One thing that rubs me so wrong is that Ukraine won last year and UK has "graciously" agreed to host the event, since it cannot happen in Ukraine for obvious reasons, but rather than celebrating Ukraine and their culture and heritage (because Eurovision wants to be impartial), they shove UK heritage down our throats instead. Like... didn't we get enough of that this week with your silly monarchy thing. Give us a break. Celebrate Eastern Europe!
I am losing my fucking mind. I'm losing my mind. joined a call with the american part of our team and one of them floated a fun friday chatter question before the meeting started. imagine this in the usamerican commercial tone of voice.
"soooo! I'm going on a trip across eastern europe this summer! any recs?"
and so I already feel the slight tension of being the only pole in the call - luckily, they don't really know me, and I usually don't speak up during calls with US, so I stay silent. I just brace. I brace.
"oh, where are you planning to go to though?" someone asks, rationally. eastern europe is a pretty broad term, after all.
"aw, we are planning to see Vienna, Budapest, and Munich! so, any recs for fun things to do there?"
ta-da. the last curtain falls. the usamericans start chirping joyfully about the wonders of austrian choirs and cuisine, and I feel the skin on my back shrivel like a sun-dried plum.
Susato and Iris drive me so insane. Susato, the classy, ideal japanese young lady, who spent her whole life studying to leave and see england, who gets english magazines shipped internationally to her home and loves them so much she tries to learn to play the violin (or at least, the closest she can get to it) Susato, who learns to be an investigative assistant. Susato, the sakura blossom, the traditionalist, who prefers her tea with milk and sugar and spars with a boxer and is a natural when learning from a british pickpocket, and looks up to Sholmes. Susato, who takes to London with wide eyed enthusiasm and proficiency.
Iris, the doctor, who styles herself in the image of her absent father; a medic, a writer, a supporter. Iris, who teaches herself japanese morse code and names her cat after influential japanese literature, who discovers her joy of matcha and studies forensic science. Iris, who takes an immediate shine to Ryunosuke and Natsume, Iris who is named after Ayame. Iris, the royal flower of europe, the inventor and future seeker, who tries with all her might to be like that father she reads about. The way they both long for the life the other one has. The way they both strive to live up to each others fathers, they joy they take in sharing their cultures, the declaration of family, not through their shared fathers, but to each other.
it is incredibly frustrating to see the non-response from westerners to what is arguably the worst natural disaster in recent memory. when the ukraine-russia war broke out, it was on everyone's blogs. everyone--at least on my dash--was trying to spread awareness of the humanitarian crisis. but now?
fucking crickets.
absolutely nothing.
this earthquake has already claimed 20k confirmed lives. it has only been 5 days. most wrecks have not been excavated yet.
we need all the help we can get, but not a single fucking person is doing anything to help spread the message. people who proudly put the ukrainian flag in their display names or in their bios are nowhere to be seen now. the influencers youtubers and tiktok micro-celebrities who shared donation posts and ukrainian refugee testimonials daily are dead silent now. why? why do you only care when the people dying are somewhat like you? do we need to be whiter to deserve your attention? or more christian? do we not deserve your energy as is? are we, turks and syrians, not humans?
im so fucking sorry if donation posts don't fit your blog's aesthetic or if the news are just so fucking draining for you. every single one of you motherfuckers living in the west should be ashamed of yourselves for how differently you are treating us versus how you treated ukrainians when the war broke out.
if this happened in any western country you'd all be making infographics on how to donate or help.
right now the only reason why people on my dash are devastated is because the rhythm guitarist from my chemical romance had a haircut.
I try to avoid commenting on proudly evil individuals like Andrew Tate because their existence hurts my brain but it's wholly unsurprising he and others like him are living as sexpats in a former communist country