so, what is happening in the conflict between iran and saudi arabia, right now?
it's a civil war in the persian empire. and the jews are being a nuisance to the hegemon, as always. but, it's a war that the iranians must win in order to rebuild their empire, their civilization - which is why anybody interested in stunting the iranian return to empire, as the western empire has been since the great game, perhaps on the strength of elizabethen era intelligence from russian agents, who were loosely aligned with the british at that time, but why anybody interested in stunting the iranian return to empire would back the saudis in that civil war.
might the turks be even better off in the persian sphere than in the greco-russian one? well, iran could act as a sort of pass through for a larger turkic confederation, as modern iran also has substantial turkic roots. the mongols didn't bring a direct population replacement themselves, but they opened up a vacuum for turkish tribes to migrate into. the mongols mostly wanted to go home. while they no doubt left descendants as the children of rape victims, the semi-apocalyptic conditions that these children were left to fend for themselves in would have had a staggering mortality rate. with the collapse of the entire economy, it would have been difficult to find food. and, you consequently might have become food, yourself - at the hands of animals, or perhaps of other humans. i'm speculating; there are no detailed records from this period, everybody was killed. the reports we have are from people travelling through, and they're grisly, but not detailed. there are no grounds besides speculative logical ones to suggest that the persian victims of the mongols resorted to cannibalism, but they might have. you have to wonder how many rape victims took advantage of their misfortune; it's protein, why throw it away?
we can state this much as fact: there was enough empty space to allow for substantive migration into iran from central asia, which is how the turks got to turkey in the first place. and, mortality rates aside, it started to seem like everybody around there looked a little bit racially mixed, all at the same time, around this point.
for, when the persians conquered the romans from the inside out, they were really conquering the greeks, as the romans were in the process of the germanic revolution at this point. if the turks reunite with the russians to recreate the greeks, will they end up conquered by the persians again? does history not state that this is inevitable?
well, we haven't tried it with russia as a base. what we know about history regarding russia is that it is a useful hideout for pirates - thugs, barbarians, terrorists. with the empire now in direct control of the barbarians, it might have an easier time with the persians. how's that for a long game in history? how's that for process?
really, the difference is this: if the turks unite with the persian empire, it could set off a regional war between iranian and russian empires for what is greece - the dardanelles, and the old city of byzantium. the entrance into the black sea, which russia will always seek strategic control over. on the other hand, if the turks unite with the russians, it could lead to an uneasy peace between russia and iran, while the iranians fight their civil war - which is setting up a longer term struggle for the eastern mediterranean, that israel may well have expanded into during the kerfuffle. so, it's a question of positioning - do the turks want to give the advantage to the russians or to the iranians?
i'm sure they'd rather direct the conflict to the south, at least.
economically speaking, a union with russia would provide for far greater opportunities than one with iran, just due to russia's sheer size. russia is almost unique amongst nations in having the resources to be largely self-sufficient in most things, so the sanctions have been less damaging than they could be, or have been on iran, which pales in resources. they might prefer to give the russians the advantage, if they are concerned primarily about self-interest.
these are questions for turkish leadership to weigh.
jagmeet singh must cut his beard.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
i want to show you where this community is on a map:
there are no roads into this community, which has to deal with frozen ground for a substantial amount of the year. it's surrounded by marshes and wetlands, with little agricultural support and no meaningful industry, except perhaps logging. i don't think there are mines in the wetlands of northwestern ontario, although there are quite a few to the south and to the east.
i want the natives to have access to modern amenities. but, their request amounts to building them a city that has no potential economic base. it doesn't matter what you put into a community like this, if it is so poorly geographically positioned that it has no economy. imports into the city are going to need to be expensive, because it is so far removed from existing infrastructure. so, the only way the city would be able to survive and grow would be through increasingly large government subsidies. it doesn't make any sense to walk down this path, and so no government will actually do it.
i think it's worth acknowledging that the low quality of the land in the reserve is the reason that it was put aside for indigenous people, who were then rounded up from the outlying areas and placed in it. nothing could grow here, anyways, so it's of no loss to put the indigenous people there. now, we are faced with the absurd consequences of an unjust policy, the building of an isolated city in the marshland wilderness, and need to re-examine it from the core.
i think that if the trudeau government, or any government, is serious about housing in remote reserves, it needs to lay it out for these people: there will never be running water or sewer systems or stable electricity in these regions, because it makes no sense to build cities where there is no potential for economic activity. governments should nonetheless commit and strive towards moving these people into modern housing in serviceable areas, which may mean indigenous neighbourhoods in semi-rural or suburban areas, but not these remote villages in virtually uninhabitable places.
the government says things to win votes. if it were serious, it would stop the charade. and, as long as the charade continues, it should be seen as disingenuous.
the government's assimilation policy is as old as the country. what i'm suggesting is actually not dissimilar to what the elder trudeau, and his sidekick, chretien, tried to do in the infamous white paper. the assimilation policy had largely been carried out...not in secret, but knowledge of it was need-to-know. an open secret, perhaps. the tools of assimilation changed with technology - there was a phase when the government tried to convert the indigenous people into farmers, and they would have nothing of it - but the goal of assimilation was left unmodified, from the 1700s right up to the 1960s. what trudeau aimed to do was go public with it, and make it official policy; he wanted the indigenous groups to understand what was happening and take some control over it, themselves. that was in trudeau's direct democracy phase. as a reaction to the backlash, the liberal government of the time just shut the file down and carried on with the same assimilation policy, quietly, as it always had before. there were blood quantum rules introduced in the 80s, and by the 00s harper was threatening them with property rights (which make no sense in indigenous culture). the idea for decades has been to starve them of funds and create poor conditions to try and convince them to move away from the reserves, while paying lip service to funding increases that never come. but, it doesn't seem to be working - because they don't have the resources to leave.
it doesn't make sense to build cities in the middle of nowhere. so, they should be offered modern housing elsewhere, but not moved - let them freely make the choice to move away.
and, some won't. but, they'll need to get used to living on the edges of civilization, and the lack of comfort inherent within it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/01/19/trudeau-promises-to-help-first-nation-reserve-with-housing-shortage_a_23338560/
jagmeet singh must cut his beard.
there are no roads into this community, which has to deal with frozen ground for a substantial amount of the year. it's surrounded by marshes and wetlands, with little agricultural support and no meaningful industry, except perhaps logging. i don't think there are mines in the wetlands of northwestern ontario, although there are quite a few to the south and to the east.
i want the natives to have access to modern amenities. but, their request amounts to building them a city that has no potential economic base. it doesn't matter what you put into a community like this, if it is so poorly geographically positioned that it has no economy. imports into the city are going to need to be expensive, because it is so far removed from existing infrastructure. so, the only way the city would be able to survive and grow would be through increasingly large government subsidies. it doesn't make any sense to walk down this path, and so no government will actually do it.
i think it's worth acknowledging that the low quality of the land in the reserve is the reason that it was put aside for indigenous people, who were then rounded up from the outlying areas and placed in it. nothing could grow here, anyways, so it's of no loss to put the indigenous people there. now, we are faced with the absurd consequences of an unjust policy, the building of an isolated city in the marshland wilderness, and need to re-examine it from the core.
i think that if the trudeau government, or any government, is serious about housing in remote reserves, it needs to lay it out for these people: there will never be running water or sewer systems or stable electricity in these regions, because it makes no sense to build cities where there is no potential for economic activity. governments should nonetheless commit and strive towards moving these people into modern housing in serviceable areas, which may mean indigenous neighbourhoods in semi-rural or suburban areas, but not these remote villages in virtually uninhabitable places.
the government says things to win votes. if it were serious, it would stop the charade. and, as long as the charade continues, it should be seen as disingenuous.
the government's assimilation policy is as old as the country. what i'm suggesting is actually not dissimilar to what the elder trudeau, and his sidekick, chretien, tried to do in the infamous white paper. the assimilation policy had largely been carried out...not in secret, but knowledge of it was need-to-know. an open secret, perhaps. the tools of assimilation changed with technology - there was a phase when the government tried to convert the indigenous people into farmers, and they would have nothing of it - but the goal of assimilation was left unmodified, from the 1700s right up to the 1960s. what trudeau aimed to do was go public with it, and make it official policy; he wanted the indigenous groups to understand what was happening and take some control over it, themselves. that was in trudeau's direct democracy phase. as a reaction to the backlash, the liberal government of the time just shut the file down and carried on with the same assimilation policy, quietly, as it always had before. there were blood quantum rules introduced in the 80s, and by the 00s harper was threatening them with property rights (which make no sense in indigenous culture). the idea for decades has been to starve them of funds and create poor conditions to try and convince them to move away from the reserves, while paying lip service to funding increases that never come. but, it doesn't seem to be working - because they don't have the resources to leave.
it doesn't make sense to build cities in the middle of nowhere. so, they should be offered modern housing elsewhere, but not moved - let them freely make the choice to move away.
and, some won't. but, they'll need to get used to living on the edges of civilization, and the lack of comfort inherent within it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/01/19/trudeau-promises-to-help-first-nation-reserve-with-housing-shortage_a_23338560/
jagmeet singh must cut his beard.
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