Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Image is of vehicles set aflame by protestors near a government building.
Since July 1st, students have protested the unpopular proposal in which 30% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans of the 1971 War of Independence and their relatives. In a country with a youth unemployment rate of around 20% and a population of 170 million, a large number of otherwise eligible and competent people would have been forced out due to favouritism for veterans. As with basically every country on the planet over the last couple years, Bangladesh is suffering from inflation and an increasing cost-of-living, further exacerbating tensions.
The student protests have been met with significant violence by the government - local newspapers report that over a hundred protestors have been killed, and thousands have been injured. Guns and tear gas have been used. Additionally, the government has completely cut internet access throughout Bangladesh to prevent organizing, which has had some success in dividing protestors, but has also only further angered various parts of the country due to the massive impact to Bangladesh's online industries and various startups. And a national curfew has been in place to limit movement, with the population told to remain home if they want to be safe.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh relented, stating that now, only 5% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans and their families. 2% would be allocated to members of minorities, with the remaining 93% distributed on merit. A period of tentative calm has arrived, but Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has stated that unless the government restores the internet, removes the curfew, releases detainees, and forces certain ministers to resign within a few days, then the protests will resume.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Bangladesh! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The bulletins site is here!
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Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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Vote For Six-Headed Zombie Hitler To Stop Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler
spoiler
Jack: So have you given any thought to who you’re going to vote for in November?
Jill: Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it a lot actually. I think I’m gonna sit this one out, or maybe vote third party.
Jack: What?? Don’t you know democracy is on the line this election?? Jill, this is the most important election of our lifetimes!
Jill: Jack they say that every election.
Jack: But this time it’s true, Jill! Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler wants to commit genocide and take over the world!
Jill: So does his opponent, Six-Headed Zombie Hitler.
Jack: Look, I’m not saying Six-Headed Zombie Hitler is perfect, but come on! He’s obviously WAY better than Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler! Sometimes you just have to vote for the lesser evil.
Jill: It’s not even clear to me that Six-Headed Zombie Hitler is meaningfully more evil than Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler, Jack! I mean, Six-Headed Zombie Hitler is really, really evil! What about all that genocide and imperialism he’s been supporting?
Jack: Okay but do you want all that genocide and imperialism to be perpetrated by a Zombie Hitler with even more heads? Just imagine how much worse it could get with that extra Zombie Hitler head added into the mix!
Jill: But Jack, doesn’t it feel kind of silly to even be debating this stuff anymore? At some point don’t we have to stop acting like the election results are the problem, when the real problem is clearly a system that’s so corrupt and undemocratic that it now forces us to choose between being ruled by undead Nazi hydra monsters with six heads or seven heads?
Jack: Jill, now’s not the time. Let’s just focus on getting Six-Headed Zombie Hitler into office, and then we can pressure him from the left to enact the policies we want! We can have our little revolution after we’ve stopped Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler.
Jill: That’s what you say now, but next election cycle they’ll roll out another Zombie Hitler with even more heads and you’ll be saying the same thing.
Jack: There’s a Zombie Hitler with even more than seven heads?? Gosh, Seven-Headed Zombie Hitler doesn’t look so bad anymore!
Jill: See that’s exactly what I’m talking about! This keeps happening! We keep finding ourselves in situations where we have to keep voting for a “lesser evil” who’s more and more evil each election cycle. When I was younger they told us we had to choose the least bad of two corrupt warmongering oligarch puppets who want America to rule the world, then at some point they started telling us we have to choose between two candidates who both literally support genocide, and now we’re seeing presidential races where it’s just a bunch of mad scientists creating Zombie Hitler monsters with more and more heads!
Jack: But Jill—
Jill: Where is the line, Jack?? Where is the line of evil you won’t cross beyond? At what point do you stop supporting evil monsters to defeat other slightly more evil-looking monsters? At what point do you say “Nope, that’s too much evil for me, it’s the system itself that needs to be defeated”?
Jack: I’d definitely never go higher than twelve heads.
Jill: Gah!
it makes sense that western "leftists" can only think of two political actions: voting, and stochastic terrorism. if you aren't voting, you're firebombing supermarkets. the ideological endpoint of only thinking in terms of individualist solutions in an alienated capitalist society. the Narodnaya Volya phase, before the true revolutionary organization which the Bolsheviks embodied.
don't study revolutionary history and learn from - gasp - people who aren't white! vote for zombie hitlers with seventy two trillion heads until the sun explodes!
vote for zombie hitlers with seventy two trillion heads until the sun explodes!
Don't knock firebombing supermarkets though, TBH (just make sure the workers and customers can get out).
as it is insured .. all you willll do is making the employees unemployed..
Every fucking thread on Reddit right now that even remotely touches on anything political. Well, except we have to start referring to Six-Headed Zombie Hitler using she/her pronouns, and Jill will be scolded for not juggling at least two coconuts while mounting her drowned-out protests (according to the libs Copmala's nomination is also not even remotely debatable at the moment).