Quotulatiousness

February 20, 2021

History Summarized: South Africa

Filed under: Africa, Britain, Europe, History, Humour — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 19 Feb 2021

In the past few centuries, few corners of the African Continent were quite as busy as the south. It’s a winding river from the first migrations and waves of colonists in the Cape Colonies to the Rainbow Nation we know today, so let’s dive in and see how it all played out!

SOURCES & Further Reading for Black History Month:
— The African Experience From ‘Lucy’ to Mandela From the Great Courses Plus, lectures 15-18 “South Africa: The Dutch Cape Colony & The Zulu Kingdom & Frontier and Unification & Diamonds and Gold”, 26 “Segregation and Apartheid in South Africa”, and 32 “The South African Miracle”

— Born A Crime by Trevor Noah: https://bookshop.org/books/born-a-cri…​
— Home Team History is a YouTube channel covering all corners of the African continent. They have several videos about Southern Africa, such as “A History of Stone Architecture in Southern Africa” (https://youtu.be/0U4Wu3CmL0U​) and “Southern Africa: The Birthplace of Iron Mining” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9HO0…​), and “A history of the Xhosa People” (https://youtu.be/axajPiZnDqo​)
— Lastly, looking to modern times, it’s important to recognize how the COVID crisis has exacerbated massive preexisting disparities between healthcare for Black and minority communities and that of white Americans. It’s not enough to just acknowledge history, we all have a responsibility to understand modern problems and work on solutions. Read more: (https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar…​) and please consider Donating to support the NAACP’s COVID relief programs: (https://naacp.org/coronavirus/coronav…​)

With special thanks to the members of our discord community who helped polish my script: Holben, Klieg, Good Hunter, and Sticc (who has a History of Africa podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/…​)

This topic was voted on by our community of Patrons! If you’d like to get extra rewards and play a role in the content we make, please consider supporting our channel at https://www.Patreon.com/OSP​

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Confessed genocidal nation refuses to accuse China of genocide

Filed under: Cancon, China, Politics — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Jen Gerson considers the moral smallness of Canadian government wiggling out of labelling China’s treatment of their Uyghur minority as the genocide it certainly is:

This week, the Prime Minister of an admittedly genocidal G7 state refused to condemn China for its treatment of its minority Uyghur population. A treatment that has included family separation, forced sterilization, and warehousing thousands of people in what can only be described as modern concentration camps.

Justin Trudeau failed to condemn China, noting, quite rightly, that genocide is an “extremely loaded” term. One not to be bandied about lightly. It demonstrates some moral cowardice on his part, certainly, but also a degree of pragmatism. Canada’s squeaky and lonely objection would do little good. We’re already in a vulnerable position, what with the ongoing captivity of two Canadians who remain in Chinese detention as an act of retaliation for our arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. A declaration of genocide in this case is probably better handled by a collection of nations. As long as we can live with the shame of the smallness that such an argument implies.

(Although perhaps it was unwise to pin so many of our early hopes of an early vaccine rollout on a doomed collaboration with a Chinese manufacturer with a vaccine backed by China’s Institute of Biotechnology and its Academy of Military Medical Sciences. Who could have predicted we would run into problems with such a notoriously reliable and honourable global partner that occasionally engages in hostage diplomacy? But I digress.)

The real issue with Trudeau’s grovelling little deflection on the question of Chinese genocide is that it made his own position on the subject not two years ago impossible to ignore in comparison. The final report of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry stated that the truths it uncovered in the process of its years-long investigations:

    … tell the story — or, more accurately, thousands of stories — of acts of genocide against First Nations, Inuit and Métis women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. This violence amounts to a race-based genocide of Indigenous Peoples … This genocide has been empowered by colonial structures, evidenced notably by the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, residential schools, and breaches of human and Inuit, Métis and First Nations rights, leading directly to the current increased rates of violence, death, and suicide in Indigenous populations.

Several pundits at the time noted at the time that this stretched the definition of “genocide” beyond ordinary recognition. “Genocide” is not the result of a set of compounding government failures over time: it’s a word that we reserve to describe a discreet set of acts motivated by the deliberate intent to decimate or totally exterminate an ethnic population. But after a day or so of hemming and hawing on the issue after the report was released, our prime minister noted: “The issue that we have is that people are getting wrapped up in debates over a very important and powerful term … We accept the finding that this was genocide, and we will move forward to end this ongoing national tragedy.”

There was some careful phrasing in this response. Note, Trudeau agreed that this was genocide, not that it is genocide. The prime minister dodged the implication that Canada is engaged in deliberate ethnic cleansing. But it’s worth peeling back the skin of the onion, past the obvious and easy allegation of hypocrisy, and instead ask ourselves why?

Why can we get away with calling ourselves a genocidal state, but not China?

Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz 1805

Filed under: Europe, France, History, Military, Russia — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Kings and Generals
Published 19 Nov 2017

We are continuing our documentary series on the Napoleonic Wars and this time we are covering the land portion of the War of the Third Coalition (1805) in which Napoleon faced the forces of Britain, Russia, Austria and Naples. This video depicts the overall campaign and the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz, both of which are considered some of the finest in the career of the French Emperor. The strategic and tactical moves made during these battles are still taught in the military schools and rightly so — Napoleon Bonaparte proved that he was the best general of his time.

Support us on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/KingsandGenerals or Paypal: http://paypal.me/kingsandgenerals

We are grateful to our patrons, who made this video possible: Ibrahim Rahman, Koopinator, Daisho, Łukasz Maliszewski, Nicolas Quinones, William Fluit, Juan Camilo Rodriguez, Murray Dubs, Dimitris Valurdos, Félix Gagné-Dion, Fahri Dashwali, Kyle Hooton, Dan Mullen, Mohamed Thair, Pablo Aparicio Martínez, Iulian Margeloiu, Chet, Nick Nasad, Jeyares, Amir Eppel, Thomas Bloch, Uri Sternfeld, Juha Mäkelä, Georgi Kirilov, Mohammad Mian, Daniel Yifrach, Brian Crane, Muramasa, Gerald Tnay, Hassan Ali, Richie Thierry, David O’Hare, Christopher Commins, Chris Glantzis, Mike, William Pugh, Stefan Dt, indy, Bashir Hammour, Mario Nickel and R.G. Ferrick.

This video was narrated by good friend Officially Devin. Check out his channel for some kick-ass Let’s Plays. https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficiallyDevin

The Machinimas for this video are created by one more friend – Malay Archer. Check out his channel, he has some of the best Total War machinimas ever created: https://www.youtube.com/user/Mathemed…

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Inspired by: BazBattles, Invicta (THFE), Epic History TV, Historia Civilis and Time Commanders

Machinimas made on the Napoleon Total War

Production Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, Total War Napoleon OST: http://www.epidemicsound.com

Songs used:
Total War Napoleon OST – “Napoleonic Code”
Rannar Sillard – “Identity Crisis”
Hakan Ericsson – “Darkness closing in”
Total War Napoleon OST – “The Battle at Arcole”
Total War Napoleon OST – “Naval Battle at St. Vincent”
Five Armies
Total War Napoleon OST – “From Egypt to France”

QotD: The Infantry

Filed under: Britain, Humour, Military, Quotations — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

The infantry do not have a single capbadge, they are described as a single capbadge but they all have different badges, lots and lots of them. Due to amalgamations and drawing down they are merged and start using new ones. One day they will be merged into the Royal Corps of Infantry.

The infantry (note not “infanteers” as they really hate that) are the actual troops who stand toe-to-toe with the enemy and bayonet them in the face. Boots on the ground, their job is to be pointed at the bad guys and go wreck it. They may get delivered in various ways including aircraft, boat, ship or their own vehicles, but same job: “infantry go smash”. Can be identified by neck tattoos, traditions that the Victorians would think are dated, officers wear faded red trousers and soldiers fight each other on Friday nights.

Combat Boot, “So, ‘capbadges’, what’s that all about then?”, combatboot.co.uk, 2020-11-13.

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