Bulletins and News Discussion from August 26th to September 1st, 2024 - Ruto Must Go - COTW: Kenya
Bulletins and News Discussion from August 26th to September 1st, 2024 - Ruto Must Go - COTW: Kenya
Image is from this Black Agenda Report article by the Communist Party of Kenya.
In June, large anti-government protests shook Kenya. President Ruto and his parliament were attempting to pass the new Finance Bill 2024, which, among other things, would have hiked taxes on the population, with a 16% sales tax on bread and a 25% duty on cooking oil, as well as new taxes on financial transanctions and vehicle ownership. There would also have been levies on women's sanitary products and digital goods such as phones, among other measures affecting hospitals.
Hundreds of protestors stormed the parliament building and began to tear the place apart. Shortly afterwards, on June 26th, Ruto announced that he was withdrawing the bill, calling the tens of deaths and hundreds of injuries "unfortunate". A couple weeks later, Ruto then fired his entire cabinet (aside from his foreign minister) and communicated his wish to the nation to form a "broad-based government". Funnily enough, in July, it was announced that the majority of positions were to be filled by members of the old cabinet, while other positions were taken by members of the opposition. This has prompted scepticism among the population, including calls to resign, but there haven't (yet) been any major anti-government events to pressure this outcome. The Communist Party of Kenya has been working to get some of their comrades back after they were abducted by the police during the protest period, and have otherwise supported the protests against Ruto.
The measures in the bill were strongly encouraged by the IMF. Kenya's debt is currently around $80 billion, of which about 10% is owed to China for infrastructure projects (such as a railway linking the capital, Nairobi, to the port city of Mombasa, as well as 11,000 kilometers of road throughout the country). The rest is owed to a combination of the US, IMF, World Bank, and Saudi Arabia. More than half of government revenue is going towards repaying the debt - but despite these massive payments, it has only grown. The most recent round of IMF plundering (and the impetus for current events) began in 2021, when they offered a 38-month programme to "help" Kenya, which would involve the usual warfare on the poor and the dismemberment of any useful societal institutions.
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 Kenya! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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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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I've been using ChatGPT to create comments that sound extremely liberal but with a strong pro-Palestine spin. It's really effective for discussions you would otherwise never have, either because you would be banned in no time for answering truthfully or because it's just too much work. Also, I don't have to worry about saying the wrong thing. You know, in Austria, you'll be called antisemitic if you don't literally kiss a picture of Netanyahu to prove otherwise.
How about an example or two?
The comments where in german, but i translated them with chatgpt:
It is true that Israel cites the release of hostages and the fight against Hamas as its goals. However, the nature of the military operations results in a high number of civilian casualties, which cannot be ignored. Even if Hamas positions are located in civilian areas, this does not absolve Israel of the responsibility to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. A strategy that repeatedly leads to thousands of innocent deaths remains problematic and must be critically examined to ensure that human rights are respected.
The notion that the current IDF attacks are solely about hostage rescues is misleading. Historical examples, such as the application of the Hannibal Directive, show that the IDF has been willing to accept civilian casualties in such situations. In October 2023, not only were vehicles entering Gaza reportedly targeted, but also houses in Israeli kibbutzim where hostages were located. These tactics suggest that the IDF's main objectives are retaliation and the killing of Hamas fighters and Palestinian civilians. Such measures indicate that military objectives and retaliation are often prioritized over the lives of Israeli civilians (Source: Research by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz).
The necessity of ceasefires to allow for polio vaccinations for children in Gaza highlights the desperate situation of the civilian population. It is shocking that such pauses need to be negotiated to provide basic medical care. These conditions are not only a humanitarian crisis but also a flagrant violation of human rights. The military blockade and ongoing attacks are dramatically worsening the living conditions of people in Gaza, violating their right to health and dignity. Instead of turning Gaza into a permanent war zone, the international community should insist that the rights of the civilian population be respected and protected.
I would never write like that or read much that is written in that style, but as I mentioned, it was extremely effective. It really tilted every discussion I joined a little more in the pro-Palestine direction, and it received a lot of likes, upvotes, or whatever they call it on every other social platform (which made my comments overshadow the hasbarabots) . I know the comments sound basic, but in austria you will literally be charged with antisemtism If you mention that Israel is a settler-colony.
These are great. Perfectly tailored to libs while making sure to say the things that need to be said.
What are some example prompts you've used?
I provided the narrative just in one or two senteces because you can't trust ChatGPT with that, as it is inherently a lib bot, and then wrote that it should, however, sound factual and appeasing without changing the message.
Just look through any of your old posts.
(everybody here is a lib but me)
Yeah but have you considered that I'd rather tell the libs how much I hate them and wish they'd die?
This is correct.
