Internation Events X - Why such a long break...?

[Zorral]

Why is it that the only solutiong to falling birth rates, due to how miserable and expensive it is to birth children, raise them, work work work work WORK, all the time for women, who are also expected to wait hand and foot submissively to HUSBAND, and wait hand and foot and care for HUSBAND's family and her own, how it kills them, literally, is never to provide gender equality and assistance, but force them to birth multiple children, raise them, work work work work WORK, all the time, suffer illness and early death, hmmmmm?  While at the same time, scarcity, famine, war and other catastrophes are rising everywhere due to overpopulation and very idea that we, i.e. the patriarchal state, needs surplus population -- because technology and automation is rapidly wiping out all work for anyone not highly (expensively!) educated and connected -- but to be eaten by a war machine -- which, for instance, has been the Russian state's policy for war since Peter the Great at least -- we aren't good with technology but we outnumber them and can keep throwing men at the other side's war machine until the machine breaks down.

Women in South Korea Are on Strike Against Being ‘Baby-Making Machines’

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/opinion/south-korea-fertility-rate-feminism.html?

Quote

 

After trying for over a year to persuade more South Korean women to have babies, Chung Hyun-back says one reason stands out for her failure: “Our patriarchal culture.” Ms. Chung, who was tasked by the previous government with reversing the country’s plummeting birthrate, knows firsthand how tough it is to be a woman in South Korea. She chose her career over nuptials and children. Like her, millions of young women have been collectively spurning motherhood in a so-called birth strike.

A 2022 survey found that more women than men — 65 percent versus 48 percent — don’t want children. They’re doubling down by avoiding matrimony (and its conventional pressures) altogether. The other term in South Korea for birth strike is “marriage strike.”

The trend is killing South Korea. For three years in a row, the country has recorded the lowest fertility rate in the world, with women of reproductive age having fewer than one child on average. It reached the “dead cross,” when deaths outnumbered births, in 2020, nearly a decade earlier than expected.

Young Koreans have well-documented reasons not to start a family, including the staggering costs of raising children, unaffordable homes, lousy job prospects and soul-crushing work hours. But women in particular are fed up with this traditionalist society’s impossible expectations of mothers. So they’re quitting.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, elected last year, has suggested feminism is to blame for blocking “healthy relationships” between men and women. But he’s got it backward — gender equality is the solution to falling birthrates. Many of the Korean women shunning dating, marriage and childbirth are sick of pervasive sexism and furious about a culture of violent chauvinism. Their refusal to be “baby-making machines,” according to protest banners I’ve seen, is retaliation. “The birth strike is women’s revenge on a society that puts impossible burdens on us and doesn’t respect us,” says Jiny Kim, 30, a Seoul office worker who’s intent on remaining childless.

Making life fairer and safer for women would work wonders toward reducing the country’s existential threat. Yet this feminist dream seems increasingly far-fetched, as Mr. Yoon’s conservative government champions regressive policies that only magnify the problem. ....

 

 

[ThinkerX]

3 hours ago, Zorral said:

Why is it that the only solutiong to falling birth rates, due to how miserable and expensive it is to birth children, raise them, work work work work WORK, all the time for women, who are also expected to wait hand and foot submissively to HUSBAND, and wait hand and foot and care for HUSBAND's family and her own, how it kills them, literally, is never to provide gender equality and assistance, but force them to birth multiple children, raise them, work work work work WORK, all the time, suffer illness and early death, hmmmmm?  While at the same time, scarcity, famine, war and other catastrophes are rising everywhere due to overpopulation and very idea that we, i.e. the patriarchal state, needs surplus population -- because technology and automation is rapidly wiping out all work for anyone not highly (expensively!) educated and connected -- but to be eaten by a war machine -- which, for instance, has been the Russian state's policy for war since Peter the Great at least -- we aren't good with technology but we outnumber them and can keep throwing men at the other side's war machine until the machine breaks down.

Women in South Korea Are on Strike Against Being ‘Baby-Making Machines’

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/opinion/south-korea-fertility-rate-feminism.html?

 

That be a thing here in the US as well. I regularly debate folks greatly concerned about what they see as an attack on 'men's rights' particularly when it comes to abortion and raising children. They keep trying to separate these 'rights' from the domestic and financial misery single mothers go through.

Then, of course, there is the whole 'Incel' thing.

[Zorral]

50 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

That be a thing here in the US as well.

Trust me; women in the US are very well of this; nor is this limited to single women who are mothers by any means.  In many ways its worse when married to the jerkwaddies who demand even more attention and babying than the babies and children.

Edited January 27 by Zorral

[horangi]

5 hours ago, Zorral said:

 

Women in South Korea Are on Strike Against Being ‘Baby-Making Machines’

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/opinion/south-korea-fertility-rate-feminism.html?

 

The gender politics situation in Korea is quite complex.  One of the challenges of the Tiger nations was that their economies developed far faster than the culture has (culture generally needs successive generational changes in guard whereas $$ can flow at the literal speed of light.) The older generations tend to be very conservative, the '88' generation of folks who were active during the democratization of the country embraced more liberal social positions, but disappointingly we are seeing a large gender gap in younger folks coming into political consciousness.  A good percentage of the male population has regressed into the men's rights return to conservative traditions BS, whereas, the female population isnt in any mood to give up the social gains and economic independence they've made (still a long ways to go it should be said).  This has led to a lot of women saying f' it, I'm not playing this game and either choosing to be single, forgoing children, or in a lot of cases looking abroad and seeing partners that wont expect them to fall into the traditional gender role (as anyone living in a large West Coast or NE US city can attest.) Add in generations of preference for boys over girls, as has been the case in many countries in the region, and you have quite a demographic challenge.  This of course just creates further bitterness and resentment among an increasingly large group of men who are left single, and, as the article notes, seem to have learned the wrong lessons on how to respond to the problem.  To be fair there are a couple of more legitimate gripes in the gender war in Korea (probably chief among them is the military/civil service draft, which the majority of the female population isnt exactly on board with joining in on in the name of equality) but they are few and far between.

Edited January 27 by horangi

[Varysblackfyre321]

21 hours ago, horangi said:

This has led to a lot of women saying f' it, I'm not playing this game and either choosing to be single, forgoing children, or in a lot of cases looking abroad and seeing partners that wont expect them to fall into the traditional gender role (as anyone living in a large West Coast or NE US city can attest.)

This is funny knowing how western(usually white) men tend to frame Asian women as uninterested in feminism.

[Zorral]

Very frightening talk with an Israeli friend who is expecting a knock on her door any time.  She was at a demo today of over 150,000, which was reported as less than 60,000.

She says the state is going full out theocratic terrorist dictatorship, and not only for Palestinians.  Education everywhere is being reconfigured for Torah study and nothing else.  There's a bill to segregate beaches (and much else) by gender.  All what she, great-grand-daughter of one of the heroes who founded the Israeli state, abhors to the bottom of her very soul.

She is very frightened.  "They are going to do us, what other did to us in the last century."

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I’m surprised there isn’t discussion of this here yet.  We should start a separate thread when we have more information:

 

[House Balstroko]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

Very frightening talk with an Israeli friend who is expecting a knock on her door any time.  She was at a demo today of over 150,000, which was reported as less than 60,000.

She says the state is going full out theocratic terrorist dictatorship, and not only for Palestinians.  Education everywhere is being reconfigured for Torah study and nothing else.  There's a bill to segregate beaches (and much else) by gender.  All what she, great-grand-daughter of one of the heroes who founded the Israeli state, abhors to the bottom of her very soul.

She is very frightened.  "They are going to do us, what other did to us in the last century."

 

That is very concerning indeed. I’m not sure why Israel would wish to pursue such policies, which would only be harmful towards the nation in the long run. This could very well further embolden many of its antagonists in the region. 

[Zorral]

However, at this time at least, it appears it is aligned with Saudi, with Jared Kushner mediating.

Edited January 29 by Zorral

[Raja]

I feel a little bit ignorant for not hearing about the Hindenburg group/ research, but not sure if anyone is keeping up with this - certainly making a lot of waves in India, and Adani's stock prices have fallen a decent amount since this has started to come out

 

[ThinkerX]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

I feel a little bit ignorant for not hearing about the Hindenburg group/ research, but not sure if anyone is keeping up with this - certainly making a lot of waves in India, and Adani's stock prices have fallen a decent amount since this has started to come out

 

Uh...if (when) that blows up, might there not be some sort of cascade effect wreaking havoc across the global economy? 

[kiko]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

I feel a little bit ignorant for not hearing about the Hindenburg group/ research, but not sure if anyone is keeping up with this - certainly making a lot of waves in India, and Adani's stock prices have fallen a decent amount since this has started to come out

 

Hindenburg Research is a short seller. But they had a couple of good scoops so you have to take their material serious.

[Zorral]

Quote

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has applied for a six month tourist visa to extend his stay in the United States, which began two days before he relinquished the presidency. The Financial Times reports that, according to Bolsonaro’s lawyer, the time to process the request could itself take “several months.” So it doesn’t sound like Bolsonaro is planning to return to Brazil any time soon.

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

Pakistan: dozens killed in mosque blast in Peshawar | Pakistan | The Guardian

Quote

At least 83 people have been killed and many more injured in a suicide bombing carried out at a mosque in the city of Peshawar, as the security situation in the country continues to deteriorate.

So much to unpack, not the least of which is that 83 is hardly 'dozens'. Second, the sheer magnitude of it makes it seem like a major terrorist attack, but its really hard to find any major news outlets here in the US and the UK as well giving it any prominence. Lastly, you'd think mosques would be a line even most Islamic terrorists wouldnt cross but even that isnt a given these days it seems.

[kissdbyfire]

On 1/30/2023 at 7:18 PM, Zorral said:

 

Of course. It seems he already has some speaking engagements organised by Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point USA. Makes sense since the stuff coming to the surface everyday make his becoming a criminal defendant more likely by the minute. 
This is one that’s getting worse and worse…

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/evidence-genocide-among-brazils-indigenous-yanomami-says-minister-2023-01-23/

from hundreds of millions that were supposed to go to aid to the Yanomami but instead went into… fuck knows, among other things one evangelical NGO that was performing exorcisms b/c apparently that’s all the indigenous population really needed. All signed off by Bozo of course. Also interesting is old interviews popping up again where he says Brazil should adopt the same policies the US adopted back in the day b/c “a good indian (sic) is a dead indian”. 
There are also claims of alleged forced adoptions, where they’d just take kids and put them up for adoption, malaria meds destined to the Yanomami going instead to the illegal miners, sexual assaults, and a lot more. 
And now he’ll likely get his new 6 mo visa and keep doing these talks at unis & colleges in the US.

[Crixus]

23 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Pakistan: dozens killed in mosque blast in Peshawar | Pakistan | The Guardian

So much to unpack, not the least of which is that 83 is hardly 'dozens'. Second, the sheer magnitude of it makes it seem like a major terrorist attack, but its really hard to find any major news outlets here in the US and the UK as well giving it any prominence. Lastly, you'd think mosques would be a line even most Islamic terrorists wouldnt cross but even that isnt a given these days it seems.

Terror attacks have been ramping up over the past few months especially in the NW of PK, hand in hand with an ever-worsening economy on the verge of (or according to many, already done) default, the once-in-a-lifetime floods, and the blatant corruption amongst politicians/government. PK is headed for a catastrophic meltdown, sadly.

Also, for the first time ever and deviating from the norm, the media and public are openly questioning the role of the military, specifically their ridiculous defence spending budget allocations all justified because of 'India/Kashmir' bs, their ownership and involvement in valuable real estate and other sectors, and the fact that they have nurtured these same terrorists for decades under the guise of 'freedom fighters' (starting of course with the USSR occupation of AFG). In fact, many think these attacks are being orchestrated by the military to revive their flagging relevance. I wouldn't be surprised at all. It isn't the first time. Now though, people are aware of and demanding answers to the role the military has played in destroying this already embattled country.

The cluster fuck is unavoidable, however, imo. The average person cannot feed their family any longer due to massive inflation but those in charge are still wholly occupied with the power tussle - because that's when they make all the money, being in charge. And when you have the finance minister literally throw his hands up and say 'God created PK so he will save us from default' instead of, I don't know, sharing some actual policy and ideas, then wtf can you do? Decades of wholesale corruption, poor education, mass illiteracy and a disgusting pivot to laws based on ever increasing bizarre interpretations of Islam have led to an indoctrinated population who seem to be patiently waiting for death and the funtimes to be had with 70 hot chicks in heaven.

This is what you get for 'founding a nation based on religion'. Apologies for the rant - as a Pakistani I am quite depressed these days.

[TheLastWolf]

59 minutes ago, Crixus said:

Terror attacks have been ramping up over the past few months especially in the NW of PK, hand in hand with an ever-worsening economy on the verge of (or according to many, already done) default, the once-in-a-lifetime floods, and the blatant corruption amongst politicians/government. PK is headed for a catastrophic meltdown, sadly.

Also, for the first time ever and deviating from the norm, the media and public are openly questioning the role of the military, specifically their ridiculous defence spending budget allocations all justified because of 'India/Kashmir' bs, their ownership and involvement in valuable real estate and other sectors, and the fact that they have nurtured these same terrorists for decades under the guise of 'freedom fighters' (starting of course with the USSR occupation of AFG). In fact, many think these attacks are being orchestrated by the military to revive their flagging relevance. I wouldn't be surprised at all. It isn't the first time. Now though, people are aware of and demanding answers to the role the military has played in destroying this already embattled country.

The cluster fuck is unavoidable, however, imo. The average person cannot feed their family any longer due to massive inflation but those in charge are still wholly occupied with the power tussle - because that's when they make all the money, being in charge. And when you have the finance minister literally throw his hands up and say 'God created PK so he will save us from default' instead of, I don't know, sharing some actual policy and ideas, then wtf can you do? Decades of wholesale corruption, poor education, mass illiteracy and a disgusting pivot to laws based on ever increasing bizarre interpretations of Islam have led to an indoctrinated population who seem to be patiently waiting for death and the funtimes to be had with 70 hot chicks in heaven.

This is what you get for 'founding a nation based on religion'. Apologies for the rant - as a Pakistani I am quite depressed these days.

First Sri Lanka and now...

Spoiler

Curious how Adani grew in quantum leaps while Ceylon withered (his stakes there are numerous). Now with his crashing back to reality and surfacing of scam allegations, things get moee interesting.

Coincidentally India had its annual budget session today, played safe with elections next year.

China's population age imbalance is threatening it's future. India seems to be going the path of early Nazi Germany. Nepal, did anyone say airplanes or earthquakes? We here in the subcontinent are surely in for a treat. 

[Wade1865]

Impressively, India has had a pretty good year compared to practically all the rest of Asia. From profiting off the energy crisis, to thriving relative to the worsening situation in Pakistan, and even facilitating Apple’s relocated AirPods production, India is ascending!

Modi: who’s the tiger now?

Sunak & Xi: you’re the tiger.

Most amusing of all, is how India whooped the PRC soldiers, literally throwing them off the mountain. And most amazing of all, surpassing the UK economy, a gap that will only widen in the future. I need to get to Bombay and see what’s really going on 

[TheLastWolf]

7 hours ago, Wade1865 said:

I need to get to Bombay and see what’s really going on /cdn-cgi/mirage/ff6cf8c10fd10b6555438e643ebd2b782f3ed0f6ed7067e0005afafc7d3353c4/1280/https://asoiaf.westeros.org/uploads/emoticons/default_leer.gif

All the action is in the Delhi Belly now, Mumbai just houses a dying film industry and obnoxious stars.

But is it just me seeing evil forebodings, signs of impending tyranny, authoritarian actions being accepted meekly in the largest 'democracy', divisive politics breeding fascist morons...only time will tell.

[Loge]

So, Brazil has sunk its decommissioned aircraft carrier because there were too many toxic materials on board to scrap it. Because dumping all your toxic waste in the ocean is obviously the best solution...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/04/brazil-sinks-aircraft-carrier-in-atlantic-despite-presence-of-asbestos-and-toxic-materials