International events

[Kyoshi]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

There’s a book called Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: The Spice Trader who Changed History, that looks interesting. The Dutch eventually killed Captain Nathaniel, but the events leading to his death also led to the trade for Manhattan.

Sailors weren’t allowed to have pockets in their clothes, in case they stole some of the nutmeg.

Will check this when I have the time. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Hmmm]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

There’s a book called Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: The Spice Trader who Changed History, that looks interesting. The Dutch eventually killed Captain Nathaniel, but the events leading to his death also led to the trade for Manhattan.

Sailors weren’t allowed to have pockets in their clothes, in case they stole some of the nutmeg.

That is one of the best history books I have read. An odd subject, but one that is a lot more important for how world history turned out than one might first think. It is also well written and funny.  

The nutmeg trade was kind of like the early modern era's version of cocaine industry. Very dangerous, but insanely profitable for those who survived. 

Edited February 12 by Hmmm

[Zorral]

51 minutes ago, Hmmm said:

An odd subject, but one that is a lot more important for how world history turned out than one might first think. I

It wasn't only nutmeg, but the entire Mediterranean dominance of the European-Asian spice trade cratered -- Genoa's spice trade which was the center ( also the center of the European slave trade) cratered, which also brought down quite a few of the era's banks.  The shipments and the warehousing were in Portugal so that's where the traders went -- which isn't part of that inner sea focus. The Portuguese voyages along West Africa's Atlantic, around the Horn and into the Indian Ocean -- and later, those of the Dutch who followed them and displaced them in some of the most vicious wars ever -- along with the opening of the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere -- Mediterranean rule was generally over for the rich, long-distance sea trade.  They also opened the African slave trade massively -- the African-Atlantic slave trade  -- which the Dutch also displaced them as the dominant power -- to be in turn displaced by the Brits.

Edited February 12 by Zorral

[Hmmm]

3 minutes ago, Zorral said:

It wasn't only nutmeg, but the entire Mediterranean dominance of the Asian spice trade cratered -- Genoa (also the center -- and then still the center  -- of the European slave trade --cratered, which also brought down quite a few of the era's banks.  The shipments and the warehousing went to Portugal -- which isn't part of that inner sea focus.  shifted the economic dominance enjoyed so long.  Their voyages along West Africa's Atlantic, around the Horn and into the Indian Ocean -- and later, those of the Dutch who followed them and displaced them in some of the most vicious wars ever -- along with the opening of the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere -- Mediterranean rule was generally over for the rich, long-distance sea trade.

Absolutely. But the nutmeg trade was a lot more important than one might first think, given that it is now just a regular spice that is not even that popular. But back then it was believed to offer protection against the plague. 

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

@Kyoshi

Ramadan this year starts in a few weeks (March 10 IIRC), not a few days.

Edited February 12 by The Grey Wolf Strikes Back

[Fragile Bird]

41 minutes ago, Hmmm said:

Absolutely. But the nutmeg trade was a lot more important than one might first think, given that it is now just a regular spice that is not even that popular. But back then it was believed to offer protection against the plague. 

This! People sprinkled nutmeg on the masks they wore because they thought it would prevent them from getting the plague. And nutmeg was supposed to have other medicinal qualities.

[Tears of Lys]

Not that it matters, but I love nutmeg!  It's indispensable in so many dishes.  And freshly ground is da bomb.  I always add it to cream sauces.  

[Kyoshi]

1 hour ago, The Grey Wolf Strikes Back said:

@Kyoshi

Ramadan this year starts in a few weeks (March 10 IIRC), not a few days.

I know. I guess 20+ days for me qualifies as a few since it's less than a month, especially in this context (it has surely factored into why Israel is trying to fast track the Rafah invasion. I don't imagine they want to be dropping bombs during Islam's holiest month).

EDIT: The point I'm trying to make Is, it seems like everyone is running around a bit more hastily right now. Blinken spends half his time in North Africa and the Middle East, and it feels especially rushed. Biden tried to talk with Muslum leaders and got turned down, now he's taking with the king of Jordan, who I think previously rebeffed him too ... its like DNC had an emergency meeting and decided, "okay, from now on we're going to do EVERYTHING. we need the Arab/Muslim vote back as soon as possible." And as a result, no plan is particularly refined. They're all just throwing stuff at the wall with the hope it will stick because there's some fast approaching deadline i.e. Ramadan. So yeah ... maybe not a few days, but soon enough to qualify as "too soon."

Apologies for grammar errors. Typing on my stupid phone.

Edited February 12 by Kyoshi

[Kyoshi]

^Just wanted to add they've even brought out Hilary Clinton and her husband, and the former is not having a good time of it. She got heckled pretty brutally. There's a million plans right now and none of them look particularly good.

[maarsen]

6 hours ago, Zorral said:

In yesterday's NYTimes little piece with many photographs of the tiny island of Indonesia which was the source of the vastly lucrative nutmeg trade back in the day (17th - 18th Centuries), 

Manhattan or Pulau Rhun? In 1667, Nutmeg Made the Choice a No-Brainer.
Growing a spice once worth its weight in gold, a tiny isle in Indonesia was so coveted that the Dutch traded Manhattan for it. Some 350 years later, life on the two islands couldn’t be more different.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/world/asia/indonesia-pulau-rhun-nutmeg.html

If you cut&paste this into a new tab, you can see this photo --

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/02/04/multimedia/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

Which foto's caption ignores the slogans of solidarity painted along the walkway, that are at least half the space the foto covers -- the island may be tiny but it gets news from around the world:

"Most people get around by walking along the paved footpaths and steep stairways, often toting plastic jugs of water from the numerous village wells."

 

After Wolfe conquered Quebec in 1760, the Treaty of Paris gave Canada to Britain in exchange for France getting Martinique and Guadaloupe back. Sugar was more valuable than 'a few acres of snow'.

[Kyoshi]

Double post.

Edited February 12 by Kyoshi

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, maarsen said:

After Wolfe conquered Quebec in 1760, the Treaty of Paris gave Canada to Britain in exchange for France getting Martinique and Guadaloupe back. Sugar was more valuable than 'a few acres of snow'.

I remember that!  Ha! 

[The Anti-Targ]

3 hours ago, Tears of Lys said:

Not that it matters, but I love nutmeg!  It's indispensable in so many dishes.  And freshly ground is da bomb.  I always add it to cream sauces.  

I'm the kind of peasant who just uses the pre-ground stuff. I do pretty much exclusively use fresh ginger and garlic now though, such a big difference.

[The Grey Wolf Strikes Back]

@Kyoshi

No worries. Thanks for clarifying.

[Zorral]

Bali: Foreign tourists to pay $10 entry tax from Valentine's Day

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68291726
 

[The Anti-Targ]

Cheap at 10x the price.

[Crixus]

On 2/10/2024 at 10:13 PM, Zorral said:

Shocking Opposition Victory Throws Pakistan Into Chaos
The party of Imran Khan, the jailed former prime minister, took the most seats, humiliating the country’s military rulers and creating a political crisis.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/world/asia/pakistan-election-imran-kahn.html

 

Yeah, still unresolved. They did everything they possibly could to stop this happening: threw Imran Khan in jail, did farcical trials where he wasn't even represented by his own defence lawyers and not allowed to have witnesses, and then put a ludicrous charge of his marriage being 'unlawful' by apparently arresting his wife's ex-husband and coercing him into charging her with getting married before the 'waiting period' of 3 months post their divorce. This is a Muslim thing that is apparently in place to determine if the woman may be pregnant from her former husband, so that any child's paternity is clear. This last case had the entire country in an uproar because it's long been understood and accepted that such matters are to be settled personally and in private, not court. 

They also took away the party's election symbol (cricket bat, as Imran is an ex-cricketer), significant in a country where 40% are illiterate and rely on symbols to cast their vote. They suspended internet and mobile services on the day, picked up loads of candidates and their families etc. etc. 

And yet, the party's candidates, standing as 'independent' but known to represent the party, won by a majority in most places. This despite massive rigging on the day. I've heard that women and young people turned out in unprecedented numbers and turnout is said to be at least 40%, perhaps up till 48% which is incredible for Pakistan. 

To me it just seals the overwhelming rejection by the people of the 'establishment' aka military. It's a good thing. Another good thing is that the gross taliban affiliated party, TLP, did not win a single seat at the national level, and only a couple at the provincial level (if that). 

I suppose a shitstorm is unfolding though, because these cunts will never give up power. 

 

[Zorral]

It is impossible not see the treatment of Haiti by the US in the 19th C and first part of the 20th, as, at the very least adjacent, to how the US has treated Cuba and is still treating Cuba, particularly isolating it both politically and economically, and seeing to it so does the rest of the world.

Haiti Reimagined: On Marlene L. Daut’s “Awakening the Ashes” and Jake Johnston’s “Aid State”
By Laurent Dubois

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/haiti-reimagined-on-marlene-l-dauts-awakening-the-ashes-and-jake-johnstons-aid-state/

Quote

 

SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 1804, the nation of Haiti has been both the object and the engine of paradigmatic changes in world history. Only 15 years prior to the country’s birth, most of its citizens were enslaved within a brutal plantation system in a colony that was the most profitable in the French empire, and arguably the world. In what began as a slave revolt in August 1791, Haiti’s future citizenry waged one of the most remarkable revolutions in human history: they won liberty for themselves and forced France to abolish slavery throughout its empire. When Napoleon Bonaparte threatened to reverse that emancipation, Haitians won independence and created a new country that was the first in the world to permanently abolish slavery. But that didn’t end the war. Over the past two centuries, Haiti has faced unending hostility and intervention from powerful forces abroad, as well as solidarity and alliance from many who have seen Haiti’s struggle as a mirror of their own. Haiti may be the only country in the world that has endured, and continues to endure, such a complex mix of hopes and condemnations from outside powers and voices. Such projections have transformed Haiti’s historical contexts and possibilities, and continue to do so today.

The challenge in writing about Haiti is that it requires remaining attentive to the interaction between many different scales of analysis. It demands particular heed to the intricacies and layers of national and local histories, even as these developments are intertwined with a range of regional, hemispheric, and global forces. The particular questions at stake today in Haiti are, of course, different from those of the 18th, 19th, or early 20th centuries. But what has not changed is that the country is very much on the front line of struggles that continue to affect all of us in one way or another.

“The world failed the Haitian Revolution,” writes Marlene L. Daut in the last line of her recent magisterial recounting of Haiti’s intellectual history, Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution. The book is the latest in Daut’s constellation of works on the Caribbean intellectual tradition, and Daut is herself one of the most dynamic contemporary voices on Haiti. She is also a former colleague of mine at the University of Virginia, and I have had the good fortune to see this book develop over the past several years. Awakening the Ashes assumes the vital charge of showing us the Haitian Revolution through the eyes of the country’s 19th-century thinkers. Its publication narrowly precedes a new work of rapportage that takes up the enduring consequences of that history in the present: Jake Johnston’s Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti offers a meticulous and searing account of how a range of actors failed Haiti in the wake of its devastating 2010 earthquake. Both books are, most of all, about failures of the imagination. Daut and Johnston argue that Haiti has always represented a challenge to dominant structures of mind and meaning. And they show convincingly that, precisely because of that challenge—and the ways that outside forces have sought to contain and silence it—understanding Haiti’s history and its present are essential to any productive grappling with our collective human futures.

Though written in very different styles, and with different ambitions, the two books make an urgent appeal for a near totalizing reappraisal of how we think about Haiti, one that can help nurture different approaches to the country’s present and future. Johnston’s investigative work, which builds on earlier analyses and critiques of the response to the 2010 earthquake such as Jonathan Katz’s excellent The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster (2013), is rivetingly told. It is a deeply layered and global story involving foreign governments and their multiple (and often competing and uncoordinated) agencies; corporations intertwined with humanitarian projects; mercenaries; and a variety of actors in Haiti, from government officials and local leaders to individuals trying to navigate these contexts, who offer stark and piercing insights into what has produced their realities. It takes its place alongside earlier works by journalists that recounted periods of Haitian history as they unfolded, such as Al Burt’s and Bernard Diederich’s writings on the era of François Duvalier, who built a dictatorial regime starting in 1957 and remained in power until his son Jean-Claude succeeded him in 1971. Amy Wilentz offers similar contributions in The Rainy Season : Haiti Since Duvalier (1989), her essential account of the period after Jean-Claude Duvalier’s overthrow in 1986 and the subsequent rise of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who would become the nation’s first democratically elected president.

Daut and Johnston both make clear that what happens in Haiti has not just shaped the broader world, but has also often preceded and portended what is to come elsewhere. Haiti’s revolution was a turning point in the history of Atlantic slavery, reformulating the debates around abolition and the forms of action against it. As Daut writes, by founding “the first antislavery, anti-colonial, and anti-racist state the world had ever seen,” the country’s founders envisioned and made possible the slow and arduous destruction of slavery elsewhere. That was why, Daut notes, “Haiti’s first constitution attracted immediate attention from the foreign media,” reminding us that the impact of such media representations—something Johnston focuses on in the present day—goes back to the country’s founding. Those threatened by Haiti’s example pioneered new techniques against the small nation. The early diplomatic history of the United States, for instance, developed around Washington’s initiative to politically isolate Haiti. The 1825 indemnity France imposed on Haiti in return for diplomatic recognition, which The New York Times documented in its 2022 project “The Ransom,” forced the country into a morass of foreign debt that would, in the 20th century, become a globally familiar story. The US occupation of the country from 1915 until 1934 was a pivotal moment in the forging of a broader set of practices in the Americas and beyond, and reshaped popular tropes and culture in North America. The version of humanitarian aid in the wake of natural disaster that outside powers have foisted upon Haiti is just one particularly intense implementation of approaches that will be increasingly visible and impactful for people throughout the world, both in our era and into the future. ....

 

 

Edited February 15 by Zorral

[kissdbyfire]

2 hours ago, Crixus said:

Yeah, still unresolved. They did everything they possibly could to stop this happening: threw Imran Khan in jail, did farcical trials where he wasn't even represented by his own defence lawyers and not allowed to have witnesses, and then put a ludicrous charge of his marriage being 'unlawful' by apparently arresting his wife's ex-husband and coercing him into charging her with getting married before the 'waiting period' of 3 months post their divorce. This is a Muslim thing that is apparently in place to determine if the woman may be pregnant from her former husband, so that any child's paternity is clear. This last case had the entire country in an uproar because it's long been understood and accepted that such matters are to be settled personally and in private, not court. 

They also took away the party's election symbol (cricket bat, as Imran is an ex-cricketer), significant in a country where 40% are illiterate and rely on symbols to cast their vote. They suspended internet and mobile services on the day, picked up loads of candidates and their families etc. etc. 

And yet, the party's candidates, standing as 'independent' but known to represent the party, won by a majority in most places. This despite massive rigging on the day. I've heard that women and young people turned out in unprecedented numbers and turnout is said to be at least 40%, perhaps up till 48% which is incredible for Pakistan. 

To me it just seals the overwhelming rejection by the people of the 'establishment' aka military. It's a good thing. Another good thing is that the gross taliban affiliated party, TLP, did not win a single seat at the national level, and only a couple at the provincial level (if that). 

I suppose a shitstorm is unfolding though, because these cunts will never give up power. 

 

Well, Khan wanted to maintain relations with everyone and the Mighty West can’t have countries getting these weird ideas and going for this “aggressive neutrality”.

[Bironic]

Prabowo Subianto has won the presidential election in Indonesia. One of the largest states in the world. The election has been described as free and fair, which is not common for the region… He used to be military under dictator Suharto, and his prime minister is going to be the son of current popular president Jokowi…