Bulletins and News Discussion from August 7th to August 13th, 2023 - White Blows From A Black Hand
Image is of the American military during their occupation of Haiti at the beginning of the 20th century, taken from this NYT article from 2022: Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. The U.S. Obliged.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and his replacement by Western comprador Ariel Henry, the situation in Haiti is the most dire it has been in decades - by some metrics, even worse than the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake (CW: rape, violence including against children). Millions do not have enough food. Outbreaks of disease are rampant. The government - such that it still exists, which is becoming increasingly debatable - has only a minority control over the capital city, with some estimates putting the influence of armed groups at 80%.
America's search for somebody, anybody, to intervene in Haiti has ended, with Kenya answering the call. President Ruto has announced that he will send 1000 police officers to Haiti. Kenya's Foreign Minister has tried to sell this intervention as pan-Africanism. Other Caribbean states, like the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, have offered to send police officers too.
I can't really say it any better than the Black Alliance for Peace's own statement:
Kenya has offered to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police, ostensibly to “restore order” in the Caribbean republic. Yet, their proposal is nothing more than military occupation by another name; an occupation of Haiti by an African country is not Pan-Africanism, but Western imperialism in Black face. By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the United States, the Core Group, and the United Nations.
There is an urgent need for clarity on the issue of occupation in Haiti. As described in a recent statement on Haiti and Colonialism, Haiti is under ongoing occupation. No call for foreign intervention into Haiti from the administration of appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry can be considered legitimate, because the Henry administration itself is illegitimate. BAP has repeatedly pointed out that Haiti’s crisis is a crisis of imperialism. Haiti’s current unpopular and unelected government is propped up only by Haiti’s de facto imperial rulers: the unseemly confederacy of the Core Group countries and organizations, as well as BINUH (the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti), and a loose alliance of foreign corporations and local elites.
Henry and the UN have made a mockery of sovereignty by mouthing the slogan “Haitian solutions to Haitian problems,” yet finding the only solution in violence through foreign military intervention. After repeated failed attempts to organize an occupying force to protect their interests and impose their will on the Haitian people (including appeals to the multinational organization, the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] for troops), they have now found a willing accomplice in Kenya, an east African country with its own set of internal problems.
Indeed, what’s in it for Kenya? An opportunity to both train and enhance the salaries of local police forces and garner a patina of prestige, or at least bootlicking approval, from the West. And for Haiti? White blows from a Black hand and a further erosion of their sovereignty.
And, by the way, here's the Black Alliance for Peace's statement calling for no intervention by ECOWAS in Niger, calling the organization a Western comprador organization similar to CARICOM's role in Haiti.
Welcome to our friends throughout the Lemmyverse!
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
russia experimenting with islamic banks that aren't allowed to charge interest and aren't allowed to finance 'uncertain transactions' (speculation?), gambling, pork, or alcohol
not sure what loophole if any shariah law allows for the banks in place of charging interest but nonetheless
Bonds in Islamic countries are called Sukuk, instead of interest they transfer ownership of a real asset that provides income or is temporarily leased with rent payments to the holder of the Sukuk instead. The end result is the same as a bond and they function basically like an asset backed loan. Murabaha is basically just a fee charged for the service of having a purchase made in your name, rather than interest. This seems like Russia is trying to increase their ability to lend and borrow from majority Muslim countries, a precursor to further financial ties in the Middle East most likely.
Yeah, it's not that Russia is seeing the light of Islam and abolishing interest. They are seeing the light of massive financial accounts in the gulf. Plus, there's probably demand for islamic finance within Russia itself, hence why dagestan and tatarstan are the experiment areas.
I don't believe that's the case - income driven repayment plans were always supposed to be forgiven are 20-25 years.
Biden's amendments stopped a bunch of dodgy loopholes that prevented payments counting towards the qualifying 240 to 300 months of payment, which meant ~a million (IIRC) borrowers on IDRs were prevented from having their loans forgiven.
The effect of the forgiveness is only about a 16 percent cost to the US government, or a subsidy of about 0.8 percent or less a year.
As an outsider it's also a very confusing system and many loans aren't IDR
you'll never be trapped in a scenario when the debts inflate above your ability to pay
i understand that IDR provided forgiveness before biden, but under these former plans, interest would still accrue on the govt loans, and so if the former student's monthly payments were short the amount to service the interest, this difference would be tacked onto the principle. being short every month over the course of 20-25 years worth of payments could bury kids alive (even w/ "forgiveness", the forgiven sum is constructively considered income for tax purposes, so 40pct of impossible to pay debt, is still crushing; and good fucking luck to those kids ever getting a mortgage w/ a forever inflating debt balloon on their credit sheet.)
the biden plan eliminates this negative amortization. it literally prevents the worst case scenario gestured at above, and is, while less good than a blanket jubilee, really an unambiguously very good policy.
in tax-cases there is no difference between having had a debt forgiven, and receiving the lump sum. I think in my country at least it's considered capital gains rather than salary, meaning it gets taxed at the porky rate rather than the worker rate, so at least that part is nice.