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lhs3020b · 4 years ago

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The Ragged Astronauts, by Bob Shaw

Look! A books post!

I recently found myself in a mood to revisit old books (again), so I found myself re-reading Bob Shaw's "The Ragged Astronauts".

It turned out to be rather different from how I remembered. (Content warnings apply below the cut - this is an interesting book, but it’s also a dark one in places too.)

SYNOPSIS

The planets Land and Overland share a common orbit, revolving around a common centre of gravity. In fact the two objects are remarkably close together, separated by only a few thousand miles. In our universe, this would ensure that both bodies would lie inside the others' Roche Limit, and thus would ensure the destruction of both worlds. However, the region of spacetime in which Land and Overland exist is configured in such a way that the value of Pi is exactly equal to 3 (what this implies for the values of 0, 1, i and the base of natural logarithms is never addressed). Given this, we can assume that at least some of the physics is a bit different; perhaps the tidal force declines even more steeply then it does in our universe. Whatever the case, the Land/Overland planetary binary appears to be dynamically stable, and while both planets have problems, neither of them appears to be in imminent danger of gravitational disruption. The arrangement is implied to have existed for a geological timescale, so however they managed it, Land and Overland appear to be in an equilibrium.

However, due to their remarkable closeness, the two planets have ended up sharing a common atmosphere. This is actually not quite as strange as it sounds - in our universe, there is a category of stars called contact binaries, where two extremely-close stars have gravitationally-distended each other to the point where their atmospheres actually touch. (Seen up close, a contact binary would look a bit like a sort of stellar hourglass, with each star being a lobe of the hourglass.)

The novel opens on Land, whose inhabitants are entirely-unaware both of their folly and of the imminent end of their civilisation.

The lead character, Toller Maraquine, is technically a member of the scholarly Philosophical Order of the Kolcorronian Empire. However, with his short temper, muscular physique and his difficulties with reading (he's implied to be dyslexic, though no-one in Kolcorron would know that term), he feels ill at ease in his birth station. He wants to join the Kolcorronian army, but in practise this is out of reach due to both the internal politics of the royal court and also the strictures of the Kolcorronian aristocracy. (The aristocracy is in some ways closer to a caste system than the "classical" feudal system it presents as. While readers will see it through a European lens, the way it functions and is structured feels a bit more similar to Imperial China, given its centrally-organised bureaucratic orders and the absence of any equivalent to the Three Estates system that was common in parts of medieval Europe.)

However, things are about to change on Land, and Toller may well get what he wanted. Whether he realises it or not, he's about to find himself living the classic morality play - Be Careful What You Wish For.

The Kolcorronian Empire has made itself into a near-dominant world hegemon by exploiting the brakka trees. As part of their reproductive ecology, brakka trees fire their pollen high into the air, dispersing it over wide areas. The tree is essentially a sort of photosynthetic wooden canon; the explosive reactions are powered by two crystalline materials called halvell and pikon, which the trees' roots extract from Land's soil. Halvell and pikon are apparently hypergolic - mix them together and you get a very high-energy bang. Brakka wood is extraordinarily tough - with this sort of biology, it has to be! - and so Kolcorron uses brakka wood in all the places where we'd use metals or ceramics. (In addition, Land is said to be a low density planet that is under-enriched in heavy metallic elements, which seems to have discouraged the development of any native metallurgy.) Kolcorron's technology is entirely based around exploiting the brakka, pikkon and halvell. As such they don't map easily to any era in Earth history; while their society has feudal structures they also have a trade network based around pikon/halvell-powered airships. Honestly at times, their society feels closer to a steampunk age than a purely-medieval one.

Only there's a problem: Kolcorron has chopped down most of the brakka.

Kolcorron, you see, is not a pleasant society. The people who run it seem to vary from greedy to outrightly-sociopathic. Its politics are basically a sort of semi-totalitarian absolute monarchy; even people on the King's advisory high council have to be very careful what they say, and ordinary subjects can basically be conscripted, raped and murdered with impunity by the aristocracy. As such, the aristocrats have little time for things like "factual advice". The Philosophical Order has been trying to warn the government that a severe energy crunch is beginning, and this is deeply-unwelcome news.

But worse news is coming.

Land's people share their planet with the ptertha. Ptertha are gas bag creatures, possessed of a hard-to-determine level of intelligence. Ptertha are also inimical to Landians - when they encounter one, the ptertha explode, showering the person in question with poisonous dust. Anyone exposed to ptertha dust inevitably dies soon after. There is apparently no cure for pterthacosis; the normal response of Kolcorronians is to simply behead a pterthacosis sufferer, apparently on the assumption that trying to treat them is futile. (There is no suggestion that this is about saving the victim from suffering; that would involve a capacity for empathy, which very few people in Kolcorron appear to possess.)

What the Landers don't know is that the brakka and the ptertha are symbiotic species; the ptertha feed on brakka pollen, and in return they protect the sessile trees from any predator. Predators like Landers who keep chopping the brakka down. While the ptertha never show any ability to communicate, they are apparently at least somewhat intelligent, in some way. They are able to adapt their behaviour and apparently even their own biology to help them attack their ground-based enemies.

Up until now, pterthacosis has been a threat to individuals, but society as a whole has been able to cope. All that abruptly changes on a sunny morning, when the ptertha launch a mass attack against Ro-Atabri, Kolcorron's capital city. Only it's worse then that, because pterthacosis has changed - it can now spread in a viral manner, from person to person. With an economy based around outdoor manual labour and nothing resembling a public health system, the empire is swiftly devastated.

In barely two years, two thirds of Kolcorron's population die. By the mid-point of the novel, the monarchy has concluded that organised society has no future on Land, and they're probably right. In fact the evidence supports the conclusion that their species is facing extinction. Civilisation is tottering, and when it falls, there is no expectation that anything will succeed it. And the ptertha? They just keep coming, more deadly with every attack.

But, but, but ... Overland is just _there_, right above everyone's heads. The two planets share a breathable atmosphere. Perhaps, just perhaps, a migration to the neighbouring planet is possible? This is what the Kolcorronian leadership attempts - an interplanetary migration, via hot air balloon.

As a sequence of societally-catastrophic events take place, Toller Maraquine finds himself at the front of all of them, undertaking a personal journey that will take him from the Philosophical Order to the front ranks of the military, and eventually even to the surface of Overland itself.

OBSERVATIONS

This book was ... different ... from how I remembered it. I didn’t remember it being anything like as dark or as violent as it is.

First off, deary me, Land is a bleak place to live. Even before person-to-person transmission of pterthacosis becomes A Thing, the Kolcorronian Empire is a militaristic, authoritarian, dictatorial mess. The other societies on the planet don't seem to be any better; Kolcorron is bordered by tribal societies who practise virgin sacrifices. The opposite hemisphere of the planet is occuped by Chamteth, who appear to be an isolationist, xenophobic, theocratic empire. Kolcorron's response to the brakka shortage and the ptertha-driven economic collapse is to launch a genocidal war of conquest against Chamteth. This isn't to take Chamteth's land - rather, it's simply to steal their better-conserved brakka forests. As it is, Chamteth would probably have seen them off, but the Kolcorronian forces are followed into Chamtethian territory by the new, mutant ptertha. Chamtethians turn out to be even more vulnerable to pterthacosis than Kolcorronians, and their entire society is essentially destroyed within a matter of months. To his credit, Toller is increasingly-nauseated by the horrors that take place within the Chamteth campaign, though it's also notable that he doesn't attempt to repudiate it.

As for gender and representation, well, you won't really find any in this book. There are two female characters, Gesalla Maraquine and Fera Rivoo, but they're not treated well in the narrative. What happens to Gesalla is grim - Kolcorron's ruling family practise a particularly-twisted version of prima noctis, and the walking bipedal monster that is Prince Leddravohr doesn't miss his chance to inflict some personal misery on the Maraquine family. (Arguably Kolcorron's rot is from the top down - King Prad clearly knows what his depraved son is like, and has done nothing to rein him in.)

As for Fera, Toller actually marries her, then forgets she exists halfway through the book. Yes, seriously. The last mention of his wife is that she apparently moved out of the Maraquine household at some point; Toller is entirely unbothered by this. He doesn't even think about her during the evacuation. Admittedly rescuing her from the chaos in Ro-Atabri as the city disintegrates on its final day would have been a tall order, but he doesn't even try.

There is also a lot of bad sex in this book. Basically, any capital-P Problematic sex trope you can imagine? They're all here. The fail is fractal. It's bad even for the mid-80s, which was when this book was published. (It very much belonged to that period when SFF authors suddenly discovered they could write about sex, and the results were near-uniformly dire.)

As for gay Kolcorronians or ethnic minority Kolcorronians, honestly, being either seems likely to be a good way to get yourself an arbitary death sentence. If any exist, they're keeping their heads down. Like I mentioned above, Kolcorron is horrible; honestly, one unexamined question in this book is whether this civilisation is even worth saving. If the Reapers rolled in and Husk'd them all, I think you could argue a case here for it being an improvement.

To top it all off, it's suggested that all this has happened before; during the novel, Toller receives a peculiar stone, composed of a mineral found nowhere on Land. Later, he is surprised to find a deposity of the same material on Overland. Also, the Kolcorronian state religion postulates an external, cyclical exchange of souls between Land and Overland, which possibly is a folk memory of a previous migration between the planets. Oddly, the book and the trilogy it's part of never really do anything with this idea. The colonists on Overland never find any ruins, or any evidence of prior inhabitation by their own kind.

The positive qualities of the novel are that its viewpoint characters aren't 100% horrible - by the end of the book, Toller has turned into a somewhat-improved person than he was at the start. Lain Maraquine is that rarest thing in Kolcorron, a person who is actually genuinely-sympathetic and who actually does care about the welfare of other people. Lord Glo, while a senile drunkard, is also someone who is able to see the bigger picture and his early insights ultimately hold the key to ensuring that at least part of society survives the ptertha crisis. Gesalla turns out to be different from Toller's initial impression of her - honestly, Gesalla's a more interesting person then he is - and the monster Leddravohr at least ends up dead, so there is that. Also the new regime on Overland winds up in the hands of Prince Chakkell, who appears to be the most-sane of the pre-migration ruling quartet. (Chakkell is still fairly-unpleasant in many ways, but he's Lawful Evil than Leddravohr's Chaotic Evil and Prad's Neutral Evil. In fact, his dislike of Toller aside, you can argue a case for Chakkell being more Lawful Neutral, I think. That seems to be about as "benign" as the Kolcorronian monarchy is capable of being.)

The novel is also a page-turner. Awful as Kolcorron is, there is a sort of nightmarish clarity to its demise. It has that "can't look away from the trainwreck" quality. The book doesn't bore you - it may horrify you, it may appall you in places, but you're not bored. Also the mechanics of the inter-planetary migration are well-realised. The Kolcorronians' desperate struggle to flee their own world feels real. (I will admit some skepticism about whether a society undergoing a freefall demographic collapse worse than our Black Death is going to be able to run any large-scale projects, but perhaps sheer desperation counts for something here.)

The setting is also vivid and interesting. The planetary binary and the sky packed full of stars, galaxies and meteors - even during the daytime - was something that made a deep impression on me when I read it the first time. In our age with its increasingly-decarbonised electricity and the beginnings of an electric car transition, the brakka/halvell/pikon oil analogy does feel a bit heavy-handed, but it would have been timely when the book was written in the 1980s.

The last thing I'll note about the book is that it has some odd pacing. There are some rather-jerky time-skips - at one point, we jump two entire years between paragraph-breaks! There are also some sections that drag on longer than they perhaps should.

I don't know whether I can fully recommend this one - really, that depends on your tolerance for problematic content! - but it certainly does provide a unique reading experience.

#LHS reads #books 2021 #bob shaw #the ragged astronauts

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fairfieldthinkspace · 5 years ago

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Can the Trauma of War Lead to Growth, Despite the Scars?

By Phil Klay

When we speak of trauma, it is usually as something to be avoided at all costs. But the suffering that war brings can be a strange and terrible blessing.

This article is part of a series on resilience in troubled times — what we can learn about it from history and personal experiences.

The French weapon deployed against Spanish troops in 1521 was, contemporaries said, “more diabolical than human.” The rapid-firing light bronze cannon shot iron balls that crushed battlements, careened wildly and sprayed shards of stone in all directions. At the Battle of Pamplona, one cannonball twice injured the leader of a small Spanish garrison defying calls for surrender, nearly killing him, first by striking one leg with stone shrapnel, then in the other leg by the cannonball itself. His name was Íñigo López de Loyola. The effect on Loyola was not only physical, but also spiritual: Today, he is better known as St. Ignatius.

Back then, he was no saint. One biography describes him as “a rough punkish swordsman who used his privileged status to escape prosecution for violent crimes committed with his priest brother at carnival time.” But this near-fatal injury changed him, along with a few religious books he read during his exceptionally painful convalescence, in which his bones had to be broken again and reset, and where he came so close to death he was given last rites. He went on to found the Jesuits and send disciples all over the globe, in what the British historian Dom David Knowles suggested was Christianity’s “greatest single religious impulse since the preaching of the apostles.”

When we speak of trauma, it is usually as something to be avoided at all costs. “Interest in avoiding pain,” wrote the utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer, is among “the most important human interests.” And yet soldiers like St. Ignatius, who found in their suffering a strange and terrible blessing, are not rare. Senator John McCain, brutally tortured at the Hanoi Hilton, famously declared himself “grateful to Vietnam” for giving him “a seriousness of purpose that observers of my early life had found difficult to detect.”

His might be an extreme case, but the expectation of exposure to some trauma has long been part of the draw of war. “The law is this: no wisdom without pain,” wrote the ancient Greek playwright and military veteran Aeschylus. “Wanted or not by us, such wisdom’s gained; its score, its etch, its scar in us goes deep.” Perhaps that’s true, but it leaves us with an ugly and, to some, offensive question: Can suffering be a gift?

In the early 20th century, the German writer Ernst Jünger, who had proudly served four years in brutal front-line fighting in World War I, declared the answer was a resounding yes. “Tell me your relation to pain,” he claimed, “and I will tell you who you are!” Civilization before the war had slid into bourgeoise decadence, he thought, fleeing from self-sacrifice and prioritizing safety. But the war heralded a new sort of man.

“Hardened as scarcely another generation ever was in fire and flame,” he wrote of himself and his fellow soldiers, “we could go into life as though from the anvil; into friendship, love, politics, professions, into all that destiny had in store. It is not every generation that is so favored.” Postwar Germany convinced him that the industrialized world these men returned to, which happily destroyed workers’ bodies for the construction of railways or mines, was ruled by the same cruel logic as the trenches. Men would have to rise to the challenge by accepting pain, and accepting the cruelty of the age. This is toughness and callousness elevated to a first principle. Unsurprisingly, many of Jünger’s admirers became Nazis.

One of their victims was an Austrian of Jewish descent named Jean Améry, who after the war forcefully rejected, in the starkest terms, any notions of suffering as a gift. Likewise, notions of stoic detachment born of the trenches were absurd to a man who had been tortured by the Gestapo before being sent to Auschwitz. Améry experienced pain beyond description; he was hung by his arms until they ripped from their sockets, and then horsewhipped. For the tortured man, he wrote, “his flesh becomes total reality.”

More lasting than the pain, though, the experience destroyed his ability to ever feel at home in the world, which requires faith in fellow men. Humans are a social animal, our inner self in constant outward search for communion. Torture inverts that expansive, capacious self into a collapsing star. Whatever you thought you were — a mind, a consciousness, a soul — torture reveals how simply, and casually, that can be destroyed. “A slight pressure by the tool-wielding hand is enough,” Améry wrote, to turn a cultured man into “a shrilly squealing piglet at slaughter.” There is wisdom here, though of a dark sort. “Whoever was tortured, stays tortured.” Améry committed suicide in 1978.

Where does that leave those who suffer? For the medical community, the safest option is addressing symptoms, not metaphysics. The writer and former Marine infantry officer David J. Morris has described his own therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Iraq, during which he was urged to retell the stories of his trauma, practice breathing exercises, and reframe his cognitive responses to his environment and his traumatic memories.

But he was not encouraged to grow in response to what he had gone through; when he would try to speculate on how his experience might be converted to wisdom, psychologists would admonish him, he reported, “for straying from the strictures of the therapeutic regime.” One senior psychologist at the Department of Veterans Affairs told him that notions of post-traumatic growth were an insult to those who have suffered. For a medical community grounded in science rather than spirituality, and rightfully leery of telling the Amérys of the world to look on the bright side, suffering is no gift.

But another current can be found in theories developed during the Vietnam War. The study of psychological trauma suffers from what the psychiatrist Judith Herman has called “episodic amnesia,” in which periods of active interest, frequently following wars, are followed by “periods of oblivion.” But the generation of soldiers disaffected from war during Vietnam organized and demanded the first systematic, large-scale investigations of war trauma’s long-term effects. In addition to a medical diagnosis — PTSD was added to the American Psychiatric Association’s official manual in 1980 — many of these same veterans and their allies argued for the spiritual and moral significance of their condition.

Psychiatrists like Robert Jay Lifton and writers like Peter Marin argued that the suffering of Vietnam veterans was not simply neurosis, but appropriate moral response to horror. “All men, like all nations, are tested twice in the moral realm,” Mr. Marin wrote. “First by what they do, then by what they make of what they do.” Rather than numbing themselves to pain, they needed to sensitize themselves, to become alive to the “animating” guilt they supposedly lived with. Guilt forces the suffering consciousness outside of itself, the theory goes, sparking empathy and a drive to make reparation.

Whether guilt results in healing, though, is debatable. Some of the most fascinating research on growth after war trauma emerges out of a four decade-long study initiated by Zahava Solomon, which followed the PTSD trajectories of veterans of the 1982 war in Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, also known as the Yom Kippur War. A 2016 analysis of Israeli P.O.W.s from the 1973 war, who faced systematic torture, deprivation and social stigma, did find that those who reported the most guilt about their experience also reported the most growth. However, those veterans also had greater reports of PTSD symptoms as well. As Aeschylus warned, the wisdom they felt they had gained came with deep scars.

None of this would likely have surprised Ignatius of Loyola. In his tradition, suffering was at best a mystery: God never really answers Job, and Christ’s prayer to “let this cup pass me by” goes ungranted. As a Jesuit friend recently told me, suffering is never a gift, never truly willed by God; suffering is real, and awful, and not to be forgotten. “Consider how the Divinity hides Itself,” Ignatius’ followers have been directed to ask for hundreds of years, “how It could destroy Its enemies and does not do it, and how It leaves the most sacred Humanity to suffer so very cruelly.” But of course, that doesn’t mean that we cannot respond to such suffering with grace.

Phil Klay is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, a visiting professor at Fairfield University and the author of “Redeployment,” winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction, and the forthcoming novel “Missionaries.”

#St. Ignatius of Loyola #Phil Klay #Fairfield University #The New York Times

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lykegenia · 6 years ago

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The Things We Hide - Epilogue

Early morning sunlight streamed through the open hallways of the royal palace of the Fire Nation, the soft breeze bringing with it the rich scent of fire lilies and the trill of birdsong. Katara liked these times best; the worst of the rains had passed, leaving the hillsides verdant and rich with life. She had been three years in the palace now, first as the Water Tribe ambassador’s chief aide and then as the ambassador herself once Bato had mustered the courage to confess himself to Ursa. She missed the South Pole from time to time, but not even the remote blue beauty of the vast and empty icefields could compare to the jewel-bright comfort of her adopted home. Her clothes these days were all Fire Nation silk, dyed in Southern blue but tailored with inspiration from both nations, beading made from glass instead of bone, and in her hair, a string of Kyoshi Island pearls braided in place of the sea-wolf teeth she had passed along to Linara.

She paused briefly to watch a fledgling jadebird beg food from its parent. The turtleducks would be hatching soon, completing the tableau of new life that inhabited the Fire Lord’s garden, and Zuko himself would be at the feeders, refilling them with seed and fruit and honey so he could watch the flit of finches and hummingbees from his office window. Often, she watched with him. They shared tea as they pored over trade agreements or read the latest letter from Azula at the monastery. In those moments, their relationship didn’t have to bow to the strictures of Fire Nation nobility, and every day she looked forward to being able reach out and touch him, or lay her head on his shoulder, without the dark mutterings of the sages who all thought the Fire Lord too smitten for his own good. There was less bite to the grumbles than there had been, but for the sake of politics, she and Zuko tried hard to keep their affairs private.

The birds hopped away and Katara heard the tread of a guard headed in her direction. She nodded politely to him when he stopped in his tracks and bowed to her.

“Master Katara, I was asked to fetch you. His Majesty awaits you in his study.”

“Thank you, Jeran,” she answered, smiling at the faint blush that stained the guard’s cheeks. Even after three years, some of them were still surprised that she bothered to learn their names.

Curious about what Zuko could have to say to her so early, she turned and followed the familiar path to the Fire Lord’s rooms. Now that his mother had retired permanently to Ember Island, he lived in the royal wing all by himself. He often complained about the isolation, and used it almost every day as an excuse to get away from his duties and join her in the ambassadorial suite, or tempt her out to the market – whatever the other changes he had been trying to enact to end the war, he was making an effort to actually talk to his people, and it made her proud to see.

Somebody was already in the room with him. She knocked on the doorframe and waited for the invitation to come in. When he saw her, his face warmed like sunrise, but her gaze slid to the other person in the room, a man who had only arrived in the capital the day before, a full two weeks ahead of the ceremony that would mark the third anniversary of the peace accords.

“Dad?”

Hakoda rose from the tatami and wrapped his daughter in a bear-dog hug. “I don’t think I’ve ever known you be awake so early, Snowball.”

“What are you up to?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Me? I’m not up to anything. You should ask your Fire Lord over there.”

She frowned. “Zuko?”

“I…”

“I’ll see myself out.”

“Uh, yes… thank you, Chief Hakoda,” Zuko replied, falling back on his manners when his initiative deserted him. Did he look… guilty? Nervous, certainly, Katara decided, as she glanced between the two of them.

“Let me know how it goes.” The Southern Water Tribe chief grinned, and turned to his daughter with one hand still on the door. “See you at lunch?”

Once he was gone, taking his smug expression with him, Katara folded her arms and rounded a glare on Zuko. The Fire Lord had the decency to shift his weight on his feet, but the rapidly growing scarlet in his face made her too suspicious. Soon, the end of his sleeve would start smoking.

“And what was that about?” she asked, when it became obvious the conversation wouldn’t start with him.

With an uneasy rub of his neck, Zuko crossed to the cabinet at the edge of the room where he kept all his most important possessions. “I asked for his advice on a… culturally sensitive matter,” he said. “He was happy to help.”

“‘Culturally sensitive’?” she repeated, hurt creasing between her eyes. “Why didn’t you come to me? I am the ambassador for my people.”

“Because it concerns you.” He returned to his desk and laid a small object on the smooth surface. It was wrapped in embroidered red silk and fit into the palm of his hand. Curious, Katara seated herself across from him, her gaze darting between his face and his hands. The past three years had aged him well. His shoulders had broadened beneath his robes and the angles of his cheeks were sharper, but it was the quiet self-assurance in his movements that made his people love him. After the first reprisals against his profiteering ministers, even his political enemies had settled under his rule as the nation’s industries turned towards creation rather than destruction, and if he still feared those who wished to supplant him, Ozai’s death had left them a distant worry.

“This is for you,” Zuko said. “If you want it.

Her fingers brushed his as she took the wrapped object. The quilted silk rubbed softly against her skin, the corners of the fabric falling open easily to reveal a glint of gold nestled within. She didn’t dare believe what she saw, not until the last fold had been smoothed away and the gift lay fully revealed before her. The first object was a delicate triple string of alternating carnelian and blue lapis beads, bound and linked with filigreed gold. The three chains attached in the middle to a flat golden disc bordered by two embossed dragons that twined around the edge, also made of gold, carved with such fine detail she could make out every individual scale on the creatures’ snarling mouths. She had received many gifts since taking up her official position, from people trying to bribe or woo or impress, but few had struck such a balance between elegance and intricacy.

Considering Zuko’s gifts tended more towards the personal, she might have wondered about the reason he decided to give it to her, except she recognised the other item sitting in the parcel. The gold-pronged headpiece of the Fire Lady glinted at her, like it was waiting for something.

Yours, if you want it.

“The pendant has a clasp,” Zuko explained nervously. “I didn’t want to replace your mother’s necklace, so I thought I could… give it a new setting. The medallion should fit, but I can get it resized if it doesn’t – and I realise the tradition in the Water Tribes is to carve the, uh, betrothal gift yourself but –”

“Zuko…”

“The ministers would never approve of the Fire Lady wearing something that crude, and you deserve better than that anyway so I designed it and took it to the smiths. They’re really the ones who –”

“Zuko.”

“Huh?”

“I love it.” She smiled. “And I love you.”

He blushed again. “You – you do?”

“It’s not the first time I’ve said it,” she teased.

“Well no,” he agreed slowly. “But… if you do like it, does that mean you’ll… uh…”

“Does it mean I’ll what?”

“Lady Katara.” He let out a curse and shoved his hand back through his hair, so his carefully placed topknot fell awry. “Would you honour me by taking my hand as…” Another huff as he tried to get the words out, and a twinge of pity lodged itself like a splinter beneath her amusement. “Katara., I…”

“Zuko…”

“Will you marry me?”

She had expected the words, known what she would say as soon as she saw the crown laid out on his desk. Knowing, however, did nothing to still the flutter of the entire herd of sky bison that seemed to have settled in her stomach. He actually looked afraid, desperate, so much like a lost moose-lion cub that she had to stifle a laugh. Smiling, she picked her way around the edge of his desk, focussed entirely on those same golden eyes that had first captivated her a lifetime ago, and reached to take his hands in hers.

#zutara #zuko #katara #zuko x katara #katara x zuko #avatar #avatar: the last airbender #a:tla #i can't believe i actually finished this #it's been more than two years!

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quakerjoe · 6 years ago

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The China trade war, talks with the Taliban, the response to Iran after Saudi attacks, gun control, new tax legislation and a long list of other policy issues are up in the air and awaiting decisions from President Donald Trump — and him alone — heading into the 2020 election season.

In many ways, it’s the presidency Trump has always wanted.

He’s at the center of the action. He’s fully in command. And he’s keeping world leaders on edge and unsure of his next moves, all without being hemmed in by aides or the traditional strictures of a White House.

After four national security advisers, three chiefs of staff, three directors of oval office operations and five communications directors, the president is now finding the White House finally functions in a way that fits his personality. Trump doubters have largely been ousted, leaving supporters to cheer him on and execute his directives with fewer constraints than ever before.

“It is a government of one in the same way in which the Trump Organization was a company of one,” said a former senior administration official.

“In the first year in office, President Trump was new to the job. He was more susceptible to advisers and advice. There were more people urging caution or trying to get him to adhere to processes,” the former senior official added. “Now, there are very few people in the White House who view that as their role, or as something they want to try to do, or who even have a relationship with him.”

This Presidency of One is now heading into an election year supported by campaign staffers and White House aides who are quick say Trump is the best political strategist as well as the most effective messenger, and they intend to follow his lead wherever 2020 goes.

The transformation of the Trump White House, from its early attempts at a traditional structure to its current freewheeling style, has exacted a heavy toll on his staff. But a steady stream of departures — the highest senior staff turnover of any recent president by far — has also left fewer forces trying to bend the president to the usual process of the top ranks of government.

“It’s very easy, actually, to work with me. You know why it’s easy? Because I make all the decisions. They don’t have to work,” Trump told reporters last Friday as he explained why being his national security adviser, in his mind, is now a low-key post. Trump fired his third such adviser, John Bolton, last week, and he named a new national security adviser on Wednesday morning by tweet.

Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney gives the president free rein to “Let Trump Be Trump,” as Mulvaney has said, having seen the fate of his two predecessors, Reince Priebus and John Kelly.

The dwindling of top senior staff has left the president in the company of his family members, Mulvaney, Kellyanne Conway, Larry Kudlow, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the omnipresent Stephen Miller, who mostly focuses on immigration, current and former senior administration officials say.

In the past three years, Trump also lost several trusted aides, most of whom played no role in major policy decisions but were frequent presences. Trump trusted them. They could read his moods, and their loss has been felt throughout the building, say current and former White House aides. This includes his former bodyguard Keith Schiller, former body man John McEntee, former communications director Hope Hicks and former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who left the administration in June after morphing into more of a top adviser than a top communications aide.

To outsiders, it’s felt like watching an increasingly unbound, or unleashed version of the Trump presidency.

But to many Trump allies, aides, and longtime observers, the president is showing the world the way he’s always operated. Only now it has become clearer because he is receiving less pushback from staff and advisers — and has very few effective checks on his administration from Congress, the national security community or fellow Republicans.

“The Trump I’m seeing now, to me, is the same Donald Trump who has existed for the 50 of his last 73 years. This is very much in keeping with how he rolled in the business world. The only difference is now he is doing it on the global stage,” said Timothy O’Brien, author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald“ and executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion.

There is little policy process left as the White House faces consequential decisions on Iran, North Korea, China, trade and the economy, even as the president intends to use the last-named as a major selling point for his reelection bid.

“You can’t just turn the economy on and off. These are big, slow-moving machines. And he’s operating under this major fallacy that he can keep telling the market things, and they will keep believing him on China or whatever else,” said one adviser close to the White House. “And that he can just all of a sudden turn things around with a China deal or whatever it is and it doesn’t work that way.”

One of Trump’s top White House aides disputed the notion of a fractured policy process. “With every decision he makes, there is a deliberative, coordinated policy process and ultimately the president makes the best decision in the interest of the American people,” said Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary. “No president has had more success in his first 2½ years than President Donald J. Trump. In spite of 93 percent negative news coverage, this president has built a safer, stronger, and more secure America, including record job gains, economic growth, fair and reciprocal trade, criminal justice reform, energy independence, combatting the opioid epidemic, lowering prescription drug prices, and restoring our standing in the world.”

In the past few weeks, Trump has publicly announced that the U.S. is “locked and loaded” in case Iran turns out to be the culprit behind last weekend’s missile strikes on Saudi Arabian oil facilities. He laid out on Twitter since-scrapped plans to invite the Taliban to Camp David for negotiations days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

And he introduced the idea of additional tariffs on China one Friday, setting off a scramble inside the West Wing that forced his top economic officials to abandon top-level meetings, rush to the Oval Office and make policy in the wake of his tweet.

“The downward momentum in Trump’s approval rating scares me a bit from a foreign policy perspective because he is a win-at-all-costs type of a person. I worry he could get us into an ill-advised military conflict in an attempt to regain support,” said Anthony Scaramucci, the New York financier and short-lived White House communications director. “From an economic perspective, he’s going to reach into his bag of tricks to try to stimulate growth. I think he’ll end up cutting a trade deal with China to remove that cloud of uncertainty from markets, but I think due to his increasing desperation it will end up being a bad deal for the United States.”

In addition to the president’s relative isolation, he and the administration face several challenges this fall over which Trump does not have total control, including foreign policy challenges such as Iran, China or North Korea, ongoing risks to the economy, passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement or potential congressional action on gun control.

This uncertainty might not sit well with a president who has said he likes to make all the decisions, says O’Brien, the author of “TrumpNation.“

Whatever actions he does take now will also become part of his record heading into the election. “He will have to answer specific questions about that report card, and he will be frustrated by those,” O’Brien added.

If the president seems liberated, it’s been an evolution to reach that point.

In the early days, Trump felt out of his depth on national security and foreign policy or what he legally could do through executive action, said three former senior administration officials. He knew, for instance, he wanted to roll back the Obama legacy on regulations or environmental rules, but he did not initially grasp the mechanics of doing so.

Nor did he understand the breadth of the federal government — like the huge number of people it employed, or the usual checks on presidential power like Congress or the courts, said one of the officials. Trump is the first president elected who did not first hold political office or serve in the military. While this outsider status helped propel his political rise and underscored his populist message, it also left his government far behind operationally and organizationally as it took over the White House.

In the ensuing three years, Trump has grown more comfortable with the trappings of the office and has formed his own relationships with world leaders, say current and former administration officials, even as he’s upended traditional global alliances. He’s earned a greater understanding of his executive authority and has developed relationships with many members of Congress whom he calls directly.

Now the White House runs as he prefers, with him at the center of the action — speaking directly to reporters from the Oval Office, breaking his own news and laying out policy decisions by tweet.

“This is now more of a government built on the basis of Trump’s reactions to things,” said one of the former senior administration officials. “The president has learned as much as he cares to know about the mechanics of government. He’s figured out, on most things, he can continue to play a public relations battle.”

Daniel Lippman and Ben White contributed to this report.

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musical-chick-13 · 7 years ago

Text

you opened up the things I shut (cersei x melisandre)

Hello, @multifandomfix. It’s me! Your asoiaf rarepairs Secret Santa. (I’m sorry this is so much closer to the ending deadline/is a day after I said I’d get it to you; I might have gone a bit overboard in writing this because this thing is like 7000 words long, lmao.) Thank you so much for participating, I really enjoyed writing this! :D (I will also put this on ao3 for easier access, but I wanted to make absolutely sure I got this to you first.)

Lady Melisandre still mourns the loss of what she thought she had found at Dragonstone. Someone so committed to his goals, so willing to listen to her, that he would do anything. A man so concerned with justice and following what he believed to be the preordained will of the universe that he was willing to listen to her. Understand her.

Love her.

Feel something toward her that wasn’t disdain or abject fear. To give her a name other than that of “fanatic” or “lunatic.”

And as much as she loves the Lord, as much as she wants-needs-to do right by Him, she won’t delude herself into thinking that any of those other things were unpleasant or inconsequential.

Would he believe in her now? she wonders, If he were still here? She has lost her faith. Broken her own heart. She’s not sure she even believes in herself anymore, which is more terrifying than anything she has ever experienced. She has been the one earthly constant in her life, the only person she could trust, and the only thing aside from God she could every truly rely on.

But she will see this through to the end. It is her duty. She understands this. If she has no cause, she has no purpose. But even still, the thing she sees before she goes to sleep is the way Davos had looked at her after he found out what had happened to the little girl. And Jon. Everyone else at Dragonstone save Stannis.

“Terrible,” they called her. Mad. Poisonous. The manifestation of ruin itself. Poorly-hidden criticisms of every choice she had ever made followed her through every corner of Westeros, even now, especially now.

So when whispers turn to discussion of this Lannister lady, who they call “mad” and “loathsome” and “malevolent,” unable to make sensible choices if the world itself hung in the balance, it all sounds almost disturbingly familiar.

She can see the rage that underlies everything the Dragon Queen does. Perhaps she will shirk her family’s legacy. Perhaps she will not. All of that is in the hands of a far more powerful being than her. But Melisandre knows that she must be prepared should Daenerys succumb to the Targaryen curse.

Nothing the Lord wants is transparent anymore. And in light of the extreme strictures of conventional morality everyone else so desperately wants to hold her to, Cersei Lannister might be the most understanding ally she’ll be able to find.

The current queen of Westeros (well, half of Westeros, if she were to take to heart a somewhat-distant warning from her twin brother—which she was not) takes in her visitor. Hair as red as fire, a dress to match, a spidery necklace that Cersei suspects is much more than just a necklace.

She has heard of her, this fire priestess. Some foreign name that begins with an “M.” Previously aligned with Stannis. Cersei had never considered her worth any further investigation; she can only imagine what this woman wants with her now.

“Why are you here.” It’s somehow not a question. More a demand for transparency. She can’t afford to trust anyone anymore, and for all she knows this woman is here to try to assassinate her.

“The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

Wonderful…One of those.

After everything that had transpired regarding the Sparrows, Cersei hopes she never has to hear any mention of religion ever again.

“Lady…” she frowns.

“Melisandre,” the visitor supplies with an enigmatic smile.

“ ‘Lady’ Melisandre. I do not have time for riddles. Tell me why you are here or I will have my guard escort you out.”

Melisandre spares an uninterested, cursory glance at the menacing specimen in the corner, face hidden, armor dulled from a mixture of dust and blood. Others have cowered in fear in the presence of “Ser Robert Strong,” but this Melisandre person seems bored. Unbothered.

Intriguing.

Still, she elects to give Cersei an answer anyway. “I cannot know what the Lord wants. I assume it’s to bring the Dragon Queen and Jon Snow together, but I need to start forging down multiple separate paths in case I am wrong.”

Incredibly, (very credibly), this still doesn’t answer the question of why she is here.

Cersei’s skepticism must show on her face, because Melisandre continues, “Perhaps they are not the true heirs of Westeros. Perhaps the Undead will have to be defeated by another. I am here to make sure you are prepared in case these tasks fall to you.”

“And why would you assume the Lord’s” she practically spits out the word, “Plan would fall to me. Haven’t you heard what they say about me?” Cersei allows a restrained, yet feral grin to grace her countenance, “They think me mad.”

Melisandre echoes Cersei’s smile, “I think you are committed to your beliefs. And will do anything to uphold them. Even if they don’t align with mine, I can respect that. Sometimes, we must do what needs to be done. Not everyone is up to that task.”

For the first time in years, if not decades, Cersei feels a small knot of something-something that isn’t panic or rage-tightening in her chest. If she were less cynical she might call it security or validation.

“Very well.” Cersei isn’t willing to give her more latitude than that. Not yet.

“I will return.” And as suddenly as a leaf blowing away in the wind, Lady Melisandre is gone.

These three words stay on Cersei’s mind she retires to bed a few hours later. When she slips into sleep, the last thought she remembers having is There could be worse things.

Melisandre had a very incomplete idea of what to expect when she actually met the queen regnant in person. And upon arriving in King’s Landing and meeting Cersei’s eyes, she knows that will probably always be the case. Wrath colors her green eyes in a way that makes it clear exactly why people are so terrified of this woman. She does not tolerate nonsense. Will not accept half-hearted explanations. Under no circumstances will she bow to any will but her own.

She imagines that people must look at Cersei the way they used to look at her. Perhaps with even more vitriol. But underneath her rage, Melisandre can just make out fear, born of extreme pain and frustration. Something she finds within herself every time she’s unfortunate enough to be alone with her thoughts.

But in spite of all this, Cersei is committed. Committed to ruling and keeping herself alive in a way Melisandre has never seen anyone commit to anything. Not even Stannis.

Not even herself.

Lady Melisandre will, in all likeliness, have to seek out the Lannister queen again. She is almost looking forward to it.

In the meantime, she decides to investigate Cersei further. What exactly has she done? Why, precisely, do they call her “mad?”

She gets her answers very quickly. Everyone is quick to jump at the chance to criticize this woman. Melisandre, for once, might have found a woman more publicly hated than herself.

And this awakens a touch of uncharacteristic sympathy. Because nothing this woman has done sounds like anything Melisandre wouldn’t also be willing to do, given the right circumstances.

Melisandre thinks of Cersei, and all she sees is a woman dedicated to a cause and willing to do absolutely whatever it takes to accomplish it. Melisandre sees a woman broken by a prejudiced, violent world that explicitly refused to appreciate her. She could never truly hate a woman like that. To do so would be to hate herself.

So the first time Daenerys burns alive a valuable ally—a seemingly reformed, previously Tywin-Lannister-obsessed “bird” of the bald eunuch’s previous circle, with intel that could easily help her claim the throne and procure resources to protect the world from the Undead—Melisandre, as promised, returns to Cersei. Perhaps this action of the Dragon Queen’s was a simple misstep. A brief, uncommon lapse in judgment. But the time of reckoning is quickly approaching, and Melisandre cannot afford to place that much trust in her.

“The Dragon Queen has burned an informant.”

Cersei’s eyes narrow, assuming this is revelation of information is a test. Or perhaps she doesn’t believe her at all.

“Why?”

“He loved your father.”

The queen regnant closes her eyes for the briefest second, allowing herself some sort of internal sadness Melisandre knows she’ll never be able to dissect or understand.

“Why are you telling me this.”

“She isn’t prepared to do whatever it will take to get what she needs. I think you are.”

Cersei looks…almost surprised at this, with her eyebrows slightly raised, jaw clenched to reign in any sort of responsive noise that might wish to escape from her throat. But after a few moments studying Melisandre’s face, she concludes that her not-entirely-welcome visitor isn’t saying this to make a joke or bait her into a response, and her visage retreats to a neutral expression. Something passes between them. A flicker of what feels like understanding.

And Melisandre shivers, ever-so-slightly.

One of the handmaidens has been looking at her strangely. Coming entirely too fast when Cersei calls for her. Greeting her a bit too loudly. There are ugly, shadowy pockets of discolored skin under her eyes that can only be from lack of sleep. She even caught her trying to make off with an old piece of correspondence between her father and the not-so-fashionably-late Olenna Tyrell. An act she repaid by having one of her guards cut off several of the girl’s fingers.

Many would call her paranoid. She would call herself reasonably distrustful.

When she finds out the girl has run off in the middle of the night, her suspicions are all but confirmed.

Cersei does not want to seek the red woman out, but she sees no other option.

Meeting anyone was a thoroughly detestable experience. People with their small talk and shallow observations and empty, deceptive promises; men staring at her the way her girlish self had once wished Robert would; women considering her a traitor for daring to do what men had gotten away with doing for centuries. But Melisandre seems to be the first person Cersei has had the displeasure of meeting who didn’t immediately decry her as “mad” or perverse.

She knew better than to assume anyone was trustworthy. But if she was going to locate this treacherous girl, she needed someone who would not dismiss her on sight.

It doesn’t take her long to find Melisandre, as Qyburn’s spy network is vast and eager to please.

Melisandre doesn’t seem terribly surprised to see her. This annoys Cersei quite a lot.

“What do you need from me?”

“Why assume I need anything.”

“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”

And, like before, it’s not a statement of judgment. Just a fact. A genuine observation. It’s a nice change from the way people usually talk to her, if Cersei were in the mood for candor.

“One of my handmaidens has run off. Presumably to help your little friend in the North. I need you to find her.”

“Why not find her yourself?”

“If you think that I would leave King’s Landing and risk someone using my absence to usurp me, you’re much more boring than I assumed. Even being here now is dangerous.”

The woman in red looks…not amused, but some nearby emotion. Cersei doesn’t care enough to puzzle through what that means. She doesn’t know this woman, nor does she have any worthwhile reason to.

“And why would I do this for you?” Melisandre replies, after entirely too long of a pause to be considered polite.

“I wouldn’t doubt Senna knows plenty of information. She wouldn’t have left if she didn’t think she could be useful.”

“I understand why you want me to find her. What I want to know is why I would want to.”

If Cersei still had any hair to tear out, she would. She plasters a sickeningly patronizing smile on her face instead. She hates this world and everything in it. But she particularly hates how clever everyone always thinks they are.

“You said yourself you don’t know if the Targaryen girl is fit to lead. Do you really wish for her to have information that could easily win her a war when you don’t even know if you want her to win?”

Melisandre tilts her chin up marginally. She has almost immediately shifted from close-to-amused to impressed.

“You said you wanted me available in case the girl and the bastard fail. I can’t be of any use to you or your ‘Lord’s’ cause if the North destroys us in a single battle due to extra intelligence. Surely you know that.”

Cersei makes a point to slip the smile off her face. She allows herself to settle into the feeling of power she loves to revel in, the one that almost fills the void in her heart that has existed ever since she was born. Cersei is serious and will not accept a refusal, and it is necessary that this woman in front of her knows that. “Doing this means I and any resources I have will remain to provide you with assistance should it come to that.”

And, for some reason Cersei doubts even the gods themselves know, Melisandre smiles. “Very well. I will find her.”

Two days later, Senna the handmaiden is found dead in one of the castle’s stables. Seemingly trampled by a horse.

Cersei doesn’t know how Melisandre managed to get the girl back inside the city. Cersei doesn’t care.

It’s not until after this that she realizes she never once threatened violence or death if her not-quite-an-ally didn’t comply with her wishes.

She staunchly refuses to think about what that means.

Ch. 2

Melisandre does not like the feeling of doubting herself. It’s been there ever since Stannis’s death, and though the joining of Jon and the Dragon Queen had alleviated it to an extent, it is now back, stronger than ever.

Which is why she finds herself in King’s Landing again, seeking out a certain wrathful, green-eyed ruler.

“The Targaryen girl has destroyed several key food and weapons stores in the North in order to win a battle against a few underarmed loyalists.” There is no preamble this time. Like the woman in front of her, Melisandre has no time for meaningless greetings or stalling through cleverness.

Cersei’s eyes do not change, and Melisandre, for all of her gifts, all of her intelligence, all of her everything, cannot even begin to fathom what she is thinking. “I see.”

Her back is now turned, and she leisurely pours out a goblet of wine. Some part of Melisandre knows that she is simply executing a power play, as she herself has done so many times before, occasionally even toward the woman in question. That doesn’t make it any less aggravating. “If she had any concept of strategy, she wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice so much ‘collateral damage,’ as she calls it,” Melisandre continues.

Even though she’s facing front again, the queen doesn’t even so much as half-glance toward her. Melisandre appreciates her feigned stoicism. And her loathing of the queen’s desire to stroke her own ego is tempered by a rather vulgar admiration at just how good at this she truly is.

After another agonizing minute (Melisandre knows her expression is getting progressively more desperate, but she craves certainty and resolution too much to fix that), Cersei looks up. She asks, simply, “And?”

“The people will be left that much closer to starving and defenseless during the coming Winter. She has proven she does not care about fighting the Undead. Only about increasing her own power.”

“What do you expect me to do about it. Supply resources to my enemies?”

“I expect you to beat her.”

“Yes, that is my intention.”

Melisandre rolls her eyes. (If she doesn’t, she might laugh. But she doesn’t think Cersei is trying to be funny. Or maybe she is. That was quite a thought: Cersei Lannister, agent of comedy.)

Somehow, Cersei lets this gesture pass without comment before narrowing her eyes in suspicion. The expression makes her look tired. She probably is, given how many different groups of people are trying to kill her at present.

“Why have you come to me? You’re afraid this girl is a tyrant. People say the same about me.”

“Even knowing what I know, I doubt you would be that careless.”

“You know I burnt an entire religious cult by gathering them in a church where I was supposed to stand trial.”

Melisandre can’t help but turn one of the corners of her mouth up at that. “They were not real believers.”

Cersei’s eyes move fractionally toward their usual position. Melisandre would say she looks almost…enchanted, if she thought the queen were capable of such an expression.

“I have executed many others.”

“Who have personally wronged you or your children. You have been willing to ally with others when needed. You would not kill potential informants on sight.”

“Has she done that again?”

“Many times, now. One came with a large supply of Dragonglass, the only thing we know can kill a White Walker. She incinerated all of it.”

The queen regnant blinks a few times. She looks almost pained with the thought that her greatest foe is nothing more than a naive child, play-acting at an overindulged fantasy. It’s all Melisandre needs to know that she has made the right choice in coming here.

“I have destroyed entire houses protecting my family.”

“And I burned a child alive.”

Cersei pauses. Takes a long, genuine look at Melisandre, eyes sweeping thoughtfully from the ground under her feet to the top of her red hair. And there is another moment of understanding. No hatred or fear or even disgust. Merely… acknowledgement, as Cersei would do the same if pushed far enough.

Melisandre’s gaze doesn’t quite falter under the queen’s eye. But it almost does.

“Why should I trust you,” Cersei responds at last.

“I’m probably the only person who won’t demand a marriage agreement from you.”

Cersei almost laughs at that. Or, at the very least, Melisandre can tell she wants to; the corners of her mouth relax, and her fiery-green eyes brighten just enough to be noticeable. And Melisandre finds herself smiling fully at the unexpectedly warm response.

When the queen speaks again, quite a bit of her characteristic venom is gone. “Very well. Return in three days. We’ll discuss this further. I have a council meeting to attend to.”

For the first time since Stannis, Melisandre allows herself the luxury of hope.

These meetings have become almost distressingly frequent. It seems as if every slight change in the political landscape, no matter how meaningless, is used as an excuse for her and the Red Woman to meet for discussion.

And as adept as Cersei has always been at keeping herself in denial to cope with the worst of the world, she knows it’s not only Melisandre’s doing.

Fortunately, the latest atrocity actually does necessitate a meeting. It seems the Stark girl has released a prisoner against the Targaryen “queen’s” wishes (indeed, she was just like her mother, it seemed). Things were mostly under control at present, but a small riot had broken out.

“The people are getting tense. This is not good.”

“Not good for whom? The more tense they are under her alleged ‘reign,’ the better for me.”

“Not if the Undead claim you first. Every moment she spends embroiled in political affairs is an extra advantage they gain over us. Not even you can survive them, though I’m sure you’d put up an excellent fight.”

And much to her own surprise, Cersei smiles. It’s not a very pronounced one. But a brief examination of herself reveals that the ends of her lips are unmistakably pulled up.

That hasn’t happened in quite a long time…

“Do you possess the tools to defeat her?” Her visitor presses.

“Yes. But I cannot guarantee there will be enough resources left to kill all of the White Walkers when I’m done. Nor can I guarantee the safety of the resources you already have.”

Melisandre nods.

“I had an idea about that, though.”

“Oh?”

It’s not lost on Cersei that this is the first time she is willingly sharing information with the woman across from her. But considering that her family had used wildfire as a weapon twice in the public eye, now, she presumes that letting someone know there was still more to use wouldn’t be giving away too much.

And it isn’t as if she’d tell her where it is. Age may have dulled her optimism, but not her discretion.

Mostly.

“I assume you’ve heard of wildfire?”

Melisandre’s face shines with recognition, then with something that Cersei thinks looks far too much like pride.

“I hadn’t thought of that. Do you think it would work?”

“Well, you would know better than I would.”

“It would likely kill the wights. But the actual leaders? The original Undead? Probably not. Only Dragonglass or Valyrian Steel can do that.”

“Or dragon fire.”

“Or dragon fire. But I assume you have an answer for that, too?”

She does.

“I wouldn’t have started this conversation if I didn’t.”

The fire priestess looks up at Cersei expectantly. And Cersei hesitates. This is the first time she has asked someone for a favor in…decades, at least, possibly her whole life. Everything else has been an order, a demand, or, in the case of her father, a plea. Never can she remember simply asking someone for something. She loathes it and never wants to do it again.

“You possess…abilities, do you not?”

And Melisandre, unanticipatedly, simply looks at the ground with something akin to self-reproach. “Yes.”

“Then perhaps you could use them. Change the nature of the wildfire, somehow combine it with Dragonglass-you’d only need a few pieces for that. Or, if not, use the fire to focus some sort of death charm.”

“All of which might not work.”

“Then what’s your idea?”

Her eyes drift toward the ground once more. This time, she doesn’t say anything.

As Cersei had thought.

She does not have time for this. She has a country to rule, wildfire to collect, and battle plans to oversee. “Well?” This time, she is forceful. Asking for the aid of her magic might be a favor, but asking for an answer to the question of that aid is not. She already has given far more chances than she’d care to admit to this woman, for some completely indiscernible reason.

“I’ve never done something on that scale. I don’t even know if I could.”

“You brought a man back from the dead.”

She hates how impressed she sounds when she says this.

But, apparently, this display of emotion that isn’t hatred or rage or grief moves her red visitor. “I’ll do my best.” And the accompanying smirk catches Cersei so off-guard she almost drops her wine goblet.

Melisandre takes her leave, and Cersei is left to wonder why her heart is beating so quickly.

Today, it’s some minor Northron lord who made an indecorous comment, which Melisandre tries to use as proof that the North is dividing further, but they both know is just an excuse to see Cersei.

The conversation has evolved into Melisandre talking about how she once tricked a man into handing over his horse. It’s a story she’s never told to anyone; she’d never thought it important, and it reminds her of a time when she was considerably younger (and thus very foolish and inexperienced), besides.

In truth, the only reason this is happening is because they are both far more drunk than they should be, but Melisandre imagines this is what “normal” women do (women who can just live, free of constant doubt and crisis of faith, women who don’t have potentially the fate of the country resting on their shoulders), and that feels…nice.

“And then he says, ‘When I mentioned things were getting too monotonous, this isn’t what I meant. Oh, he was livid.’ ”

Cersei chuckles, though Melisandre suspects that this, like everything else she does, even while under the influence of particularly strong wine, is carefully measured.

“What did you say?”

“I told him now that he finally had something worthy of telling his wife, perhaps she’d pay attention to him for more than two minutes because she probably wouldn’t let him out of her sight again.”

And Cersei abandons all pretense of restraint and absolutely cackles, slamming her free hand down on the table with an ear-piercing THUD. It seems that even in laughter, the queen is hard and fierce, not to be trifled with.

A thin, pink sheen wisps across her (admittedly stunning) cheekbones, and Melisandre thinks Cersei ought to laugh more often.

Perhaps they both should.

But, to quote the most cliché of expressions, all good things must come to an end, as Cersei’s expression, if not her body, suddenly sobers up completely. She is staring at Melisandre, but there is no feeling of familiarity, no understanding. It’s almost as if Cersei is studying her, and Melisandre, in her wine-induced fog, can’t make sense of why.

She gets her answer, though in a much less jovial way than she might have wanted.

“Why are you here?”

“What?”

“You and I both know that you had no real reason to come today, so why are you here? What do you want?”

Melisandre should probably be a little afraid. Cautious, at the very least. She is not. It’s probably the wine.

“I wanted to.”

“No one ever wants to be here.” And Cersei looks sad. Broken. Melisandre knows that expression well: it’s the one that’s been on her face every time she’s looked in the mirror since Shireen.

“I…” But Melisandre doesn’t know what to say. For someone so good at giving speeches, inciting crowds into action, for a woman who could make one of the most powerful men alive follow her without a second thought, she cannot think of any words to reasonably continue this conversation.

After a few minutes pass, the best her hazy brain can supply is, “Your…brother…wanted…?”

“Don’t talk about him,” Cersei growls.

And Melisandre is, once again, silent.

(Although, not out of fear. This silence comes from knowing she’s touched upon a sore spot, and she has no reason or desire to keep prodding it further.)

“I know you’re only here to lay out some sort of trap for me. You should leave while I still allow you to.”

“What reason have I given you to distrust me?”

“Everyone has reasons to distrust them.”

She supposed that wasn’t entirely wrong.

“How do I know you aren’t trying to entrap me?”

Cersei scoffs. “What use would I have of that?”

Melisandre tries not to interpret this to mean that she is ultimately unimportant, but she is painfully unsuccessful.

“I know what my reputation is,” the queen continues. “And I know why I have it. I don’t regret any of the things I’ve done to earn it.”

“Neither do I,” Melisandre answers, softly, pained. She probably should regret a lot of things. But she can’t. She was only doing what she had thought was R’hllor’s will. The right thing.

Cersei closes her eyes, grips the table until her knuckles are white. It is now that Melisandre notices the dark circles under her eyes. Likely due to many sleepless nights. Broken faith and extreme responsibility will do that.

“If you distrust me so much, why didn’t you dismiss me? It can’t be because you have any sort of affection toward me. I was under the impression that you didn’t really like anyone.”

Cersei opens her eyes, and their normally brilliant shade of green is diluted with a scattering of unfallen tears.

“I liked my children.” A deep breath. “I loved my children. Every single thing I ever did was to protect my family.” And with that, the tears fall. Followed by many more.

Before Melisandre even has time to process what is currently happening, Cersei begins sobbing quietly.

This is not a situation she knows how to fix.

There was a difference between comforting someone like…Selyse, and someone like Cersei. Selyse would be placated by empty compliments, reassurances that everything was proceeding according to plan, a prayer. None of that would appease Cersei.

She considers leaving the queen to her onslaught of emotions, letting her stew in her bitterness. But some part of her whispers that that’s not fair.

And so she walks the few steps over to the table with the wine to gently pry the crying woman’s hands from her face, before letting her arms wrap hesitantly around her. Because that was a thing people sometimes did when other people were sad, and it seems like a good thing to do. And, well, she doesn’t have any other ideas.

And from the way Cersei immediately clings back and lets her tears fall unrestrained into Melisandre’s hair, punctuated by a breathy “Thank you,” heavy with so many indecipherable emotions, she realizes just how much this woman has needed a hug.

They stay like that for quite a long while. It is deep into the night when Melisandre finally leaves.

After that night, everything changes. There are no more pretenses for their meetings. No charade of discussing politics. Everything is more familiar, softened, easy. Many days they don’t talk of the war at all.

Cersei suspects this is what having a friend must feel like. She won’t pretend that it’s unpleasant, but she knows it’s only a matter of time before something happens. Or before Melisandre abandons her, like everyone else.

…But that doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t indulge right now, does it? It’s been so long since anyone outside of her family made her feel something that wasn’t excruciating disappointment.

The servants are starting to talk, crying out that “history is repeating” and “has she learned nothing from Stannis.”

If Cersei were capable of simple leisure anymore, she would be laughing almost constantly. Stannis, with his over-inflated sense of responsibility and one-sided justice. He never needed the Red Woman to cause his own ruin. He had only kept himself alive as long as he had because of Melisandre’s council, divorced from his obsessions with keeping the realm pristine and with drawing lines no one was allowed to cross

With everything Stannis pretended he was, he could never have truly appreciated her.

It is late, and she has met her visitor just inside the gate. They begin their walk back to the Red Keep, passing two stable boys who have just finished repairing one of the walls. The younger of the two looks at the woman cloaked in red, expression a mix between panic and barely-suppressed anger. They run away as fast as their small legs can carry them, and the older one whispers something about “the fall of House Baratheon” just before they vanish out of sight into one of the many dark alleys that adorn this part of the castle.

Cersei hears a sharp exhalation beside her, and Melisandre’s face, made at once both smooth and angular by the glow of the moon, looks how Cersei imagines her own had upon hearing of Tyrion’s escape.

“I think it best I should leave.” Her friend ally guest occasional conversation partner speaks tensely, almost as if she could shatter at the insult, were she too uncareful. She whirls around and starts moving back toward the gate.

“Melisandre,” Cersei says, and they both freeze. They both know this is the first time she has openly addressed her by name, without an accompanying title or epithet.

And the tension instantly slides off Melisandre’s face, as simple as a flame being extinguished by a puff of air.

Cersei looks at her inquiringly; Melisandre meets her eyes, nodding stiffly. They stroll back to their customary meeting spot, and Cersei feels a nervousness she can’t name creep up her neck and around her skull. She thinks she hears her escort of choice breathe observably louder than usual as they step over the threshold into the room. She isn’t sure what this means, other than it makes the dreadful feeling worse.

She tries to think of something to say, but her mind is blank. As if someone has burned away all the thoughts in it, or spilled an inkwell over any pages of conversation she might have pre-written, rendering them unreadable.

To give herself something to do, she decides to light a few candles. But she finds herself so distracted by whatever-in-the-Seven’s-name this is that she burns her finger, a small “Aarh” escaping her mouth, unbidden. Melisandre glances over in concern, and-upon realizing what has happened-gently walks forward to help. At this point, Cersei is scrambling to light a second candle. Quite ineffectively, as her finger hurts too much for her to use it for anything.

Red hair brushes over Cersei’s arm as Melisandre takes the candle and the stick used to light it. Their hands brush during this exchange, and for some curious reason, Melisandre keeps her head down, pretending to be fascinated by the tendrils of smoke peeling off from the candelabra as she transfers flame to the rest of the candles.

She pulls a handkerchief out of some fold of her dress (red, always red, like the color of Cersei’s house or the blood that runs through her veins), and, instead of merely handing over the scrap of fabric, gingerly winds it around Cersei’s injured finger with utmost care.

“There,” the Red Woman murmurs. Her hand is still on her makeshift bandage, curled around Cersei’s finger; her eyes are wide, her lips pressed tightly together, as if trying not to say something.

A minute passes and still neither of them lets go.

Shrouded in the half-light of the candles, Melisandre continues to keep her gazed fixed to the ground, and Cersei feels an increasing need for her to, instead, train her deep blue eyes on Cersei’s green. There is no practical reason for her to want this, other than an inkling that, should it happen, the strange and terrible feeling will lessen. Eventually, she is rewarded for her patience; Melisandre seems to resolve some inner conflict before looking into her eyes unwaveringly, taking her available hand and hesitantly tucking a lone, stray thread of hair behind Cersei’s ear.

Cersei’s breath catches, and she realizes just what that feeling is.

Melisandre nearly crashes her hand back down against her side in a rush to get it away from Cersei’s face. The skin around her eyes is taut, the rest of her face colored with trepidation. She looks…

…Afraid.

That was not an emotion she had ever thought she’s see on Melisandre’s face. She had somehow thought her incapable of feeling such a thing. A thrill rushes through her at the idea that, in a world containing the Undead, dragons, endless stretches of war and struggle and death, she alone was responsible for this expression gracing the Red Woman’s face.

She can tell Melisandre wants to leave, convinced she has crossed a boundary that cannot be uncrossed. And if it were anyone else, she would gladly tell them to get out.

But that isn’t what she wants.

It’s been quite a long time since she’s truly gotten what she wants.

So, before her conversation partner guest ally friend can so much as turn around, she frames her face between her hands and kisses her.

Melisandre responds enthusiastically, fisting one hand in Cersei’s short hair, the other wrapping around her waist in an effort to pull their bodies closer together.

Cersei thought kissing a woman would be…different…somehow. And it was. But not as drastically as she had assumed. It was an odd contradiction of having an intimate knowledge of what was effective (such as running her thumb over Melisandre’s cheek here), and being acutely aware that the body pressed against hers was of a different shape and construction than any of those she had previously allowed this close to her.

It’s intoxicating.

All she feels a heady sensation a thousand times more powerful than even the strongest wine, and everything, everything is Melisandre.

She is no longer foolish enough to believe in the existence of happiness. But perhaps this comes close.

It’s not as pronounced of a change in their relationship as last time, but it is, undoubtedly, a more meaningful one.

The remnants of stilted distrust have given way to a new openness between them, one punctuated by languid kisses and running soft fingers through the other’s hair.

Now, when Cersei’s eyebrows knit together while revising a battle plan, Melisandre can place a gentle hand there to smooth them out. When Melisandre experiments with fire, Cersei is there to tell her (bluntly, with a hint of irritation) when she is breaking her focus and to ask her what more she needs.

They have formed a cohesive unit; their plans to stop the Dragon Queen and the Undead have reached their final stages. Melisandre is practicing what magic she can, and when they are not finding solace in each other for a few precious moments, they are reviewing and re-reviewing war tactics. The end is near. For some, if not all of them.

“We attack tomorrow,” Cersei pronounces. Resigned. Resolute.

Everything that had happened over the past year had been building up to this.

Cersei’s newborn son has been sent away with one of the only knights the two of them have agreed she can trust. If God is kind, the boy will be tucked away in the far southwest, on the coast of an unmapped island, cared for and defended.

Everything is in place. Except for one small item of discussion.

“Absolutely not.”

“I am not asking you to spare anyone else. Just the girl.”

“Why should I spare Sansa? How could I justify that?” Cersei turns from the window she had been staring out of. The wind ruffles the top of her head and she looks graceful, poised.

(Beautiful.)

“We are not allowed to pay favorites in war, Melisandre.”

“She has been nothing but an agent of peace. Every single thing the Dragon Queen has done, she has been against. If we need anyone left alive on our side when this is over, it must be her.”

Cersei remains unconvinced.

“Her sole motive has been to protect her family and vanquish the Undead. Surely you can understand that.”

The barely-perceptible droop in Cersei’s shoulders indicates that she does.

“The world is not done with her yet. She simply wants to be left alone. She won’t disturb you if the North is safe. If you want to protect your child, sparing Sansa Stark will help do that.”

“Very well. I will spare her. Only. Her.”

“Promise me. For the love of this country—”

“I don’t love this country. I love you.” Her eyes drift wistfully out the window once more, mind temporarily lost in a dream of some other, happier, theoretical life. “I love my child. More than anything. More than my own life.” Cersei’s eyes shift back to the here and now, her gaze piercing, but almost as if in a show of bravado. She is posturing, trying to undo this show of vulnerability. And as Melisandre takes in her rigid back; clenched hands, with sharp, leonine nails digging into them; eyes fighting desperately to stay open instead of closing to indulge in some other, less ferocious emotion, she realizes that Cersei is afraid she’ll leave. Even now.

Extreme, non-pious emotions have never been something she wore well. But she cannot let this woman stand here and doubt her loyalty. She cannot let her think her trust and love have gone unrequited.

“I assumed I would never know what it meant to love something that wasn’t God. I never thought myself capable. You proved both of those things to be false. Thank you for that.”

The smile on Cersei’s face is sweet, tender, almost beatific in its loveliness.

When she turns toward the window again, her demeanor has changed into something almost unrecognizable. She looks oddly calm for someone about to end a war years in the making.

Melisandre takes a few steps and joins her, surveys the starless sky, feels the icy, uncomfortable breeze on her face.

And as Cersei quietly threads her hand through hers, Melisandre feels that strange sense of calmness wash over her, too.

For, whatever happened, they would face it together.

#cersei lannister #melisandre #cersei x melisandre #femslash #got #asoiaf #asoiaf rare pair exchange

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belerencodex · 8 years ago

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The Synod of Palandari

Gods of the Synod

The angelic hosts of Palandari are governed by a static hierarchy. Every celestial from the lowest ranks of archons to the high solars and planetars serve the will and spirit of the gods who have shaped the plane. Most are celestial beings born native to the plane but in rare cases mortal beings have ascended to godhood among the peerage of angels.

Adarra Progenitor of Palandari, Adarra was born in the earliest days of the elemental planes, she emerged from a pearl and began shaping the heavens from the firmament. It was Adarra who created the angels, who created the lesser divines of Palandari and commanded her children to be wardens of the order of creation. When she was content with her creation she untethered her essence and became one with the plane itself. Anywhere you are in Palandari you are within the sight and the love of Adarra.

Faithful of Adarra: Among the common folk prayers to Adarra are mainly parents wishing well for their children, those who have recently lost loved ones, and those seeking guidance in matters of love. The priesthood of Adarra fulfills a couple roles in these regards, any Synod cleric can perform the proper Adarran rites for the deceased but it is believed that Adarran priests have extra sway to help the spirits of the dead reach Palandari. To this end the priesthood have mastered arts of divine mummification and guard mausoleums of the faithful. In the sphere of the living they are frequently teachers, mentors, and matchmakers. In the springtime the Festival of Adarra is held where the priests weave magic over the festivities to help people find their soulmates, individual priests may also take it upon themselves to help the lovelorn in the name of their god. Some of these priests of love are called the Kedesha, essentially holy sex workers said to have the power to heal wounds, cure impotence, and the most powerful are said to even be able to revive the recently deceased through the powers granted through their rituals. Temples of Adarra: The high temple of Adarra is located about fifty miles north of Feldri. A town named after the goddess has grown up around the temple as among the many functions of the Adarran priesthood are the running of orphanages and running the houses of the Kedesha. Many of the children raised within the temple stay on as priests themselves or have moved into the township around the temple. Many of the residents make their living as professional mourners in the necropolis of Adarra. An expansive graveyard filled with mausoleums stretching back before the Ascren Empire. In the early days of the Crucible States period raiders and dragons drove away the priests from the temple and emptied the town. In their absence the unattended necropolis became rife with undead and to this day paladins and clerics are still working on clearing it. The temple is prosperous as the kedesha earns the temple significan coin in addition to donations made by those raised among the priesthood. Adarra is one of the more popular and her temples are found ranging widely, even into Orum and Cymrin where the Synod’s reach is limited. Domains: Family, Repose, Love, Healing

Arbanix In an ancient time, long before humans, before any of the elven or dwarven races that now dwell on the material plane, there were dragon tyrants ruling over the mortal races. They warred with the genies, angels, and fiends for dominance over the Material Plane. For hundreds of years the realms of earth were tossed between the control of these immortals. Finally the dragons stood triumphant against all comers as the unrivaled rulers of their native planes. Next came the wars between the dragons themselves. Metallic and Chromatic turned on each other, common cause lost with their enemies defeated. Among the metallic dragons one stood above all others. Arbanix the Golden called upon the greatest of his kind, he was honorable, kind, and powerful beyond measure. Those who lived within Arbanix’s dominion lived in peace. But the curse of such power and the reputation of a warrior god is that there is always another challenger. Eventually Arbanix came to understand that to live on the material plane any longer would only cause more instability. He ascended to Palandari where he had befriended many of the angels and was granted true godhood. Still though, Arbanix keeps eternal vigil over his home, he will not meddle in the affairs of mortals but against greatest perils, against the darkness that lies beyond the world, he will protect us. Faithful of Arbanix: There is a separate religious structure called Drakoveriism that worships a pantheon of draconic deities and mythic figures,. However because of Arbanix’s dwelling on the plane of Palandari he is considered de-facto a part of the Synod’s religious structure similarly to Menswar. Arbanix is a popular god especially among halflings, whose oral history stretches far enough back to contain legends of his deeds. The priesthood of Arbanix works closely with metallic dragons and maintains an aloof attitude to mortal affairs. The priesthood of Arbanix is instead ever vigilant for the creeping influence of the forces of the lower planes as well as maintain treaties with the genies that keep them out of the Crucible States. Temple Structure: Temples of Arbanix are built on draconic design, monuments with no interior section. Decorated arches or columns showing scenes praising Arbanix. Other than this the worship of Arbanix is carried out by remote monasteries that work closely with the priesthood of Semia to detect diabolic presences, or frequently among halflings who tell tales of Arbanix and look for more subtle influences of dark forces to undermine. The High Temple of Arbanix is on the Isle of Sequoia, it lies south of Orum, in ancient days gold dragons brought redwood seeds from the great western wilds and the mighty trees still stand proud over the island. Domains: Luck, Good, Dragon,

Menswar Born a mortal man, the first king of Thayl was a warrior ruler of the hillfolk in the earliest age of humanity. When he was born Thayl was ruled by sorcerous tyrants from the lowlands of Nashto. He was struck by a vision from Neswei, the god of valor and began a rebellion against the Sorcerer Kings. Upon his final victory he was met by a trio of angels sent to earth by Neswei to ordain him as rightful king of his people by valor and honor. His reign was long and peaceful and when he died it is said that a pillar of golden light shone upon his body and it was drawn to heaven where he took up the mantle of godhood. Faithful of Menswar: Menswar is not a god most humans follow, he is the chief deity of the Thaylites but to others he is seen as a god of the nobility. A King of Kings so to speak, in the days of the Ascren Empire, pious rulers would seek out high priests of Menswar to try and seek his wisdom or blessing. Few succeeded in gaining the acceptance and guidance of Menswar as the Ascren Empire was founded in unrighteous conquest and oppression. Nobles of true piety and faith though have been empowered before as paladins. A Thaylite scholar called Balisaris long ago wrote a book transcribing the oral tradition of laws of rulership handed down through the culture from elders to novices and it is considered by many something of a masterwork on how to be a leader. Temples of Menswar: There are few dedicated temples of Menswar within the Synod due to his limited popularity. Pious nobles often will have a chapel dedicated to him built within their walls. The high temple of Menswar is a fortified complex on top of Mount Tyslan in the Azurin Mountains in the west. The priesthood there commune with the angels and seek to support righteous rulers as they are commanded by the servants of Menswar. Domains: Glory, Good, Nobility, Fate

Neswei Neswei, the Artisan of War, is the angelic god of valor and honorable combat. Leader of the heavenly hosts, ancient protector of Semia and close friend of Arbanix, Neswei stands tall amongst the gods. In ancient days in the Age of Enchantment, she strode across the Material Plane, directing her angelic host as well as their mortal counterparts in battle against the forces of evil. At the behest of the metallic dragons though angels have mostly withdrawn from direct tampering with the mortal realms, in times of great peril, or in places where demons still tread, angels descend on the command of Neswei. Faithful of Neswei: Among true hearted warriors Neswei is a popular choice. Soldiers, especially peasant soldiers will often paint her symbol on their shields as a device. However it is considered something of a trade-off. Neswei’s priesthood hold certain rites and oaths that they bind any warrior who would seek the aid of the Artisan of War to cooperate with. Warriors who break this pledge of honorable warfare may find themselves hunted from anything from paladins of Neswei to angels sent directly to punish them for their transgressions. Clerics of Neswei put themselves at the service of generals and commanders, offering healing to their army if they will abide by the strictures. Those who perform admirably are written of in the Codices of War, an ongoing collection of military history being composed by the priesthood. Temples of Neswei: Temples of Neswei are usually in fact holy fortresses, at these sanctums monks, paladins, and clerics are trained in the martial arts. In times of trouble these temples will bring in peasants from the countryside to protect them. The high temple of Neswei lies in a mountain valley called Angel’s Rest. Long ago ago battle was fought between Neswei’s legions and a demonic host over this valley. Many angels were felled and their bodies laid to rest in the valley below. A strong aura of good still hangs in the air, creating year round springtime. Domains: War, Archon, Protection

Semia All-Knowing Semia, chief among the children of Adarra. When the creator diffused her essence Semia took over the mantle of ruler of the divine hierarchy of angels. As the near-omniscient ruler of Palandari, Semia is the final judge of souls trying to reach the heavenly realm. No sin, no cruelty, no evil is hidden from her sight when one appears before her. From her home in the Sanctum Eternis she commands the legions of angels in their never-ending struggle against fiend-kind. It was Semia who inspired Idenna’s revelation as a way of drawing the mortal races closer to the divine. She handed down her laws to be spread upon the material plane. Her power is so great that she can manifest in the mortal realms much more easily that most angels though she eschews her true form as it would terrify most as they felt the weight of every transgression no matter how slight burn in their hearts. Faithful of Semia: The priesthood of Semia are in large part lorekeepers, historians, judges, and soothsayers. Many wizards, especially diviners hold Semia in high regard as she has helped preserve huge amounts of knowledge that would have otherwise been lost through war and civilization collapse. Among the ranks of the priesthood are many oracles, mortals chosen as vessels of the truth of the divines. Semia is most popular among generals, ship captains, and seekers of lost knowledge. Notably there is a sect of Semian priests called Truth-Speakers, these wandering priests seek to overturn lies, recover lost knowledge, and often make their living as fortune-tellers and soothsayers. Within the ranks of the Synod the priesthood of Semia takes on the role of overseers and judges. Semian jusicitiars carry out orders of the high priesthood from the Temple at Phosis. When corruption or infiltration of the Synod is detected it is agents of Semia who track it down. Temples of Semia: The temples of Semia serve a few roles, some are courts where traitors and accused demon cultists are put on trial under the direct witness of the gods. Others contain vast libraries, collections of knowledge curated by librarian priests. Yet others are sanctuaries, secluded monasteries where oracles are trained and cared for while they use their powers to uncover the will of the divines. Few temples of Semia actually have space for ley-worshippers, those wishing to perform rites in her name must ask permission of the priesthood and join them in veneration as the priests do rather than simple prayer or offering. Domains: Knowledge, Fate, Light

Yothri When fair winds catch a ship’s sail, when the pirates slip over the horizon and out of sight behind a trade cog, when a merchant arrives safely home from a long journey, the faithful praise Yothri. The god of trade and commerce, he is beloved to traders of all stripes. Originally Yothri was simply a messenger of the gods of Palandari but more and more he became a figure of great respect and praise among mortals until he was anointed by Semia as a god in his own right. The worship of Yothri as a god of merchants really blossomed fairly recently, during the early age of Ascren. Today he is considered the patron of the merchant republic of Feldri and his clergy are some of the most prosperous as merchants offer thanks for safe journeys. This money is put to use supporting some of the less popular temples like Semia and Menswar as well as for altruistic purposes like road upkeep and insuring merchants against losses. Faithful of Yothri: As mentioned above, Yothri is most popular among merchants however many folk rituals are practiced throughout the Crucible States from all segments of society in hopes of divine windfall. One of the most popular holidays of the Synod happens yearly, at the beginning of winter there is a six day festival called Palandrium. On the last day, Yothri’s Day, there is a traditional gift giving ceremony where loved ones and friends give each other treasures. It is also said on Yothri’s Day that one person of true piety is visited by a vision of Yothri guiding them to a great treasure. The priesthood of Yothri fulfills a couple roles, paladins patrol the roadways to keep them safe and clerics often accompany ships and caravans on perilous journeys. Temples of Yothri: In addition to their role of veneration, temples devoted to Yothri act as reputable money-lenders and insurers. In fact they often act as credit unions for people, especially in larger cities many people rest easy in the knowledge their money is protected by paladins of Yothri ever vigilant against corruption and theft. Domains: Trade, oceans, community

#pathfinder #d&d #beleren #synod #worldbuilding

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selinaogrady · 6 years ago

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TO TOLERATE OR NOT TO TOLERATE? THAT IS THE QUESTION

Anti-immigrant group mistakes empty bus-seats for burqua-clad women

Should Muslim parents in Birmingham be banned from protesting against classes that teach their primary school children about LGBT lifestyles? This was the question posed by The Moral Maze last week. It led to a fascinating examination of one of the fundamental tensions which bedevil Western states: that between traditionalist religious communities - most obviously traditionalist Muslim communities - and the liberal secular state. The programme asked how far the liberal state should tolerate the intolerant; in other words, how far it should accommodate practices and beliefs which it believes fly in the face of its own liberal values.

It’s a deeply complex issue so inevitably none of the four panellists could fully untangle the knots the West has got itself into over the issue. But I think Mona Siddiqui and Anne McElvoy got the closest.

The parents who are protesting in Birmingham are mainly traditionalist Muslims. They believe that homosexuality is wrong. It’s an illiberal view. But Melanie Phillips argued that to suppress their illiberal views in the name of liberalism would also be illiberal.

Defenders of the LGBT education classes, like Dr Anna Carlile argued that they were simply intended to show primary school children that there are different ways to have sexual relationships and bring up a family. They were not telling children that they should live in these ways but simply that people in their society do in fact live like that. How else can children understand the society they live in and not ostracise or bully those that live and behave in a different way to their own family?

But, as Phillips pointed out, herein lies the problem for the religious, most especially for the traditionalist - that is, fundamentalist - religious. Teaching children about LGBT lifestyles may indeed describe the way society now is, but it fails to say anything about whether non-heterosexuality is right or wrong, whether the traditional heterosexual model of a family is better for children than any other. For the traditionalist/ fundamentalist religious - Christian, Muslim or Jew - non-heterosexuality is not value-neutral. It is, they believe, wrong and condemned by God, even if they try to comfort the ‘wrong-doer’ with the weasel words ‘God hates the sin but not the sinner’.

Siddiqui tried to get round this by making a distinction between the religious traditionalist/fundamentalist and the religious modernist. The former takes their own interpretation of their holy scripture as the only possible one and fails to distinguish between the general principles of their religion and particular rulings and utterances which were determined by the historical circumstances prevailing when their holy scripture was written down. Of course she’s right to distinguish between the traditionalist and the modernist. The modernist Christian, Jew or Muslim might well see the strictures against homosexuality as time specific, or claim the same right as the traditionalist to interpret those strictures and see them as directly in conflict with the general principles of their holy scripture. But the problem is that traditionalist communities do live in our society and they do believe that their God says homosexuality is wrong.

It was all very well for Siddiqui to argue that traditionalists of all faiths are and must be perfectly free to instil the values they believe in within their own home and religious institutions. It was indeed the state’s duty to protect that right. But, she said, in the public realm the state must uphold the principle of equality on which the whole liberal tradition is based, and traditionalists must accept that. But surely that is precisely what traditionalists can’t do? For them there can be and should be no separation between the private religious sphere and the public secular one.

Phillips, correctly I think, identifies both the potential hypocrisy and the dangers that lurk in liberal secularism. The liberal state rests on the assumption that the flourishing of the individual is the ultimate good - that that flourishing can only occur when the individual is free to follow their own beliefs and lifestyles, as long as they do no harm to others. That of course means that the liberal state must be a pluralist one. But pluralism can very easily fall into the trap of relativism: every belief, value or practice is as good as any other. Phillips and one of the witnesses, Dr David Landrum of the Evangelical Alliance, argued that the English liberal state had indeed fallen into that trap. Homosexuality, in the eyes of the religious traditionalist, is wrong. In teaching children about LGBT lifestyles but keeping silent about their moral status, the state was contradicting that view. Far from being neutral between religions as the liberal secular state purports to be, the English liberal secular state, they argued, was in fact preaching the religion of relativism and seeking to impose it on all of us.

Like Phillips, I abhor relativism. Most sensible liberals do. You certainly don’t need to be religious in order to do so. She argues that the English state is being dishonest - covertly imposing a religion of relativism while pretending to be neutral between religions. My argument with Phillips is simply about what the state should come clean about. The LGBT classes are indeed not saying anything about the morality or otherwise of people who are LGBT. But that is because our liberal state rightly does not think it is a moral issue. I will come back to this later.

According to the fourth panellist Andrew Doyle, the liberal state does not have to be relativist. As a Catholic he defended the importance of religious liberty, while as a gay man he believed that homosexuality was not wrong (although traditionalist Catholics do), and that children should be taught about non-heterosexuality. But he argued that allowing different conflicting beliefs and practices to co-exist does not commit a state to relativism. It does, however, commit a state to tolerance - considered to be the hallmark of a liberal state. According to Doyle, to tolerate a practice is not to approve of it: on the contrary it is to say that although you don’t approve of it, you will allow it. But that of course is precisely the problem of toleration and why the tolerated object to being tolerated - who wants to be told that you or what you do is not approved of although you or it will be grudgingly allowed to exist.

And tolerance has a further drawback. A tolerant state accepts the status quo. It says: ‘You are free to go your way, although I believe it to be wrong, and I will go my (better) way’. Tolerance is a recipe for a permanently divided society. It is also, I believe, a recipe for a permanently unstable society. Tolerance is in effect a polite, restrained form of dislike and in times of stress and insecurity, dislike can readily become hatred.

I don’t believe that tolerance provides a satisfactory solution to the dilemmas that traditionalist religious communities pose to the liberal secular state. Anne McElvoy had it right. She admitted that in the past we were guilty of marginalising other lifestyles, such as non-heterosexual ones, and that that bias needed correcting. She also admitted that pluralism can lead to relativism. But liberalism she argued is more than adopting a neutrality between different beliefs and practices. It is itself a commitment to values: there is a progressive drive within liberalism which sees society as moving onwards and upwards.

The question, however, is not whether to tolerate or not to tolerate. Siddiqui put her finger on it. The question we should be asking is how we all - religious and non-religious, traditionalist and modernist, heterosexual and not - find a common good, a common goal which we together want to achieve. That is to go way beyond tolerance, beyond grudgingly accepting our different communities. It is to seek what will unite us in a joint commitment to what we all want our future society to be.

Phillips argues that the English state is being dishonest - covertly imposing a religion of relativism while pretending to be neutral between religions.

Indeed our state should come clean. It should openly and proudly declare that of course it is not neutral. That it does indeed have its own creed which indeed it does want to impose on all its citizens. It is a belief in the Enlightenment values of liberty, equality and fraternity, or as I prefer to say, fellow-feeling. Yes, these principles have been abused in the cause of colonialism and hypocritically applied; yes, these principles often have done and still do apply only to men, and white privileged ones at that. None the less, they are magnificent principles if they are applied, as they should be, on the basis that all humanity is indeed equal - if therefore they are applied to women as well as men, to slave as well as free, to white and non-white, rich and poor, Christian and non-Christian and of no religion at all, to straight, gay and everyone in between.

Our liberal state should openly declare its allegiance to these principles and its desire that all our citizens work towards creating a state in which its citizens realise those principles. Of course those principles will clash Unlike Siddiqui I don’t believe that the principle of equality should always trump liberty or fellow-feeling. We will have to negotiate each issue, such as the protest against the teaching of LGBT lifestyles which pits equality against the right to express a belief, but at least we can do this not on the basis of tolerance but on the basis of how far it moves our society further towards realising its goal of liberty, equality and fellow-feeling.

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tlatophat · 8 years ago

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Lifting Restrictions

Recreating the Alignments - Part 1 Part 2 || Part 3

Okay, so everyone’s done their take on this at least once, and you know what, it’s fun to do, so I’m gonna throw out my own version of this. Here is my take on the classic 3x3 DnD Alignment Grid! First, let’s get some key terms defined. Lawful - To me, lawful just means that the character follows a clear and codified set of objective standards. A list of things they ideally will or won’t do, and a standard for behavior. This code can be broken, but it will feel wrong to that character, and they will be upset when they are put into a situation where they must violate one of their standards. Lawful may give too strong a sense of “Law” being the driving force. I think “Principled” would be the better choice. Chaotic - To me, Chaotic is not ‘lol so randumb’. It’s the antithesis of Lawful. Where a lawful character has an ideal standard they strive to conform to, a chaotic character has no such high standard for themselves. They only have their goals and philosophy. In fact, a chaotic character sees standards, rules, and other strictures as impediments. Chaotics won’t break rules for the sake of breaking them, necessarily. They just don’t care for such things and aren’t going to even consider them while making their choices. They act more on primal sensation than logic, making “Instinctive” a good alternate term. Good - I find this and its counterparts, Neutral and Evil, to be misnomers. Good isn’t always ‘goody 2-shoes’ or ‘FOR THE GREATER GOOD’. Let’s be honest, a kingdom ruled by a caste of Lawful Good Paladins isn’t going to be a very happy place for long. Additionally, a Good Paladin may not think twice about cutting down a tree, but a Good Druid might very strongly object to that, and consider it Evil... or at least worthy of a good lecture. So I think Good would better be called Selfless. A Selfless character will always make decisions with the consequences to other people or things in mind. What those other things are will vary by the character, but they all want to avoid collateral consequences that would hurt others. Evil - Now, you might be expecting me to ask what the opposite of Selfless is and then apply it to evil, but I don’t think that fits. When I look at classic examples of Evil characters, they share basically one thing in common: they aren’t necessarily the antagonists and villains of the story, but they all strive for domination and control. Of others, of their environment, of their kingdom, of other people: They want to be in control. So I feel Dominant is the better descriptor. Their driving motive is to gain power and control for its own sake. Neutral - Ah yes. Nestled between Selfless (Good) and Dominant (Evil) is this little slice of ambiguity that often has a horrible reputation for being mind-numbingly bland or pure off-the-wall bonkers. Both of these misrepresent what I find to be one of the more compelling alignment sets. Neutral is, again, a poor choice of word, in my opinion; especially juxtaposed against Selfless and Dominant. What are Neutral characters after? If they’re not looking out for other people (Good/Selfless) or trying to take control (Evil/Dominant), what are they doing? Well.. they’re looking after themselves, and/or after a very select and small group of people. They are Selfish. Not necessarily in the negative sense, just that their frame of reference is their own well-being. They don’t necessarily care about collateral, and they really don’t want to impose on other people either. They will act for their own satisfaction, whether that be financial, emotional, spiritual, whatever. So, with those terms out of the way, let’s ACTUALLY do the 9 alignments and give you a taste of how I see them. PRINCIPLED SELFLESS - (Lawful Good) This is the home of the Noble Knight, the Holy Paladin, the benevolent King, the beleaguered Town Mayor, the Hunter watching over the sleepy village during the night, the Girl who puts herself between the victim and the bully’s fist, the young patriotic Soldier on the front lines. These men and women hold themselves to a standard of action and behavior, and are always thinking about the well-being of others, even to the point of putting themselves in harms way to secure it. Whatever their source of values, it puts a high priority on defending others and they are uncomfortable with, if not downright hostile to, the idea of acting outside of their principles, as they feel that doing so may actually hurt others around them, or make them no better than the ones they’re trying to stop. PRAGMATIC SELFLESS - (Neutral Good) This is the Town Medic, doing all they can within the limits of their knowledge, but knowing that some injuries just aren’t worth treating when supplies are limited. It hurts, but it’s necessary, and they are comfortable with shouldering that burden. It’s the Upstanding Citizen, who knows they can’t face the threat themselves, but will scramble to make sure the authorities know what’s happening. This class of character will do everything they can reasonably be expected to do to protect those around them, even bend some rules or take a blow to their principles if it means getting results. But they’re not going to overextend themselves when all that’s going to do is hurt them. INSTINCTIVE SELFLESS - (Chaotic Good) This is woodland Ranger who poaches to feed the orphanage; the grizzled Bounty Hunter who kills his targets in cold blood to stop them from repeating their crimes; the Royal Assassin who kills the enemy general before his invasion plans come to fruition. These characters just want to help. Screw the rules, screw anything that stands between them and helping, they’re going to make sure other people are secure by any means necessary, and they will fight to correct anything they see as threatening other people, even if that threat comes from seemingly noble sources. PRINCIPLED SELFISH - (Lawful Neutral) This is the Merchant plying his trade in the capitol; the Blacksmith who refuses to do business with cutthroats because it would spoil his reputation; the Mercenary who keeps a blacklist of persons or organizations he won’t work for. Characters in this bracket are in it for themselves, but they have standards. There’s a list of things they most definitely will not do, and are very reliable and trustworthy because of it. While this might put them in a bind, where their well-being may suffer due to their principles, they will staunchly adhere to them, or grimace bitterly if forced to cross those lines. Like all Selfish types, it’s not that they won’t protect others or try to gain control, but they won’t do it to their own detriment. PRAGMATIC SELFISH - (True Neutral) This classification is often misrepresented as being boring. However, characters in this bracket are purely self-driven and that means this is a very unstable alignment. Keeping a character purely Pragmatic Selfish is hard. They have to frame everything in terms of how it will benefit or hurt them. They’ll do whatever they reasonably can to promote their own well-being, and willingly swallow some bitter pills to do it, but they’re not going to stick their neck out too far. This means they’re easily pulled along into other alignments based events around them, but this also gives characters starting in this classification the largest room for growth and the coolest potential stories. Like all Selfish types, it’s not that they won’t protect others or try to gain control, but they won’t do it to their own detriment. INSTINCTIVE SELFISH - (Chaotic Neutral) These people will do anything in service to their own well being. They don’t want control, and they don’t care about collateral, all they want is their own security and happiness. The Sellsword who will fight for whoever is the highest bidder, the citizen who refuses to share his food with his starving neighbors out of fear of starving himself, the streetrat who steals to survive, the Deserter who flees the battlefield when he realizes the battle is lost. These people have a finely honed sense of self-preservation, making them great allies if you can convince them that working with you is in their best interest. But if you haven’t fully convinced them, they will just as easily abandon you. Like all Selfish types, it’s not that they won’t protect others or try to gain control, but they won’t do it to their own detriment. PRINCIPLED DOMINANT - (Lawful Evil) These are your Moguls, who play by the rules as they consolidate control of a market. The Paladin who’s stopped caring about others and is only in it for the authority it brings. The mediocre King who manages to keep his people content, but really is only in it for the privileges of the Monarchy. Characters in this category relish the sense of power they have and thirst for more. But they’ve got principles, and there are lines they won’t cross. Sure, they can be controlling assholes, but they stay in line and play by the book. At least, by whatever book they’ve elected to use as their rules. PRAGMATIC DOMINANT - (Neutral Evil) You could also call these guys ‘Lazy Dominant’. They want power, and they want to keep accumulating it for themselves more and more, but they’re not going to get over-excited about it. It’s the corrupt Sheriff who just enjoys skimming the coffers every so often, the Commander who waits for a superior to make a mistake before trying to take his seat. They’ll slowly, patiently accumulate power and influence for its own sake, using some dubious methods, but nothing so radical as to be called ‘grasping’. They’re more... opportunists than anything else. INSTINCTIVE DOMINANT - (Chaotic Evil) These guys just like flaunting the fact they’re in control. They will get up in your face with that, and they will definitely have the power to back them up. They like seeing other people bow or kowtow to their whims, and will take ample opportunities to demonstrate their power. In short, these guys are assholes, and they love being assholes. The problem is that if they’ve been doing it for any decent length of time, it usually means they have the power to justify their power plays. And they’re always on the lookout for ways to get more power, by any means they can devise. So, there we go, my own personal take on the old RPG meme. Is this useful, probably not. Was it fun to write? Hell yeah! And being of Principled Selfish nature, that’s all that matters to me :P

#TLATopHat #DnD #D&D #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons

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oscopelabs · 8 years ago

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“Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai?”: Bollywood's Scandalous Question, and The Hardest-Working Scene in Movies by Genevieve Valentine

In a nightclub with the mood lighting of a surgical theater, a village belle is crying out for a husband. Her friend Champa encourages and chastises her by turns; her male audience is invited to be the bells on her anklets. (She promises, with a flare of derision, that serving her will make him a king.) Her costume, the color of a three-alarm fire, sparkles as she holds center screen. The song and camerawork builds to a frenzy as if unable to contain her energy; the dance floor’s nearly chaos by the time she ducks out—she alone has been holding the last eight minutes together. And the hardened criminal in the audience follows, determined not to let her get away.

Subhash Ghai’s 1993 blockbuster Khalnayak is a “masala film,” mingling genre elements with Shakespearean glee and a healthy sense of the surreal. By turns it’s a crime story, a separated-in-youth drama, a Gothic romance with a troubled antihero, a family tragedy, a Western with a good sheriff fighting for the rule of law, and a melodrama in which every revelation’s accompanied by thunder and several close-ups in quick succession. (There’s also a bumbling police officer, in case you felt something was lacking.) It was a box-office smash. But the reason it’s a legend is “Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai?”—“What's Behind That Blouse?”— an iconic number that’s one of the hardest-working scenes in cinema.

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See, Ganga (Madhuri Dixit) isn’t really a dancer for hire. She’s a cop gone undercover to snag criminal mastermind Ballu (Sanjay Dutt), who’s recently escaped from prison and humiliated her boyfriend, policeman Ram (Jackie Shroff). Ballu, undercover to avoid detection, is trying to avoid trouble on the way to Singapore...but of course, everything changes after Ganga.

Though the scene shows its age—the self-conscious black-bar blocking, the less-than-precise background dancers—it’s an impressive achievement. Firstly, it’s a starmaker: the screen presence of Madhuri Dixit seems hard to overstate. By 1993 she was already a marquee name, and she would dominate Bollywood box office for a decade after, both as a vivid actress and as a dancer whose quality of movement was without peer. But if you’d never seen a frame of Bollywood you’d still recognize her mountain-climb in this number—playing the cop who disdains Ballu playing the dancer trying to court him, performing by turns for the room and to the camera, conveying flirty sexuality without tipping into self-parody, and all on the move for kinetic camera shots ten to fifteen seconds at a time. Dixit’s effortless magnetism holds it fast; the camera loves what it loves.

But this is more than just a career-making dance break; “Choli Ke Peeche” is the film’s cinematic and thematic centerpiece. Khalnayak is about performativeness. Ballu performs villainy (sometimes literally) in the hopes it will fulfill him; Ram vocally asserts the role of virtuous cop to define himself against those he prosecutes. As Ballu performs good deeds—saving a village from thugs, ditching his bad-guy cape for sublimely 1993 blazers—his conscience grows back by degrees. As Ganga performs a moral compass for Ballu, her heart begins to soften. And at intervals, crowds deliver praise or censure, reminding us that all the world’s a stage. (It’s in the smallest details: While on the run, Ballu’s ready to kill a constable until it turns out he’s an extra in the movie shooting down the street.)

And nowhere in cinema is the fourth wall more permeable than a musical number. Bollywood’s turned them into an art. Playback singers are well-known (they even have their own awards categories), a layer of meta in every performance. Diegetic dance numbers are common. Movies often halt the action entirely for an item number, as a guest actress drops by. For the length of a song, the suspension of disbelief the rest of a movie requires is on pause.

Musical numbers are a place where a movie can comment on itself, and Khalnayak takes full advantage of the remove. (In an earlier number with more traditional Hollywood framing, Dixit winks at us while singing to her beloved.) Likewise, Saroj Khan’s choreography in “Choli Ke Peeche” invites us to enjoy Ganga’s sexuality without concern about racy lyrics—or even about the villain, who dances in his chair along with the rest of us. With the camera as chaperone, it’s safe for “Ganga” to asks what else she’s meant to do but lift her skirts a bit as she walks (that skirt's expensive!), and to let her prince know she sleeps with the door open. The men around her are either part of the act, or an audience safely contained by the narrative and the frame for our benefit. (At times, her back is to her audience so she can dance for the camera; Khalnayak knows we’re watching.) “Choli Ke Peeche” is a thesis statement on the relationship between performance and audience.

It’s a moment powerful enough to cast a shadow across the rest of the film. This number, not the crimes or the cops, is what the movie returns to repeatedly; it’s too good to ignore and too subversive to solve. Not least, among the other layers of performance, is queer subtext. In Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures, Gayatri Gopinath points out that “female homoerotic desire between Dixit and [Neena] Gupta is routed and made intelligible through a triangulated relation to the male hero.” Champa’s masculinized within the performance; she asks the loaded title question, addresses our heroine’s male savior, and discusses him with Ganga. It’s a significant connection between women in a song supposedly directed at a man—which might be why Champa is the one who defends Ganga’s reputation by explaining the dance-hall sting, and reminding the audience it was all for show.

But that’s not going to stop “Choli Ke Peeche.” At the end of the second act, Ballu blows Ganga’s cover. (He’s known she’s a cop since their backstage meeting—another layer of performance). To prove they mean no real harm, the men don lenghas and veils and parody a chunk of the number, right down to interjectional close-ups and a wandering camera that brings kinetic energy to the static space.

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In one way this reprise tries to undercut the song’s power by making it faintly ridiculous, suggesting it isn’t really sexual—it’s camp. But if “Choli Ke Peeche” functioned as a ‘safe’ way for Ganga to express sexuality when we first saw it, it serves a parallel purpose here. Despite the mocking undertones, with this number the men are reassuring her; they understand her sexuality was itself just a performance—her purity is therefore safe with them. (We know that’s a concern here because her shawl is pulled close about her; the free-spirit act is over, and her virtue is at stake.)

But there’s also something undeniably subversive in hyper-masculine, violent figures reenacting coy expressions of feminine desire. To prevent things from getting too subversive, Ballu invades Ganga’s personal space, a reminder of his power amid the making fun. And the performance ends in the threat of violence against Ganga when she breaks the spell—the expected order of captor and captive reestablishing itself as the film falls into a formulaic last act, an attempt to wrest social order out of the exuberant chaos one musical number has wrought.

It caused some chaos offscreen, too. When the soundtrack was released ahead of the film, “Choli Ke Peeche” was deemed obscene; the song was banned on Doordarshan and All India Radio, and faced legal challenge at the Central Board of Film Certification. In “What is Behind Film Censorship? The Kahlnayak debates,” Monika Mehta writes that “the visual and verbal representation combined to produce female sexual desire. It was the articulation of this desire that was the problem—it posited that women were not only sexual objects, but also sexual subjects.” And within the number, there’s no doubt Ganga’s in control; she sends alluring glances Ballu’s way, mocks (then takes) his money, and signals he’s free to follow her if he dares. The undercover-cop framework gives these gestures the veneer of respectability, but since Ballu doesn’t know that yet, the frisson of the forbidden remains.

Letters of condemnation and support rolled in. Many claimed the song was too suggestive; an exhibitor from Paras Cinema in Rajasthan wrote in favor because “Choli Ke Peeche” was based on a folk song from the area, and “If it was vulgar then the ladies would have never liked it.” The examining committee eventually ruled in favor of letting the number remain, with some edits: one that removed the chorus entirely (which Ghai successfully appealed), and two cuts to beats considered provocative, including one of Ganga ‘pointing at her breast’ as she sings, “I can’t bear being an ascetic, so what should I do?”, unequivocally claiming sexuality without even a man as her object. No wonder it had to go.

It wasn’t the only controversy dogging the film; star Sanjay Dutt was arrested under The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act for possible connections to the 1993 Bombay bombings, which added an uncomfortable self-awareness to Ballu’s onscreen misdeeds. Yet those controversies did Khalnayak no harm at the box office, where it broke records, and the movie’s had such nostalgic power that as of 2016, Ghai was considering a sequel.

But “Choli Ke Peeche” remains the movie’s most measurable influence. In Bombay Before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies, Rosie Thomas notes that after Ganga, “distinctions between heroine and vamp began to crumble, as the item number became de rigueur for female stars,” suggesting Khalnayak was a harbinger of less rigid strictures for Bollywood’s leading ladies. Another legacy of Khalnayak: more numbers feature women—with a man as the absent locus of their affections—dancing with each other instead, forming their own narrative connections and opening the opportunity for queer readings. (One of the most famous, “Dola Re Dola” from 2002’s Devdas, features Dixit again, alongside costar Aishwarya Rai.)

The pressure of so much cultural influence and metatextual weight might have turned a lesser scene into a relic, a stuttery car chase from a silent movie that starts a montage of the ways the camera has developed. It’s a testament to “Choli Ke Peeche” that it absorbs the weight of the years as gracefully as it does. If you want a watershed moment for sexual agency in Bollywood, you have it. If you want a starmaker with dancing that’s influenced choreography and direction for twenty years since, it’s happy to help. If you want a scene that dissects the idea of performance as subversive act, the offscreen vulgarity scandal only adds to your case. And if you want a musical number that reminds you what cinema can do, “Choli Ke Peeche” is as vibrant, campy, and complex as ever.

#bollywood #choli ke peeche #khalnayak #sanjay dutt #subhash ghai #masala film #all india radio #oscilloscope laboratories #musings #indian cinema #cinema of india #ganga #devdas #aishwarya rai #madhuri dixit #doordashan

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hawleystories-blog · 8 years ago

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Ahsoka’s Confession

[This is my version of how Ahsoka VS Darth Vader should have been. I love the cartoons, but I did not agree with how it was done. Hope you enjoy.]

Asoka Tano. Her name had become a legend among the rebels. The rumored apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, or Darth Vader as he was known as a Sith Lord. Even the highest echelon of the Rebellion's ranks regarded her as a myth. If she were even real, she was one of the Rogue Jedi that Vader made a hobby of hunting while his Storm Troopers fought the ground war. Although, they would say, if she existed, she could go toe to toe with Vader himself.

She was indeed alive and well. After rejecting the teachings of the Jedi Order and walking out on the council, years before Order 66, she returned to her home planet of Shili. Unfortunately for the young girl, she had no family left as they had all died when she was a little girl. Ahsoka also missed the excitement of being a Jedi, fighting in the Clone Wars, and expanding her skills and knowledge of the force. So she left her home planet behind again, forever this time. She traveled the outer rim, and spent most of her time helping others in need, trying to find a way to hone her abilities and understand the the Force.

Often she would think of the three Force Beings that her, Anakin, and Obi-Wan Kenobi encountered. One being the embodiment of the Light side, one the Dark side, and their Father. He was different. He had no affiliation with either side, and she respected that. The Jedi Order did teach Padawans about the Grey Jedi from the Old Republic. She questioned why someone had to choose a side. If the force was to be balanced, then why would there not be more Grey Jedi?

For years she thought back to that experience. She remembered how sickening it felt to succumb to the dark side, but also how empty the Light was. Feelings were an essential part of life, she thought. It was impossible for anyone to fully commit themselves to the Jedi Way.

As Ahsoka wondered and learned, meeting many other Rogue Jedi, training a few, and growing more powerful in both ways of the force she would eventually hear of the atrocities and betrayal that became of the Republic. The new Empire was spreading like a plague and hunting down Jedi of any affiliation under the rule of Darth Sidius, and his right hand Darth Vader, her former master. She decided to continue planet hopping in the Outter Rim, and had not been seen or heard from since.

Many years later, Ahsoka Tano had become a very powerful master of the Force, Light and Dark. Through her meditations and travels she had acquired ancient knowledge of the force and rivaled Master Yoda's wisdom (although, that is a tale for another time). Now, her lekku (known as “head-tails” to other species) had grown so long that they nearly touched the ground when she stood. Her montrals, or horns, were nearly a foot and a half tall. She had matured into a strong and wise woman, who still had a zest about her, always looking for excitement. Little did she know, this journey she embarked on was a spiritual one. Her final labor to achieve enlightenment.

“It's good to see you Ahsoka. Where have you been all this time?” The old man asked as he poured her a cup of tea.

“Oh you know. I've been a little bit of everywhere since I left the Order.” She took the drink from him, “Thank you Obi.” She sipped her drink and said, “So...the boy...how old is he?”

“He is nearly 18. Soon it will be time to reveal everything to him...I just hope he'll be ready.” Obi-wan was old, grayed and battered. He was not at all how Ahsoka remembered, but he was still ever the gentleman.

“But the Padawans started their training as younglings! How will he be able to defeat An-” Ahsoka caught herself. “...Darth Vader, if he starts training so late?”

Obi-Wan looked at her with endearing eyes. “You can say his name Ahsoka. I'm sure he's still there somewhere. I may not have been able to reach him, but the boy can, and let's not forget: he IS a Skywalker. You of all people should have faith in his abilities.”

“I guess.” Ahsoka said, “But I still think he should have been training a long time ago. Maybe I should go tell him now. You're in no condition to train him and I'm in my prime. Besides, I know Anakin better than anyone. Who better to train him than me?”

“How about Master Yoda?” Obi said with a sideways glance.

Ahsoka's face lit up. “Master Yoda is alive?!”

“He is indeed. He lives on the swamp planet Dagobah.”

She thought back to her journeys over the years. “I always avoided Dagobah. I assumed it was devoid of life. I guess it would be the perfect place to hide.”

Obi said, “Some say it used to be his home. A thriving world, full of creatures just like him. Even though no one actually knows what HE is, or how old he may be. Only that he is the last.”

Ahsoka felt a tinge of sadness. “I know the feeling,” she said. “Losing your family I mean...”

Obi-Wan knew that Ahsoka still felt a powerful loneliness, even in all of her strength and wisdom, it seemed she had gone through life alone. He also knew, for that very reason, Ahsoka was more powerful than any Jedi he had ever met. Her command of the Force was unmatched, and her skills with her two lightsabers was extraordinary. She connected with so few and created strong bonds with those select friends. That made her dangerous, and allowed her to wield both sides of the Force with incredible power and grandeur. The Jedi way was to reject emotional connection because it makes an ordinary man volatile. Ahsoka on the the other hand, embraced that and became even stronger, and more steadfast. She did not covet this power. She used it to help people. That was why Ahsoka was so powerful. Obi-Wan could feel it, just standing in her presence. The overbearing power that she possessed was inconceivable. To change the subject he said, “So why visit an old man like me, after all of these years?”

She went back to her normal self, “I had a vision. I may not follow the stricture of the Jedi Order, but in my meditations I still see things. I was there. On the...what was it called?”

“The Death Star.”

“Yes. That's it. I was on the Death Star, and me and Anakin were talking. I couldn't hear what we said...but I know that I'm supposed to go there. I stopped here to see if you know of a way I could get an Imperial Transport Ship or a Tie Fighter or something that could get me there unnoticed.” Ahsoka felt her face warm up a little, “I also just wanted to see a friend… It's been a long time, and I could use the support...”

Obi smiled and said, “Well you know you could have visited a long time ago. Watching a boy grow into a man is a boring job, especially on this great rift of a planet, and is that all? I was afraid you only stopped for tea. You still have a knack for making things exciting. I haven't attempted anything like that in years, but of course we always found a way before.” He took a second to think. “There are always a few Storm Troopers in Mos Eisley. They rotate guard shifts twice a day. Every twelve hours. I could help you take the ship, but you would have to be on your way quickly, because once they realize the ship is gone then this entire sector will be locked down.”

“No need to worry about me.” Ahsoka said confidently, “I'm still an excellent pilot.”

“I'm sure you are.” Obi-Wan said with a twinkle in his eye.

That night Ahsoka and Obi-Wan waited outside Mos Eisley, late into the night. Eventually they could see the transport ship break the atmosphere. “Now.” Obi-Wan whispered.

With a quiet whoosh, both got up and started running, using the force to launch them with every step and land silently. Within seconds they were in the small town, and the Storm Troopers were just landing. Two troopers were waiting outside and the transport opened to expose two more troopers inside. “I'll take the ship. You take the two outside.” Ahsoka said. Obi-Wan nodded and they rushed the ship. Ahsoka tackled one of the Storm Troopers inside the ship and (using the force) threw the other one into the wall of a building. They were out cold. Simultaneously Obi-Wan had Force Pushed the other two into the craft, knocking them both out.

“Hey, what was that?!” The pilot yelled back. Ahsoka ran to the cockpit and physically threw him out of the ship. Still conscious he started to yell something, but Obi-Wan silenced him with another Force Push.

Ahsoka came out of the ship and hugged Obi. “Thank you, Master!” Paying her respect to him for what could be the last time.

He hugged her tightly for just a second and then said, “Go quickly! You only have a few minutes!”

She jumped backed into the cockpit and took off, almost before the bay doors were shut. She flew out of the atmosphere and her heart started beating faster when she saw the Star Destroyer. Someone on it was trying to contact her. Or at least she assumed so. She had no expertise on the inter workings of Imperial communication systems. Within seconds, Tie Fighters and Interceptors were scrambled outside the Destroyer. They must have already found out, she thought. Any doubts she had were laid to rest when they began shooting at her. “Damn it!” She yelled to herself. “I guess I'm just gonna have to outrun them...” Summoning all her concentration, Ahsoka maneuvered the transport like a professional. Dodging blasts and bombs, looping over and under ships. “Almost!” She said placing her hand on the hyperdrive lever. She leveled out the ship and heard a beep. “Catch me if you can suckers!” Ahsoka yelled, and shoved the lever forward. Her seat sucker her in, and the stars around her turned into streaks outside the ship. It would take a while, but now she was headed for the Death Star.

In the meantime Ahsoka tried to meditate, looked for something that could teach her about the communications on the ship, anything to pass the time. Being idle was not something she was ever good at. There was also a pit in her stomach. She felt a lurch every time a thought of coming face to face with Anakin. It was not out of fear, but something else. Something stronger than that. Rooted even deeper in her emotions.

Before she had the chance to delve too deep into her thoughts, the hyperdrive ended. She sat back down and looked out at the Death Star. It was immense and took her aback.

Ahsoka snapped back to reality when the coms light blinked (she learned vaguely how the coms worked). Instead of trying to answer, she quickly took a meditative posture. Sitting cross legged, she cleared her mind, and closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she looked around. There was a screen with her motionless ship on it, and strange technology all over. A man next to her wearing an Imperial uniform said “Sir? Sir, what should we do?”

Nothing. She thought, and a voice said, “Nothing.” You're going to find Lord Vader and consult with him about the ship's communications. No one is to do anything until you return. “I'm going to consult with Lord Vader. This ship is one of ours, but it's alone. Maybe the communication is broken. No one will act until I return.”

The other man hesitated, “Yes, Sir.”

The body she was in directed itself to where she needed. There was a large sphere that opened, and inside it was him. Darth Vader. “Who are you?” He said. “How do you know this Sith power?”

Give me permission to board, and I'll tell you myself. “Give me permission to board and I'll tell you myself.”

“Fine.” Vader said dismissively.

Ahsoka closed her eyes, and opened them again. She was back on her ship. In only a few minutes she was caught in a tractor beam and pulled into the Death Star.

She got off her ship and several Storm Troopers awaited her. The escorted her through the Death Star and up it's many levels to the top where Darth Vader would be waiting. They stood with her at the door to the chamber where they would meet, but Ahsoka didn't want any extra company. She waved her hand and said, “You will all return to your previous duties.”

“We will all return to our previous duties.” They echoed, and walked back the way they came.

Ahsoka took a minute to take a few deep breathes before she pushed the button. It clanked and clattered and whirred as it opened and standing up by a large window, there he was. Anakin Skywalker, she thought.

She took a step in, and slowly walked further into the room. The door startled her when it began to shut. There was nothing happening. He just stood there, and she just walked. When she reached the stairs of the platform that he stood on she stopped and waited. Promptly he turned and held out his hand.

Ahsoka was lifted into the air and couldn't breath. Fighting for air she reached to her neck to grab whatever invisible hand was holding her. “Who are you? How did you come to use the Dark Side of the Force? Answer my questions and maybe I'll let you live.”

She struggled to eek out words. “Ah...Ani. Ani, it's me.” The grip on her neck got tighter.

“I am Darth Vader.”

Ahsoka Force Pushed him into the window and fell to the ground. Vader pulled out his lightsaber and walked toward her. He held it near her neck and said, “Now who are you?”

“My name is Ahsoka Tano. You might know me as Snips. Skyguy.” She said in a raspy voice, trying to catch her breath.

For the first time ever, Darth Vader hesitated. As if remembering. She had gotten to him.

“Talk.” He said, retracting his saber.

“Talk?” She asked. “What the hell do you want from me? What am I supposed to say?”

“Why are you here?” Vader asked.

“I had a vision.” She said. “It was you, and me. We were right here.” Her heart was pounding harder than it ever had. Adrenaline rushed through her body. “I've been trying to figure out why.”

“The force is trying to tell you something.” He said.

“But what? I don't understand...I need my Master...I need Anakin.” Ahsoka's eyes were welling up with tears.

“That is not my name. If you say it again, I'll kill you.” Darth Vader was looking out the window.

“You won't even face me!” Ahsoka yelled. “You aren't evil! I know you aren't.” She put a foot on the first step.

Suddenly Vader swung, lightsaber in hand. Ahsoka reacted without thinking and blocked it with both of hers. Cathing it in the V of her crossed blades. “I know you're in there Anakin! I know it's been a long time, but fight it!”

“There is nothing but the Dark Side here.” He said and swung again.

Ahsoka deflected it and took a step back. Fighting with him made her feel even worse. What was happening? She had fought and killed so many men before this, and he was evil. He chose the Dark Side.

They traded more blows. Gracefully caught in a back and forth battle of sabers. He swung, she dodged, she swung, he caught it. Ahsoka jumped backward to give herself some distance and then sent a storm of lightning forth from her fingertips. Force lightning from both of them clashed in the middle and branched off in a spectacular light show all over the chamber.

Her anger started rising. Something that kept her from becoming a Jedi was her emotions and finally she realized why the Force had sent her here, but it made her even more angry. It wasn't her destiny to stop him. It was only her destiny to reach out. No matter how vain she felt the endeavor would be.

The battle continued.

“I am the most powerful Dark Lord! I will silence anyone who stands in my way!” Vader yelled. Then he swung with both hands and knocked her off balance. In that moment he took the opportunity to grab her with a force choke. “I will kill you and every other Jedi I find. You are no match for my power.”

Ahsoka finally snapped. Using her own control of the force, she summoned the energy to negate Vader's Force Choke.

“What's happening?” He said, “What are you doing?”

Ahsoka slowly lowered herself to the ground and threw up a hand. Darth Vader flew backward and was pinned against the stairs. She walked over to him, holding him down.

“How?” Vader said, struggling against her raw power.

Ahsoka looked at him and said, “I know why I'm here. We both know I'm more powerful than you... But it's not my destiny to defeat you...”

“Release me! Now!” He yelled.

“Anakin...” Ahsoka wasn't mad anymore. She was actually pitiful, and sad. Every feeling she had, anger, pity, sadness, they were all becoming too much for her. Finally she couldn't help herself any longer. “I LOVED YOU!” She screamed, and tears started rolling down her face. Vader stopped struggling, and looked at her. “That's why I couldn't be a Jedi. You taught me that my feelings are important, when everyone else told me they weren't. They told me to let go, but you taught me to hold on. My family, my friends. I couldn't let go... Finally I wasn't alone. I had you, Anakin, but you fell in love with power… You feared what you might lose without it. You didn't see the strength in you that I did, but I knew you were a great man. I saw how strong you really were and could have been...”

Vader still didn't move, and for a brief moment he wasn't Vader. “Snips...” he said, quietly. “Argh!” He screamed in pain.

“I know now, that I had to admit it to myself. The Force wanted me to let go...our destinies are no longer bound, but hopefully I could reach your heart. Budge it just enough...” He continued to writhe in pain. The Dark Side of the Force wasn't about to give up it's corruption, but it was a painful thing to fight. “I don't want to hurt you anymore Anakin... But I love you. Remember me. When the boy comes for you.” She knelt down next to him. “He'll need you, just like I did. You are still the chosen one.” She kissed his mask and stood up.

The Dark Side had taken back over him now. “I'll kill you!”

One last tear made it's way down her cheek. “No. You won't.” She pulled out her lightsabers. And cut off Anakins robotic legs. “You'll never see me again.”

Then she turned and ran out of the chamber…

Five years later:

Finally time to show his skills. His test with his new Jedi Master. The young boy named Shyon Trent, had been training and studying for 3 years, and it was time to take his test to be promoted from Youngling to Padawan. He stepped into the room brimming with confidence and looked his Master in the eye.

“Start with the code.” She said, and smiled.

Shyon said, “Yes Master.”

“There is no Dark Side, nor Light Side

There is only the Force

I will do what I must to keep the Balance

The Balance is what binds me together

There is no good without evil, but evil must not be allowed to flourish

There is passion, and emotion

Serenity, and peace

Chaos, and order

I am the wielder of the flame, and soldier of the balance

I am the holder of the torch, lighting the way

I am the Guardian of the Balance

I am a Grey Jedi.”

His master looked at him and he looked back. “Very good.” She said, with a mischievous look on her face. “Now lets get to the fun part!” Then she reached to her hips and grabber her sabers.

#ahsoka tano #darth vader #obi wan kenobi #star wars #fanfic #fanfiction #grey jedi #hawleystories

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gabrielalexandebrubaker95 · 5 years ago

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Reiki Crystal Beads Astonishing Tricks

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Reiki Healing Room Decor

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Reiki Healing Online

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#Reiki Crystal Beads Astonishing Tricks #Crystal Reiki For Sale

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thechasefiles · 5 years ago

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 14/5/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is your daily news cap Thursday 14th May, 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

BUT WANTS CXC EXAMS SUSPENDED – The Barbados Union Of Teachers (BUT) has joined the growing list of objectors across the region, which includes the Jamaica government, who have raised serious concerns about the holding of CSEC and CAPE exams in July. In fact, the union has slammed the adjustment, which was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as being more of a business decision rather than one in the best interest of the students taking the exam. In a letter addressed to Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw, the Chief Education Officer and the Permanent Secretary, a copy of which the DAILY NATION has obtained, the BUT contended that the decision seemed not to factor in the displacement to both teachers and students caused by the health crisis. In the correspondence signed by president Sean Spencer, the union claimed that, through the Ministry of Education, had urged the governing Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) not to rush this process. “On April 14, 2020, the union articulated to the Ministry of Education its belief that CXC would be better advised to implement a policy, as a separate and distinct organisational tool (apart from what may be said to amount to a business strategy), which would see its decision-making resonate with the full magnitude of the unprecedented nature of developments during this time of an extraordinary ongoing public health crisis,” the letter stated. (DN)

FRANKLIN: DEPUTY CHIEF ORAL WILLIAMS ‘OUGHT NOT BE PAID’ – Opposition legislator Caswell Franklyn today declared that Barbadians are now being forced to pay the salary for a position in the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) that does not exist in law. Describing the decision to appoint a second Deputy Commissioner of Police without the backing of the Police Act as corruption, Franklyn is therefore urging the Prime Minister Mia Mottley to fire Attorney General Dale Marshall, who yesterday admitted that the post was confirmed in contravention of the Act. “We take note that the Police Act only speaks to a single Deputy Commissioner of Police and it is therefore to be regretted that the required amendment did not take place in advance of this confirmation,” Marshall said in a statement while promising to have the matter regularised as soon as possible by bringing the necessary amendment to Parliament. But Franklyn, an Opposition Senator, representing the People’s Party for Democracy and Development, said the second deputy Oral Williams, ought not to be paid at that level because the post is illegal. “It is a nullity; meaning that it did not happen. He should not even be paid at that level. There is no provision for paying him any money anywhere. I don’t know how they got the money out of the Treasury to pay. But we have some compliant civil servants who refuse to do their duty to the best of their ability. He should not be paid,” contended Franklyn, who is also General Secretary of the Unity Trade Union. The legislator said the appointment of a second deputy police commissioner amounts to political interference in the public service. “It is bordering on corruption that this man is going home in less than a year, and is being promoted to deputy so he would get the pension based on the deputy commissioner’s salary,” Franklyn claimed. “It has nothing to do with any efficiency in the police force. What will someone responsible for personnel do in crime fighting. The police does not need a person who is trained at the level of deputy commissioner to do personnel work. They could have gotten a senior personnel officer from the Ministry of the Public Service. You don’t need an HR person at the level of Deputy Commissioner,” he stated in reference to Williams’ new duties as deputy responsible for human resources. “This is an excuse and a very poor one at that, to cover this gross error that happened. “The Attorney General said the post was created last year. It is impossible to create the post of deputy commissioner of police without going to Parliament. So the post was not created last year. They think they did. There can be no creation of a post of Deputy Commissioner of Police if Parliament didn’t say so,” the Opposition senator contended. “So they did something wrong and they were paying him since last year in a post that did not exist,” he added. Franklyn also noted that the Prime Minister is the one in charge of the public service and is responsible for creating posts in that sector. Pointing out that he did not expect the Prime Minister to know everything that goes on in that sector, Franklyn believes that she may have been fed bad advice from those on whom she relies. He also told Barbados TODAY that the post of Deputy Commissioner of Police is not a political function and had nothing to do with the AG. “So when I spoke l was not even referring to him. But I don’t know why he took the attitude toward me…he became arrogant and condescending and he shot himself in the foot in the process,” Franklyn said. He said the AG’s attitude started this “whole furor” that was unnecessary. “All I was trying to do was to point out that they made a mistake and that this was basically a public service issue,” the trade union leader explained. (BT)

DLP WANT AG REMOVED - The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is demanding that Prime Minister Mia Mottley fire Attorney General Dale Marshall for appointing a second Deputy Commissioner of Police when it is not permitted by law. Today, the DLP released an official statement insisting that Marshall must go over his handling of the matter. “It must be noted that his admission came only after consistent public pressure which followed his dismissive response to those who questioned the appointment,” said the DLP. “This must not be tolerated in a public servant. The Attorney General must go,” the party demanded. “What is left when the legal adviser to the Government openly and defiantly admits to breaching the law. What worse example could possibly be set. What more reason do you need, Prime Minister, to fire the Attorney General?” the DLP asked. Yesterday, Marshall admitted in an official media statement that Oral Williams had been confirmed in the position by the Protective Services Commission in contravention of the Police Act which only provides for a single deputy. Williams has joined Erwin Boyce who holds the role of Deputy Commissioner to Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith. Last week when reporters asked the AG to address comments by Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn that the decision to appoint a second deputy was ultra vires and that any such post would first require an amendment to the Act, Marshall said he did not want to engage in any “tit-for-tat” with Franklyn. But in his statement yesterday, the Attorney General conceded that the law provides for only one deputy commissioner of police. “We take note that the Police Act only speaks to a single Deputy Commissioner of Police and it is therefore to be regretted that the required amendment did not take place in advance of this confirmation,” the Government’s principal legal advisor declared. He then assured the country that “once the strictures of COVID-19 allow for the space to resume sittings of Parliament, the necessary amendment will be made to the Police Act to give full effect to this decision.” However, the DLP, which was ousted from Government in a 30-nil drubbing at the polls in May 2018, insisted that the AG’s “arrogance” is on full display. The party said it has spent the last two years highlighting the “creeping totalitarianism” where the present Government behaves as if it is above reproach and now finally above the law. “The ‘justification’ of the Attorney General for appointing Oral Williams to a non-existent post is nothing less than a demonstration of arrogance and an absolute power trip,” added the party. “Barbados needs to know that the rule of law applies to every citizen and that the authority of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) is not made a laughing-stock. Given the crime wave which has befallen this country under this Attorney General, it is more of an imperative that the image of the uniformed services be kept intact,” the DLP suggested. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Protective Services Commission Branford Goddard is sticking to his guns of not commenting on the controversy at this stage. “I am not prepared to make any statement with regard to the issue. I told you earlier this week that the commission is not prepared to make any comments at this stage and that an appropriate comment will be made at an appropriate time,” Goddard reiterated to Barbados TODAY when contacted again this afternoon. Oral Williams himself has already said he is not “bothered” by all the furor. (BT)

CRACKDOWN ON SHOPS – Government will be cracking down on village shops that do not label their goods and give customers a bill. Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce Dwight Sutherland told the NATION yesterday his ministry had noticed these irregularities at some shops and those practices went against the principles of fair trade. “We were looking at people following the law in terms of having goods labelled. We found that some of the village shops were not adhering to that and some were not giving customers a bill. “We must put certain things in place because people must have choices. If you go to a shop and you see the price of a product, which is more expensive than down the road, you may leave and go there. If you don’t have that information you would be buying out of ignorance because it doesn’t engender good and fair commerce,” he said. (DN)

1000 POUNDS OF FISH TO HELP THE VULNERABLE – Fisherfolk yesterday donated over 1 000 pounds of fish to the Government to assist with feeding the vulnerable, elderly and those with disabilities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The catch was handed over to Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde, and Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey, at the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex. Humphrey lauded the efforts of the fishermen, one of whom who came up with the idea for the initiative. “People are finding it very challenging to be able to feed themselves and their families. Any assistance we get from anyone at this time would be really appreciated,” he said. (DN)

IMPORTATION OF HEIFERS HISTORIC - One hundred and fifty-nine pregnant heifers arrived in Barbados on May 12. The jerseys and holsteins were selected from the Strickland Ranch in America. This importation will eventually help local milk producers to boost their milk supply. The importation was descrided as a historic occasion by Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir. (DN)

BUS ROUTE - Barbados has the capacity to produce its own line of electric buses and save valuable foreign exchange. That is the view of Ralph Bizzy Williams and his business partner Wayne Clarke, after they unveiled an electric bus that was assembled on the island to members of the media today. Following a successful test ride from the Licensing Authority in the Pine, St Michael to Bathsheba in St Joseph, both Williams and Clarke said the possibility of Barbados assembling electric buses was a very real one. Williams, chairman of Williams Industries along with his Director of Special Projects David Staples financed the project, while Clarke and engineer Dan Johnson assembled the vehicle which will be used in Government’s Transport Augmentation Programme (TAP). The project took 18 months to be completed. “It has taken a long time to get it done and a lot of money… but it can be done, there is no question about it. I am absolutely 100 per cent confident that it can be done, but I would have to build a factory for them to be produced because it can’t be produced in the little workshops,” Williams said. “It would have to be a long production line and we would have to train a lot of people to do the technology because it’s been a two-man job really. It can be done but whether David Staples and I have the will to do it now after the experience I had with this one is the big question now. I will have to give it some thought.” However, Clarke explained that the initiative would have to be supported by Government. He said the project had initially began as a joint venture with Government but because of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, Government was unable to provide any financing. Clarke revealed that while it cost between $800,000 to $900,000 to transform the old Transport Board bus to an electric vehicle, he projected it would take $500,000 to $600,000 for any future conversions. “I think the project can go a long way if it receives some assistance from Government because at the end of the day unless we have the concessions…because part of a business is costs and once we are allowed to streamline our costs and we can scale that bus we can produce a lot of those buses,” he said. “Once given the opportunity where we can have a production plant going where we can do this on a production line we can probably produce all of the buses because there are so many buses sitting down at the Transport Board just idle that can be refurbished and converted and save the country much needed foreign reserves.” Clarke suggested that persons from the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute could be given opportunities to work converting old buses to electric. (BT)

UTILITY COMPANIES OFFER RELIEF TO CUSTOMERS – Utility companies have agreed to offer customers some relief in light of economic challenges triggered by the impact of COVID-19 following talks with the Fair Trading Commission. Below is the full statement issued by the Fair Trading Commission: In anticipation of significant social dislocation soon after the commencement of the COVID-19 shutdown, the Fair Trading Commission initiated engagement of all regulated utilities with a view to providing relief to customers, particularly those that are most vulnerable to the economic shocks which are likely to ensue from the pandemic. As a result, the Commission has approved a number of customer-focused initiatives which will be introduced by the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL&P). Over the next few months, customers will benefit from the BL&P’s absorption of credit card transaction fees associated with the payment of electricity bills up to $500. In addition, residential (Domestic Service Tariff) customers will be eligible to receive the 10 per cent early payment discount on bills once they are settled within 15 days following the lifting of the national curfew. This initiative is subject to timelines, terms and conditions, as indicated by the BL&P. Flow (Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Limited) has also developed a programme for both existing customers who have outstanding debt and those desirous of a more manageable package, to help them maintain a basic level of connectivity. Customers are encouraged to contact Flow to explore the available options. Similarly, the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), in understanding its public health role, has given its commitment to the Government of Barbados that it will discontinue its disconnection policy during this period and further move to reconnect those customers who were previously disconnected. This initiative is subject to terms and conditions, as indicated by the BWA. Additionally, the Commission is working with the utility to increase the number of operational community tanks and ensure that water tankers frequent those districts that are affected by outages. The Commission will continue to monitor regulated utilities’ customer relief efforts and, where practical, seek additional solutions for the same. For additional information on the initiatives/programmes outlined, customers may contact the relevant utility. (FTC)

CAL TELLS UWI JAMAICAN STUDENTS SEEK REFUND AS TRIP HOME CANCELLED –In a shock twist that dashed the hopes of Jamaican students seeking to go home from UWI Cave Hill, Caribbean Airlines has cancelled their return flights with no indication the airline is willing to refund students’ tickets or repatriate them on flights bound for Bridgetown and Kingston to take Trinidadian students home. The students have been told to make individual claims to the airline in order to determine whether or not they qualify for refunds. The airline’s head of corporate communications Dionne Ligoure was responding to Barbados TODAY queries on behalf of the Jamaican students who are in some cases facing eviction while running out of food and money. On Tuesday, Jamaica’s Honorary Consul in Bridgetown Ella Hoyos revealed that authorities in Kingston had not committed to assisting with a charter flight on Fly One Caribbean airline totalling more than $60,000 (US$30,000). Instead, Hoyos demanded to know whether CAL, whose flights have mostly been grounded by shutdowns at Piarco International Airport was willing to foot the bill for its Jamaican customers to get home. Failing that, the Honorary Consul suggested that the regional airline refund the students so they could afford a portion of the chartered flight. In response to the queries, Ligoure, however, indicated that Caribbean Airlines is guided by established “fare rules”, despite the peculiar circumstances resulting from COVID-19. “No date change penalties will apply. However, there are fare rules, which will guide the details of the refund. The airline would need the particulars for each student,” the CAL representative told Barbados TODAY. According to the airline’s website, “schedule changes” such as flight cancellations do not incur penalties, but “processing fees” may be applicable. It is still unclear whether the Jamaican students will qualify and refunds are processed in 7-20 working days after they are requested. When asked about the possibility of the Jamaican students being airlifted out when Caribbean Airlines flies to Kingston to collect the Trinidadian students, Ligoure replied: “Should the flight referred to operate, the information will be disclosed accordingly.” President of the Cave Hill Guild Thacher Loutin on Tuesday painted a grim picture of the realities facing stranded Jamaicans, who are becoming even more disheartened as their colleagues from other CARICOM countries are taken home as their future remains uncertain. “It doesn’t make any sense if the Caribbean Airlines flight leaving from Trinidad to pick up the Trinidadian students at UWI Mona and students in Jamaica and leaving us here. We want to go on that flight or as soon as possible. The stranded including those who aren’t students need to go home… We are just two hours away from Jamaica. They need to show some care for citizens in the Caribbean countries who need to come home as well,” she told Barbados TODAY. (BT)

CWI DENIES QUINTYNE’S ACCUSATIONS OF ABANDONMENT – Cricket West Indies (CWI) is refuting charges made by former Barbados and West Indies allrounder Shaquana Quintyne that she was abandoned by CWI after being injured during a practice session held at the Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua, during a camp in preparation for the International Cricket Council 50-over World Cup three years ago. Last Friday during an interview with Barbados TODAY, Quintyne disclosed that she was filing a lawsuit against CWI after being forsaken by the governing body of cricket in the region. The former promising cricketer stated she had three operations performed on her knee in Barbados, Jamaica and Canada after tearing the cruciate ligaments in her right knee during the fall. As a result she has no cartilage in her right knee and now suffers from osteoarthritis. Quintyne, 24, stated she had a brace on her knee for an extended period of time due to the injury that had left her in excruciating pain. She said she has been footing her medical expenses that were extremely costly. Quintyne, a contracted player at the time of her injury, indicated that she lost her contract with CWI shortly after being injured. In a clear the air statement issued by CWI and in a subsequent interview with Barbados TODAY, CWI’s chief executive officer Johnny Grave said Quintyne’s comments had depicted his organization as uncaring towards its cricketers which he stressed was not the case. According to Grave, CWI provided over $100,000 in assistance to Quintyne and extended her contract during her rehabilitation and recovery process. “CWI categorically refutes the claims made by Miss Quintyne that she was left to fend for herself after being injured while on West Indies duty. CWI provided financial and medical support throughout the process and facilitated her rehabilitation and recovery after her various surgical procedures that were paid for in full by CWI. We sought to have the best medical help available in the region and outside and ensured she received full payment during the period under contract and for a period beyond the scheduled end of her contract. In addition to this, CWI also provided miscellaneous expenses incurred by Miss Quintyne during her rehabilitation,” Grave said. The CEO said that CWI was not aware of any legal action being pursued by Quintyne. “The last correspondence exchanged between CWI and any representative acting on behalf of Miss Quintyne was back in January 2019,” Grave said. Meanwhile, Grave also clarified suggestions making the rounds that Barbados and West Indies Test opener Kraigg Brathwaite has lost his retainer contract with CWI. Brathwaite has had a horrid time at the crease over the past 13 months. In ten Test matches between October 4, 2018 and November 27, 2919, the solid right- handed batsman has amassed a mere 294 runs at an average of 15.47. His highest score during this period was 49 in the first innings of the second Test against England at North Sound, Antigua, last year. In his last ten Test innings Brathwaite has scored 49, 5 not out, 12, 8, 14, 1 10, 3, 11 and 8. His batting was marginally better but still below par in this year’s regional first-class season where he amassed 468 runs at an average of 32.42 for Barbados Pride and with a top score of 84. Brathwaite’s poor form during the first-class season has led to fans speculating that he might not be selected for the now postponed tour to England by the West Indies which was scheduled to begin next month. On Tuesday, secretary of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Gregory Nicholls suggested on social media that Brathwaite had lost his retainer contract with CWI. When asked if Brathwaite had indeed lost his retainer contract with CWI, Grave said it was presumptuous at this stage for anyone to suggest that the vice-captain of the West Indies Test team had lost his contract with CWI because no contracts at either the International or franchise level had been offered yet to any players. “The Board is waiting on the recommendations from the Financial Strategy Advisory Committee before deciding on when new contracts will be issued. All current contracts expire on the 30th of June 2020, with new contracts due to start on July 1st. If any International contracted player loses their contract, they are automatically offered a grade A contract for the next year, which is the highest level franchise contract,” Grave said. (BT)

SKERRIT ONLY THE BEST FOR ENGLAND TOUR – Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt has ruled out sending a second-string team to England, if the leading Test players are hesitant to tour because of COVID-19 fears. But with discussions over how and when the rescheduled series can be staged still “taking place on both sides of the Atlantic”, Skerritt said speculation over player availability was misplaced. West Indies were scheduled to tour England for three Tests next month but the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement. The England and Wales Cricket Board said it hoped to press ahead with the tour between July and September, and recent media reports have touted July as the date identified by administrators to host the series. (CMC)

KRAIGG UNDER CONTRACT CLOUD - West Indies Test Vice-Captain Kraigg Brathwaite may be in danger of having his central red-ball contract downgraded. And while Cricket West Indies (CWI) is yet to provide players with new deals for the planned 2020-21 season, there is growing speculation surrounding the future of the Caribbean’s No.1 rated opening batsman. The novel coronavirus is having a global impact on international sports, and CWI is not projecting the issuing of new contracts until the end of May. Word of this came from CWI chief executive officer Johnny Grave yesterday during an interview with NATION SPORT.

UPDATE: KRYSTAL TAKILA HOLDER TRACED - The Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) has confirmed that Crystal Takila Holder, 32, of 49 Drax Hall Woods, St George has been traced. The RBPF issued a media release seeking the assistance of the public in locating Holder earlier today. (PR)

UPDATE: Ambulance personnel confirmed the three people in a house at River Land, St Philip, were all dead on the scene. The names have not yet been released, but police say it was a 42-year-old woman, her 24-year-old son and another male, 23, who were shot and killed. Neighbours reported hearing gun shots around 1:30 a.m. today, the bodies were discovered and the police summoned. Investigations are continuing. (DN)

YOUTH GUILTY OF USING THREATS – A 22-year-old is on a year bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. If Damon Tyrone Moore, of Apartment N, Melbourne Apartments, Black Rock, St Michael breaches the order imposed by Magistrate Graveney Bannister, he will have to pay the court a $1,500 forthwith fine or spend the alternative of five months in prison. The sentence was handed down after Moore pleaded guilty to using threatening words towards Sophia Downes on May 7, which caused her harassment, alarm and distress. Moore told the complainant “You bring a man down here and showing him which part my mother live? If anybody go round my mother, I gine come and shoot you in your head.” In handing down the sentence Magistrate Bannister told Moore to avoid taking the law into his own and to behave himself. “Call the police. Never take the law into your own hands. So, don’t go around with that kind of behaviour.” (BT)

RAYSIDE ADMITS TO TRAFFIC AND CURFEW CHARGES – When a group of motorcyclists saw police on Jackman’s Road last Sunday they quickly turned around and rode away. However, prosecutor Sergeant Theodore McClean said 24-year-old Shaquille Ramone Rayside, of 3rd Avenue Grazettes St Michael who was among the group, on May 10, was not so lucky and was apprehended, Rayside allegedly told police at the time “I does drag behind NCC on the pasture, only come to get air from the gas station.” As lawmen conducted their investigations it was discovered that Rayside had no insurance, number plates, nor driver’s licence and the motorcycle was not registered. He was charged with the traffic offences. Rayside was also charged that he contravened Paragraph 1 of the Emergency Management COVID-19 Curfew No. 4 Directive as he could not give police a reasonable explanation for being on the road at 5:40 p.m. when there was a national directive in place. Rayside pleaded guilty to all the charges before Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes. The first time offender explained that he was not with the group of men that police spoke about. “I was not riding with the people they say. Dem men were going up and I was going down. I don’t know where they come from.” “I went to the gas station. That’s where they saw me going from, Jackman’s gas station,” he added. Chief Magistrate Weekes asked Rayside what would have happened if he had found himself in an accident and knocked down someone when he had no insurance. “We the taxpayers have to pay the medical bills . . . . You have no reason to be on the road. “I really think that you are reckless. Reckless, ignorant behaviour on our streets. You fall and we the taxpayers have to pay to take care of you. Reckless!” the judicial officer stated. He then ordered that Rayside pay the $500 in 16 weeks or spend a month in prison for having no motorcycle insurance and another $500 for the no licence charge to be paid in the same time period. The same alternative was applied. The first time offender was convicted, reprimanded and discharged for having no licence plates and reprimanded and discharged for not having the vehicle registered. For breaching the directive he has to pay the court $3,500 in 16 weeks or spend six months in prison. (BT)

CIVIL SERVICE OFFERS COUNSELLING AMID FEAR & ANXIETY - Some public officers are frightened and anxious about the pandemic and its impact on their lives, the Government’s personnel chief revealed as she announced a series of initiatives to help workers cope. Gail Atkins, the director-general of human resources in the Ministry of the Public Service pointed to research which indicated a “prevailing mood“ of “fear and anxiety” among “some” civil servants. “There is great concern about the preservation of one’s health and that of loved ones,” Atkins told the Government Information Service. “Many officers have accepted and are comfortable with the ‘new normal’ of work from home arrangements, as it is believed that this mode of work will minimize health risks associated with interaction in large numbers.” The Government’s human resources director has promoted its Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which provides tip sheets and stress level tests to public officers. Atkins said: “The tip sheets will provide strategies and or solutions to manage the health and well-being of officers, while the stress level tests will highlight the level of stress associated with varying issues and will be an indicator for extending counselling services through Network Services Centre, to those public officers in distress.” And the EAP has taken some of its debriefing services online by providing “ brief interactive sessions” for officers, according to Atkins. The topics of the sessions include: Emotional Response to COVID-19: Dealing with Fear, Anxiety and Grief; Working from Home: Managing Mood and Motivation; Family and Relationship Dynamics: How to Interact with Loved Ones; and Managing Change and Transition: Strategies to Cope with Stress. The EAP services include supervisory/management support, counselling and crisis support, and transition and re-engagement for public officers, said Atkins. She pointed out this would allow individuals at all levels in the public service to “process their emotions and be appropriately debriefed in the current crisis”, according to a Government release. Atkins said the EAP’s aim was to be preventative and proactive for early detection to help public officers resolve personal and work-related issues, which could harm well-being, job performance and productivity. The EAP services have been outsourced to the non-profit counselling organisation, Network Services Centre, and Atkins gave an assurance that the counselling sessions are strictly confidential. Atkins said: “As a means of ensuring confidentiality and to confirm proof of employment, employees are required to submit National Insurance numbers when seeking EAP services.” Government meets the cost of the EAP and pays for three annual visits for individual counselling. Follow-up counselling sessions within the same year are discounted by 20 per cent. Atkins indicated that public officers who want to access the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in the People Support and Wellness Unit of MPS should call 535-4565, or Network Services Centre at 228-3056 or 228-7773. (BT)

VIRUS ‘UNCOVERS CHALLENGES TO YOUTH’ - The global pandemic has helped to further exacerbate issues already present in societies across the Caribbean, a regional youth leader has told a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) webinar. Roshana Trim, who chairs the Caribbean Regional Youth Council told a CDB webinar entitled COVID-19 SOS in the Caribbean: Strategies for Our Societies. that young people across the region were already facing several challenges, even before the pandemic. Trim said: “It has affected young people in numerous ways but the truth is that in many ways those challenges were challenges that existed before and were exacerbated by the pandemic. “So our vulnerability as it relates to our economic security, poverty, abuse, unemployment, education and all of those different aspects that we spend so much time discussing as young people and with policyholders, they’ve now become even more harsh. “So at this point in time we have to aim to not only buttress our populations and ensure that they are able to survive this pandemic and have access to the basics and the necessities, but we have to lay the groundwork for a resilient region with economies and people who are made to adjust and adapt.” Trim said despite those challenges, there were still positives coming out of the pandemic. The pandemic had highlighted the need for a more versatile education system throughout the Caribbean, the youth leader argued. She said: “COVID-19 has provided a place for opportunities and will allow us to tap into these things that are definitely a priority for us in building a resilient region and building a country where while we do not know whether a crisis will come, we do know they will come and prepping for that response. “Ultimately in the Caribbean education has to be a major way in which we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic because what has happened is that COVID-19 has disrupted education. “For a long time, we have been tiptoeing towards online learning and e-education and we have now been forced to speed up that process and this has disadvantaged many young people across the region.” (BT)

COVID-19 – 8 PEOPLE LEAVINB ISOLATION - Eight people will be released from isolation today after they received two consecutive negative test results for coronavirus (COVID-19). A statement from the Ministry of Health and Wellness today said this reduces the number of people in isolation to 13, and brings the recoveries to 65. The Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory conducted 138 tests yesterday, of which there were no new positive cases. Therefore, Barbados’ confirmed COVID-19 cases remain at 85. To date, 3 323 tests have been completed. The island has recorded seven deaths as a result of COVID-19. (BGIS)

TROPICAL STORM POSSIBLE BY WEEKEND – Forecasters are pointing to a possible named tropical system off the southeastern United States coast this weekend. There is a 70 per cent chance of storm development over the next five days, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is forecasting. This could be the sixth consecutive year with a storm forming before June 1 – the official start of hurricane season. If the system were named, it would be Arthur, the first name on this year's Atlantic hurricane list. Development is likely to happen just northeast or right over the Bahamas. As the storm gets its act together it could come close to the East Coast early next week before getting pulled back out into the Atlantic Ocean. The most significant threats to land are expected to be probable tropical storm-force winds, heavy rainfall and dangerous surf. "If the system were to develop, it would likely be a subtropical depression or subtropical storm," CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen says. "A subtropical storm is a hybrid between a regular area of low pressure (cold core) and a purely tropical system (warm core)." The NHC began giving subtropical storms a tropical cyclone name in 2002. For a subtropical storm to become a hurricane, it has to become fully tropical by establishing a warm core and then strengthen to hurricane-force winds. "This potential storm is not likely to become a full hurricane," CNN meteorologist Chad Myers says. "Still, with ocean temperatures above normal most of the year, the middle of May will likely become the new start of tropical storm season." (CNN)

NOISE NUISANCE AN IRRITANT TO RESIDENTS –The constant buzzing of kites in at least one St Michael district has residents at their wits’ end as they attempt to work and study at home. Following numerous failed law enforcement attempts over the years to control the disturbances, some of the Bayville, St Michael inhabitants are appealing to the goodwill of the culprits living in surrounding districts. Others want “noise pollution” to be criminalised. Barbados TODAY investigations revealed that three massive kites have been annoying persons living in St. Luke’s Avenue, Chelsea Gardens, Browne’s Avenue, Clarke’s Avenue and Palm Tree Place – just a stone’s throw away from the Geriatric Hospital. “These kites are flown 24 hours a day, all day, and it’s even worse now that the country is facing this pandemic,” resident Richard Doyle told Barbados TODAY. “I’ve been to and have called the police countless times and all I usually am told is that many reports have already been made. It’s as though the police are powerless,” he added. While, Candi Nurse, a resident of Luke’s Avenue for the last three years understands such activities are popular around Easter, she is disgusted that the practice of “staking out” kites appears to be a year-long activity. “A kite never affects the person that has staked it out. It always affects persons who are further down in the district. I am opposite the Geriatric Hospital and I think it is sad that the elderly people have to endure that noise every night. “If I want to go into my patio at night, especially now that everything is supposed to be quiet because of the curfew, there is this constant, overbearing noise. Sometimes I go inside and try to close the windows and turn up my television a little louder than normal, but when it’s time to sleep, it’s just very overbearing,” she added. As she pointed to cord and ‘tail’ from fallen kites in her yard, she compared the annoyance to a neighbour “illegally” blasting loud music next door. “I think if it’s an offence to blast loud music without a permit, then this kite flying crime should fall under the same category. “It is already hard to concentrate when life is going on around you at home, so imagine a kite balling in your ears while you are trying to focus on adjusting from a work environment to a home environment, or trying to study or listen to classes,” she said. The manager of the Geriatric Hospital declined to speak with Barbados TODAY, but workers revealed it has long been an annoyance for them. Another resident, who has lived in Bayville his entire life said after years of enduring the nuisance, his ears have grown immune. He however added his voice to that of his neighbours. “There are others that the kites will affect and we could sometimes have a bit more of a conscience,” he said. (BT)

ONLINE FESTIVAL –There is growing optimism among local promoters and entertainers about the possibility of producing some aspects of the Crop Over festival online including a Soca Monarch Competition or similar event with a different name. Local entertainer Jamal Slocombe, who has partnered with local companies MarNiko media, Trident 10 TV and Chattel House Caribbean revealed that promoters, artistes and other entertainers are keen to host numerous private events on their online platforms. Meanwhile, popular producer Peter Coppin has signalled his intention to host an online soca competition and is hoping to attract the buy-in of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF). Minister of the Creative Economy, Culture and Sports John King confirmed that numerous event proposals have been landing on his desk. While pledging his moral support to the efforts, King stressed that Government had already made a decision on the annual festival and any changes to that arrangement would have to be planned and led by the private sector. “These just aren’t normal times, so everything you do, you have to consider the consequences. You have to ask yourselves whether you have the money to spend on the events and competitions that people may want. Those are all things that must be weighed in the balance to determine what we can get involved in and what we can’t,” the culture Minister explained. He, however, added: “Crop Over is the people’s festival, and therefore if people are willing to do stuff and hold competitions, there is nobody to stop you or cause any problems.” Slocombe told Barbados TODAY his partners have reached out to numerous private sector entities for further support in producing an array of events that would feature soca artistes, calypsonians and even comedians to bring “upliftment” to Barbadians. “We are focusing less on the events held by the NCF and are instead looking at what present promoters host for the Crop Overfestival,” said Slocombe, who said he has been engaging President of Barbados Association of Calypsonians and Artistes (BACA) Sean Apache Carter, as well as Sean Clarke – President of the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries who have all been supportive. “It will allow Barbadians at home, Barbadians abroad and Barbadians by choice to have the opportunity to celebrate with us. So we are just creating a hub where people can celebrate during what traditionally would have been Crop Over,” he explained. Coppin meanwhile indicated that his idea of hosting a soca monarch competition would showcase the work of an array of artistes still making music despite the impact of COVID-19 on traditional performances. But unlike Slocombe, Coppin is adamant that the rollout of such a massive competition would require infrastructural assistance from the state. “If we want to go forward with a competition that is similar to the Party Monarch, I will need to find a building that is large enough to accommodate a socially-distanced band to back the artistes. That is just one example,” he told Barbados TODAY. He explained that the proposed event would see local artistes advance through numerous stages based primarily on an online voting system, followed by a Soca Monarch final featuring the ten most successful contestants. “This is a new era and even if Crop Over comes next year, I still think that the Internet will play a massive role. Obviously, you can’t beat a live event, but we need to continue to experiment with how the public perceives these events,” he stressed. If Coppin’s bid with local authorities fails to materialize, the producer has pledged to continue using electronic platforms to promote local music. While it is still unclear how the promoters intend to earn money from the events, Minister King suggested a simple model that could be used to attract revenue. “If a particular artist or artists are featured in concert and a meagre sum of $2 is charged to gain access to the platform, in two twos, over a million people may be logged and just like that, you have earned two million dollars with no overheads at all,” he suggested. “From the ministry’s perspective, we already revealed our plans for the year and we will have to stick to our plans…but if people want to do all of these things, I would gladly support it. But that would require speaking to the entire cabinet, and advisors in the ministry,” the Minister added. (BT)

NCF TO HOST CREATIVE ARTS CONTEST FOR CHILDREN - Barbadian children have an opportunity to use their creative talents in a digital competition, an initiative of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), which allows children aged six to 17 to create posters, films, short stories and spoken word videos.Submissions should be done under the theme COVID-19 Prevent The Spread, according to a media release today.Chief executive officer at the NCF, Carol Roberts-Reifer explained: “This pandemic (COVID-19) has interrupted our normal weekday routines and many children will find it hard to cope, and creativity can be a powerful antidote.“Children will have the opportunity to promote positive messages and educate their like-minded peers, along with the general public, while trying to find some normalcy in their lives, and keep their minds occupied while at home.”Prizes range from $500 to $1 000, and entries will be shared and promoted via NCF’s online platforms. Rules and registration forms may be found on the NCF’s website. (BGIS)

The world is facing the rapid spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic. As we continue to do our part in Barbados please remember to stay home but on the days you have to go out wear your masks, practice social distancing (stand 6-10 feet away from each other), practice good daily hygiene, eat healthy, exercise and keep your mind active. There are 232 days left in the year Shalom! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell #coronavirusinbarbados #nationalresponse #dailynews #thechasefilesblog

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Trudeau says Canada-US border won’t reopen for ‘many weeks’ (AFP) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that his country’s border with the United States would not fully reopen for at least several weeks, rejecting US President Donald’s Trump overtures to do so sooner. The border—the world’s longest international frontier at 8,900 kilometers (5,500 miles)—was shut to all non-essential travelers on both sides on March 21 in response to the coronavirus crisis. Cross-border trade has continued.

Straggling in a Good Economy, and Now Struggling in a Crisis (NYT) An indelible image from the Great Depression features a well-dressed family seated with their dog in a comfy car, smiling down from an oversize billboard on weary souls standing in line at a relief agency. “World’s highest standard of living,” the billboard boasts, followed by a tagline: “There’s no way like the American Way.” The economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic has suddenly hurled the country back to that dislocating moment captured in 1937 by the photographer Margaret Bourke-White. In the updated 2020 version, lines of cars stretch for miles to pick up groceries from a food pantry; jobless workers spend days trying to file for unemployment benefits; renters and homeowners plead with landlords and mortgage bankers for extensions; and outside hospitals, ill patients line up overnight to wait for virus testing. In an economy that has been hailed for its record-shattering successes, the most basic necessities—food, shelter and medical care—are all suddenly at risk. Well before the coronavirus established a foothold, the American economy had been playing out on a split screen. On one were impressive achievements: the lowest jobless rate in half a century, a soaring stock market and the longest expansion on record. On the other, a very different story of stinging economic weaknesses unfolded. Years of limp wage growth left workers struggling to afford essentials. Irregular work schedules caused weekly paychecks to surge and dip unpredictably. Job-based benefits were threadbare or nonexistent. In this economy, four of 10 adults don’t have the resources on hand to cover an unplanned $400 expense.

Airlines not offering consumer refunds, but accepting federal bailout (Bloomberg) Airlines in the U.S. that have halted flights are holding more than $10 billion in customer money while offering credits for future travel instead of cash refunds, a group of senators said Friday. Those same airlines (and their related businesses) were allotted more than $70 billion in loans and payroll assistance under the massive federal bailout.

Falling oil prices (Financial Times/Bloomberg) US crude oil prices today dropped to another 18-year low near $18 a barrel, with energy markets still under pressure from a record glut created by the coronavirus pandemic. Fargo, North Dakota is so awash in gasoline, the fuel last week sold for a record 12 cents a gallon at the rack—its last stop before the pump. In better times, the price dip would be a boon for gas station owners looking to snag low-cost supplies. But with fewer customers every day, gas pumps are becoming little more than makeshift storage for ballooning inventories.

How the coronavirus has unleashed economic havoc in Michigan (Washington Post) Charles Johnson was only supposed to be stuck home for about a week. His manufacturing plant, which makes aluminum parts for Ford pickup trucks, shut its doors in March, like many others in Michigan, to arrest the spread of the novel coronavirus. A week lapsed into a month, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) closed most businesses statewide. Out of a job for the foreseeable future, and running out of cash, the 46-year-old Johnson joined the ranks of more than 1 million Michigan workers seeking help in a state that’s faced immense economic hardship amid a deadly pandemic. Roughly a quarter of Michigan’s eligible workforce is now trying to obtain unemployment aid, according to local officials, a staggering example of the economic carnage wrought by the coronavirus in a state that’s no stranger to financial struggle.

Trump gives governors options on how to reopen the economy (AP) President Donald Trump has given governors a road map for recovering from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, laying out “a phased and deliberate approach” to restoring normal activity in places that have strong testing and are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases. The new guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit locations. They make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer process than Trump initially envisioned, with federal officials warning that some social distancing measures may need to remain in place through the end of the year to prevent a new outbreak.

El Chapo’s daughter, Mexican cartels hand out coronavirus aid (Reuters) A daughter of famed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and several Mexican cartels have been doling out aid packages to help cash-strapped residents ride out the coronavirus pandemic. In one video posted on Facebook, Guzman’s daughter, Alejandrina, can be seen stuffing toilet paper and food into a cardboard box bearing slick logos and a designer stencil-style image of her father, the former Sinaloa cartel chief who is now in a maximum security U.S. prison. The oil, sugar, rice and other items in the boxes, which the video narrator calls “Chapo’s provisions”, were distributed in Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara, in western Jalisco state. Famed for brutality, including beheadings and dissolving victims in vats of sulphuric acid, the cartels also have a history of trying to win over hearts and minds of impoverished communities where they operate.

No work, new debt: virus creates perfect storm for slavery in India (Reuters) When the coronavirus outbreak brought India to a halt last month, Bhagwan Das lost his only income as a construction worker in Delhi and embarked on a three-day trek back to his village. Then the loan shark came knocking. Unable to maintain repayments on the 60,000 rupee ($787) loan he took out in 2017 for his daughter’s wedding, Das had no choice but to offer his son’s labour to service the rising debt. “My son works on the money lender’s farmland now. He gives him food, but no wages,” the 55-year-old said. A coronavirus lockdown—due to end on Tuesday but set to be extended—has left hundreds of millions of informal workers without cash or food, and fearful that lacking paperwork or a bank account will hinder their access to government assistance. Many families will instead resort to taking out loans at high interest rates in order to survive, while others will fall deeper into debt and end up trapped in bonded labour—India’s most prevalent form of modern slavery—according to activists.

Wuhan toll revisited (Reuters) China’s Wuhan city, the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak that has now caused more than 143,000 deaths globally, said it had revised up its total death toll by 50%, addressing incorrect reporting, delays and omissions of cases. That would take China’s total deaths to over 4,500. The revision comes as U.S. and other officials question the accuracy of China’s tallies—but also as those countries hit hardest by the pandemic have widely varying methodologies for counting their dead.

As Coronavirus Fades in China, Nationalism and Xenophobia Flare (NYT) As China tames the coronavirus epidemic now ravaging other countries, its success is giving rise to an increasingly strident blend of patriotism, nationalism and xenophobia, at a pitch many say has not been seen in decades. A restaurant in northern China put up a banner celebrating the virus’s spread in the United States. A widely circulated cartoon showed foreigners being sorted into trash bins. African residents in the southern city of Guangzhou have been corralled into forced quarantines, labeled as dangers to the country’s health. Some of the uglier manifestations of nationalism have been fueled by government propaganda, which has touted China’s response to the virus as evidence of the ruling Communist Party’s superiority. And recriminations from abroad, including calls to make China pay for the pandemic that began there, have triggered defensiveness on the part of many Chinese. China’s heightened us-against-them mentality is perhaps most apparent in its recent strictures aimed at foreigners. Though the Chinese government denounced racist attacks against Asians overseas when the outbreak was centered in China, it now casts people from other countries as public health risks.

Beware the boar: wild pigs patrol Israeli city under coronavirus closure (Reuters) While coronavirus closures are coaxing wildlife into the abandoned streets of many a metropolis, in one Israeli city the four-legged interlopers are assertive and, well, quite boorish. Wild boars, some as bulky as Rottweilers and travelling in family packs, have been trotting through Haifa in increasing numbers. Their once-nocturnal visitations now take place throughout the day, as they root through refuse, spook domestic pets and even block roads.

Kenya’s deadly lockdown (Washington Post) While the virus hasn’t devastated Kenya yet, its ripple effects have proved deadly. Police have killed at least 12 people while enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew that began more than two weeks ago, making Kenya’s lockdown one of the deadliest in the world. But the true death toll is higher still: An untold number of others have died because of the curfew itself and the fear prompted by police batons and bullets.

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