#migrant success story

[starswallowingsea]

Thoughts on enstars?

i like this game a normal amount

i downloaded it on a whim after seeing one of my mutuals post about it shortly after the english release and we talked a little about it. i unlocked like half of the date plan atoz story (like i said, early. that's the second event EVER in the !! era) and thought it was cute or whatever and then kind of played motor show but it wasn't until i gave up on genshin that i really got into the game. i think i was reading chapter 2 of the main story and had just met rinne and was like oh i need to know what this guy's deal is and was dead set on going for his night club card when that event came out.

and then night club came out and i was a goner. that event changed me. it was my first time i think i seriously read any of the event stories and cared about what was going on and i really started brain rotting over rinne specifically and then eventually somewhere along the way i started really liking the rest of the bees too, i think after the release of chapter 5 of the main story and seeing kohaku go on stage and talk about how much he wishes they had gotten closer before rinne and niki had taken off and how they had all been able to come together for such a short time and still do something with their performances.

i read meteor impact early in the fall semester, i remember i spent a full day after class for like 5 hours just slogging through all whatever 50 some odd chapters of it and just losing my mind. and then i read checkmate i think over two days and the same thing. i've read a few other stories since then that were more filler stories but still gave me a greater sense of the world and the characters who are just so. there's 49 of these fuckers and there's a guy for everyone i swear i've been assigning my friends enstars characters on discord and lose my mind over different ones every week lmao. they feel like real people and real friendships that go through real problems and ugh. madara is one of the characters i connected with most with regards to leaving my childhood religion.

like yeah we joke about this game being absolutely insane and there being a lot of weird out of context moments that make others stop and pause and ask what the hell is going on but at the end of the day, the writers clearly have a story they want to tell and love the game just as much as the fans. the fact that they incorporate so so much literary and religious symbolism into these idol gacha game stories that just make me lose my mind (Me, who is like Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the saint for some dimes. You, you don’t hold any grudge for me, and even affirm your love to me, right? Would you even forgive those that crucified and sacrificed you, too?).

For all its flaws, of which there are many, it's such a genuine experience to read and play. The music is good the stories are well written most of the time and it's so full of love.

#ESSAY UNDER THE CUT BTW #i didn't talk about the flaws here but you can find other people who talk about them #like portraying rinne and hiiro as ainu and the stereotypes that get leaned on in some things #like the dog hiiro stickers. poor taste man. and rinne being drunk/a gambler which is a general #anti indigenous stereotype (ofc rinne is way more than that but including those traits to begin with is a little #sketchy at best) #i think most of the time even with stories that fall flat like succession match #they have good intentions and i can see what they wanted to say with the stories yknow? #nobody is perfect and i dont expect that and i'm more shocked that they'd decide to even attempt to seriously talk about #immigration and migrant communities in japan and how they interact with society at all. #it was a little. hmm. but like. i dont think it had bad intentions behind it yknow? #does that make sense? #message in a bottle #anonymous

[deep-sea-scholar]

Okay I need to rant about Glass Onion for several paragraphs

WARNING: SPOILERS!

Glass onion is phenomenal, and I personally enjoyed its themes more than the first Knives Out movie.

Now don’t get me wrong, Knives Out is arguably the better film, but its strengths lie in the complexity and brilliant execution of its core mystery.  It’s a fantastic self-contained story about a shitty rich family and the people they directly affect.  The members of the family range across the political spectrum and all express different ideologies, but the moment a migrant working-class woman has a legitimized shot at their inheritance they band together to prevent her from improving her life.  It's interesting commentary on how wealthy people can talk a big game about helping others and being good people, but ultimately fall morally short when such actions threaten what they feel they “rightfully deserve.” But that's arguably the limitation of the film as its focus is entirely on the interpersonal conflict between the Thrombey family and Marta.

Glass onion isn’t limited by that.

The entire thematic core of Glass Onion concerns the damage that the rich and powerful can do to the world if they aren’t supervised, criticized, or limited. 

Aside from our lovely detective Benoit Blanc, the murdered Andi Brand, and her twin sister Helen, all of the characters are shitty people that are damaging the world in a uniquely horrible way as a direct consequence of the unchecked power and wealth they wield.

To start we have Governor Claire Dubella.  Her success in her political career has relied almost entirely on monetary support and influence from the films big bad and Elon Musk/Jeff Bezos analogue Miles Bron. Her platform has good objectives, and she’s passionate about hard topics like climate change, but her ability to act is entirely limited by the influence Miles has on her.  If Miles wants her to do something, she feels like she has no choice but to, which results in her greenlighting an experimental powerplant that Miles wants built to advocate for his new fuel source.  It’s untested technology, it’s volatile and dangerous as fuck, and Claire feels like she has no choice but to go along with it because if she doesn’t Miles will withdraw support from her career, or worse, support her opponents.  She likens it to selling her soul, and it really is.  She willingly undermined the health of her constituents for the sake of saving her career, and the shitty part is that Miles only controls her because she lets him.  She could deny the power plant, or leave Miles, at any time, but she doesn’t because she perceives the personal risk as to great.  She is a politician that won’t stand up for the people she represents, and no one calls her out on it.

Next, we have Duke Cody, the Alpha male men’s rights streamer who is just like, the absolute worst person in this film.  His views and opinions are incredibly toxic, his actions and beliefs directly hurt the people he influences through the hurtful products he promotes, and thanks to Mile's wealth and influence both he and his terrible, terrible, terrible opinions have official backing and some form of legitimacy.  He’s almost the direct inverse of Claire, being someone who really shouldn’t have support, but is getting it anyway because he’s Mile’s friend.  And because Miles doesn’t care and is giving Duke support and helping him dodge legal trouble, he enables Dukes terrible opinions and lets them influence and hurt people.  

Then we have Birdie, my personal favorite of the disruptors.  She is a fashion designer, media star, and breathtakingly, beautifully, stupid. She’s not actively malicious like some of the other characters, but she is just so fundamentally incapable of thinking things through. When paired with her wealth and influence, this results in horrifying real-world consequences.  She has her iconic fashion line of sweatpants made at the most infamous sweatshop in Bangladesh not because she doesn’t care, but because she thought a sweatshop is just a shop where you make sweatpants.  She’s just very stupid, but at the very least has the decency to be aware of it.  She even decides to own up to her Bangladesh mistake of her own volition, independent of the plot.  The problem is that no one corrected for her, or guided her, or worked to influence her decisions.  Miles just cared about what her brands could do for him and was perfectly willing to throw her under the bus to preserve his image.

Last of the four Disruptors is Lionel Toussaint.  Not much to say about him actually, he’s fairly straightforward.  He works directly under Miles as a scientist and is a parallel for the people that want to have confidence in tech ‘pioneers’ like Elon Musk.  After all they’ve been successful, and things have worked out in the past, surely, we can give them leeway with new technology development.  But there’s a reason why technology is prototyped and tested, and that’s because things always go wrong, and you need to take time and care to figure out how to ensure new technology is safe.

Which leads us to this asshole.

Miles goddamn Mona Lisa Burning Bron.

The absolute, motherfucking, shithead moron directly responsible for everything bad that happens in this film.

I lied about Duke Cody because this absolute buffoon is the actually the worst person in this film.

He manipulates politicians into endangering their constituents for his own gain, he enables the absolute worst and most toxic people by giving them legitimate platforms, he promotes influencers without caring for what their unchecked actions result in, and he deludes the people that work for him and want to believe in him with self-assured delusion.  This man is arrogant, an indiscribable moron (worse than Birdie because at least she acknowledges her failings), dangerously delusional, obsessed with control, and most damning of all, unchecked.

Miles Bron is a direct look at how too much unchecked power, wealth, and influence results in unmitigated disasters.  He doesn’t care about helping people, because he doesn’t take the time to make sure untested technology is safe for the public, handwaving legitimate concerns with denial and false assurance.  He doesn’t care about his friends, because he murders two of them the instant, they become a threat to his control.  He’s not smart, because all of his genius is the result of other people, he’s just skilled at advertising it as his own to get the credit.  All he cares about is doing what he wants and being in control, because his opinion and self-worth and legacy is more precious to him than any other thing in the world.  The man is a lie so absolute, so convoluted, and so stupidly straightforward that the slightest piece of truth will bring the facade of his existence crumbling down.  And it’s hard to acknowledge something like that in the real world because someone that successful being that malicious and dumb sounds incredibly stupid.  It’s an easy lie to buy because it’s more believable than how stupid the truth is.

Anyway, ultimately my conclusion is that we see a strikingly accurate portrayal of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in this film, and it was very cathartic seeing their hopes, ambitions, and house burn down around them.  Because billionaires like them are shithead morons that lie to and manipulate everyone, and their arrogant and harmful self-delusions compound through the people they manage to influence.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

#knives out #glass onion #benoit blanc #film #mystery film #movie review #elon musk #jeff bezos #Need a hard kick in the nuts #literary analysis #movies #netflix #eat the fucking rich #can't believe a murder mystery radicalized me #rambling

[melis-writes]

Blood Money (Tony Montana x Reader Multichapter, 18+ Smut) Chapter 3 – An Eye For An Eye.

Chapter 2 / Read on AO3 / Chapter Masterlist.

18+, explicit smut read.

“Your new boyfriend is in Miami." / “I’m here for Tony Montana.”

Tony's fiery gaze burned into the back of your mind but your name etched on his heart from the very moment he knew who you were. Keeping you on his mind like prayer, Tony wastes no time in attempting to squeeze himself out of every interrogation at the Cuban migrant camp he and Manny are detained in. Like a power move claiming he knows you, Tony's beckoning you to meet him once more in your hometown with bold claims striking the attention of your father–one of the most notorious, wealthy businessmen of Miami–with one claim being that of love.

[WARNINGS]: None!

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]: Oh my goodness, a LONG time coming and the chapter update is finally here at last!! 😭💀 I'm thrilled to update this fic again and share it with the Tony girlies! Battling writer's block and life getting super busy was a chore but I. AM. BACK and writing! And yet I must break everyone's heart again by saying this update of Blood Money officially marks my temporary hiatus of Al fics outside of The Godfather universe. 💔 I will now solely be working on my Godfather fanfics until I'm finished so I have ample time and opportunity to write more consistently and update fics even more often than I ever have. I'm definitely not abandoning this fic and I will finish it someday soon! For now, let's dive back into Tony and Celeste's story!! 🥺🤞🏻

With a taste for success and dollar bills, Tony Montana’s drug empire grew in vast wealth, power and influence by your side as the kingpin’s lover. From sharing an intimate history in Cuba, you and Manny Ribera were the only ones to believe and support Tony from rags to riches. Embroiled in the same lifestyle and sharing enemies, you and Tony come to build your empire and world together with the threat of it collapsing from the inside. As partnership turns to betrayal and thrill to danger, you find yourself in-between ultimatums and sacrifices for the man you love.

'I'm always in the right, man. Always am.' The shit-eating grin over Tony's face spreads equal amounts of tension and frustration throughout the interrogation room; keeping the officers on edge for word back from your family knowing Tony could potentially be a protected individual under the Navarro family while thinking at the very same time that Tony could be bullshitting everyone just to waste their time.

Tony sits all too comfortably in front of the officers with his arms crossed, all the more amused watching them huff quietly to themselves and glower back at Tony every few minutes.

"So--" Tony attempts to start a lively conversation on his behalf.

"You shut the fuck up, Montana," the first cop points his finger at Tony. "Don't say a fuckin' word."

"We're not playing with you," the second cop scowls. 

"Alright, man. Alright," Tony shrugs his shoulders loosely, "sheesh. I keep quiet when people talk on the phone, like Mama taught me, okay?"

Letting out another shaky sigh of irritation, the officers exchange a glance amongst one another, knowing well enough that if they've bothered the Navarro family for no good reason, it'll result in a guaranteed suspension without pay and likely following up with getting fired. 

Then again, there's always the possibility that it could be Tony finding himself in hot water with the Navarros due to his cockiness and stupidity, and if that means having Tony out of the refugee camp and no longer able to be a nuisance, then it'll be both a best case scenario and a relief for the officers involved. Still, it's all too much to consider at once.

"Tell the supervisor," the first cop mumbles, "he needs to know what's going on."

"Will do," the other sighs, taking a seat back at his desk to grab out his notepad.

Ignoring Tony outright, the first cop moves his stool over to the telephone by the desk and sits next to it before beginning to dial the Navarro family reception line.

'By heart?' Tony's eyes flicker with interest, noticing how the officer has your family's number memorized by heart—rendering him surprised and amused at the same time. 

'So they know her,' Tony thinks to himself. 'She not a nobody. She a somebody. I got her name on the line for me. Just for me.' 

This means more to Tony than you can already know, even if all you'll ever do is show up to spit on his face and blame him for wasting your time. The satisfaction alone is everything for him.

Both officers continue to ignore Tony and avoid making any sort of eye contact with him; murmuring ushered words to one another and pressing through more numbers on the telephone as it rings.

Only mere moments after does Tony notice how tense the officer on the telephone gets by the way his muscles jerk up in response to the telephone being answered by a monotone-voiced, middle-aged man speaking out.

"Navarro residence."

The very individual answering the phone would be your father's advisor and right-hand man, Gabriel.

"Cuban Detention Center, Officer Frank speaking," the cop says politely, clearing his throat. "May we please speak to Mr. Navarro?"

There's a short pause on the other end of the line. "Do you have a request or appointment booked in advance?"

"No," Officer Frank answers quietly. "Um, ahem—this is in relation to immigration and detention. There's a gentleman here claiming he was requested by name from a potential--" Frank scowls over at Tony. "Sponsor." 

Gabriel's tone of voice grows considerably agitated. "I trust you have a good reason for wishing to bother Mr. Navarro. You will not hear it from me."

"Greatly appreciated," Officer Frank awkwardly replies as Gabriel begins to transfer the call to your father's personal telephone.

Fully aware of the telephone conversation ongoing with Gabriel, your father—Darren Navarro--is two stories up in his penthouse—still in his Versace morning robe, smoking a Cuban cigar.

His first words to Officer Frank once the line transfer is, "You better have a good reason for reaching my personal number, Frank."

"Oh yes sir, o-of course," Frank stammers. "I apologize, sir. I didn't mean to interrupt your day, but this is urgent."

"So you say so," your father is unmoved by the sudden sense of urgency. "I suppose it is coming from the immigration and refugee department. I've sponsored nobody, so what is all of this?"

Officer Frank's skin drains of color as he nervously exchanges a glance with his colleague, glumly shaking his head. "Um, sir, there was a mention of your daughter's name by a Cuban migrant."

Your father raises a brow, leaning back on his velvet chaise. Your last trip to Cuba and mentions of "Tony Montana" and "Manny Ribera" easily come to Darren's mind. 

"Interesting," Darren muses. "And what is this individual's name?"

"Tony Montana," Tony speaks up loud and clear, grinning. "And with my best friend, Manny Ribera."

"Shut the fuck up!" The second cop hisses, almost jumping out from behind his desk to hit Tony.

Darren's all very well aware Tony is in the same room and must know who he is by now, having heard everything. 

"Uh huh," your father chuckles. "I see."

"Sorry, sir. I'm so sorry," Frank scoffs, swallowing hard.

"Stop your whining," Darren rolls his eyes. "I heard the man loud and clear. This is no request for me but for my daughter then."

"The migrant claims to know Celeste Navarro personally, sir." Frank clears his throat.

"Yes, he does. That much is true," your father nods.

"May we speak to Celeste, sir?"

"No need," Darren brushes off the request, glancing towards his bedroom door. "Celeste will soon be on her way to greet both gentlemen personally.

"This man--" Frank begins, but is abruptly cut off and corrected by your father.

"Men," your father clarifies, refusing to exclude Manny. "There are two of them after all, so Celeste will see both. She knows both of them, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good," Darren blows out the smoke from his cigar around him, resting his cigar between his fingers as he admires the afternoon light glistening over his gold rings and jewelry. "Treat these men well. I'm aware of the reputation your detention center has and its demands. 'Gentle' is not in your vocabulary so be respectful. These are friends of the Navarro family and I expect them to be treated as such."

"Yes, sir..." Mortified, the officers stare in shock at a smirking Tony before your father hangs up on them.

~

Giving a drawn-out sigh, you roll your eyes in annoyance at the back cover of the gossip magazine you’ve been reading; already questioning why you bother with the tabloids just to entertain you.

Flipping back to the front cover of a bikini model on Miami beach, you rest your chin over your fist, wearing a flowing, pastel pink satin nightgown—laying on your stomach and dangling your feet, attempting to beat boredom.

Frank Sinatra’s “All By Myself” plays softly on your white and gold decorated record player, a compliment to the similar colors lavishly decorated over your bedroom.

Practically the size of a house’s first floor, your bedroom itself spans 1,500 square feet and is fit for a princess, covered in various shades of pink with a glimmering diamond chandelier above you.

The very king-size bed you lounge upon is adorned with a bubble-gum pink cashmere and quilt duvet and six silk encased pillows, a polar bear throw in the center of your bedroom upon the marble floors striking attention to the wall fixtures and architecture of the bedroom taking inspiration from the Palace of Versailles.

You furrow your brows in annoyance at the magazine in your hands, only to have your thought suddenly interrupted by the sound of your father knocking on your door.

You peek up in interest, brushing a curtain of your hair back. “Come in.”

“Hi, darling,” your father enters your room with a warm smile—holding a glass of iced rum in one hand and concealing something in his fist with the other. “Didn’t think I’d be giving you good news so quick, eh?”

Chuckling, your father opens his fist and lightly tosses your car keys over to you.

Reaching your arm out, you snatch the car keys mid-air—staring at your father in confusion. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Your new boyfriend is in Miami,” your father says with a laugh. “Immigration services at the Cuban refugee camp called me just earlier.”

“Huh,” you blink, rubbing your temple as your memory recollects, hitting you all at once.

“I never say goodbye either. I say you’re gonna remember these faces—my face.”

‘Tony Montana.’ Your face flushes red as you clear your throat, glancing up at your father. “They called you?”

“Mhmm,” your father nods, taking a small sip from his drink. “Quick to it, I’ll give them that. I don’t think that Tony of yours has been there for very long from the sounds of it. They wanted to reach you, actually.”

“Makes sense of course,” you slide aside your magazine, sitting up in bed. “Great…”

“What do you think?” Your father raises a brow.

“I’m not thinking of anything,” you give your head a shake.

“No? You sure you don’t owe this Tony and his friend a favor or two?”

“I don’t owe anyone anything,” you roll your eyes out of frustration. “But for Tony,” you clutch your car keys, “if he wants to see me, I’ll go see him. I’ll see him, but I don’t know what I can do for him.”

“Is this really someone worth wriggling out of months worth of paperwork and getting into the front of the line? ‘Cause I’ll let you decide that,” your father shrugs. 

Getting off of your bed, you eye your purse from across the bedroom. “I think I’ve already made my decision.”

“I’m sure you made the right one,” your father turns back on his heel.

“Is Tony waiting for me right now?” You head over to your walk-in closet.

“He is,” your father confirms, placing his hand over your doorknob to close the door behind him. “And I think you’re the only person he wants to see right now.”

~

‘Tony Montana…’ You let out a soft sigh, leaning your head back against your car’s headrest. ‘Again and so soon.’ With great effort, you push aside the fluttering feeling in your heart every time Tony’s name and face cross your mind; clearing your throat and putting your Armani sunglasses on.

Starting up your Mercedes-Benz 380SL Convertible and pulling out of your estate’s parking lot carefully, you focus on nothing but getting directly to immigration services—able to collect your thoughts.

Letting the warm summer breeze flow through your hair as you step on the gas, determined to know just why Tony’s got your name mixed up with the law.

You may not have taken the rugged, cocky stranger very seriously back in Cuba but you’d be lying to yourself right now if you said you weren’t a little intimidated by Tony’s timing.

‘Didn’t think my name would cross your lips so soon either… Full of surprises.’ 

Tony knows he can sit and wait in the interrogation room for an eternity to come so as long as it’s promised you’ll show up—riding off on the idea of seeing you again like a lingering high.

Driving through the streets of Miami, you tap your French tip manicure against your steering wheel patiently through every red light.

Your eyes flicker over beach-bound tourists making their way over the crosswalks, noting the impatient drivers on the other side of the intersection honking at each other and tossing cigarettes out the window; the scent of body odor and beer not far from the beach itself.

Giving your head a shake, you scrunch your nose in disgust and drive off—not far from reaching the secluded immigration center from downtown.

You arrive a little over ten minutes later, driving into the clearance section with the rest of the other drivers waiting their turn to speak with an officer at the booth and be admitted. 

Resting your arm on the windowpane of your car, you peek your head out of the window just enough for your face to be seen, and just as you expected, you’re recognized by an officer at a booth opposite from you almost instantaneously. 

‘Uh huh.’ Noticing the officer blocking the path of the upcoming car who was next in line, you slowly drive up as he gestures for you to follow.

“How is that fucking fair?!” You hear a honk and shout of irritation from the other driver, simply ignoring him and continuing to cautiously drive up.

“Blow it out your ass, buddy,” the officer rolls his eyes.

Parking your car, you glance up at the officer who only gives you a brief nod and lets you through without a single word; just one of the many perks of being the daughter of one of Miami’s most notorious businessmen.

“Alright,” you mutter under your breath as you approach the guarded parking lot, seeing another officer heading directly your way. ‘Let’s see what this is really all about.’

Taking off your sunglasses, you make eye contact with the officer who furrows his brows at you in confusion; more than likely wondering how you got in so quickly and just who you are to be taking priority over anyone else.

“And who might you be?” The officer asks smugly.

“I think you know who I am,” you reply back coyly. “I’m here for Tony Montana.”

~

As smug and prideful as he can be, Tony slouches in his seat with his arms crossed and completely relaxed as if he’s the one arranging the interrogation rather than being interrogated. 

As apparent as the officers make it seem to Tony how thoroughly pissed, exhausted, and anxious they are dealing with him, Tony reflects it with his nonchalant attitude on purpose.

“You think you’re taking some sort of vacation, Montana?” Officer Frank scowls.

 “Sure, man,” Tony shrugs his shoulders loosely. “I think my vacation is on the way.”

Ignoring the immigration officer who escorts you inside the facility as some mock bodyguard, you make your way towards the entrance of the interrogation offices where the officer gestured you to, making note of the maximum-security gates and barbed wire high walls.

Giving a small huff of annoyance and adjusting your hair, you approach a narrow hallway inside the next building and set your sunglasses on your head.

“This way, please,” the officer guiding you murmurs and politely steps in front of you.

Unphased and hardly listening, you follow the officer until you both reach an interrogation door marked “11B”.

You maintain your distance from both the officer and the door as the officer leans over and quickly knocks on the door not to ask to come in but to signal his entrance.

A wide, playful grin spreads over Tony’s face as he turns his head back to face the door—absolutely thrilled to see it about to open in front of him.

Fear simmers back into the officers the moment they spot a feminine silhouette behind the tinted glass of the door, instantly remembering now more than ever that their jobs are on the line.

Pushing open the door, the officer guiding you inside steps in first and out of your way—clearing his throat to speak out, “Miss Celeste Navarro is here, sir.”

‘Celeste Navarro…’ Seeing you before him once more, Tony’s pupils widen as a strong surge of attraction hits him—coursing through his veins.

Tony’s muscles tighten and he feels the heat of arousal trickling inside of him as he locks eyes with you, stunned and utterly admiring every inch of your figure.

Attempting to look at you with more humility than defeat or nervousness, the officers are put off by your very presence and can say or do nothing as you cross your arms; expectant and domineering before everyone else.

You’re the only spot of color in the otherwise dull room filled with grey uniforms and sweaty men; dressed in an Armani, pastel pink, cropped tweed blazer, a matching mini skirt, a white chiffon Calvin Klein blouse with a bow at your collar and four-inch glossy nude pumps. 

“There she is, she’s the one,” Tony smirks at you—breaking the momentary silence in the room.

“Ahem,” Officer Frank clears his throat, beginning to sit upright in his seat. “You know this man, miss?”

“Do I?” You raise a brow, unamused. “It feels like I’ve known him my whole life.”

“Yes, baby,” Tony mutters to himself inaudibly. ‘Come to me. You’re here now.’

“Miss Navarro,” the other officer begins to speak up awkwardly, “apologies if this is an intrusive question however this man claims to know you and—”

”And she’s my fiancée, as I was telling you. Okay, man?” Tony interrupts, rolling his eyes. “Can I have some privacy with my fiancée, man?”

‘Fiancee? What the hell is he talking about?’ Struck into shock by Tony’s words, you hold your posture and expression, but you know where Tony’s coming from and just why he’s deciding to play this game with you now.

“Yes, so what?” You snap back, noticing the playful twinkle in Tony’s eyes. “It’s true, he is my fiancée.”

‘Tony… I hope you know what you’re doing. I swear… Now is not the time to put on a show.’ 

The officers stare at each other in utter discomfort, remaining silent. 

“But I don’t recall that being anyone’s business except mine,” you narrow your eyes at them, taking a step forward to Tony.

Tony takes your soft hand in his, caressing his thumb over the back of your hand softly. “See?”

“Well,” Officer Frank swallows hard, “if that’s the case—”

Your eyes snap open in shock as Tony leans up in his seat, suddenly cupping both of your cheeks and immediately pulling you into a crushing, deep kiss.

‘Oh!’ Your lips collide over his and your eyes flutter shut in response, feeling the warmth of his tongue teasing the tip of yours in loving passion without a care—ensnared in the moment of having you as his fiancée with no intentions of letting go. 

#scarface #scarface 1983 #al pacino #tony montana #tony montana x reader #tony montana x reader smut #tony montana x oc #tony montana smut #scarface x reader #scarface x reader smut #blood money fic #blood money fanfic

[blackautmedia]

Per the Tweet:

In today’s episode we follow the journey of Abdul Bakhit which exemplifies the unique struggles and aspirations of each migrant and refugee, individuality amidst inhumane circumstances only invites us to humanize their stories, honor their struggles, and recognize the inherent worth in each life affected by displacement as today in Sudan. Victim of the shipwreck off Tunisia 7.2.2024.

🧵 6/40

Abdul Bakhit Khamis Muhammad, born on December 6, 2000, in Central Darfur, Wadi Saleh Garsila locality, was the fourth child in his family, with two elder sisters and an elder brother. His father, a retired wounded veteran soldier, and his mother, an ordinary farmer, still reside in Garsila. He attended Soba East Secondary School for Boys.

Due to tribal conflicts in the region, he and his family faced instability and financial difficulties which forced him to leave Sudan on December 15, 2021, for Libya. In Tazerbo, Kufra, he was held captive by human traffickers demanding 2000 Libyan dinars in ransoms. After his release, he moved to Benghazi, then Tripoli, Qarabulli in March 2022.

He registered with the UNHCR in Libya as an asylum seeker and worked in farming to sustain his livelihood. By August 2023, he departed Libya for Tunisia, where he sought refuge in Zarzis with limited success. He then went to Sfax, where he for three times attempted to cross the sea.

In early October he paid 1500 Tunisian dinars for the sea crossings but was caught up at sea by the Tunisian National Guard. In late October he tried again and was intercepted. The third attempt was in mid November only to be intercepted and returned. His final attempt came along the other 42 others among whom 40 died with him included.

While browsing on his Facebook account, we saw that his last publication dating back to 17 April 2022 talks about dignity, success, fatigue , failure and despair: “First, maintain your dignity, even if it costs you, you will not become friends with the walls of your cell. You will not reach the pinnacle of success without going through stations of fatigue, failure and despair. Stay at ease with the details.”

Image ID: Abdul Bakhit looking down toward the camera. He is wearing a white shirt standing before a bright, blue sky.

#sudan

[theresattrpgforthat]

Help! My fiance won't stop not killing people! Do you know of an rpg that plays well with one DM and one PC that still has the aesthetics of DnD or classic fantasy, but where violence is more of a last resort than the primary way to resolve conflicts? One where you can actually feel like a good guy.

THEME: Non-Combat, Heroic Fantasy

Hello there, so I’m going to include games in this recommendation that may not be explicitly for two players, but can be conceivably be run with one player and one GM. This is because a number of duet games are built to provide roles for the players that don’t slot easily into the “GM” and “Player” role. I hope you find something that fits both of your goals!

GROK?!, by Lester Burton.

GROK?! is an adventure role-playing game where you assume the role of an adventurer in a gonzo world of boundless plausibility and use your ingenuity and resourcefulness to overcome strange and perilous threats.

Planet Grok was once a haven for trans-dimensional migrants and a bastion of advanced technomancy, until a cataclysm rendered it a desolate hollow planet. Now, feral monstrosities haunt its chasms, cities float among the clouds, and a derelict space station encapsulates the planet and bathes the world in perpetual phosphorescent radiation. Yet, a new era of enlightenment is dawning. Civilizations grow from the ashes, relics of immense power await those who would learn their lost secrets, and threats of caste warfare loom as leaders vie for power. All the while, a creeping black nothingness peers up through the hollow of the world.

This is a game heavily inspired by a lot of heavyweight games that exist in the ttrpg scene, such as Cortex Prime, Savage Worlds, Numenera… the list goes on. The creator describes a “universal resolution” system that is also “fail forward.” This means that you use the same resolution mechanic for every action your character takes, and instances where you fail still move the story forward. I won’t say that it prioritizes other methods before combat, but it certainly looks like you can play it that way. Aesthetically it’s a bit more science-fantasy, but the digital copy is only a dollar, and the Quickstart is free to download on the Itch.io page, so it might be worth checking out.

A One In A Million Chance At Adventure, by Jocher Symbolic Systems.

This is a game where you play the roles of, often unwilling, sometimes zealous, pawns in the cosmic octarine coloured narrative. Your character is not necessarily a "hero" per se, instead one could possibly see it as being important to the story. Characters like yourself do have a knack for not dying as often as a common mortal (or undead if that has been your unfortune). With this follows that you'll naturally have a higher chance of actually, possibly, doing some heroic deeds, just by sheer mathematical logic. Unless, of course, you are the type of adventurer who'd prefer a cup of hot tea and soft slippers and a reliable day job. That does severely reduce the odds of let's say beheading a mythical beast of ill repute or befriending the immodest wood nymphs of Howondaland.

This is a game designed for two or more players, one picking up a GM role and the rest acting as players. It’s a loving tribute to the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and is therefore free! It is a setting that provides a tongue-in-cheeck reference to classic fantasy, and uses a 2d10 system to follow your character’s humorous attempts at becoming an adventure, and all of the one-in-a-million outcomes that make their stories interesting.

I like that this game uses narrative points to give your character a chance to do something really cool in situations where they don’t have a realistic chance of success. I also appreciate the de-centring of violence in that there are no health points or systems in place to keep track of physical harm. This doesn’t mean that conflict is impossible - it just means that it has to be figured out collaboratively between the players and the GM. What there is a great deal of focus on, is magic, with some really interesting effects that could pop up whenever you cast a spell.

This game is cheeky and knows exactly what it’s trying to emulate, and if you’re familiar in any way with Discworld, I think you should check it out.

Mausritter, by Losing Games.

Take up the sword and don the whiskers of a brave mouse adventurer in Mausritter, the rules-light fantasy adventure roleplaying game.

It’s a huge and dangerous world out there, and it does not look kindly on a small mouse. But if you are very brave and very clever and just a bit lucky, you might be able to survive. And if you survive long enough, you might even become a hero amongst mice.

Mausritter is, at its heart, an OSR game, and while many OSR games are pretty dark in tone, one thing that they excel at is providing characters with situations in which violence can’t be the answer. The costs of trying to fight something as a mouse are just too high - cats and owls and other large creatures are dangerous endeavours that only large large groups of mice have a chance at defeating. So for a two-player game, you’re going to understand narratively the necessity of using your wits. This game gives you a setting that makes it possible to have a game that mirrors more closely some themes in epic fantasy as well, including a magic system with spells that can give characters an even bigger toolbox when it comes to solving problems.

The Weaver’s Observatory, by Gem Room Games.

The Weaver’s Observatory is a two player dramatic fantasy adventure about an explorer seeking to change their destiny by asking a boon of Fate herself. Set in an ancient tower outside time, the Climber shares memories of their life as they cross a moat of living dye, ascend through the threads of discarded fates, and navigate the mechanisms that construct the fate of all living things without knowing if their request is even possible.

While this game doesn’t explicitly call the two roles within it GM and PC, it was designed for Tunnel Goons, which does use those sorts of roles. In The Weaver’s Observatory, one person is a solitary explorer, climbing a tower to request a boon from Fate. The other is Fate itself, representing the tower and the few inhabitants that reside within. The solitary Climber will encounter puzzles, hazards and guards that they will have to solve, avoid, and reason with - so I don’t see much of combat set within either the style of gameplay or the structure of the adventure.

This is a game that can be played as a one-shot, or can be set within a larger campaign. The entire game uses weaving metaphors and iconography, to set a tone for the overall narrative. If you like a tone that is intentional and purposeful, and want to tell a story that has great consequences for the person involved (and possible for a larger world), then this game is definitely worth checking out.

#dnd #game recommendations #indie ttrpgs #tabletop games #asks #fantasy #non-violent

[fatehbaz]

The SAWP is a temporary labour program that brings foreign workers to Canada for periods between six weeks and eight months annually [...], paving the way for the recruitment of Jamaican workers as well as workers from other Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados [beginning] in 1968. [...] The SAWP has been a resounding success for Canadian growers because offshore indentured workers enable agribusiness to expand and secure large profits. Being indentured means that migrant farm workers are bound to specific employers by contractual agreements [...]. First, they are legally prevented from unionizing. [...] Additionally, because they are bound to specific employers, they must ensure that the employer is happy with them [...]. For instance, migrant farm workers are forced to agree to growers’ requests for long working hours, labour through the weekend, suppress complaints and avoid conflicts, if they want to stay out of “trouble” [...]. In “Canada’s Creeping Economic Apartheid”, Grace Galabuzi shows that the Canadian Government’s immigration policy is, in reality, a labour market immigration policy [...].

[Text by: Julie Ann McCausland. "Racial Capitalism, Slavery, Labour Regimes and Exploitation in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program". Caribbean Quilt Volume 5. 2020. Paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

A big finding that came out of the oral history interviews was a much richer tapestry of worker protest than has previously been documented. Speaking with workers – including former workers back in their home countries of Jamaica and Barbados – allowed me to hear the types of stories that often don’t make it into archives or newspapers. Interviewees told me stories about wildcat strikes, about negotiating conditions with employers, and also about protesting their home governments’ role in organizing the migrant labour program. [...] [T]hings did not have to be this way; our current world was anything but inevitable. [...] [But] economic forces transformed tobacco farming (and agriculture writ large), [...] leaving mega-operations in their wake. [...] [L]arge operations could afford [...] bringing in foreign guestworkers. The attraction of foreign workers was not due to labour shortages, but instead in their much higher degree of exploitability, given the strict nature of their contracts and the economic compulsion under which they pursued overseas migrant labour. [...] Ontario’s tobacco belt (located in between Hamilton and London, on the north shore of Lake Erie), was from the 1920s to 1980s one the most profitable sectors in Canadian agriculture and the epicentre of migrant labour in the country [...]. In most years, upwards of 25,000 workers were needed to bring in the crop. [...]

[The words of Edward Dunsworth. Text is a transcript of Dunsworth's responses in an interview conducted and transcribed by Andria Caputo. 'Faculty Publication Spotlight: Ed Dunsworth's "Harvesting Labour"'. Published online at McGill Faculty of Arts. 15 December 2022. At: mcgill.ca/arts/article/faculty-publication-spotlight-ed-dunsworths-harvesting-labour. Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

---

Jamaican agricultural workers say they face conditions akin to “systematic slavery” on Canadian farms, as they call on Jamaica to address systemic problems in a decades-old, migrant labour programme in Canada. In a letter sent to Jamaica’s minister of labour and social security earlier this month [August 2022], workers [...] said they have been “treated like mules” on two farms in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. [...] The workers [...] are employed under [...] (SAWP), which allows Canadian employers to hire temporary migrant workers from Mexico and 11 countries in the Caribbean [...]. “We work for eight months on minimum wage and can’t survive for the four months back home. The SAWP is exploitation at a seismic level. Employers treat us like we don’t have any feelings, like we’re not human beings. We are robots to them. They don’t care about us.” Between 50,000 and 60,000 foreign agricultural labourers come to Canada each year on temporary permits [...]. Canada exported more than $63.3bn ($82.2bn Canadian) in agriculture and food products in 2021 – making it the fifth-largest exporter of agri-food in the world. [...]

[Text by: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours. "Jamaican farmworkers decry ‘seismic-level exploitation’ in Canada". Al Jazeera (English). 24 August 2022.]

---

In my home country, St. Lucia, we believe in a fair day’s pay [...]. In Canada, we give more than a fair day’s work, but we do not get a fair day’s pay. [...] I worked in a greenhouse in [...] Ontario, growing and harvesting tomatoes and organic sweet peppers for eight months of the year, from 2012 to 2015. [...] In the bunkhouse where I lived, there were typically eight workers per room. Newly constructed bunkhouses typically have up to fourteen people per room. [...] I also received calls from workers (especially Jamaicans) who were either forbidden – or strongly discouraged – from leaving the farm property. This outrageous overreach of employer control meant that workers had difficulty sending money home, or buying necessary items [...]. [O]n a lot of farms, [...] workers’ movement and activity is policed by their employers. The government knows about this yet fails to act.

[Text are the words of Gabriel Allahdua. Text from a transcript of an interview conducted by Edward Dunworth. '“Canada’s Dirty Secret”: An Interview with Gabriel Allahdua about migrant farm workers’ pandemic experience'. Published by Syndemic Magazine, Issue 2: Labour in a Treacherous Time. 8 March 2022. Some paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

The CSAWP is structured in such a way as to exclude racialized working class others from citizen-track entry into the country while demarcating them to a non-immigrant status as temporary, foreign and unfree labourers. The CSAWP is [...] a relic of Canada’s racist and colonial past, one that continues unimpeded in the present age [...]. [T]he Canadian state has offered a concession to the agricultural economic sector in the way of an ambiguous legal entity through which foreign agricultural workers are legally disenfranchised and legally denied citizenship rights.

[Text by: Adam Perry. "Barely legal: Racism and migrant farm labour in the context of Canadian multiculturalism". Citizenship Studies, 16:2, 189-201. 2012.]

---

Other publications:

Smith. 'Troubling “project Canada”: the Caribbean and the making of “unfree migrant labour”’. Canadian Journal of Latin American Studies Volume 40, number 2. 2015.

Choudry and Thomas. "Labour struggles for workplace justice: migrant and immigrant worker organizing in Canada". Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 55, number 2. 2013.

Harsha Walia. "Transient servitude: migrant labour in Canada and the apartheid of citizenship". Race & Class 52, number 1. 2010.

Beckford. "The experiences of Caribbean migrant farmworkers in Ontario, Canada". Social and Economic Studies Volume 65, number 1. 2016.

Edward Dunsworth. Harvesting Labour: Tobacco and the Global Making of Canada’s Agricultural Workforce (2022).

Edward Dunsworth. “‘Me a free man’: resistance and racialisation in the Canada-Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program,” Oral History Volume 49, number 1. Spring 2021.

#abolition #ecology #imperial

[tomorrowusa]

Bad news for Republicans: violent crime is down across most of the US.

Donald Trump and far right media want people to believe there is a massive crime wave sparked by hordes of bloodthirsty migrants charging in waves across the southern border. In fact, the spike in crime which began with Trump's botched response to the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

To hear the latest version of Donald Trump’s “American carnage” narrative of a country lost without him, you would think law-abiding citizens are cowering in their homes or stockpiling weapons to deal with a massive crime wave that’s due to illegal border crossings caused by various nations emptying their prisons and by leftist “Soros-funded” prosecutors gleefully opening our own penitentiaries. The idea of an ongoing crime wave is incorporated into all sorts of MAGA rhetoric, including claims that prosecutors pursuing cases against Trump in New York, Atlanta, Florida, and Washington, D.C., should instead be frantically trying and jailing predators who are cavorting on the streets. The alleged threat of murderous “animals” who entered the country illegally has been crystalized by Republican agitprop about the tragic death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was murdered while jogging, allegedly by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant. But graphic, horrifying anecdotal evidence does not an actual crime wave make. And the more we learn about what’s actually happening in our major cities, the clearer it is that the surge in violent crime that did occur during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to subside. The COVID crime surge largely ended in 2022. Then the incidence of murder and other violent crimes dropped significantly in 2023, according to preliminary federal data, as CNN recently reported:

Fact check: Trump falsely claims US crime stats are only going up. Most went down last year, including massive drop in murder

To the degree that migrants are involved in criminal activity can now be attributed to Trump's blockage of border security legislation in the House by his spineless minions on Capitol Hill.

Bipartisan border deal hits legislative wall as Republicans say they will block bill

Republicans are now officially the owners of border chaos – not the solution to it.

Back to the featured article...

[W]hen a long upward trend in crime during the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s — a true crime wave — finally came to an end, then dramatically reversed. The current numbers are beginning to show that we’re more than likely in a long period of stable (and, by past standards, relatively low) crime rates that were briefly interrupted by the many dislocations the pandemic caused in American life (and police effectiveness). So the myth of a deadly threat to Americans stemming from liberal policies on the border and in the justice system is mostly just that. Perceptions of public safety, of course, aren’t always in line with objective reality, and violent crime is horrifying even if it’s not as prevalent as law-and-order demagogues suggest. An October 2023 Gallup survey that coincided with growing evidence of dropping crime rates showed 77 percent of Americans agreed there was “more crime” in the country than in the previous year.

Spectacular crime stories are always going to grab headlines. If it bleeds, it leads has been one of the mainstays of American journalism for centuries. You'll never see a headline in the NY Post like Murder Rate Plummets!.

One thing that is often overlooked is that the "long upward trend in crime during the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s" mentioned in the article came to an end in the 1990s during the Clinton administration.

For ideological reasons, Democrats have been too restrained about publicizing their own law and order successes. As with the 1990s, another drop in crime is taking place under a Democratic administration – despite GOP attempts to exploit individual incidents of crime.

Donald Trump himself is a "one man crime wave".

#dropping crime rates #law and order #crime #murder rate #donald trump #american carnage #trump border chaos #trump covid-19 spike in crime #trump administration's botched response to covid-19 #trump is a one man crime wave #republicans #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who #Youtube

[palmtreepalmtree]

It is so frustrating that the LA Times does not have a gift article option, because this article is an incredible snapshot of the U.S. immigration system from the immigrants' perspective. Everyone should read this.

We live in a country where so many people are living half-lives, lives of deep uncertainty, instability, and fear. Their lives are paralyzed. Every story told in this article is a story I have encountered time and time again.

In the (too) many years I have been working in immigration law, it always stuns me how little American citizens understand about the process and what it takes to become a legal resident here. A friend once said to me, totally sincerely, that before he had met me he thought that the only thing keeping undocumented immigrants from becoming legal was that they didn't want to fill out the paperwork and pay a fee.

In reality, the U.S. immigration system is a sprawling network of laws that have been built one on top of the other to create a labyrinthine process that takes years to navigate and is impossible without expensive legal assistance.

Here is a snapshot of the process from the article:

The U.S. caps the number of permanent employment-based immigrants at 140,000 annually, with no more than 7% allowed from any one country. As a result, people in countries with large numbers of applicants could wait a lifetime. The wait for an employment-based green card for residents of India is 134 years, according to Cato’s estimate, based on government data. A U.S. citizen who wants legal permission for their married adult child to immigrate to the U.S. from Mexico would have to wait 160 years at the current rate of approval.

One of the more recent developments I have observed since the Trump administration is a growing fear among people who have already successfully navigated the process that their status--even among naturalized citizens--continues to be perilous and liable to be snatched away at any given moment.

And this has a real impact on our communities - on our ability to enforce the laws that are supposed to make all of us safe and successful.

About 4 in 10 poll respondents said they had avoided things like talking to the police, applying for a job or traveling out of fear of drawing attention to their status or the status of someone in their family.

I could go on and on about this. I don't have all the solutions, but I would say a good start would be to at least double the number of immigrant visas available annually in all categories. The very least we can do is to stop artificially throttling the process.

The immigrants are already here. They are contributing to our society in enormous ways. They are our colleagues and classmates. They are our neighbors. There is no reason not to give them the true freedom that we all enjoy and take for granted.

#dignity in immigration #and now i really need to get back to work

[centrally-unplanned]

I wanted to respond to this post from a bit ago, because I thought it was a good challenge. Certainly Japan is a wildly different country from the US, so the way it can be used sometimes as a "YIMBY model" can often be naïve. It is not YIMBY in many ways, for sure. Cowen sets out a list of ways Japan either isn't YIMBY or would have other reasons for its lower rents; as he puts it:

Yet the more I think about it, the more I tend to believe a very different proposition: Japan is in key ways a very NIMBY country, and its brand of NIMBYism has keeps real estate prices down. A corollary is this: YIMBYism gets much less credit for low Tokyo real estate prices, and furthermore the low real estate prices are a sign of something having gone wrong on the productivity side, in large part due to regulation.

So lets see how it holds up:

1. Japan has had very tough immigration restrictions.  This has eased considerably, but a) the stock matters not just the flow, and b) current Japanese migrants often are from countries such as Thailand and the Philippines, which fills in for some mid-level jobs, but does not massively boost rents.

Meh - True, though its more cultural then legal imo. But we aren't talking about Japan, we are talking about Tokyo. Tokyo has has large amounts of internal migration from the rest of Japan; meanwhile its not like NYC's net population has increased dramatically in the past 20 years from immigration. Unless immigrations have magic rent soil I'm not seeing this.

2. It is extremely difficult to learn written Japanese.  Among its other effects, this discourages high-value immigrants from settling into very high productivity service jobs in Tokyo or in Japan more generally.

Meh - definitely true! Japan needs language reform lol. But like above, immigration isn't magic rent soil, its about net people.

3. Various regulatory and legal decisions have prevented Tokyo from developing into the financial capital of Asia (haven’t you wondered  about this?).  I won’t go into all the detail here, this is the modern world so just ask ChatGPT.  I’m sure you all know that major financial centers usually lead to exorbitant rents, due to the opportunity cost of the land.

Boo - so I literally asked ChatGPT, since I was curious, and I got absolutely nothing - just vague platitudes and literally some of the other reasons from this list, like "It lacks immigration". I don't doubt some of this is true, but I don't think its a load bearing reason it isn't a financial center. Or at least don't be lazy and tell us what they are.

Which I think is relevant, to be clear - but I think might be a bit more endogenous than the article is letting on. The inability to financialize rents in Tokyo might in fact be a reason its less of a financial center!

4. So, so much of Japanese regulatory policy and culture is geared toward maintaining small retail businesses, super small in scale, and low in productivity.  They do not place much upward pressure on rents.  By the way, this is one reason why tourists find Tokyo so wonderful, but those enterprises lower productivity considerably relative to say Walmarts.  It is no accident that so many Japanese examples populate “Markets in Everything,” that they have cat and furry cafes, and so on.

Probably True - I think he is exaggerating, and like "culture" is doing a lot of work here, but its definitely true that Japan has large small business orgs that work hand-in-hand with government to shape the urban ecology for them. The big companies are doing their own thing of course, but I am open this idea for sure. Japan's business-political complex is very vast.

But of course it might all just be downstream of the rents; if rent is low, you can build whatever.

Overall, I think meh? But I think a better argument could be made - we do need more detailed understandings of how Japan's real estate market functions in relation to its urban planning. I see one or the other in a box a lot, but the interaction I think should be dug into more.

#yimby discourse

[proudautisticcomrade]

The many Skulls of the Lurid Crypt

I am one of the overseers (players) of this succession fortress organized by @dorfposting And I succeeded the Dwarf from @impossiblepackage first, then @jv to finally me. Here is my story of Ërtongnòm - Gerbilgod

First of Granite, year 152 in the fortress Ërtongnòm: Gerbilgod

After stumbling along searching for my mountain-home, I, overseer Erika, daughter of Hawks, found the fabled Ërtongnòm.

Two things about the fortress that caught my immediate attention was the impressive stockpile of foodstuff. A good abundance to ensure our citizens are well-fed. The other thing was the smell however…

Understanding the discomfort miasma would bring to a fortress, and with discomfort brings temper tantrums, I instructed our miners, the Dwarves Ber and Mistêm, to dig out the dumping pit a little deeper. A crude solution, but one that will suffice until magma becomes our servant.

And in ensuring that refuse and other garbage is to be dumped, I ordered the Dwarf Besmar Närèrith, our fisherdwarf, to specialize in trash collecting so that the only labor they are concerned about, other than fishing, is to ensure our fortress’ stink does not sicken us all. Then I asked Goden Shedlok the Herbalist to specialize hauling food, so that our carefully prepared meals do not go to spoil and spoil all of our moods.

Hopefully, the Dwarves’ other labors do not hinder their new found responsibilities too much.

11’th of Granite

An Elven caravan had just arrived on the morning. They didn’t carry too much, nor was anything too valuable, save the fruits, vegetables and nuts. I felt that the necessary course of action was to simply ignore our nature-protector friends. Afterall, our stockpiles are more than sufficient.

We would find better trading partners later in the year, I’m sure of it.

25’Th of Granite

Looking at the state of the Dwarven Bunks, I decided the best course of action, while the fortress was cleaning up, was to set up personal furniture for the dwarves, so they may have personal coffers to hang up their clothing or other objects of subjective value.

I have the dwarves use the available shale to set up these stone workshops, one will focus production on cabinets, the other on coffers, and the final one on doors.

With the abundance of Rock Salt, and my reluctance to use economic stone for anything other than steel production, I ordered the furniture to be made of rock salt. Not the best material in my not so humble opinion, but us Dwarves make do with what we got. Perhaps when we have more migrants come in, be it this year or the next, we may assign them masons to work specifically on these tasks. But for now, this is work available for anyone.

6’th of Slate

Besmar has been spotted working on refuse removal, yet, most times I spot her praying fervently to her Gods, meditating on their spheres of influence. Though I am not one to get in the way of others’ personal beliefs, I find her lack of work disturbing. Had I any extra laborers, surely this would be no issue, but I must rely on her solely to dump refuse without sacrificing the other Dwarves’ work.

I am happy to report that no complaints of miasma have been announced by any of the Dwarves. So at least we have that.

21’st of Slate

I spoke too soon about the Miasma situation, I turned a corner to check on the bunks, and I find the purple clouds of miasma torturing the animals. The remains of Crundles continue to rot as our dumper continues to pray. 

1st of Felsite

Ask and ye shall receive. Migrants have arrived.

Now our humble fortress of 28 (including monster hunters) is boosted to a modest 59

More children arrived with their parents. Which means more haulers, which hopefully means more refuse dumping. 

Now a new task was set forth, to house all these new workers, for our glorious fortress.

At Elevation Level: (-7) going downwards, I set up mining orders to rapidly set up new housing for the Dwarves as well as any bunks for future migrant waves.

11’th of Felsite

Let it be known, on this day, the farmers of Ërtongnòm have petitioned for a guildhall for the Farmer’s Guild named: “The Guild of Meadows”

In other news, I have switched the children’s chores away from most hauling activity to refuse hauling, in order to better streamline the sanitation process of the fortress. There are poor moods across the board so I hope the construction of the guild will help build the morale of the citizens.

I felt that in honor of a Dwarven Farmer’s Guild, the Hall itself could resemble that of a Plump Helmet. When the final touches of the fortress have been completed (Dug out, smoothed, with some furnishing), we will boast our finished product for all to see (on Tumblr).

22’nd of Felsite

May Lumnum, God of The Stars and Freedom, watch over us. A fearsome beast approaches.

The Worst of these troubles: we only just noticed this beast towards our gate (Because I was only notified as it transformed near our entrance). I pray that the monster hunters, with the aid of our cage traps, can defeat this creature before any of our citizens die, or worse, become infected. 

I haphazardly set up a burrow called the Panic Room in the Oily Chestnut and a small space where the lever is so that a dwarf may press it before the monster can invade… hopefully.

23’rd of Felsite 

Our Prayers are answered, Stinthäd Melbilastel, the were-lizard (and not a citizen btw) has worn off her transformation. Which now gives us ample ability to destroy her. Though I pity her and her curse, I cannot allow such a threat to exist near our fortress endangering our proud citizens and those lazy monster hunters who did nothing. I organized a small militia of Dwarves to deal with this threat. Even though we had no military equipment, we at least had numbers. Finally, with no casualty to us (no injuries or deaths) we walk off in mourning of this poor soul. The least we could do is engrave a slab in memoriam. 

26’th of Felsite

I would like to personally congratulate comrade ‘jv’ for their victory in the fortress elections. You represent the will of the people, may you lead us to glory!

By the gods’ very flame, one of our children has been afflicted with a strange mood! I eagerly await the artifact young Urdim Cilobrulush will create!

They claimed one of the Craftdwarf workshops on the main floor, and has been seen hauling giant mole bones to their shop.

Five Days Later…

Finally, I turned my attention towards the merchants, and decided against purchasing any foods or such, but did trade for some leathers in bins. Having leather fashioned into cloaks, I believe, would give our military dwarves some extra protection.

3’rd of Malachite

A little outside the Tavern is the entranceway to the housing facilities for our Dwarves. Mud marks the path forward and I found it appropriate to till out some farm plots for more cavern diet variety. It completely slipped my mind to build additional bunks for so many new Dwarves. So I immediately worked to remedy that. I also started to commission more furnishing for our veteran Dwarves, the dwarves that were here before the wave. Though fortress life is hard, a comfort here and there can make it all worth it.

15’th of Malachite

The worshippers of Lumnum, who band together as “The Tenebrous Order,” have requested for the construction of a temple in service to the God of The Stars and Freedom. A small temple, humble and non-obstructive to our time, could be arranged. Though I’m not too religious myself, I recognize the faith of the people in their gods, and I hope morale could be raised by this new holy site. Very well my Dwarves, construction is underway.

Because Lumnum is the God of The Stars as well as Freedom, I thought the best way to honor that sphere of influence was to design the temple in the shape of a five-pronged star. I’ll commision some statues of copper in the image of Lumnum to decorate the temple. 

11’th of Galena

And now we find ourselves with yet another uninvited guest to our territory. Mostly unarmored Dwarves position themselves behind the drawbridge, and I bring the monster hunters out of their comfort zone to help defend our fortress. Our soldiers, due to the armor not yet being fully forged, are mostly unprotected, with only Hammers to keep them safe.

I lead our Dwarves onwards to battle. Unfortunately, not every Dwarf had heard the call to the Tavern and several children were playing in the mud outside. So, bravely, I led our soldiers to dispose of this garbage, and swiftly, the threat was taken care of, with only one fatality.

Unfortunately, one of our soldiers, young Mörul Likottorad was lost during the conflict. We know not their whereabouts, but we assume the worst. Due to the missing nature of the body, we will engrave a memorial slab in her honor. Go to the ancestors lost hero, your struggles are over. 

Haphazardly, I arranged for a hospital to be built on the main floor. Though our casualties were minimal, some Dwarves, like our siege operator Kulet Alisbesmer, had sustained some injuries, they for example had lost their ability to stand. We will need to commission some crutches, and our Chief Medical Dwarf (CMD) will need to treat their wounds.

1st of LimeStone

Now, don’t ask me how, but Kulet seems to have gotten better with minimal input. She wasn’t even on her last legs, she could barely stand, now here she is, working as if nothing traumatic happened. Ah well, Dwarves are just built differently. Construction of the Hospital is going well enough, we have some beds, a coffer to store our medical supplies, and I am building a Soap Maker’s Workshop inside the hospital so we may be able to clean wounds in the future. This really should’ve been something I built first, but better late than never. Across the Hospital, where the training barracks are, I am constructing a Bedroom, an Office/Dining Hall, and a set of prisons for the new Captain of the Guard, Minkot Datantoral/Ironlaw (I mean come on, with a name like that, why not?!). I also realized the mayor JV needed some extra effort into their living standards, being mayor and all. And why not, surely ImpossiblePackaged, for their labors as overseer, requires a new living standard. 

4th of Limestone

More child snatchers arrived, they ran away just as quickly. I pray for peace, my Dwarves have seen enough action.

14’th of Limestone

A Caravan from Litast Likot has arrived to Ërtongnòm. I seem to be getting what I want in terms of peace. So far, things have been relatively peaceful. The problem, I’ve been skimping out on the Fortress’s trade goods production, so as a result, we’re not trading for anything. Shameful, I’m aware, but with the formation of a militia, threats arriving to the fortress and trying to specialize workers into other industries I deemed important for the time, it just slipped my mind. 

15’th of Limestone

A day later and the liaison offers us a barony. Though my thoughts on the nobility are less than flattering, I recognize this is a huge prestige for us Dwarves. So, in honor of their labors in guiding us to this mountain home, I felt it necessary to award comrade ImpossiblePackaged the title of Baron. Glory to our eternal fortress! For my successor, i ordered us some subterranean plant seeds and spawn as well as extra logs for bed production. Make use of this as you will, honored overseer. They want, in return, bracelets, and are offering a 196% increase to purchase any the next time they visit. I’ll commission some bracelets for the fortress and encrust them with gemstones. The future looks bright for us. Glory to the Future!

21’st of Limestone

So, for reasons beyond my comprehension, it did not occur to me to check the finished goods bins for trade goods. Fortunately, the liaison has not left us, so I sent our broker to trade. After considerable trading, and feeling a little ripped off, I bought the fortress additional provisions to ensure its survival. I also purchased bins of different cloths and bags of seeds and spawns. We can craft more goods to replenish our loss and use the new silks/yarn-cloth/plant-cloth/leather to dress our citizens into something fresher.

18’th of Sandstone

 It’s been an uneventful Autumn as of yet. A long while ago when constructing the trash pit, we ran into some semi-molten rock. This could indicate magma below. Right now, coke is becoming a rarity, so magma forges and smelters could be very helpful to us economically necessary. The magma sea was discovered, now to figure out pumps, or move metalsmithing operations downwards. This also means our dumping pit for trash no longer will emit a smell, because the magma will burn it all! So long miasma, you purple cloud of anxiety!

22nd of Sandstone

This is so far what I have for the new magma workshops that will mostly replace our need for refined coke. After the workshops are dug out with storage space, we’ll begin actually channeling into the sea for the forges and smelters. I did see some magma snakes and other nasties, hopefully this won’t present itself as too much of a problem, I may consider putting guard detail down to these depths.

23rd of Sandstone, or as I like to call it, as soon as I unpaused the game:

Made of water, no wonder you were forgotten. Although such an announcement scared me, I realized there was no real way for the monster to enter the fortress properly. It’s in the caverns, we have traps set up for this beast, and it’s made of water. I’ll set up a guard post with our war dog, but I think the monster hunters in the tavern are more than enough. 

1st of Timber

The great big ball of agua fled. Kinda hoping for a fight, but this is probably for the best. At least this means nobody dies. The miners continue to dig deep into the depths of this world. I am eager for some metal bars into our workers’ hands. We also just received a new migrant wave pushing our population from 69 to 77. We deconstructed the upstairs Metal Forges and Smelters. The anvils will be relocated to the lower levels and housing for our smiths will be located near the workshops. And then move the storages near there as well. Because the steel industry still needs carbon in order to forge steel, coke will still be located by the smelters.

10th of Timber

Do you think Armok hides in heaven because they too are far too tired to deal with all this? Our Dwarves do not like listening to burrow orders, so my only solution is to send soldiers to throw themselves at the enemy in order to deal with threats. Here’s hoping we don’t make more engraved slabs.

13th of Timber

No deaths!!! The giantess Istrath Absamistrath Muraktesum is dead by the hands of Mebzuth Athelilrom, the killer of the cyclops invader that resulted in the death of another Dwarf in the months prior. Truly, the title of Hero of Ërtongnòm is earned here.

26th of Timber

I dug out the forge shops and this thing came out of the rock. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?!?! We are going to lose miners and gain some coffins and slabs. I have the soldiers guard a hallway that leads to the rest of the fortress so that the soldiers can regroup and not take this thing one at a time.

1st of Moonstone

There are so many casualties. That THING charged the blokade and killed seven soldiers (Including Mebzuth) and ten civilians. I ordered the Dwarves to wall off the forges. A vile siege of darkness has arrived to Ërtongnòm. Goblins charge the gates. The Gates are closing, whoever is outside is just going to have to fend for themselves, because we absolutely cannot defend ourselves. After more dwarves threw themselves to kill the fiend, thus killing themselves, the thing finally died, but we are out of soldiers. A vile force of Darkness has arrived. We have no soldiers, our workforce was cut by 27% and the winter has only just begun. The gates are closed. Armok save them, because I cannot.

16th of Moonstone

The baron, ImpossiblePackaged, was injured during the fight in their fight against Skullscrypt the Lurid, that maroon fiend that slaughtered much of our citizens. Though they killed the beast, they are left in critical condition that has already been patched up, and sutured. The only task left to do is to clean them up, lest they die of infection. A statue in honor of the death of the Lurid will be erected of course, but it will be a somber moment. Too many lives were lost thanks to that death machine.

19th of Moonstone

I’m not sure which of the Gods I’ve angered, but I'm going to assume I did something serious. This must be the third Forgotten Beast that has visited our fortress. We still haven’t been able to rebuild our militia, so I think it’s best to simply keep the gates closed, and never venture out into the wild.

20th of Moonstone

It got into the fortress. It came from the caverns and attacked our war dog first, then it set off our many stone traps. In a miraculous turn of events, it fell into the entrance of the garbage pit. A small hallway that is inaccessible to the rest of the fortress. So now we have a pet monster that I hope starves to death. In any case, I need to replace that dog. It served us well and will be remembered.

7th of Opal

Some Good news…finally. Likot Idudos, our mechanic, has entered a strange mood and is gathering goods for their latest artifact. I am excited about what new goody we may yet receive!

12th of Opal

Our Newest artifact! Though I would’ve preferred the creation of armor or a weapon, this artifact will truly be a delight to display around the fortress. Perhaps I’ll set it up in the guildhall or the temple, and allow those buildings to finally be complete.

4th of Obsidian

As I realize my tenure as overseer draws to a close, I look back at my progress here in the fortress of Gerbilgod. Could I have done better? I came here smelling the miasma, hoping to clean it. Then the migrants came to help, then the monster came to feed. We have no more coal to refine into coke, and thus, an end to our metal industry. To try to substitute, I awoken the slumber of a beast best left forgotten. My Dwarves, oh my precious Dwarves, will you ever forgive me? The gates remain closed. Perhaps the next overseer will find success in my downward descent into madness. I truly hope so, for the sake of Ërtongnòm. The previous overseers built great foundations for wealth, but the outside world proved too hostile, too greedy. To any overseer who wishes to avenge our people, build up our strength, destroy the beasts in our fortress and prove to all the glory of Ërtongnòm! My final message to you all: bring us Glory!

In remembrance: 26 Lost but never forgotten

Ber Dallithonddom, Miner

Aban Degëlîton, Carpenter

Vucar Dumatrìthar, Herbalist

Besmar Närèrith, Fisherdwarf

Goden Shedkol, Herbalist

Zulban Idbal, Gem Cutter

Kol Össeklikot, Animal Trainer

Zuntîr Rovodmedtob, Macedwarf

Kib Takùthducim, Marksdwarf

Rimtar Estunaban, Trader

Mebzuth Athelilrom, Hero of Gerbilgod

Atír Mosusgoden, Hammerdwarf

Nish Zulbanrutod, Dwarven Child

Zulban Litastkobeb, Sworddwarf

Mörul Likottorad, Hammerdwarf

Rovod Dalzatshorast, Miner

Erika ProudAutsiticComrade (Minkot Ironlaw), Captain of the Guard/Hammerdwarf

Feb Ustuthód, Bone Doctor

Zuglar Akrulfotthor, Metalsmith

Udib Likotuvel, Hammerdwarf

Goden Mebzuthmishthem, Dwarven Child

Amost Tangathlibash, Doctor

Tulon Alåtharist, Farmer

Kogan Likottulon, Glassmaker

Fikod Rakustardes, Pump Operator

Inod Thîkutzuntîr, Peasant

#Dwarf Fortress #gerbilgod #long post

[laresearchette]

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: LITTLE WING (Paramount+) TEEN MOM: FAMILY REUNION (MTV Canada) 8:00pm THE AMAZING RACE (CTV) 9:30pm

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

CBC GEM QUEEN OF THE DEUCE

NETFLIX CANADA BANDITS (MX)

MLB SPRING TRAINING (SN) 1:00pm: Pirates vs. Jays

TENNIS (TSN/TSN3) 2:00pm; Indian Wells - Round of 16 (TSN/TSN5) 9:00pm; Indian Wells - Round of 16

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 7:30pm: Predators vs. Jets (SN1/SNWest) 10:00pm: Capitals vs. Oilers (SNPacific) 10:30pm: Avalanche vs. Canucks

NBA BASKETBALL (TSN4) 7:0pm: Raptors vs. Pacers (SN Now) 7:30pm: Nuggets vs. Heat (SN360) 8:30pm: Warriors vs. Mavericks (TSN4) 10:00pm: Lakers vs. Kings

PWHL HOCKEY (TSN5) 8:00pm: Boston vs. Minnesota

WILD CARDS (CBC) 8:00pm (SEASON FINALE): Ellis is drawn into a case involving Max, her ex, and a world-famous Imperial egg, where a cat-and-mouse heist tests their friendship, their partnership, and their trust in each other.

FARM DREAMS (Nat Geo Wild) 8:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Indy Officinalis helps Grace and Will Lyons make their homestead a success.

ALLEGIANCE (CBC) 9:00pm: A call to a motel leads Sabrina and Vince into the underbelly of a migrant worker trafficking ring.

RED EARTH UNCOVERED (APTN) 9:00pm: Prior to leaving for Central Alberta to investigate strange encounters, Hayley speaks with a ghost expert for advice; guided by Doc's warning not to go out at night, Hayley probes mysterious evil sightings in Maskwacis.

LANDS ENCHANTED (APTN) 9:30pm: Lil'wat Nation members Maxine Bruce and Tammie Jenkins explore the sacred fishing grounds of Lillooet Lake, cherished by generations of Lil'wat fishers.

BIG BROTHER CANADA (Global) 9:30pm

TELLING OUR STORY (documentary) 9:00pm: The worldview of First Peoples, their ancestors, languages and traditional knowledge; the ingenuity that has been passed on for thousands of years through oral tradition.

FIXER TO FABULOUS: ITALIANO (HGTV Canada) 10:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Dave and Jenny travel to Italy to take on their biggest project yet, helping friends who've poured their savings into a Tuscan farmhouse rental; they begin to restore the villa, but soon find out how challenging a renovation across the world can be.

#cdntv #cancon #canadian tv #canadian tv listings #wild cards #allegiance #red earth uncovered #lands enchanted #big brother canada #telling our story #tennis #mlb baseball #nhl hockey #nba basketball

[denimbex1986]

'Organisers of a legendary fundraiser for striking miners are returning to the same venue in Camden Town for a “good old bop” 40th anniversary event.

Tickets for the London Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners’ return to the Electric Ballroom, on May 16, are already selling out.

The Pits and Perverts line-up is yet to be finalised but it promises a night of music, dance, drag, political speakers and compered by cabaret and performance artist David Hoyle.

Synth-pop political agitators Bronski Beat headlined the original gig, in December 1984, which drew more than 1,500 fans, gay activists and striking coal miners from across the country to Camden Town.

The story of the LGSM and the night at the Ballroom has become iconic after it was retold in the 2014 film Pride and its glittering cast including George MacKay, Dominic West, Andrew Scott, Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy among others.

One of the original LGSM organisers, Mike Jackson, told me this week how proud he was about the group’s role in not only supporting the miners – but also changing attitudes towards lesbian and gay people.

Mr Jackson, who lives in King’s Cross, said: “This is the only Pits and Perverts event we’ve had since the original. And it’s really pleasing to be back at the Electric Ballroom. It’s going to be a very diverse night and a good old bop.

“I hadn’t been back there since that day so it was a strange feeling to go in there when we were organising.

“There are lot of ghosts in the Electric Ballroom. So many famous acts have passed through.”

I last spoke to Mike when a signed original Pits and Perverts poster – designed by Kevin Franklin – was put up at the King Charles I pub in King’s Cross in 2022.

On Sunday he was up in Rotherham, Yorkshire, speaking to the miners at a 40th anniversary event.

He said: “I harked back to what it was like as a young gay man in the 60s and 70s. Nobody liked us: politicians, courts, police.

“We had no rights to fight back with. It’s great that things have changed so much with that – and to think how we played a role in it all.

“The unions played a role too.

“Because long before we got those rights enshrined in law, the trade union movement had been helping by starting to look at employment rights, and all the other things that trade unions do.

“When the equalities legislation came in with Tony Blair, there was already a worked-out template for employment rules thanks to the unions.”

Mr Jackson said the LGSM had been “reconstituted” following the Pride movie and that he was part of a group of four remaining working on the legacy.

“We’ve all this merchandise that is still incredibly popular.

“People love our T-shirts. We give the profits away to good causes. We don’t want to be a charity.

“We want to be political. It’s been great to work with the Lesbian and Gays Support the Migrants.

“They are like our next generation really.”

Mr Jackson, a horticulturist who worked at Camden Garden Centre for 16 years, said he was tiring a little physically in old age but still remained as angry as ever.

“The fire is still there. The anger is still there.

“What is this nonsense about people becoming more right wing as they get older? The older I get the more angry I get.

“Because in so much, f*** all has changed.

“I am 72 days before the gig. I can tell you what the news will be: housing, education, war, benefits, the welfare state, greedy capitalism.

“At the same time my best friend is my bed. Sometimes I scream at my bed: ‘I love you, bed.’

“So with all this I am a bit surviving on adrenalin. It’s a bit scary. We are a bunch of amateurs really and it’s a big venue to sell tickets for.

“With the original, we felt the same but once we secured Bronski Beat – I think their Smalltown Boy was No 1 – we knew it would be a success.”

And he revealed his latest theory on where the night got its very excellent name from.

Mr Jackson said: “There’s a great little video you can find called Framed Youth – The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts.

“It was a video project created by the Lesbian and Youth Project, as they were called then, where youngsters had been given training and access to making a video – it was a Ken Livingstone thing, I think.

“This was 42 years ago – two years before the miners strike.

“They go into Ridley Road market in Dalston and simply ask the question: Can you tell me what a lesbian is? It’s like ‘a murderer’, ‘a sex maniac’.

“It’s so comical, but also quite dark. The lesbians were p***ing themselves laughing.

“But that’s what we wanted to do – take the insult, neutralise it and throw it back at people.”

The film, which won an award, is available on YouTube.

The original concert raised more £5,500, which was distributed to families in need.

Tickets for the 7pm event cost £20 and are available on the Electric Ballroom website.'

#Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners #Pride #Pits and Perverts #Electric Ballroom #Bronski Beat #George MacKay #Dominic West #Andrew Scott #Imelda Staunton #Bill Nighy #Camden Town #David Hoyle #Mike Jackson #Kevin Franklin

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Toronto in the 1900s was a different city from the one we know today.

The center of business had moved west of the historical Town of York site and the skyline was undeveloped.

The tallest structures were the Temple Building at 10 stories and the Trader’s Bank Building at 15 stories.

A new downtown to the west of Yonge and King Streets was built. The City of Toronto moved into a new City Hall, built at the head of Bay Street at Queen Street.

Much of this new downtown was destroyed in the Great Toronto Fire of 1904, but it was quickly rebuilt, with new taller buildings.

South of downtown, the railways dominated most of the lands. A new viaduct was built to carry the main lines and eliminate the many at-level crossings.

A single Union Station was built to replace the several railway stations of the rail lines. It sat empty for a while over disagreements between the government and the rail companies.

In the late nineteenth century, Toronto welcomed the rise of Victorian architecture, as well as many of its revival styles.

This style of architecture was thought to be more modern, unique and creative than its successor, characterized by steep gabled roofs, round angles, towers, turrets and dormers, shapely bay windows, stained glass, centric carved woodwork, and bright colored paneling.

This style lent itself well to narrower lots, and thus, Victorian-style housing was most abundant in the city’s traditionally middle-class neighborhoods where individual properties were smaller, most notably Cabbagetown, Trinity-Bellwoods, Parkdale, and The Annex.

These neighborhoods held some of the largest collections of Victorian houses in North America.

Specifically, houses constructed in the Annex developed an individual iteration of the Victorian style, called the “Annex Style House.”

This style contained a variety of diverse and eclectic elements borrowed from many different styles.

Most distinctively, these houses were built of a mix of brick and sandstone, turrets, domes, and decorative ornamentation.

The city received new European immigrant groups beginning in the late 19th century into the early 20th century, particularly Germans, French, Italians, and Jews.

They were soon followed by Russians, Poles, and other Eastern European nations, in addition to the Chinese entering from the West.

As the Irish before them, many of these migrants lived in overcrowded shanty-type slums, such as “the Ward,” which was centered on Bay Street, now the heart of the country’s Financial District.

As new migrants began to prosper, they moved to better housing in other areas, in what is now understood to be succession waves of settlement.

Despite its fast-paced growth by the 1920s, Toronto’s population and economic importance in Canada remained second to the much longer-established Montreal, Quebec.

The Great Depression of the 1930s reversed the employment trend, with approximately one-fourth of the Toronto population unemployed and caused severe financial problems for suburban Toronto.

Capital debt payments could not be met and expenditure on public services—sewage and piped water supply in places remote from the lake, for example—had to be postponed.

However, World War II’s demands for war supplies and soldiers soon changed the employment picture.

Following the war, and into the 1960s, times were prosperous throughout North America.

Toronto’s economy diversified and boomed, greatly altering the cultural and spatial pattern of the city.

Other factors after the war included the baby boom, demand for single-family dwellings, and the proliferation of the automobile.

Suburban sprawl was assisted by the increase in road networks and freeways, thereby consuming some of the best agricultural land in the region.

By 1953, a reorganization of local government had been created, along with the Corporation of Metropolitan Toronto, in an attempt to control development in the surrounding regions.

Suburban growth continued. In 1966, new City of Toronto boundaries were drawn, amalgamating 13 communities, with the Metropolitan government still in place.

By the 1976 census, Toronto passed Montreal to become the largest city in Canada, and the gap between these two cities continued to grow.

(Photo credit: City of Toronto Archives / BlogTO / Wikimedia Commons / Britannica / Flickr).

Updated on: February 6, 2023

#Toronto #1900s #20th century #Great Toronto Fire of 1904 #Victorian architecture #Annex Style House #19th century #Great Depression of the 1930s #Rare Historical Photos #vintage photos #Victorian houses

[fatehbaz]

On 6 July 1860, a British consul by the name of George Whittingham Caine arrived at the nondescript port of Swatow, today’s modern Shantou. He “disembarked from a warship to the cacophony of a seven-gun salute” and, following the obligatory hoisting of the Union Jack [...], “triumphantly declared the treaty port of Chaozhou ‘open’.” Yet unlike other treaty ports scattered along the maritime fringes of the tottering Qing empire, the British found themselves from the outset outflanked by established Chaozhouese (otherwise known as Chiuchow or Teochew) trading communities and failed to gain a foothold in the profitable local commodity trade in rice, sugar, beancake [...].

[T]he Chaozhouese emerged from a[n] [...] ungovernable corner of Guangdong and joined the ranks of the Fujianese and Cantonese as major players in commerce and commodity production, not only along China’s southeastern littoral but across the different territories washed by the South China Sea. The story of the rise of maritime Chaozhou is set against the backdrop of state attempts to subdue and pacify [the region] [...], the emergence of colonial states in Southeast Asia, and the booms and busts of the commodity trade. [...]

[F]rom 1869 to 1948, around six million laborers departed from the port of Swatow and fanned out across the Nanyang (or “Southern Ocean”) [...]. They worked in Chaozhouese-owned gambier, pepper, rice, sugar, rubber, and fruit plantations, toiled in the gold mines of West Borneo, and served as sailors in the intra-Asian junk trade. These overseas sojourners provided a steady trickle of remittances and in the process transformed the local economy [...] [and] brought Siam, Malaya, Borneo, French Indochina, Hong Kong and Shanghai within the orbit of maritime Chaozhou.

---

The story of the heyday of maritime Chaozhou [...] is bookended by two defining moments; the ascent, following the collapse of Ayutthaya in 1767, of the half-Chaozhouese king of Siam, Taksin, and the catastrophic collapse of the global economy in the 1930s. [...] Ming and Qing [authorities] attempt[ed] to subjugate China’s unruly southeastern littoral. A series of interdictions and measures, ranging from the forced depopulation of complete coastal areas in the second half of the seventeenth century to Fang Yao’s [...] “pacification campaigns” in the 1860s, wreaked havoc but also buttressed anti-dynastic sentiments and reinforced Chaozhou’s maritime orientation. [...] These [...] campaigns triggered [...] migration of several generations of Chaozhouese men [... ]. Singapore's authorities were overwhelmed [...] [and this] worked as a catalyst for the British colonial project in the Straits Settlements. [...]

"Mexican dollars, Hong Kong dollars, French Indochinese piasters, Philippine pesos, Straits dollars and Japanese yen inundated local markets” and sustained a remittance-dependent Chaozhou economy that was always oriented towards the Nanyang and [...] removed from Beijing.

---

But the steady influx of foreign-earned capital also had its shadows. Remittances exacerbated social divides [...]. Furthermore, the success stories of some protagonists, [...] whose fabulous wealth derived from their near-monopoly on gutta-percha during Malaya’s rubber boom, are matched by uncountable, and often irretrievable, stories of suffering and hardship.

Thousands of migrants embarked penniless as “credit ticket coolies” and were shipped under trying conditions to far-flung places where they then toiled for months to earn their passage fare back. [...]

Its leading merchants and brotherhoods competed as well as cooperated with colonial actors across Southeast Asia [...] and Chaozhou-controlled business ventures were crucial to the evolution of industrial capitalism both at home and overseas.

---

Text by: Yorim Spoelder. '"Distant Shores: Colonial Encounters on China's Maritime Frontier" by Melissa Macauley'. Asian Review of Books. 5 October 2021. [A book review published online in the Non-Fiction section of Asian Review of Books. Some paragraph breaks/contractions in this post added by me.]

[pynkhues]

hi!! i love your succession meta/discussions and I just rewatched 3.02 where all four Roy siblings talk about what was happening with the migrants/dancers/cruise ships etc. and how Connor and Kendall wholly admitted to knowing, but Roman and Shiv didn’t … or didn’t actually know. I’m so interested in seeing more of these kinds of things in s4, like warped versions of their experiences, completely different perspectives depending on the sibling. Also, in 3.08 Caroline corrects Shiv that she was 13 when Caroline and Logan divorced, and not 10 like Shiv says… like these details are super intriguing to me! i hope to see more of their childhoods unpacked (especially Connor)! take care by the way!! <3

Hi! Thank you so much, anon! This was a really lovely ask to get. <3

I totally agree about being fascinated by the distinctions the show makes and what that means in terms of memory, ignorance, accountability and complicity, and luckily for both of us, I think the show is too, haha. It circles around a lot - in the examples you gave, but also in Kendall, Roman and Connor's different understanding of the dog pound game, Roman repurposing memories of Connor to use for Logan and in - - well. Pretty much everything in the fallout of Shiv's wedding.

Hell, even in today's episode, memory is weaponised twice over - first with Logan choosing to use the past against Greg ("Where's your old man, huh? Still sucking cock at the county fair?") when Greg tries to use the present against Logan ("Where are your kids?") and then, in a much more complicated scene, with Tom and Shiv at the end of the episode, where Tom wanted to talk about the past while Shiv couldn't allow herself that vulnerability.

If we're the sum of the things we've done, what does that mean when we and the people we love have done terrible things? When do these things become memory, and what power do we have to re-write our stories? How can we protect ourselves from what we've done, and others from what we've done to them? How do we hold them accountable for what they've done to us? Who does a truth belong to? And why is it that sometimes it can heal, as it does for Kendall in 3.09, cut, as it's done to Shiv and Tom now, and lock us down, as it's done to many of the people on the periphery of the Roy's lives?

It's complicated! And man, am I just glad this show is back.

#i've already watched the episode twice #i hadn't even realised how much i missed it #perfect! #and yes! #defs hope we learn more about everyone's history #succession meta #hbo succession #succession spoilers

[mchiti]

quote marks are used for a reason though, if you pretend you don't understand me we won't get out of it. I said it looks "less Moroccan" than how society (and not me) sees Moroccans.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sport-preview-Ziyech-2.jpg?strip=all&quality=100&w=1080&h=1000&crop=1

If you see the boy in the foreground on the street, you target him in one way, if you see the boy in the other two photos, you don't even think about the fact that he is Moroccan. But I use him as an example because in this way we understand each other in a more didactic way, it is clear that this example can be extended to any person. Racism is everywhere, but money is mainly the problem so the only weapon we have at our disposal is economic emancipation. because I don't know if a boy, even if Moroccan, but dressed in expensive clothes would have been targeted in the same way, everyone genuflects in front of the rich, even the whites. Is there a practical way to help our communities? yes, and it is integration, work, economic stability, because we must no longer give white europeans the possibility of treating us as last. And I don't think you disagree on that, we seem to speak two different languages ​​but I think you agree on that

yeah that collage of pictures from the sun probably coming from some bullshit article on how migrants or diaspora kids can overcome poverty and turn their life around, a fantastic example of a racist tabloid who shits on migrants 24/7 you're bringing to me thank you very much. I'm not interested in this bullshit narrative and the fact I mainly post about a player doesn't give you any right to use him as an example for everything, first of all. because it looks weird, I'm being honest. it looks obnoxious and weird. What the fuck are you even talking about, racist abuse comes in every shape and form and you're simply DELUSIONAL if you think that's all it will take. You're using that picture, fine, he'd never find himself in that situation now exactly because he is a rich player, him as 15 year old might have found himself in a situation like what happened to us last night and would have definitely risked the same. And so what? what is this bullshit we're talking about, that we all need to become rich? Because you're delusional to think that's all it takes. We can't be all rich. and even if we're lucky enough to have financial stability to live a dignified life and pay the bills, that won't shield you from racism. It won't! Not even footballers are safe from it if you're noticing (and I'd suggest you you go read media coverage on ziyech from the sun if you're bringing that on the table) and do you think common people will be? I agree on the fact we need integration policies and financial stability, yes, I don't agree on the fact this success stories bullshit is going to save us lmao

The premises that we need to work on that first - excuse me but no? how about we ask for respect and equal rights regardless of our social status first? FOR EVERYONE. And please don't link me anymore pictures because it's triggering as fuck that you're talking about someone's picture as a teenager as "moroccan looking" I don't care you're using quote marks and I don't care what you think about it, the way you've described that picture is very offensive