"Anything less than uncritical support of China is accused of being apologia for American imperialism—and one expects such criticisms to follow regarding this essay, New Bloom, and aligned projects that seek to be critical of both the US and the PRC such as Lausan."
https://newbloommag.net/2020/06/22/qiao-collective-nationalism/
basically, China's poverty alleviation efforts have *in general* involved publicly-funded vocational training, such as is widely available at a price in the U.S. through community colleges and the like, and its efforts to combat terrorism in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region — terrorist attacks largely *against* Uygur people — have centered poverty alleviation as a chief concern. this is the source of forced labor claims: that vocational training was offered *as part* of re-education efforts for former terrorists
reports of forced labor camps based on satellite imagery have mislabeled normal, well-documented prisons, schools, factories, and even a five-star hotel. in-person independent international investigators, of which there were over a thousand from dozens of countries in 2019, have not found evidence of forced labor, religious repression, or genocide. Xianjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is, has been, and has remained open to foreigners except briefly during containment of COVID-19.
A few years ago I discovered "solastalgia", a word coined in 2005 to describe the emotional distress of having a homeplace change due to human action.
I just learned that the concept existed in the Irish language as "díláthair" which means "absense felt when something or somewhere has been depopulated or destroyed by other human beings" (quote from Manchán Magan - "Thirty-two words for Field" (2020), p51).
The word has gone out of use in recent times.
Díláthair: An absent word about absense.
thanksgiving psa:
colonizers don't get to make jokes about americans spreading plague as a thanksgiving tradition. i have no clue why you'd think its chill to make genocide jokes, especially at a time where indigenous populations on reservations are being decimated by C19.
give money to indigenous people and amplify their voices instead.
Urgent! Black liberation fighter Russell “Maroon” Shoatz has tested positive for COVID-19. The former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member has been imprisoned since 1972, when he was given a life sentence for an attack on a police station. More info and how to help: https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/urgent-take-action-for-russell-maroon-shoatz/
Comic assignment is mutating into a monster
Help this comic is totally out of scope and control! Does it even make sense to anyone else?
https://www.notion.so/momonotes/The-Remedy-8320b638f1d743aeb49dfb4dc7ed0be6
Haunting of Bly House - definitely spoilers.
Wow finished it and I hate it more now? I hate shows with dead women who died by sacrifice to save everyone else. Like it's 2020 we are all on fire can we move past these feudal concepts
Back to the writing, does anyone on this show know human people who talk to each other? It's like bad narrative writing in games. So much exposition. Or maybe amateur dramatics role playing on screen?
Haunting of Bly House - thoughts / spoilers.
Cool concept, but literally everything else about it is atrocious. It's like a bunch of ideas people came up with a concept, high at a party, and actually made it.
But the writing is god awful, the direction is eh, the acting is theatrical to the point of being comic, the pacing is absurdly erratic. I do love rahul kohli, but he's wasted here.
Medicare appreciation post
I have a phobia for medical stuff, a result of years of patronizing sexist doctors (both male and female alas), judgemental and classist hospitals in India, and incomprehensible medical insurance witchcraft here in america. For years my medical plan was to fly to Asia if I was dying and hope the 14 hr flight would not end me.
Therapy + friends + medicare are the first time I'm getting things checked, getting help for things instead of guessing + webMD. It's nice.
Medicare appreciation post
I know everyone here appreciates medicare, but as a first time user, I am BLOWN AWAY by how good it is? I've had fancy insurance, no insurance, crappy adjunct union barely there insurance and they all suck equally. The worst was the fanciest insurance I had through Verizon where the complicated set of reimbursement and copays led to me paying out of pocket to not have to be on the phone with insurance people for days at a time. Medicare just works and is awesome.
Inktober thoughts
06 Scrying for a future more real in the stars than the flesh, oracle mad with the knowledge of the universe, seeing all, comprehending nothing. Perhaps it isn't the knowledge of the universe that destabilizes the oracle, knowing nothing changes nothing alters despite it, that can rupture anyone.
Inktober thoughts
05 I've been fixating on inconvenient familiars to role play as companion animals in DnD for the last year or so. I've had squid and octopus familiars, and the experience of accommodating their unique habitats while dungeon crawling has been delightful to me. Not so much for the other players, but hey, I put up with random raids so they can put up with my detailed back stories and rituals for ocean magics ok.
Inktober thoughts
04 the tension of stillness against future movement. The anticipation of movement holds endless potential. What might it do when released?
I do design things, make comics, garden, weave, and teach occasionally.
Pronouns are she / her