the witnesses to colonialism; The Horror The Horror

The peace deal negotiated by the US/(Rubio) and Qatar has elicited a yawn by the western Mainstream media

 but the history of atrocities in that area from western colonialsm are also ignored , as are the Arab slave trade to Muslim countries that went on for centuries before the west decided to stop that slave trade, but then let a vacuum for western sociopaths to do the same thing). 

We know about these atrocities because western witnesses, often missionaries, documented what was going on. Bernardo DeLasCasas comes to mind but the Catholic Mambo press doumenting the civil rights abuses under the white regime when I worked in then Rhodesia comes to mind. (the publishing house is Mambo press: Mambo means Lord, not the dance of the west). Alas the horrors didn't stop with getting rid of the white Smith Government: the Gukurandi and Operation Murambatsvina come to mind. But next to the atrocities in Rwanda and central Africa, one has to admit that these are not the worst things happening in post colonial Africa.

Hence my interest in the new peace deal there.

a good summary of the sins of colonialsm can be heard in this podcast which has a series about King Leopold's fiefdom that decimated what is now the DRCongo. Listen and shudder. 

and what stopped it was the courage of a bureaucrat who saw it and became a whistle blower, inspiring others to check what was going on:

.....

the story has gotten some publicity thanks to a recent non fiction book. King Leopold's Ghost, but it is the novel by Joseph Conrad that might make it harder to bury history, because novels are forever:

\

the famous quote from that book: The Horror The horror could be applied to many other horrors of the twentieth century, as was done in the film Apocolypse now which was inspired by Conrad's book.

of course, atrocities were not only done by the west nor were atrocities against innocent civilians limited to colonialist powers: The horrors of the Gulag, the many civil wars and atrocities of Chinese imperial and nationalist and communist governments, come to mind....and don't forget the Islamicist massacres: Armenia anyone?

twentieth century horrors abound.

Among all the democide estimates appearing on this website, and in the table on the lower right, some have been revised upward. I have changed that for Mao's famine, 1958-1962, from zero to 38,000,000. And thus I have had to change the overall democide for the PRC (1928-1987) from 38,702,000 to 76,702,000. Details here. I have changed my estimate for colonial democide from 870,000 to an additional 50,000,000. Details here. Thus, the new world total: old total 1900-1999 = 174,000,000. New World total = 174,000,000 + 38,000,000 (new for China) + 50,000,000 (new for Colonies) = 262,000,000.  

 

 Plenty of horrors in history.

Link

Never again.

compare and contrast

 

"They did not spare a child or adult or anybody."

If the global refugee population were just 100 people, 33 would be children, each in need of protection https://t.co/9jCZLiajFR pic.twitter.com/kfsdOg0Hke

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 29, 2025

//////

full article here.

And this part surprised me:

Out of 100, 21 are from Afghanistan, 20 from Syria and 14 from Venezuela

But how many of the rich elites are helping out? Anyone? Anyone?

COmpare and contrast:

‘Eat the rich’: Venice protests shadow Bezos wedding https://t.co/NF1CcKxuAh

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) June 29, 2025

...

CNN reports joyfully:

In the afternoon, the some 200 members of the celebrity guest list, including the Kardashian-Jenner family, Bill Gates, Karlie Kloss, Oprah Winfrey and Usher ... After much speculation (and not-so-subtle sightings of designer Domenico Dolce in Venice), it revealed her dress was a custom design by Dolce & Gabbana and was a year and a half in the making. The high-necked lace corseted gown had 180 silk chiffon-covered priest buttons dotting the front.

,MORE HERE:

The three-day affair is taking place until Saturday, with some 200 guests joining the billionaire Amazon founder and the former journalist in celebrating their marriage after a two-year engagement. The events are estimated to cost some 40-48 million euros ($46.5-55.6 million), according to Reuters.

tech headline of the week

Windows’ infamous ‘blue screen of death’ will soon turn black

old fashioned food hints

 take a ride into nostalgia:

   

 These tricks were used by my mom, so the video makes me nostagic.

Why aren't they used now? Well when moms work, they need fast foods to feed the hungry kids and don't have time to make things from scratch.

Hmm... since RFJ Jr is blaming fast foods and prepackaged foods for the obesity epidemic, maybe these tricks should be resurrected.

And maybe flex times so moms can come home earlier and cook a decent meal.

Rubio and Qatar deserve the Nobel Peace prize

Qatar emphasises peaceful resolution of conflicts after DRC-Rwanda deal https://t.co/SL2CZIdDPn

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 27, 2025

full story here at AlJazeerah

Qatari diplomat Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi has welcomed the peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), saying that it came after several rounds of talks, some of which were held in Doha. The deal, signed in Washington, DC, on Friday with backing from the United States and Qatar, will see Rwandan soldiers withdraw from the DRC and the two countries set up mechanisms to enhance trade and security cooperation..

 

The agreement has sparked hopes of ending the conflict in the DRC, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has been advancing in the resource-rich east of the country....

 

The renewed violence had raised fears of igniting a full-blown conflict, akin to the wars that the DRC endured in the late 1990s, involving several African countries, which killed millions of people. .

----------------

-one that got alas little publicity in the western MSM.

 

and don't miss this little snippet about Qatar (that runs Al Jezeerah):

Qatar has played a key role in securing diplomatic deals in various conflicts across the world over the past years. Most recently, it helped mediate the ceasefire agreement that ended the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.

RICE: let's hear it for the drones

 we grow organic brown rice, which is healthier, but more expensive since a lot of the weeding by hand (instead of using herbicides) and other methods cost more.

But what about the poor who live in cities?

the dirty little secret is that you need cheap rice or other foods (often grown with chemical herbicides and fertilizers) to keep the price down. 

A lot of NGOs pushed organic ideas on Africa, and even influenced countries like Zimbabwe to refuse cheap American grain during their famine because it might contain GM or other modern changes, so the excuse was they were worried about the health of their people: The people of course were dying of infectious diseases because they were malnourished, but never mind. The green ideas in the NGOs and even those associated with churches (yes I am talking to you Pope Francis) triumphed over the need to feed the poor.

but the good news is that China doesn't worry about people getting diabetes or cancer at age 55: They remember starvation is always a danger and are willing to grow hefty crops using modern techniques.

And luckily for Africa, China is there buying farm land and encouraging farmers in these countries to learn how  to grow abundant food to prevent famine.

introducing hybrid rice and modern techniques to increase the yield: including the use of drones to apply pesticides.

Hmmm... we don't use drones yet on our fields, but the IRRI is introducing drone technology here in the Philippines.

Drones serve various agricultural purposes, including irrigation planning, crop health monitoring, damage assessment, soil health analysis, and fertilizer and pesticide application

Right now, this is done by walking through the fields and analyzing if additional minerals or fertilizer is needed. 

and walking through the fields monitoring the crop if problems occur during the rice growing season: weeds, blight, insect infestation, etc.

We still have small farmers with small rice crops, but as the farmers age and sell their land (because their kids prefer other easier jobs) then mechanized farming will start, so that is where the drones come in.

.\\

and of course drones can apply  pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc. to fields at a lower price than a farmer doing it by hand.

Increased efficiency and speed, reducing manual labor Precise application, leading to reduced waste and damage to crops Accessibility to difficult or remote terrain Ability to cover larger areas in a shorter period of time Real-time monitoring and data collection for better decision making.

 

Rice: The unknown history of rice

 We grow organic brown rice.

There are many versions of rice that we grow, but in checking the history of rice I found out that Asian Rice is not the only form of rice: 

Africans developed/domesticated another rice: Oryza glaberrima

Native to sub-Saharan Africa, O. glaberrima is thought to have been domesticated from the wild ancestor Oryza barthii (formerly known as Oryza brevilugata) by peoples living in the floodplains at the bend of the Niger River some 2,000–3,000 years ago

   

This video discusses:

the original rice that made South Carolina rich was the African variety, but soon replaced by the Asian variety. And local farmers made sure they got their slaves from rice growing areas of West Africa who knew how to cultivate and irrigate the fields.

BBC article here.about the connection of the slave trade, rice cultivation, and how the African type of rice was the original rice grown in this area.

One thing not mentioned about why the African farmers transitioned to grow Asian rice: Easier to harvest (the seeds stay on the stem and don't shatter) and a better yield.

When I worked in Liberia, rice was one of the staple foods. and when the government increased the price of rice, there was a revolution, that eventually led to years of civil war and unrest. 

So yes, if you can find it, buy some African rice.

but remember: If you want to save this heritage plant, you need an affluent middle class who is able to afford it.

-----------------------------------------

Dogs and horses saved the day

with millions of unscreened migrants let in by Biden's policies, it may be only a matter of time that we start seeing diseases not seen in the US for a century start popping up.

 there has been cases of Diphtheria in migrants in Europe. because many of these were not vaccinated in their own country. 

But ironically many who caught diphtheria caught it  in Europe, meaning that there are clusters of mild cases, or carriers, i.e. patients who carry the germ and spread it to others in communities where migrants are living.

 

so far, unlike Europe, the USA seems to be safe from epidemics:

from Grok:

Diphtheria is extremely rare in the United States due to widespread vaccination. ...    

- In 2019, two cases were reported,   (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/diphtheria-cases-in-the-united-states) - 

A 2020 case report described a 33-year-old unvaccinated man in Georgia with respiratory diphtheria, likely linked to his recent incarceration and lack of childhood vaccinations. (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7753149/)

These cases are exceptions, often tied to unvaccinated or under-vaccinated individuals, international travel, or contact with travelers from areas where diphtheria is more common, like parts of Africa, Asia, or conflict zones. The disease remains under control in the U.S. thanks to high vaccination coverage with DTaP, Tdap, or Td vaccines. ...

more here.

 and the bad news is that unless your doctor worked or trained overseas, if you come down with diphtheria, they might not recognize it in time for the correct treatment. 

Of course, if you go to an old fashioned doctor who gives antibiotics for sore throats, you might have it cured before you develop proper symptoms.

what inspired this blog post was a book I ran across while checking Project Gutenberg: a 1919 describing the public health approach to diphtheria.

 And there was a cure: Anti toxin. 

Depending on the way it is treated, diphtheria is one of the least dangerous or one of the most dangerous diseases. It is one of the least dangerous when promptly treated with antitoxin; it is one of the most[8] dangerous when the antitoxin treatment is not given, or is delayed or insufficient.

In the days before we had antitoxin one out of every three children who had diphtheria died. Now, if antitoxin is used on the first or second day of the disease ninety-eight out of every hundred children recover. The sooner diphtheria is attended to the more certain is a cure.

The toxin is the reason for those tough membranes that cause choking. 

 Diphtheria-causing bacteria may produce a toxin. This toxin damages tissue in the immediate area of infection — usually, the nose and throat. At that site, the infection produces a tough, gray membrane made up of dead cells, bacteria and other substances. This membrane can obstruct breathing.

there is also a real danger of myocarditis and neurological complications from the toxin produced by the germ.

Nowadays, there is treatment: antibiotics and anti toxin.

 

Alas, diphtheria is still present here in the Philippines, and seen in various Asian and African countries,    

when I first started medical school in the 1960s, we still had an infectious disease hospital in our city and outside there was a bell. We were told if a child came in choking from the membrane, they could be saved by immediate tracheostomy, so they would ring the bell and any doctor in the area would come to the ER and do it.

And I add: Even though I have lived and worked in third world countries (and in areas of the USA that were essentially third world levels of poverty) I never saw Diphtheria. Maybe because our hospitals also had active outreach to immunize children.

The history of treatment of diphtheria goes back to the 1890s: here:

In 1890, an effective treatment for diphtheria – antitoxin – was discovered by Shibasaburo Kitasato and Emil von Behring in Germany...

more HERE. 

it was made by giving the toxin to horses, starting with a small dose then increasing the dosage until the horse provided lots of antibodies, which then were removed and purified to give to people

Horse serums have a danger of severe allergic reactions that can be fatal, but is available at the CDC: but now newer technology is being used to produce antibodies with a lower danger of allergic side effects. 

the life saving anti toxin became famous after there was an outbreak of diphtheria in Nome Alaska in 1925:

 

Balto, one of the dogs who carried the serum, became the poster child for publicizing that there was a treatment for diphtheria, (but some purists correctly point out that Togo was actually the first dog to arrive with the serum)

Wikipedia article has a lot of details: not a one time delivery, but several deliveries of the needed vaccine.

the Iditarod race commemorates this dangerous sled journey to save lives.

And Balto became the poster dog for those who risked their lives to save the children of Nome.

This blog has the photo of Balto's statue in Central ParkA low-relief plaque bears the words 

“Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxins 660 miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the winter of 1925.”

 ...........................

a longer version of this post is on my medical blog.

The lucky needle stick prank

 there is a story out there that a bunch of girls were stuck with needles in France, supposedly the needles was connected to a syringe. Probably an idea spread via the social media and a prank, but the cops are checking if the syringes were injecting drugs or poisons.

But of course, even a simple needle stick can spread HIV and Hep B, if the needle is used more than once. 

So who knows.

Well, anyway, this reminded me of a story of when I was in private practice 30+ years ago. My partner had a child patient with type I diabetes who carried her syringe with her to Middle school, and one day one of the boys asked to see it, and when she showed it to him, he grabbed an (empty) syringe and went around stabbing several of the girls nearby.

So we had to test our patients who were victims for Hep B and HIV, and arrange a retest in three months if any of those involved tested positive ( these viruses could have spread via needle stick if any one was positive). Luckily they were all negative, so end of the problem.

But one of the girls I saw looked a bit, uh, fat. She had thyroid problems, said mom, so mom was not worried at her putting on weight. 

But she was 14, and even though she had not missed a period, I did a pregnancy test, which was negative.

Now, I wondered if it was an ovarian cyst, 

Usually you can feel the edge of an ovarian cyst, but ten years earlier I had another case where the edge of the cyst was right under the liver, and could not be defined by examination. And in this young lady the examination was similarly vague.

So we did an MRI, which did show it was a cyst. A huge cyst that filled her abdomen, about the size of a seven month pregnancy.

So I sent her to the local Gyn who operated and removed a huge ovarian cyst, luckily non cancerous. And  she kept photos of the cyst so she could show her friends to prove she was not pregnant.

small cysts are common, but these huge cysts are rare: as I mentioned, I only saw two cases in 40 years of practice.

 

The surgery is tricky because you have to remove them intact, so you don't spill the fluid into the abdomen...and serous cystadenoma tumors have a thin wall. Luckily neither patient had a cancerous ovarian cyst, and did well.

But I wonder: there are no coincidences, and what would have happened if the girl hadn't been stuck with a needle in a middle school prank? She was active in sports, so what would have happened if she fell  and the cyst burst?

Back then, the surgery was a regular laporotomy (big incision on the abdomen) but now apparently they can safely drain the tumor and remove it via laporoscopy.

video  here.

 

nutrition diseases in history

 Beriberi killed many. Blame white polished rice.

the cheap imported rice was polished, so the poor who ate it often suffered from it here in Manila, especially leading to infant mortality NEJM 1913.

we sell organic brown rice, but the way 

the Philippines stopped the BeriBeri epidemic of the early 1900s was because a Pharmacist recognized the problem and found a cure: :

cuture of death

 

.....and don't forget: Your USAID money pushed similar eugenics stuff on poor countries:

DOGE Police Blotter: This is how Planned Parenthood funnels massive campaign contributions back into the Democratic Party each election cycle while Planned Parenthood receives tens of millions of dollars in Federal funding each year. The screenshots show the massive amount of… https://t.co/EyGz6job3q pic.twitter.com/zbCk38onPz

— Saint James Hartline (@JamesHartline) June 23, 2025

....

Under Biden in 2022, USAID and even Pepfar money was being diverted to  pushing abortion/contraception/ sex education to normalize promiscuity and gay rights in recent years, under the guise of "preventive medicine".

the State Dept also pushed many poor countries to change their laws against homosexuality and abortion, linking these changes as needed to get US money for basic aid. Then people wonder why China is more welcome than the US aid with these strings attached.

So although this was years ago, it was not a big secret to a lot of us.

I'm just learning about this deep, dark rabbit hole...😳🤯

In case anyone still thinks USAID does "humanitarian work..." 👇 pic.twitter.com/y3Bj1r3DnL

— Vincent Major (@benz_pilled) June 23, 2025

....

and don't forget the way people are ecouraged to kill themselves in Canada, the involuntary use of the Liverpool pathway in the UK to kill the elderly (a pathway of keeping dying cancer patients pain free, but quickly misused for people with minor illnesses)

And if you don't think that these issues are not corrupting rogue doctors and nurses to quietly kill those they think are better off dead in the USA, you are naive. 

and since some folk are noticing the Soros Open Soeiety money behind a lot of the policies in the US, one does wish someone could check out how his money started end of life discussion, and included pro euthanasia ethicists etc. to be quoted. And this was back in the early 1990s, when no body seemed to be noticing what was going on, except for Nat Hentoff, who called bioethicists apologists for death.

Sigh.

Going bananas

 Bananas grow here in the Philippines and we have several banana trees in our garden. One tree next to our wall had a big bunch almost ripe, and sure enough someone harvested it last night. Oh well.

Archeology magazine article on the history of fruit note that the banana was first domesticated in New Guinea.

from the History Guy:

...

UCSC article here:

From New Guinea, the Kuk domesticated variety appears to have spread to the Philippines, and then radiated widely across the tropics. Researchers find it difficult to trace the diffusion of the banana after its arrival in the Philippine islands, and in many cases, it appears the banana was introduced into areas only to be reintroduced, and in a sense, rediscovered, hundreds or thousands of years later.

Adding to the confusing tangle of banana proliferation is the parallel development of hybrid fruits.

Human ingenuity manipulated the seedless, and thus asexual, forms of domesticated bananas into hybrids by careful techniques of culling and planting that fused and refined different domesticated varieties.  hey are usually spread via plants. The bad news: it makes them more vulnerable to various blights/diseases. 

Treehugger has an article on why the Cavandish banana replaced the Gros Michel version most commonly eaten in the USA in the 1950s.

the plantain’s major importance as a crop during the ancient and early modern world, whether on large-scale or small-scale farms, was a major staple for local consumption. Even in the case of Japanese production, where banana plants were cultivated for use in textiles and not as a foodstuff, the banana was grown for local markets. By the 1800s, and especially into the early twentieth century, shifts in modes of production and consumption moved the banana from a local to a global commodity.

 of course, in many countries the non sweet version are eaten. Healthline discusses the difference between these non sweet varieties, called Plantains, and what we call bananas.

and yes, banana plants are used in traditional Filipino textiles.

Banana textiles? Yup.

The original Fly Girls

 The UK Guardian has a story of Nancy Miller Stratford, one of the women who volunteered to join what would now be the Air Force. 

Since women were not allowed in combat, instead they ferried planes. 

After eight decades, she and a small group of other female pilots are finally earning more widespread recognition for the critical – and dangerous – roles they played in the second world war. A new book called Spitfires, written by the journalist and author Becky Aikman, chronicles the pilots’ vivid wartime stories as the first American women to fly military aircraft.

At the time, women like Stratford were banned from serving in combat roles for the US. So they joined the Air Transport Auxiliary instead: a British civilian group that ferried barely tested bombers and fighter planes to airbases, and then returned damaged wrecks for repair. Because the women often had to contend with shoddy equipment and bad weather, the job was hazardous and unpredictable; one in seven transport pilots died in crashes over the course of the war.

This was about those who volunteered in the UK: But in the USA, women also ferried planes, including the dangerous flight across the Atlantic Ocean to get planes to the UK for the Army Air Force: that group was called the WASPs.

we're gonna need a bigger boat

fifty years ago, Jaws hit the market. And became a movie legend

 

it was actually filmed before tourist season on Martha's Vinyard (if you look closely, you will notice the tree leaves are not quite out).

The people on the beach were wearing coats until they started to film, at which point they pretended it was warm outside.

NatGeo notes: Many locals had minor rolls. Indeed, the story put Martha's vineyard island on the map for tourists.

and it is almost a coincidence it was filmed  there 

[Production designer] Joe Alves chose the Vineyard only because the boats weren't running to Nantucket that day. So he said, 'Well, I’ll take it where it's going.' And he came over to the Vineyard.

by the way, the mechanical shark was named Bruce, and they couldn't get it to work correctly, so in most of the film, the danger is unseen, which actually made it more frightening (if the shark worked, it would have just been another shocker film, not a classic).

and although it was based on Peter Benchley's novel,  the idea came from a real shark attack:

It's time to check the coffeepot

Laziness more or less invented all the things. https://t.co/QE1WguScSG

— John Ringo SF Author (@Jringo1508) June 18, 2025

and another X post I liked:

The only machine I want pic.twitter.com/LEID4cAgiB

— Puchy Catto (@PuchyCatto) June 18, 2025

Yum: MSG (or let's hear it for seaweed)

MSG is a flavor enhancer: so where did it come from? Seaweed...

from Wikipedia:

MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese in this glutamic acid form. MSG is used in cooking as a flavor enhancer with a savory taste that intensifies the umami flavor of food, as naturally occurring glutamate does in foods such as stews and meat soups.  MSG was first prepared in 1908 by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, who tried to isolate and duplicate the savory taste of kombu, an edible seaweed used as a broth (dashi) for Japanese cuisine.

MSG balances, blends, and rounds the perception of other tastes.

awhile back, there was a bit of hysteria about "Chinese Restaurant syndrome", which is dizzyness and headache occurred after eating Chinese food that contains MSG as a flavor enhancer.

which is now seen as a racist term of course.

The etymology is traced to a 1968 letter that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine claiming that Chinese food brought forth ailments. The letter was uncovered to be a hoax, but the myth remains. The US Food and Drug Administration has long approved MSG for consumption, and studies have failed to show that the chemical causes the alleged "syndrome".

the chemical is found in a lot of foods and the letter that started the hysteria was probably a hoax or joke.

but MSG as an additive is now commonly used in western foods too.

This fermented MSG is now used to flavor lots of different foods like stews or chicken stock. It’s so widely used because it taps into our fifth basic taste: umami (pronounced oo-maa-mee). Umami is less well known than the other tastes like saltiness or sweetness, but it’s everywhere – it’s the complex, savory taste you find in mushrooms or Parmesan cheese.

It makes food taste better, and is widely used all over Asia as Mikey Bustos notes:

the history of Qatar: Blame the British

the quiet dogs

 there is a favorite Sherlock Holmes observation:

so what are the dogs that are quiet in today's news?

(Aside from the gaslighting of course)

the No Kings demonstrations: we are seeing some looting, of course: Locals taking advantage of the chaos. Nothing new in this. But notice the pale skin of most of those rioting? And that the quiet demonstrators include a lot of nursing home age people?

But the radical Antifa are giving them a bad name without the Democrats (except for Fetterman) telling them to stop messing with their peaceful demonstrations.

But some neighborhoods in LA are safe it seems:

From the Scuttlebut:

Hell even the real gangs (like the Crips and the Bloods) aren’t supporting this shit, and the head of the gang in Compton has declared their turf a “riot free zone” and threatened to use deadly force on any rioter who decides to bring their little tea party into his area.

 

.....

another quiet dog is that the MSM is ignoring years of open threats and several hundred missiles aimed into Israel from Iran before the Israelis hit back. 

lots of news stories imply this was one sided aggression, but the dog that didn't bark is that, except for Iranian backed militias in Iraq, the rest of the region is quiet.

maybe because the local countries  have had Iran's proxies attack them.

heck: the same useful idiots that keep hyperventillating against Israel kept quiet at the deaths, ethnic cleansing, and atrocities of Syria's civil war, or even notice that the extremist Sunnis now run that place after they threw out Iran and Russia' s proxy.... 

Ditto for stories about the Kurds who also want a home land. Will Iran's Kurds join Iraq's Kurds and Syrian Kurds to make a new country? No one is talking about this, except maybe Turkey who fears with good reason their Kurdish minority that includes many terrorist groups.

but no big stories about this on line either.

Hmmm...

there is a lot of anti Israeli comments that morph into pure anti Semetism in comments on the internet, and this is not just on left wing sites but right wing sites, including Catholic sties. One longs to ask them what would happen to the few Christians left in the Middle East if the Muslim extremists won, but never mind.'

 True, the Pope and Trump's Abraham accords are reaching out to the ordinary business oriented Muslim Middle East states who could live with Israel and let Christians worship in freedom, but that is another story that is never covered.

------------------

and then there is this: If the cellphone towers are down you can text via starlink in Iran. without a dish

texting family in times of trouble (e.g. when our internet and landlines were out from typhoons) is important. 

Happy Father's day

The song in the US was made popular by Eddie Fisher, but when I started to sing it, Joy showed me this video: the song is also popular here in the Philippines.

Nora Aunor was a cinema icon in the Philippines passed away a few weeks ago. Sigh.

according to the Insider, the song was actually the English version of a song 

by Paul Burkhard, a Swiss composer who’d created the piece for his 1939 musical The Black Pike (Der schwarze Hecht).

FYI: those overseas demonstrations are not spontaneous but paid for by Democratic party

 I got an email from Democrats Abroad, an organization that mainly helps us vote (the law to vote for ex pats vary from state to state).

And they are planning demonstration in Manila, and have instructions on how to organize one in your area.

As Democrats abroad, we know the importance of standing up for democracy before it’s too late. 

That’s why on June 14, Democrats Abroad members in more than 40 cities around the world will be joining a global day of defiance. While Trump stages a multimillion-dollar military parade in Washington, D.C., we’ll be out in our communities, standing shoulder to shoulder with Americans back home to say: We reject authoritarianism. We reject fear. We reject tyrants. 

Find a No Tyrants protest near you or help organize one. More than 40 events are already planned by Democrats Abroad—from Prague to Puerto Vallarta. Check with your local country committee or visit democratsabroad.org/da-resist_events to get involved.

Unable to join a protest? Call your rep and senators and demand they stand up to the Tyrant in the White House. Capitol Switchboard: +1(202) 224-3121

Why now?

• ICE tactical teams have begun operating in Los Angeles, targeting immigrants and political activists in sweeping raids that appear designed to bypass local oversight.
• Trump has called in the National Guard and even U.S. Marines to confront protests in several cities.
• And while he spends millions on a vanity military parade, Americans are struggling under his billionaire budget—and his regime is escalating attacks on civil rights, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who stands in their way.

“Over the last few months we’ve seen the resistance to MAGA authoritarianism emerge and strengthen,” said Democrats Abroad International Chair Martha McDevitt-Pugh. “It will only continue, as more people see how cruel and destructive Trump’s big bad billionaire budget will be to them… Courage is contagious.”

This June 14 - be seen. Be heard. Be brave.
Join the No Tyrants global day of action and let the world know - this is what democracy looks like.

Make sure you're ready to vote from abroad: www.votefromabroad.org
Share your protest photos and videos with us: email comms@democratsabroad.org

Wherever you are, rise up.

------------------- 

update: My email today was one with the story of that innocent Senator who didn't identify himself and lunged toward the podium and was arrested. Their story is the same as the MSM who only show the arrest outside, not the lunge. So my impression is that this was also planned theatre. 

....................

DataRepublican small r has a page here to follow the money behind the protests.

🚨 JUST RELEASED: Follow the Money Behind the No Kings Rally 🚨

DataRepublican has launched an interactive, open-source map showing how your tax dollars flow to organizations involved in the No Kings rally.

🔍 I tracked funding from federal sources to final recipients,… pic.twitter.com/UWdYH3DVYO

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) June 12, 2025

https://datarepublican.com/nokings/

Nonprofits linked to the 14 June 2025 NoKings rally This page lists every nonprofit for which we currently have a reconstructed flow of federal grant money to entities involved in the NoKings demonstration of 14 June 2025. Click “See Federal Grant Flow” to view the full interactive Sankey diagram for any organization. Note: The list is not exhaustive; additional nonprofits will appear as more filings are processed.

 

another day another movie sequel

 

I told you we’d be back pic.twitter.com/RnoklPqBX6

— Mel Brooks (@MelBrooks) June 12, 2025

heh.

Now do Blazing Saddles 2

I actually first saw Blazing Saddles when I was working in Liberia. People would tape movies and then exchange them with each other. And I laughed, but had to explain all the jokes to the others watching it with me....you know, it is hard to explain humor which is embedded into a culture (e.g. many of the references not just to racism but references to other movies like Destry Rides again).

Well, anyway, the humor about a black sheriff in those days was a joke. But since then, history is being rewritten, or I should say some forgotten stories are now noticed.

and history has not remembered the black Marshall: Bass Reeves.

One day in the life....

 This is about the construction of the Great Wall of China: But it reminds me of the book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

,,,

...

....

....

....

summer of love redux

the world seems to be going to hell as usual. It's 1968 redux. 

been there, done that.

But has anyone noticed that it took Datarepublican to search and figure out where their money is coming from? 

We just watched the Accountant 2: a lot of the backstory is that he is able to connect the dots. (The rest of the movie is a shoot bad guy cliche film)

in contrast to Mayor Adams of NYC, the cops in LA are standing back and the mayor is pretending nothing is wrong.  

and LaughingWolf says follow the money

In point of fact, DataRepublican (small r) has an excellent series of posts on X detailing who is behind the riots, organizing and coordinating, that it’s not limited to California, information on the real Karen Bass, and much more. As usual, she brings receipts. Between her and Mike Benz, who also has up some good info (see this one for example), lots of data and some very good analysis. I sincerely hope they both have good personal security.

A number of NGOs have been implicated in this. Foremost is Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights or CHIRLA, and the photos of signs show they were printed by PSLWEB / Party for Socialism and Liberation. pic.twitter.com/yS7jXkHGJ8

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) June 8, 2025

more here at the Daily Signal ( a Repub site) 

this is of course 1968 redux. And this is their religion.

The bad news is that, by stopping the exporting of criminals and scofflaws, there will be no compromise with those who came simply for jobs and were lured by the NGOs to migrate with promises that the NGOs would "help" them until they got settled. And Biden of course did not bother to screen for criminals, and ignored the Fentanyl crisis and the crime waves that were exacerbated by the same gangs who trafficked humans as a sideline to cover up their crimes.

personally I support these immigrants, but every time I read about the huge number of young men that seem to be taking advantage of this, it reminds me of the Goths. who were fleeing the Huns, and the Romans, knowing they couldn't take all of them, made the mistake of letting some across the river into Roman territory. But then, thanks to corruption, they were exploited, so rebelled....

when the Gothic tribes - the Tervingi and Greuthungi - sought refuge from the marauding Huns, the Romans contemplated the options and eventually allowed them to settle on the Balkan frontier, of course, at a cost. Alliances were made and alliances were broken. Many in Rome remained unhappy with the decision and viewed the Goths as nothing more than barbarians although most of them were, in fact, Christian. Unreasonable demands were made of the new settlers, and they suffered at the hands of unscrupulous commanders. Facing starvation due to inadequate provisions and a lengthy famine, the Goths rose up against the Romans and began a long series of raids and pillaging of the countryside.  

remembering D Day

Philippine nostalgia

we have several of these paintings on the wall, bought by Lolo to decorate his house.

Paintings of the rural Philippines. With wonderful Guitar music to accompany the paintings.

,,

from wikipedia:

Fernando Amorsolo 

Nicknamed the "Grand Old Man of Philippine Art,"[2] he was the first-ever to be recognized as a National Artist of the Philippines.[3] He was recognized as such for his "pioneering use of impressionistic technique" as well as his skill in the use of lighting and backlighting in his paintings, "significant not only in the development of Philippine art but also in the formation of Filipino notions of self and identity." 

The war on drugs: ignoring the fentanyl deaths weren't a priority

Before there were AirCons, there were fans

  Medievalist net has an article on fans: Mainly Chinese fans, which were flat. 

And yes these palm fans are mentioned (we have one hanging on our wall to use when the electricity is off).

A modern palmetto fan from southern China. Photo by WikiCantona / Wikimedia Commons

but what about those folding hand fans?

According to Wikipedia:

The folding fan (Chinese: 折扇), invented in Japan...In 988 AD, folding fans were first introduced in China by a Japanese monk from Japan as a tribute during the Northern Song dynasty; these folding fans became very fashionable in China by the Southern Song dynasty....

While the folding fans gained popularity, the traditional silk round fans continued to remain mainstream in the Song dynasty.   

 

,,,,

but folding fans have also been used as weapons. 

and fans are also used in the war of the sexes:

BeriBeri: Yup a real health problem

 Most Americans are vaguely familiar with scurvy in sailors (the citrus used by the Brits to prevent this is why they are called Limeys).

And of course Pellegra from corn was a major health problem in the southern USA.

we saw this in our heavy drinkers in Africa, who ate local corn sazda but not much else.

But BeriBeri? Various epidemics here including in the Philippines where imported polished rice was given out to local during famine after the clueless Yanks took over.

But I am doing an investigation into ancient Japan, the Heian period, and medical articles suggest deaths from that.

So I asked Grok:

In Heian Japan (794–1185), the diet of the aristocracy, heavily reliant on polished white rice, led to beriberi, a disease caused by vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency. White rice, stripped of its nutrient-rich husk, was a status symbol, but its lack of thiamine caused symptoms like fatigue, nerve damage, heart failure, and death.

 

Commoners, who ate less processed grains like barley or millet, were less affected. Historical records, like court diaries, note unexplained illnesses and deaths, especially among elites, likely linked to beriberi. For example, the disease may have contributed to the high mortality rates in the imperial court, though exact figures are scarce due to limited medical understanding.

 

By the Edo period, beriberi was better documented, but in Heian times, its cause was unknown, and no effective treatments existed. Dietary diversification or unpolished rice could have mitigated it, but social preferences delayed such changes.

one article I read said 20 percent of the deaths back then    And at least one death Kashiwagi , in Gengi was probably partly due to beriberi, since his legs got weak.

...................,  

modern story of how a Japanese military doc found how to stop beriberi from killing their sailors in the Japanese Russia war in the early 1900s. 

  

I should note at this time that white rice has a longer shelf life than brown or partially polished rice. Our organic brown rice is healthier, but the germ etc. has oil and gets racid after six months.

So what about the Philippines? At least one book on the multiple epidemics of people and animals (Foot and mouth disease killed the waterbuffalo so people couldn't plow), mentioned deaths because the Yanks supplied imported polishe Rice.

So I asked Grok:.....

Beriberi, caused by vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency, was a significant health issue in the Philippines, particularly due to the widespread consumption of polished white rice, which lacks the thiamine-rich husk. 

 

Historically, the disease was prevalent in rice-dependent regions like the Philippines, where milling practices removed essential nutrients. Historical Context and Impact Early 20th Century: Beriberi was a major public health problem in the Philippines, especially among populations relying on polished rice. Research from the period, such as a 1911 study, highlighted its preventability through dietary changes.

Infantile Beriberi: A critical issue in the Philippines, infantile beriberi affected babies of thiamine-deficient mothers, leading to high mortality rates.

 

Studies from 1947 estimated 12,000–20,000 deaths annually in the 1920s–1930s, with symptoms like heart failure and cyanosis in infants aged 2–6 months. Colonial Period:

 

During the Spanish and American colonial eras, beriberi was noted among soldiers and prisoners. For instance, in 1898, Spanish soldiers in Baler suffered from beriberi due to poor diet during a siege, with 12 deaths reported. 

Japanese Occupation (1942): Malnutrition, including beriberi, surged due to food shortages, affecting both civilians and prisoners in camps like Santo Tomas. Symptoms and Types Dry Beriberi: Affects the nervous system, causing numbness, weakness, and potential paralysis.

 

Wet Beriberi: Impacts the cardiovascular system, leading to edema, heart failure, and high mortality if untreated. Infantile Beriberi: Seen in breastfed infants of deficient mothers, causing rapid heart failure and death if not addressed.

 

Causes and Risk Factors Dietary Cause: Polished white rice, stripped of thiamine, was the primary culprit.

 

The shift to milled rice in the late 19th century, driven by taste and economic factors, increased beriberi cases.

 

Other Factors: Alcoholism, bariatric surgery, and conditions like hyperemesis gravidarum increased risk. Breastfeeding mothers with low thiamine intake endangered infants. Interventions and Decline Early Interventions: By 1910, American researcher Robert R. Williams in Manila identified rice bran extract as a cure, leading to thiamine’s isolation in 1935.

 

Rice Enrichment: Post-World War II, enriched rice programs in the Philippines significantly reduced beriberi incidence. By the 1950s, death rates dropped in areas using enriched rice, with costs as low as 35 cents per person annually. Tikitiki Treatment: Filipino physician Proceso Gabriel developed a tikitiki extract (from rice bran) for beriberi treatment, a notable contribution to local medicine.

 

Modern Status Beriberi is now rare in the Philippines due to improved diets, food fortification, and awareness of thiamine-rich foods (e.g., whole grains, meat, beans). However, it persists in vulnerable groups, such as alcoholics or those with restrictive diets. Diagnosis involves blood/urine tests and neurological exams, with treatment using thiamine supplements (oral or intravenous). Early intervention reverses most symptoms, though severe cases may leave permanent damage. For further details on historical beriberi in the Philippines, see studies like Acta Medica Philippina (1947) on infantile beriberi. For current prevention, consult resources like the Philippine Department of Health or WHO guidelines on nutrition.