Hopefully this isn’t lost on the group here but I find it a bit comical that a great colonial empire of the past, which once tortured people around the world into Catholicism, now has tourism accounting for a whopping 15% of its GDP (at the disdain of its locals). If that isn’t a manifestation of karma, I don’t know what is.
I used to feel that way about people who said the world was run by a group of elite pedophiles.
Now here we are, openly living in that world…
This is right out of the global right wing playbook.
Kaja Kallas is living in the 90s when all you had to do was spin a narrative, get legacy media to put some weight behind it, and call it a day.
The “Free World” is a propaganda term,[1][2] primarily used during the Second World War[3] and Cold War, to refer to the Allies, Western Bloc and aligned countries. - Wikipedia
For those not familiar with the phrasing. Always feels like being teleported back to the mid 1900s.
I will say it’s a solid propoganda term for regions in which many people feel like wage slaves and the antiestablishment fervor is at such a fever pitch that authoritarians are being voted in.
The same region thats financed a genocide in Gaza and has a power center that has an immigration and customs enforcement akin to the gestapo is the free world. Hmm. Might be time to retire this descriptor guys.
This is by design. Throughout civilizational history, one’s in-group was made up of the civilized and any outgroup were “barbarians”. During the colonial era, as power and wealth shifted westward, the first global narrative of this kind was proselytized where one side of the world was civilized and the other was not.
During this period a lot of the history of the Eastern world was distorted and warped to accurately fit that narrative. This was to promote the idea of a “civilizing mission”, one where the exploitation of this era could be overlooked since the “lesser” who were victimized by it were “benefitted” by proximity to those more civilized than them.
A global race based caste system is what came out of this era. Anyone with their eyes open can see it everywhere around them, regardless of which hemisphere you’re in. Now, as power in the world rebalances, perhaps closer to a more natural state, the seams of that construct are slowly coming undone and the hegemon that had once defined the global narrative will no longer be able to silence the voices it once deemed as “lesser”.
I for one am excited for a future where people get to tell their own story and explore their own history. No, I don’t think about the Roman empire very often but I do look at the Mauryan empire, Chanakya and his treatise on statecraft (the Arthashahtra), and the university of ancient Taxila with a deep fascination - and there’s nothing wrong with that.
I also enjoy reading verses from the Kamasutra which was remarkably forward thinking (though not perfect) for its time with regard to promoting financial independence for women, autonomy, mutual enthusiastic consent, respect towards sex workers and the importance of balance during courtship - all of which was cast aside as paganism when it was made known in this part of the world, in favor of the glossary on sex positions. It also discusses homosexuality and transsexuality inclusively, concluding:
"In all things pertaining to love, who can say what is right and what is wrong? Let each person follow their own nature. " — Book 2, Chapter 9
Words to live by.
There is a ton of debate on this and in some cases if you standardize for affluence / income level the differences disappear.
There’s a lot of questions about cutoffs used for certain conditions and whether they can be used universally.
BMI is the most obvious example of a measure that should have for different cutoffs for different populations.
The WHO cutoffs for anemia were established over 50 years ago based on predominantly European and North American populations.
Sachdev et al., 2021 identified a subset of “healthy” Indian children from the CNNS data who had no iron, B12, or folate deficiencies and no inflammation.
In this perfectly “healthy” group, the 5th percentile of hemoglobin—the statistical cutoff for anemia—was 1.0 to 2.1 g/dL lower than the WHO standards across all age groups.
The researchers argued that if the population is “healthy” at lower Hb levels, using the higher WHO cutoff misclassifies millions of healthy people as anemic, creating a “false epidemic.”
Research published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2023) examined at what point adding more iron stops increasing a person’s hemoglobin.
For Indian women, the “steady state” was reached at a hemoglobin level of roughly 10.8 g/dL.
The WHO cutoff for non-pregnant women is 12.0 g/dL. This suggests that even when an Indian woman has optimal iron stores, her body may naturally maintain a hemoglobin level lower than the Western-derived standard
Most large-scale surveys in India use a finger-prick (capillary) test. Studies have shown that capillary blood often yields lower hemoglobin readings than venous blood (drawn from a vein) because of “interstitial fluid” dilution during the prick.
When the CNNS used venous blood, the anemia prevalence among adolescents was found to be significantly lower than what previous capillary-based surveys had suggested.
Just providing some context. There are many that advocate for universal cutoffs for a variety of reasons. But it should be understood that the interpretation of the data may not represent a meaningfully “deficient” state here. There are several examples of how using “normal ranges” that were based on a subset of the global population may lead us to dubious conclusions.
Whenever an adult says they’re destroying the toilet because off spicy food I think of a four year old’s dietary preferences / tolerance.
Not that anyone has to like spicy food but if you can’t tolerate it then that’s on you. The vast majority of cuisines globally incorporate it.
I also like to attach this article since it may enlighten some as to their culturally driven dietary preferences:
I get where you’re coming from and I’ve personally gone through many of the feelings you’re describing. As men we sometimes feel that (physical) intimacy is how our partners communicate to us our ‘value’ in a way. Some of that is toxic cultural norms but there is also just fundamental differences in how intimacy is perceived between men and women in long term relationships.
As you’ve aptly stated, the difference is men often feel that intimacy is part of how they are made to feel appreciated and valued while, in my experience, women need to feel validated, appreciated and valued emotionally as the soil in which a persistent desire for physical intimacy grows.
I am by no means diminishing the experience of men or trying to say its all on them. I have literally posed the questions that youve asked in past relationships and while they understood where I was coming from it never fixed the rift. Only after I took the initiave to take interest in and prioritize their emotional security and trust in me did the dynamic change from a diminishing interest in intimacy and rare or less frequent initiation to the opposite of that.
I’m just speaking on my own experience, particularly regarding long term relationships. Hopefully it’s helpful to someone out there.
I hear what you’re saying but I’d say that not all women are like that and these conversations are really meant for someone you’re prepared to have a deep commitment with, not necessarily early on in a relationship. There are a ton of toxic attachment patterns and cultural norms in our society that are challenging to navigate but these tend to matter less as a relationship evolves into a long term one.
Its definitely not always the mans fault but we would do well to understand that men don’t have the same needs when it comes to maintaining a long term sexual relationship.
Women generally need to feel a sense of emotional security, trust and connection for a long term relationship to thrive, especially in the bedroom. Men would like this too, but they don’t necessarily need it to continue a sexual relationship.
Unfortunately in many (perhaps most) relationships women do feel that a disproportionate share of household and childcare duties fall on them, which erodes at those core foundations of a healthy long term relationship.
Is it all on men to work this out? No. But if they want to take an active approach to maintaining the health of their relationship, meeting their partners emotional needs has the highest likelihood is doing that and keeping the bedroom alive.
Women like to be physically intimate when they feel safe, understood and appreciated. Men should ask for the same in their partners even if we’re conditioned not to ‘need’ all of that in the same way.
Absolutely! It’s important to remember it’s a pretty subjective / lighthearted topic and not to take it too seriously. I can definitely see how curries can be seen that way from a different perspective. There’s an interesting history that plays into these cultural perceptions, which may explain why other meat in ‘gravy’ dishes may not come to mind first for some – such as meatloaf and gravy which can only be described aesthetically as a spurt of diarrhea on top of a sliced turd.
There seemed to be a need for a greater diversity of foods being pointed out here so thought we could broaden the horizons of this discourse, make it a little more inclusive and maybe even learn a little something about how a perspective is, at the end of the day, just an arbitrary amalgamation (kind of like the garbage plate I posted above) of subjective views. Tongue firmly in cheek, of course.
Obviously not in a pedantic sense, just that they also don’t look appetizing on their own, it’s the flavor that’s associated with them that makes it work.
If we’re being honest a hamburger looks like a smashed turd and a hot dog looks like fluorescent factory meat.
Now that I think about it a regional American dish that comes to mind is the garbage plate (named aptly for being a hodgepodge of leftovers) which looks like someone unloaded on a tray of french fries part way through their colonoscopy prep and then blew their nose on top of that:
Flavor is suprisingly solid.
Another would be oatmeal which can taste quite hearty if done right but looks very much like snot in a bowl:
Agree, hamburgers at least taste good even if at their worst they look like compressed excrement between buns. Hot dogs can often be flavourfully dubious while also appearing as artificial factory processed mystery meat, but there are definitely exceptions!
My guess is many users are American so it will be hard to relate to but at least we can acknowledge that the appearance of food is very culturally coded / subjective.
I figured this would be the type of headline that would show up elsewhere in the world.
Modis party tried to pull off a tactic similar to gerrymandering done by Republicans in the US.
As part of this bill, he sought to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha (parliament) from 543 to 850 based on population data collected in this years census.
Modi and his party are most popular in India’s northern states where population management has largely lagged behind Southern states (where Modi is not seen in as positively).
Essentially they were banking on the majority of the new seats going to North India, disenfranchising the southern states, and consolidating power under the guise increasing representation of women in government.
India was the second country in the world to have an elected female head of state (after Sri Lanka) so there is a strong appetite for this but it’ll have to be done without sneaking in provisions to rig the electoral map. Nice try Modi.
Well yes, China does seem like the adult in the room compared to their own leadership so not at all surprising.
Colonization and its legacy are much bigger than a regional land dispute. Canada will eventually need to come to terms with its history if it wants to move forward. It can’t wear its dark past as an albratross around its neck forever. I do commend the prior prime minister for his efforts in bringing these issues to the forefront.
I don’t agree with everything freagle is saying but it’s true that the RCMP has historically targeted indigineous peoples. Indigineous peoples are very much treated as the lower caste of Canada, similar to the Romani people in Europe (though with a very different history) and Canada could do better at remedying the injustice it brought upon the original stewards of its land. There’s no reason that should offend any settlers or their descendants.
My guess is we have a few folks here that didn’t grow up with curry which in my humble opinion looks and tastes great (subjective, I know) but if I had to pick one it would be octupus. Something about the suction cups.
Feel the same way about hot dogs and hamburgers. Must depend on what you grow up with.
A few issues with this analogy:
Colonialism typically does not involve the consent of governed. If you live in a paritcipatory democracy then that doesn’t really fit the idea of being a colony.
Your leaders have the option to pivot your economies to emphasize other sectors for growth. Colonies are forces to become vehicles of extraction of raw materials and the people are often forced into labor. They have no say (or vote) in how the economy is managed.
Under a colonial framework, you don’t even get to the point of building for yourself. You build for another and hopefully live off the scraps the administration throws at you as their indentured / slave labor force.
I know that colonialism is not emphasized especially in Western education but I’m afraid this analogy does not hold. Well have to find other ways to describe this phenomenon that don’t resort to exaggeration.