't often published inside Venezuela). However, the general consensus is that US-sanctions only added up to a crisis that had been building up since Chávez rose to power, and rather than the cause, it was yet another symptom.

Yes, the US is the Big Bad, but placing the blame solely on the sanctions only takes the responsibility away from the government and diverts the attention from the poor governance, rampaging corruption, violent repression and denialism that we've grown used to in the last 25 years.

So if you ask "why don't you address the blockade?", my response is: why don't you address the 9,647 extrajudicial killings, the 40 deaths caused by the energy crisis, the energy crisis itself, the economic decline, the lack of maintenance in the infrastructure, the violent repression, the forceful abductions and the censoring?

What we want you to understand is that when you center the US as the cause of the crisis, you are actively participating in our state-funded propaganda and knowingly turning a blind eye on the suffering of all Venezuelans. You are no better than imperialists - you ARE participating in imperialism.

Remember:

Last, but not least - be careful with your sources. This Venezuelanalysis article was written by Andreína Chávez, former editor-in-chief of TeleSUR, a government-funded news channel known for spreading Maduro propaganda. One of their most recent claims: dead Venezuelans are shown as having voted in the ballots shown in resultadosconvenezuela.com. Needless to say, this is false. This news portal is what some people would call, BIASED.

For more information, please read the amazing analysis written by @systhemes HERE.

A more direct response by @achillesmonochrome HERE.

For other sources, check HERE.

*Fellow Venezuelans, feel free to include anything I might have missed.

[malorydaily]

For those interested in more about general conceptions of masculinity and knighthood (as there will be many more descriptions of tournaments in coming chapters of the book), From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe by Ruth Mazo Karras is a wonderful resource.

Despite being written just over 20 years ago, it introduces a lot of ideas that are widely agreed upon in the work of critics today – no excerpts from me for this as I don't have a great copy to work from, but highly recommended nonetheless.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (Spanish, 1612-1667) Cacería del tabladillo en Aranjuez, ca.1640 Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

[strawjamberry]

cellbit is our loudest advocate

[viejospellejos]

El reto del mazo:

[comikadraws]

Utakata and Fu were the ones that were captured and killed by Akatsuki before Gaara in the manga. Thanks to the anime, we know that one of the eyes of the Gedou Mazou that were filled before Shukaku was sealed represented Saiken.

(Chapter 256, Page 16 and Naruto: Shippūden #152)

And we also know that Fu was intercepted by Kakuzu and Hidan while she was coming back to her village after the Chunin Exams that happened one year before Naruto return from his training trip with Jiraiya.

(Naruto: Shippūden #413)

So, Han is the one who was captured by Akatsuki after they extracted Shukaku from Gaara, but before they captured Yugito and Isobu. Hope I helped! :D

Hello! Thank you for your addition.

Please don't take this in a negative way, but the exclusion of anime content was purposeful on my part. I am not the biggest fan of utilizing information from the anime in my analyses and I mostly don't for two reasons:

Sometimes, although not always, the anime filler content not only fills in the blanks of the manga but also directly contradicts the manga. And even when it doesn't, it is written with the intention of accommodating filler lore and does not necessarily reflect Kishimoto's own intention for the world (as we can see in the case of anime retcons).

There are manga purists on this platform who will come to gut me if I so much as insinuate that the manga is not our only source for canon information. Even then when the additional content (ie. databooks, novels, movies, and anime filler) does not conflict with the source material. Although, they seem rather tolerant of the databooks (as those, while being faulty as well, were written by Kishimoto and his assistants).

Gedo Mazo's Eyes and the Biju

Now, onto the actual ask because you did bring up something very interesting which is the connection between Gedo Mazo's eyes and the different biju. As we can see in both anime and manga, each time a biju is sealed, the Gedo Mazo opens a new eye. (also thank you to @zeto1304 for catching the chapter 331 panel in DMs)

In the screenshots below, we see the corresponding eyes for Ichibi, Sanbi, Nibi, and Yonbi.

But how are those eyes chosen? We have three hypotheses for this:

1. The corresponding eye is determined by the number of tails of the Biju. (ie. no matter when Ichibi is sealed, it will always take the 1st row, 2nd collum place)

2. The eyes correspond to the chronological sealing order of the Biju. (ie. no matter which biju is sealed, the 3rd biju will always take the 1st row, 2nd collum space)

3. The eyes are distributed at random and there is no inner logic to their Biju assignment.

The Sealing Order Retcons

In the manga (which I have further elaborated on in this post), the sealing order goes as follows:

[N/A] -> [N/A] -> Ichibi -> [N/A] -> Sanbi -> Nibi -> Yonbi -> Hachibi -> Kyubi

In the anime, the Biju sealing order is not just elaborated on but retconned. Aside from filling in the blanks (that I have referred to here as "[N/A]") Sanbi is no longer sealed before Nibi but before Yonbi instead (a swap between Nibi and Sanbi, basically), due to the introduction of the Three Tail's Appearance Arc. This is why Pain changes the amount of remaining Biju after Nibi from three to four before we see them starting to seal Sanbi in episode 121.

Then, after Nibi, Sanbi, and Yonbi have been sealed, the Akatsuki begin their hunt for Rokubi in the Six Tails Unleashed Arc.

The anime also retcons itself in that regard to accommodate the Six Tails Unleashed Arc.

First, Pain states in Shippuden episode 83 that there are four Biju left. The Akatsuki then seal two Biju (meaning there should also only be two left) before Kisame claims there are three left instead in Shippuden episode 142.

Second, "Saiken's eye" (2nd row, 2nd column) has been open since before Ichibi was sealed in Shippude episode 17 and then remains open until Shippuden episode 121 before suddenly having to re-open in episode 152 as shown in the screenshots above.

Here are the sealing orders in comparison:

Manga: [N/A] -> [N/A] -> Ichibi -> [N/A] -> Sanbi -> Nibi -> Yonbi -> Hachibi -> Kyubi

Anime (before Rokubi retcon): [N/A] -> [N/A] -> Ichibi -> [N/A] -> Nibi -> Sanbi -> Yonbi -> Hachibi -> Kyubi

Anime (after Rokubi retcon): [N/A] -> Ichibi -> [N/A] -> Nibi -> Sanbi -> Yonbi -> Rokubi -> Hachibi -> Kyubi

Anime (final): Nanabi -> Ichibi -> Gobi -> Nibi -> Sanbi -> Yonbi -> Rokubi -> Hachibi -> Kyubi

When the anime retconned the Biju sealing order, it chose these eyes to represent Rokubi, possibly implying that this eye would, regardless of sealing order, always belong to Rokubi.

What should be mentioned, however, is that the introduction of the Six Tails Unleashed Arc (Shippuden episodes 144-151) was introduced quite hastily. The retcon doesn't exist at least until Shippuden episode 121 (23 episodes before the arc). The viewers are only made aware of the change in Shippuden episode 142 (2 episodes before the arc).

The problem is that all of this does not exactly evoke a feeling of reliability. Aside from the hasty retcon, I could not find any evidence as to why this eye was selected specifically. Did they consult Kishimoto first? Did this pick have any deeper meaning? Or did they just select at random because they suddenly realized they had run out of eyes (and didn't feel like Kishimoto had any specific vision for this matter)?

Patterns

A personal nitpick of mine is that neither assigning eyes by tail number nor chronological sealing order will give us a particularly good pattern.

For the tail-number-pattern, you'd expect the eyes to get opened one column/row after the other to represent their numerical order. To make it feel like this is where each Biju would logically belong and was meant to belong.

For the chronological pattern, you'd expect the eyes to either get filled to represent a numerical order OR get opened somewhat symmetrically to represent the "balance" of the statue slowly getting filled up with Biju chakra.

Neither of which is the case. The closest we get is a nearly symmetrical 2-step distribution for the tail-number-order. Which, of course, doesn't make much sense because the Biju can be sealed in any order (as seen with the chronological pattern). So why would balance matter?

Tail-Number-Pattern: Each number reflects the number of tails as depicted in the anime.

Chronological Pattern: Each number reflects the chronological placement of the sealed Biju as depicted in the manga.

This means that the patterns are seemingly not following a reasonable logic, making them look rather randomized.

But now, let's go back a bit and look at the sealing order. As previously explained, we know that the number of tails is irrelevant to the order in which the Biju are sealed. The only exception is Kyubi.

It is entirely possible that, due to the irrelevance of the exact sealing order, the corresponding eye is just as irrelevant, making it randomized. The only exception is the Kyubi, which likely has to be sealed into the middle to maintain Gedo Mazo's "balance".

In the end, either theory could be true. I just think we don't have enough information either way to come to any definitive conclusions about what Kishimoto intended when he wrote the manga (if he intended anything at all). Hence I personally prefer to look at these as headcanons :)

Take care!

[roehenstart]

Portrait of a Girl by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo.

[kaito-module-of-the-day]

Today's KAITO module of the day is:

Craft by Yoshiki!

[dwellordream]

Ruth Mazo Karras, From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe

[heartofstanding]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but would you be able to tell me the names of the historians and documentaries that you were talking about in your post on Isabella of France? I'm looking to do a project on isabella for my history course and I'm looking for all sources and stuff i can.

Hi! In this post, I was talking about Kathryn Warner. She runs a blog on Edward II and has published mountains of books on Edward II's reign and while I think her early biographies of Edward II and Isabella are pretty solid, I think she's become so lost in the weeds that she's started going a bit... crank and started to imitate the historians she once railed against. The historians she rails against the most is Alison Weir (which, fair, Weir's Queen Isabella is very bad and very homophobic) and Paul Doherty's Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II but the "badass girlboss" take on Isabella can also be found in Helen Castor's She-Wolves (both biography and documentary). There is a Dan Jones documentary that's famously homophobic but I don't think I've heard about his treatment of Isabella. The novels I mentioned were Susan Higginbotham's The Traitor's Wife and Colin Falconer's Isabella: Braveheart of France.

I haven't read it but Lisa Benz St. John's Three Medieval Queens: Queenship and the Crown in Fourteenth-Century England is very highly recommended, focusing on Isabella, Marguerite of France and Philippa of Hainault. Michael Evans' chapter on Isabella in Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts is a good but brief biographical overview and if you're looking for more studies of Isabella in popular culture, his chapters "Queering Isabella: The ‘She-Wolf of France’ in Film and Television" in Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers and "From “She-Wolf” to “Badass”: Remembering Isabella of France in Modern Culture" in Memoralising Premodern Monarchs will give you a good overview of the cultural representations of Isabella, the latter of which deals most with the "badass girlboss" view of Isabella. They should also give you more sources. Isabella also features heavily in many biographies of Edward II, probably the standard is Seymour Phillips in the Yale Monarchs series.

[fuckyeahogonbat]

I'm going to scream?

[mmbob]

Mini mazo de madera

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (Spanish, c.1612-1667) Portrait of the Infanta

In an interior, which receives its only illumination from a high-lying window with slug panes, a girl in a red dress interwoven with gold, with a fine lace collar and a red bow in her hair, stands next to a repoussoir curtain. On a table next to her is a small dog, also adorned with a red bow.

[0aleph0]

DÍA 3: Chaotix (Vector The Crocodile)

Aunque nunca me llegara a pasar el Sonic Heroes por completo, sí que le he dedicado bastante tiempo a diferentes juegos de la franquicia, así como a sus series de animación (me encantan), lo cual ha derivado a que le tenga mucho cariño al Team Chaotix.

Por regla general, los personajes de Sonic siempre son bastante optimistas y positivos ante cualquier adversidad, pero el equipo que forman Vector, Espio y Charmy (a veces con Knuckles y Mighty) me gusta en especial porque siempre me hacen reír, son carismáticos y despreocupados; por no hablar ya de que encima son detectives, lo cual ya lo hace todo mil veces mejor.

(PD: Acabé basándome en el diseño de los comics de IDW, porque a parte de encantarme el estilo que usan, ayudan bastante a entender la anatomía de los personajes, y más para alguien como yo que dibuja menos de lo que le gustaría)

[comikadraws]

In what order the Bijus were sealed in the manga? Did they have an order to be sealed? Like by the number of tails.

Biju Sealing Order

This is one of the many things that I am not as knowledgeable in, actually ":) So I did some research.

Please remember that the sealing order of the Biju in the manga differs greatly from that in the anime. Please refer to this post.

First of all, the only rule when it comes to the Akatsuki's Biju sealing order is that the Kyubi must be sealed last as its power would otherwise overwhelm the Gedo Mazo statue. The other Jinchuriki are sealed in a non-numerical order (ie at random).

The resulting order goes as follows...

1 - Unknown Biju

In chapter 266, we learn that Gaara is the third Jinchuriki to be hunted down by the Akatsuki, meaning that there were two more before him.

2 - Unknown Biju

3 - Ichibi (One Tail)

Gaara is first attacked in chapter 247 and then delivered in chapter 254. The sealing jutsu is then completed in chapter 261.

4 - Unknown Biju

5 - Sanbi (Three Tails)

Sanbi is sealed in chapter 329 after Deidara and Obito hunt it down in chapter 317. The sealing is completed in chapter 331.

Fun fact! The Akatsuki possibly had to wait three to four years before starting their Biju hunt because the Sanbi took a couple of years to respawn.

6 - Nibi (Two Tails)

Nibi is sealed right after Sanbi. Nibi is hunted down in chapter 312 and sealed right after Sanbi. The sealing is completed in chapter 332, in which we learn that there are three more Biju left, meaning that Nibi must be the sixth one to be sealed.

7 - Yonbi (Four Tails)

Kisame delivers Roshi in chapter 353 after which the Yonbi is sealed in chapter 354.

8 - Hachibi (Eight Tails)

The hunt for Hachibi commences in chapter 408. Sasuke delivers Killer B in chapter 416 before Obito finds out that it was a fake in chapter 419.

9 - Kyubi (Nine Tails)

The true hunt for Naruto begins with Pain's attack on Konoha in chapter 418.

We do not know when the Akatsuki sealed the Gobi (Five Tails), Rokubi (Six Tails), or Nanabi (Seven Tails). But we know that two Biju were sealed before Gaara's Ichibi and one more was sealed before the Sanbi and Yugito's Nibi.