Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.
After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin’s NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.
There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.
The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
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.
the experience of Iraqis who first immigrated to Isntreal
When Iraqi immigrants landed, they were sprayed in the airport with DDT. The precedent for this was the British authorities having sprayed Holocaust survivors and Jewish illegal immigrants from Europe with DDT before they were shipped to camps in Cyprus. Only those who arrived on private flights and American Jews were spared. Spraying was done in a shack, in groups of four, although some children resisted being sprayed. The Iraqis were then given their initial identification papers, among them the newcomer’s certificate (t‘udat ‘oleh), documenting their arrival in Israel. The contents of their baggage were inspected as well.
Iraqi writer Rahamim Rejwan’s short story “On the Road to the Transit Camp” (“Ba-derech la-ma‘abara”) narrates how Iraqis experienced this moment. The story opens with a scene of a group of Iraqis, in their fine dress, anticipating a warm welcome, possibly with flowers, in the new state. When they land, three men arrive from the airport and approach them, ordering them to stand in parallel rows. Some still believe they are about to receive flowers, cigarettes, and food. The men are told to untie their ties, open their collars, and unbutton their shirts. The women find this request particularly bizarre. Then the men spray a white powder all over the Iraqi men and on the hair and breasts of the Iraqi women. The story records the conversations between the newcomers:
“Ha ha,” the sound of the laughter of one dressed-up lady from Abu Sifin was heard,“they are cleaning my husband’s little one. Does it have to be cleansed as well?” . . .
“What does it matter, give me a break, they are used to cleanliness here. We must be like them,” someone commented.
“This powder doesn’t smell right!” said one woman all of a sudden.
“I don’t think it’s a regular powder.” . . .
One man refused to be sprayed with powder . . .
“You must,” the sprayer said. “Otherwise you can’t get food.”
Jokes and questions flit about; the three men spraying the group turn away embarrassed, failing to realize whether the group is protesting or joking; they therefore yell at them to remain calm. Finally, one of the Iraqi Jews, a pharmacist, realizes what the material is. The laughter ends.
After being sprayed, they wait for hours in the airport for an official to arrive. There are no beds available for small children. One woman who is lactating and nursing volunteers to breastfeed other children. The men of the Zionist underground who had depicted the migration in rosy tints are now silent. When a clerk finally shows up, they stand in front of a small window to meet him. He is rude and standoffish, no different than the condescending Iraqi bureaucrats.
and it only gets worse from there
Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel by Orit Bashkin
I’ve not read much of it beyond that passage (I just wanted to read about the DDT stuff), but it seems like an interesting book
