#blood & gold

[intersectionalpraxis]

gold, diamonds & any precious gems that are extracted and commodified in order to lavish [mostly] the rich & affluent -or for those who want them for symbol and status [which can include many people but especially those of wealth, even if acquired over time]... because yes, no matter the context -ya'll are wearing items that are drenched in the blood of young children/people from the Global South.

#feminist #feminism #social justice #eyes on sudan #sudan #free sudan #keep eyes on sudan #western imperialism #blood gold #uae #child labor #enslavement #violence against children #human rights violations

[odinsblog]

Executive summary

Since launching its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian Federation has been locked into a long and costly conflict. Russia has been diplomatically marginalized, subjected to sanctions, and shunned by most of the Western world. Many multinational companies have been forced by international pressure to shutter or sell their Russian operations, and profiting from cooperation with the Russian state is no longer considered acceptable. Russia has found itself in dire need of new allies and resources.

In this environment, the Kremlin-financed Private Military Company Wagner, or Wagner Group, has served as an increasingly important source of revenue for the Russian state. Founded in 2014 to support pro-Russian forces in Donbas, since then Wagner Group has evolved into a complex international network of private military contractors, disinformation campaign infrastruc-ture, and corporate front companies. It has deployed fighters, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, and financing as a proxy for the Russian state in numerous conflicts, from Syria and Libya to Mali, Central African Republic, and beyond

Wagner has most often been described as an independent mercenary group. This status has provided Russia with a thin veil of deniability, particularly in relation to the numerous plausible accusations of murder, rape, torture, and war crimes raised against Wagner fighters. But in reality, Wagner has always operated with the political and material backing of the Russian Federation to advance Russian state interests.

In Africa, Wagner has been deployed in a number of countries across the continent since 2017. In each country it enters, Wagner deploys military trainers, mercenary fighters, and propaganda experts to support anti-democratic regimes, drive instability, and commit human rights abuses. The mercenary group's ostensible provision of "security services" creates a framework for lucrative business contracts for the extraction of natural resources including diamonds, oil, timber, and especially gold.

This report focuses on the Kremlin's 'blood gold': Gold extracted from African countries and laundered into international markets that provides billions in revenue to the Russian state, thereby directly and indirectly financing Russia's war on Ukraine and global hybrid warfare infrastructure.

The Blood Gold Report's analysis suggests that Wagner and Russia have earned more than US$2.5 billion from blood gold since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The report focuses on the case studies of Wagner's blood gold operations in the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Mali. In each of these coun-tries, Russia profits from the blood gold trade in different ways:

In CAR, the mercenary group has been granted exclusive extractive rights for the Ndassima mine, the country's largest gold mine, in return for propping up President Touadera's authoritarian regime. Wagner's Ndassima operations are understood to produce US$290 million of gold annually, while local miners have been pushed aside or murdered by the mercenary group.

In Sudan, through control of a major refinery, Wagner has become the dominant buyer of unprocessed Sudanese gold as well as a major smuggler of processed gold. Russian military transporter flights laden with gold have been identified by Sudanese customs officials. While tracking Sudan's unreported gold market is near impossible, estimates suggest that almost Us$2 billion in gold is smuggled out of the country unreported every year, with 'the Russian Company' in prime position to take advantage.

In Mali, Wagner is paid a monthly retainer - estimated at US $10.8 million per month - to prop up a brutal military junta Meanwhile the junta is in turn dependent on a small number of Western mining companies for the revenue it needs to pay Wagner. Mining companies contributed more than 50% of all tax revenues to the Malian state for 2022. Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian listed company and Mali's single biggest tax contributor, paid US$206 million in the first half of 2023 alone.

The junta is increasing its financial demands on gold mining companies. Meanwhile, the four largest gold mining companies (weighted by tax contribution) continue to plan further investments in the country, despite the well-documented abuses of the military junta and growing influence of the Wagner Group.

Wagner's blood gold operations in CAR and Sudan have been subject to sanctions, and the Kremlin-backed mercenaries have developed increasingly complex smuggling routes and corporate subterfuge tactics to move blood gold out of these countries and convert this gold into cash.

In contrast, the Malian blood gold system enables Wagner to remain one degree removed from gold production. Instead, legitimate multinational mining companies convert gold into cash for the Malian military junta without triggering international sanctions.

To secure its position in a target country's political and natural resource extraction landscape, Wagner's African playbook consists of a four-pronged attack on the host country's civic institutions and civilian population - suppressing political opposition, spreading disinformation, silencing free media and terrorising civilians.

The ultimate objective of Wagner's playbook is to increase its clients' dependence on Wagner forces to stay in power, thereby securing a long-term revenue stream for the Kremlin and fostering authoritarianism and instability throughout the region as part of Russia's wider geopolitical strategy to distract and bog down the democratic West.

Since the death of Wagner's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary group has formally come under the control of the Russian State. Yet the Kremlin's focus on Africa, and its blood gold operations, show no signs of changing.

(continue reading)

#politics #ukraine #russia #africa #wagner group #syria #libya #russian imperialism #russian colonialism #blood gold #money laundering #mercenaries #barrick gold #barrick gold corporation #russia is a terrorist state

[rjzimmerman]

Whoa.......a good smack against Apple + others like Tesla, Microsoft, Sony, VW, Ford, GM and others.

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

Your iPhone may contain gold linked to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

A new report from Amazon Watch and the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB) published Monday reveals that the gold used by major tech and car companies including Apple, Tesla, Samsung, Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors could have been mined illegally from Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon.

“We are witnessing the destruction of ecosystems and entire communities, and people are dying as a result of this deadly industry,” APIB Executive Coordinator Director Dinamam Tuxá said in an Amazon Watch press release. “[Mining’s] viability requires a consumer market that finances its destruction. This exposé provides groundbreaking findings that identify leading companies potentially complicit in illegal Amazon mining. We now call on these corporate giants to prove that they are not buying gold extracted from our lands.”

The report, titled Blood Gold, revealed that two refineries in the supply chains of major electronics and automotive companies are being investigated for using illegally mined gold. These refineries are Chimet in Italy and Marsam in Brazil.

The connection between Chimet and illegal mining was first publicized by Reporter Brasil in July, according to Reuters. Documents obtained by the journalism outfit revealed that Brazilian federal police had accused the refinery of acquiring millions of dollars worth of gold from a trader known as CHM do Brasil that had, in turn, allegedly obtained it from illegal operations. The initial reporting revealed that tech giants Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all had Chimet in their supply chain. The Chimet gold came from the Kayapó Indigenous Territory, according to the latest report.

The other refinery listed in the new report was Marsam in Brazil. This refinery has been accused of using gold illegally obtained by FD’Gold from the Munduruku and Yanomami territories.

Gold is commonly used in the wiring and circuit boards of electric products including computers, smartphones and electric vehicles. But when it is mined illegally from Indigenous lands, it can be the cause of a host of environmental harms and human rights violations.

#blood gold #Amazon rainforest #Brazil

[knightofleo]

#hehe #sufjan stevens #carrie & lowell #john my beloved #the only thing #death with dignity #no shade in the shadow of the cross #drawn to the blood #should have known better #blue bucket of gold #all of me wants all of you

[theonewhowails]

Golden Fleece

#my art #cotl #cotl lamb #blood #it was really fun to ponder this one #cause in the game sprite the body on the fleece has the scale-like texture but the hem is sharp like the standard fleece #i felt a 2 tiered piece would work nicely to show both of these contrasting elements #the sprite always makes me think of gold scale mail but i wanted to avoid it looking explicitly like armor #since the fleece gives you stacking atk damage in exchange of taking 2x damage when hit #although tbqh gold armor would be fucking pointless anyways. gold is a very soft metal. which may have been the point but w/e #instead i wanted the shapes to be more reminiscent of wool since like. yknow. the golden fleece #and i wanted it to speak of luxury and power but be rather impractical for movement or protection #i just wanted to do an axe for funsies and by wonderful coincidence remembered the godly axe was gold :] #anyways this pose is brought to you by my stupid ass who spun too hard with my upper body when swinging a bat and felt cool for 1 second #before totally unbalancing myself and falling #the instant after this image lambo eats shit. rest in peace

[deadindenial]

#art #artwork #my art #digital art #digital drawing #drawing #technoblade #fanart #technofanart #pls someone tell me is his face looks similar to the last one #kinda inspired by Hades #i mean he was meant to look like a greek god of blood #but ehh i didnt dive into any research #also his powers comes from any blood that includes his own #and maybe thats why i forgot that gods were meant to have gold blood

[voli-tile]

i was going through some parsed dialogue and some of the stuff i found in the drow twins' intimacy scenes is fucking great

also some dialogue from when the nymph asks what you want to be, for most of the origins (plus minsc)

#bg3 spoilers #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #drow twins #bg3 dialogue #the incessant gale roasting is killing me #and the dc 20 deception check as durge to say you're not a contemptible blood-pervert? gold #why does gale explode

[acoraxia]

Ān Shí [ 安石 ] - Rumble (Calm stone) Dì Zhèn [ 地震 ] - Savage (Earthquake)

I am not good with names but yippee here are the twins!! They are... Sun Wukong's... creations.. but not really so they're Xiaotian's Cousins or Brothers. No one is truly sure. Still fun tho!

More on them here!!

And no Macaque is not their father or mother or anything, they absolutely despise him

Also also: yes QXT's makings are new but they are to show off very weird and subtle snake motifs.

#art stuff #lego monkie kid #blood moon monkies #lmk rumble #lmk savage #Ān Shí [ 安石 ] #Dì Zhèn [ 地震 ] #uhmmm what else #soooo #su daji and erlang wear BLOOD red because that's su daji's colors and erlang's hands are tainted with blood from wars and heaven #QXT wears red along with Nezha and Red Son to be somewhat in between them #since hes their cousin and the middle-child somewhat bc of his status and being related to swk #he wears gold on the inside to indicate he's related to SWK #his main outfits is oranges and golds #and then SWK wears red because of volcanoes and ash and yadadada #aaaand thats it #yippeee

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Danny slowly lowered himself down onto Luther's newest death machine thanks to his bat themed grappling hook. Making special care not to let his heart beat or his lungs take in breath lest Superman hear him and intervene, he used his intangibility to sink into the machine itself to steal its parts.

Yeah, so a full white outfit wasn't the best choice for stealth, but it was better than dressing like a traffic light. Plus the black gloves and boots made him feel nostalgic. It had been only seven months since the accident that took his life, so much has happened since then.

Biting his lip as he smiled as he began gathering up parts and wires with his intangibility and placing them into his bag. Lastly he grabbed the power source, which-surprise, surprise, is kryptonite.

After he grabbed what he wanted he quickly stuck a note on the maintenance panel of the machine for when someone opened it and discovered it now had a large hollow space, then simply sank down through the floor and flew to freedom.

Danny sighed once he was clear. Or, at least he thought he was.

"Young man." Crud. Danny turned around to see big blue floating behind him in all his red underwear glory. Great. "I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you." The Kryptonian said, looking pointedly at the large chunk of kryptonite Danny held under his arm.

Instead of an excuse, Danny got an idea. "Uh, hello? Recognize the mask?" He said, gesturing to his face.

Superman narrowed his eyes, staring at his face for a few very long seconds and just as Danny was about to cut his losses and book it out of there, a look of recognition graced the heros face. Sweet. "Thats Nightwings mask."

"Yeah. Just smaller."

Superman nodded, then asked, "Why aren't you wearing a bat symbol? I wouldn't have thought you were a thief if I knew you were working with Batman." Danny had to fight to keep his face neutral.

"I haven't decided what symbol I want on my suit yet." And that was true. Danny wasn't sure he wanted any symbol at all. The mark of the bat would mean that he belonged in the batclan, and Danny was a lone ghost. A wandering spirit if you will. He didn't belong anywhere.

Some small part of his mind that sounded suspiciously like Jazz said that might be one of the reasons he's been behaving so poorly lately, but he brushed it off. Superman just nodded sagely. Danny doubted he actually knew how Danny felt and was just nodding along to appear sympathetic. Adults lie, and they lie often. Danny kinda hated them for it.

"Well, I'm kinda on a deadline, so I should get going. Crime to fight, goth furry to annoy, you know how it is." Danny said, waving the arm that wasn't carrying the kryptonite around in the air before using it to readjust the bags strap on his shoulder.

"Alright," superdude smiled warmly, "Tell Batman I said hi." Danny grinned back at him as he jogged away, "Will do!"

That went better than expected. Thank you, Nightwing~! The boy thought to himself as he ran off into a secluded area and turned invisible and flying away.

Just imagining Supermans face if- no- when Batman finally breaks and tells the Justice League about the little menace thats been stealing all his and his sidekicks stuff for the last few weeks nearly sends Danny into hysterics.

Danny still has Robins sword mounted above the fireplace in his favorite safe house in Costa del Sol. Red Hoods "favorite" motorcycle was in its garage and Red Robins wrist computer and chest harness thing were mounded in a glass case next to the first thing he stole from them:

Batmans utility belt.

Sure, its a pain to remove all the tracking stuff from them, but man is he proud of those accomplishments.

Still. Its better to leave Metropolis after he got caught by Superman. Its only a mater of time before someone finds out about the old switcheroo he pulled at the last museum robbery and that combined with the bodies of those creepy rich guys he had killed (human trafficer buyers) well, surely Batman has noticed he had been gone for a while and would pick up on the matching M.O. in Metropolis.

Time to bounce.

#dpxdc #fanfiction prompts #prompts #dp x dc #danny phantom #danny fenton #batman #superman #danny being a little gremlin #villian danny #evil danny #he killed vlad but vlad had something set up to out danny if he ever died so danno had to run into a new world #danny has tasted blood and keeps killing evil rich guys who reminds him of creepy uncle vlad #human trafficing is a huge no no to danny and he will hunt you down #danny steals the bats stuff and made them run around in circles. he even managed to trick the bats into chasing one of thier own #by swaping his tracking signal with thiers. the look of confusion on everyones faces when the bat was cornered was gold. too bad he had to #see it on a screen and not in real time #now...what city to hit next?

[melonnabar]

He’s having fun

#blue beetle #ted kord #dc comics #boostle #booster gold #tw death #tw blood

[cosmicwhoreo]

tw: blood If you're not drawing your oc in pain for the fun of it, can you really call yourself an artist?

The cost of sophistication is being a little more "delicate" than one would care to acknowledge. Gold has all sorts of malfunctions and hiccups every now and then. at least one every 3 or 4 months. Usually minor tics that, at worst, he would need to hit his chest like a staticky box tv to get it up and working again. But there are other more... Violent outbursts that require a more involved hand... Either way, they can all be summed up as; unfun.

#playing with greyscale is FUN and good for lighting practice #cookie run kingdom #cookie run #crk #cw: blood #Tell the old man to take his pills (oil) #Gold Choco Cookie #cookie run oc #cookie oc #he'll be fine! and i'm sorry for that-

[nightcatssketchbook]

Felt like going back to my roots and drew the Sanders Sides! I hope I finally did them justice.

I honestly have no idea what I’d be like today if I never watched this series. To me it acted as a guide on self reflection and gave me the vocabulary to talk about things like anxiety. And it did this in a fun, digestible, memorable way. I think the first video I watched upon release was “Fitting In,” and I remember the hype in the hours leading up to it. So that one will always have a special place in my heart. Also, Sanders Sides was my first fandom, and it made sure I was in a good online community. Even though I don’t think about the series as much now, it still means a lot to me.

P.S. All patterns in the background are from the merch store/Wiki! Not drawn by me.

#Sanders Sides #Roman Sanders #Patton Sanders #Logan Sanders #Virgil Sanders #Janus Sanders #Remus Sanders #TS Roman #TS Patton #TS Logan #TS Virgil #TS Janus #TS Remus #tw blood #my art #I tried snazzing up their outfits a bit where I could #throwback to Roman’s little gold strap from the first outfit #and my post about the golden bands on the cuffs of his sleeve 😭 #it was like the sister post to Virgil’s zippers #also REMUS. Remus’ outfit is something I’m pretty proud of #also Janus’ coat is inspired by the Over the Garden Wall Asides #and Patton’s socks are a design from The Awesome Socks Club! #a monthly sock subscription by John and Hank Green #that’s for charity

[citrusinicake]

in another universe

#blood cw #mine.art #kings smp #lssmp #princezam #minutetech #mapicc #got too lazy to shade anything lol #unsure if its clear but zam stabbing his neck would mean stabbing minutes heart as well #and it unfortunately cant be seen from the angle but k!minute has a black hairtie and k!mapicc's bandana is tied on his crown at the back #minute's chain is on his jacket button but it cant be seen cause hes all black #jepexx also got himself a chain after joining kom so that he could match with the others + look cool #but all it did was make zam think he looked like a dog lol #ls!zams gold thingy on his right eye is just make up not another scar #and yes he does use blood as lipstick #minute is a draconian which is an enddweller #i was originally gonna make him an angel but angels are out of bounders aka eldritch beings in my lore #and i really wanted him to be an enddweller so i scrapped that idea

[cepheusgalaxy]

Classic: character compulsively washing their hands trying to get rid of blood stains that nobody but them can see, after having had to kill someone or watching someonde die in their arms, but the stains won't go away.

#whump tropes #whump prompts #blood mention #death mention #whump prompt #whump ideas #whump scenario #a fan of the classics 👌 #*side eyes kakashi hatake from his backstory arc* #that was GOLD #best thing naruto shippuden ever did #/jk

[killer-laurent]

Amadeo's conversion (Commission)

#art #digital art #fantasy #vampire chronicles #anne rice #vampire #armand #armand le russe #red #marius de romanus #red cape #blood and gold #armand the vampire #gold #commission

[greenlaut]

orange tree

myrrh in your lungs and the golden disk haloed behind your head

your face is made for war

(would you trip and fall like a shot dove?)

.

(irl stuff below cut)

since my father's death i have been doing awful with drawing. i can't bring myself to make art. i feel like i lost something. i can't understand it—i still can't.

this is the first piece since my father's death that feels like i'm back in my own skin.

i have been playing assassin's creed lately to pass the time. when i was a teenager, i loved ac very much. altaïr was my favourite as a teen. i think it's the rage and helplessness that we share that made me identify with him. i couldn't afford the games as a kid so i'd spend hours just watching walkthroughs, looking at fanarts, and reading fanfictions. years later and now as an adult, i'm playing ac unity that i got on a whim when it was on sale. i think i'll purchase ac1 when it's on sale later. for now, i will indulge my past self by playing as a french man doomed by the narrative.

while it's off topic, this piece is inspired by the relationship of palestinians with their oranges/orange trees. free palestine.

#i wrote the poem part #vivid dream imageries of a man picking an orange tree and his hands covered in blood #i thought his eyes are made of gold #assassins creed in the year lord 2024 #my art #altaïr ibn la'ahad #altair ibn la'ahad #assassins creed #assassin's creed #ac1 #assassins creed 1 #assassin's creed 1