ZoomeristLeninist

i feel like i could have done a lot better if i didnt get lazy during the last 20 years and just let the automated private construction build whatever it wanted-- big mistake, it caused my GDP to plateau for the rest of the game.

other than that my game went very well, population was 200 million! literacy was lower than i wanted bc i constantly procrastinated university building. my population was overwhelmingly loyal and my taxes were at the lowest setting with zero consumption taxes and i still had 2.5M budget surplus. 1B in gold reserves and 2B in the investment pool. i couldnt find enough shit to spend money on lol

as you can see, i went heavy expansionist, leaving Mexico w like 4 states, taking most of central america, half of Colombia, and most of the Congo. call me a colonizer, but my standard of living is #1 in the world, and check out how drastic the SoL difference is between my African states and the rest of Africa

even the lower strata is "prosperous"!

the laws are cool too except i was in the process of enacting collectivized agriculture when the game ended. i ended slavery super early, like 1850 or smth

lol at the intelligentsia who are still clinging onto liberalism in a socialist state

doesnt matter since trade unions have 50% of the political clout. im pretty mad at the trade unions tho bc they wont join the Communist Party

principled stances on the Russian and Chinese ruling classes

by “Chinese ruling class” you mean capital owners and not the CPC right?

youre talking abt the billionaires right?

link bc im not a

on Thursday, Ukrainian forces "liberated" Robotyne, a village that had a population <500. according to Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, it took 10 brigades to take this village. thats anywhere from 20,000 to 35,000 soldiers needed to advance a small area of the front half a kilometer. to make matters worse for Ukraine, b points out that the positions taken by Ukrainian soldiers in Robotyne are troublesome. Ukrainian forces are about 300 feet lower than Russian forces. a considerable high ground makes Russian artillery more effective than Ukrainian artillery. it also makes any attempt by Ukraine to charge the line considerably more dangerous.

previously, b estimated that, due to the artillery superiority of Russia, Ukrainian casualties outweigh that of Russia by 10:1. this is made even worse by the substandard military medicine practiced by the Ukrainian forces. sometimes it takes 10 hours to transport Ukrainian soldiers from the front to a hospital. thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who were wounded are dying due to incompetence. their supplies are also of poor quality bc of corruption-- Volodymyr Prudnikov, the head of Ukraine’s Medical Forces Command’s procurement department payed his daughter-in-law's company 1.5 million british pounds for tactical medical kits; these kits, however, were much cheaper than promised and tourniquets from these kits have failed to hold pressure and have resulted in deaths.

while it takes several hours for Ukrainian medical evacuation, it takes Russian forces 10 minutes to apply first aid, and only an hour to reach field medical units.

this is truly a tragic conflict. it seems that the demons who rule NATO will prolong this war. on the bright side, NATO weapon stockpiles are being depleted and western manufacturing cant even begin to keep up with Russian manufacturing. Russia manufactures 2.5 million artillery shells a year, while the US produces 93,000. if the Pentagon meets its goal, the US will still only be producing 1 million shells per year by 2025

ive seen ppl mention this 2024 BRICS expansion here, but i had no idea it was coming so soon! Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are joining January 1!!

this dude is pretty interesting. he makes a weird non sequitur abt drug use early on in the vid that comes off as unsympathetic but i can look past a bit of

this is Rena! shes the best puppy ever :) my gf and i adopted her a bit over a month ago and she has been such a wonderful part of our lives from the moment we met her! the humane society guessed that shes a shepherd/lab mix, but my gf thinks shes german shepherd/great dane mix. shes only 4 months old but shes doing great with house training! i love her so much 🥰

heres her a few minutes ago with a toy and a treat

Some Western media outlets have recently hyped up the so-called "debt trap" theory once again, attempting to shift the blame for some developing countries’ debt problems onto China.

This is a blatant lie and another attempt to smear China.

In the past 10 years since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed, fruitful cooperation has been carried out in various fields, bringing tangible benefits to the people of participating countries.

Africa's Macro-Economic Performance and Outlook, a report released by the African Development Bank in January 2023, showed that the total debt service payments suspended by China under the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) have exceeded the total amount from G7 countries.

it doesnt take long to search the internet for many instances of debt forgiveness of structural loans from China. when has the IMF done this?

Research results released by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. indicated that China contributed 63 percent of debt service suspensions.

thats quite a lot of debt suspension for a country that makes up less than 20% of the worlds GDP (adjusted).

In fact, the debt issues of developing countries are closely related to Western countries, especially the U.S.

World Bank statistics showed that multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors account for nearly three-quarters of Africa's total external debt.

The U.S. is the largest shareholder of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while American and European financial institutions serve as the dominant commercial creditors to African nations.

oof. and to make things worse, western loans that go toward extractive and manufacturing industries give way to horrible working conditions while superprofits are whisked away to the imperial core. otoh, loans from China go toward a more balanced development plan including schools, hospitals, and infrastructure as well as industries (where a significant smaller portion of the profits go to China, and only to pay back the loan)

It is evident to the international community who are the reliable partners of developing countries and who are the instigators of their financial issues.

damn right!

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called on China and South Africa to strengthen their partnerships in four dimensions during his state visit to the African nation.

Ahead of his arrival, Xi said in his signed article published in South African media that the blossoming China-South Africa relationship "has entered a 'golden era,' enjoying broad prospects and a promising future."

While meeting with Ramaphosa, the Chinese leader called on both sides to be strategic partners of high-level mutual trust, adding that "camaraderie and brotherhood" are the true quality of bilateral ties.

The two sides should strengthen exchanges and cooperation between their legislatures, political parties, militaries and localities, and continue to support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, said Xi.

The Chinese side is willing to strengthen inter-party exchanges and training cooperation with South Africa, and help the African National Congress (ANC) with building the African Leadership Institute, he added.

critical support to ANC in their struggle against western empire! they might be a socdem party, but they are fighting imperialism and this continued cooperation with China bodes well

China and South Africa, said Xi, should be development partners for common progress.

He described mutual benefit and win-win results as the hallmark of China-South Africa cooperation, saying that the two sides should focus on advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, implementing the nine programs on China-Africa cooperation, as well as the 10-Year Strategic Programme on Cooperation between the two countries, consolidating cooperation in areas of strength and fostering new growth points for cooperation.

BRI talk! imo this is the most important project in opposing imperialism. keeping the IMF out of Africa will be integral to starving international capital. the extraction industries of Africa will either go toward enriching the international bourgeoisie and crushing their opponents preventing them from dominating the world, or they can go toward efforts to stop the forces of capital. China isnt perfect but they are currently the only hope for overcoming amerika’s empire

Official statistics showed that bilateral trade in 2022 reached 56.74 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 20.1 percent of China-Africa trade. And in the first half of the year, bilateral trade topped 28.25 billion dollars, up 11.7 percent year-on-year.

China has remained South Africa's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years, while South Africa has been China's biggest trading partner in Africa for 13 years in a row.

Meanwhile, South Africa has been one of the African countries with the largest stock of Chinese investment, which has risen to 10 billion dollars. More than 200 Chinese companies in South Africa have created over 400,000 local jobs and South African companies are also racing to invest in the Chinese market to seize its abundant business opportunities.

Notably, South Africa was the first African country to join the Belt and Road cooperation. The pie of bilateral cooperation is getting bigger as South Africa's wines, rooibos tea, and aloe vera gels are trending in the Chinese market while automobiles and home appliances with Chinese brands gain increasing popularity among South African households.

And in a joint statement between the two countries issued on Tuesday after the meeting of the two presidents, both sides will consider working towards bilateral cooperation and synergy within the Belt and Road Initiative and the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan frameworks.

Both sides also pledged to continue to seek the strengthening of cooperation in key areas such as infrastructure and logistics, trade and investment, manufacturing, agro-processing, energy and resources, the financial sector, the digital economy, science and technology, and green development, according to the statement.

During the talks, Xi said China will expand imports of South African products and encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in South Africa.

China’s mutual prosperity vs the west’s neocolonial exploitation and expropriation

Noting that poverty reduction, agricultural development programs and rural revitalization are important components of Chinese modernization, he said Beijing is willing to strengthen experience exchange with South Africa and help the country carry out the poverty reduction demonstration village project.

China is lifting South Africans out of poverty. western China Experts say this is actually a ploy to bring South Africa in its sphere of influence, bringing them one step closer to forming the Legion of Doom

i feel South African student riots are in the works. these will, of course, be totally grassroots and there wont be any western intelligence agencies involved /s

Xi also elaborated on the necessity for the two countries to be friendly partners of deep mutual understanding and goodwill, saying that closer people-to-people bonds can best testify to the friendship between the two countries.

China is ready to make good use of such mechanisms as the China-South Africa vocational education alliance to strengthen vocational education of the two countries, promote exchanges and cooperation in youth employment, and help South Africa train more talents urgently needed for economic and social development, he said.

The two sides should strengthen tourism cooperation, and support scientific research institutions and enterprises to step up technological cooperation and joint research, so as to bring more benefits to the two peoples, Xi added.

South Africa in the joint statement further welcomed the identification of South Africa amongst the top 20 countries for group tourism promotion by Chinese tourists. The African country supports the increase in the frequency of direct flights between South Africa and China.

wholesome

The fourth partnership the Chinese leader called on the two sides to enhance concerns global peace and stability.

LETS FUCKING GO BABY

This year's BRICS summit comes at a time when the world is facing rising uncertainties and accelerating changes unseen in a century.

Xi urged China and South Africa to be global partners that uphold justice, saying that independence is a principle both sides adhere to.

The Chinese side, Xi said, supports South Africa in playing a bigger role in international and regional affairs, and stands ready to work with South Africa and other developing countries to implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative.

this is great considering South Africa has been very resistant to NATO propaganda and views the Ukraine conflict as one against western imperialism (at least officially, idk how it is on the ground there)

He also said that Beijing is also ready to join the developing world in practicing true multilateralism, increasing the representation and voice of the Global South countries in global governance, and strengthening collaboration on issues such as climate change, food security and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, so as to safeguard the common interests and development space of developing countries, Xi added.

China and Africa, in the eyes of Xi, have always belonged to a community with a shared future. He told Ramaphosa that in a world which is undergoing transformation and turbulence, both sides need more than ever stronger solidarity and cooperation.

And in their joint statement, the two sides reiterated their resolve to further strengthen cooperation in terms of African affairs and to support the African Union in resolving African conflicts peacefully.

China expressed in the document its support for the efforts of African countries and regional organizations under the auspices of the African Union (AU) to provide African solutions to African problems, including to support the AU's early accession to membership of the Group of 20.

this partnership is so powerful. watch as country by country in Africa partners with China, slowly destroying the IMF and starving western capital of its neocolonial spoils

Ramaphosa described China as a sincere brother, friend and partner of his country, saying that China has provided valuable support to South Africa in its struggle for national independence and liberation as well as its national development. He also mentioned China's timely support for his country during the COVID pandemic.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 25 years ago, South Africa has firmly adhered to the one-China principle, he said, adding that both nations share the same or similar positions on many major international affairs.

Ramaphosa also said that in today's world that is facing multiple severe and complex challenges, South Africa and other Global South countries hope to strengthen unity and cooperation with China, so as to better meet challenges together, and push for a more equal, just and rational international order.

In South Africa, Xi will also attend the BRICS summit scheduled from Tuesday to Thursday, and co-chair with Ramaphosa the China-Africa Leaders' Dialogue on the sidelines of the summit.

can’t wait to hear more abt the BRICS summit! im sure it will bring many exciting developments of global importance!

comrades, the Protracted People’s War against the liberal hive and haven for bigoted chasers that is lemmy.blahaj.zone has succeeded! blahaj has fallen! or at least fallen off.

really tho, i just checked in on their site to see how its been since defederating. that was only 3 days ago btw! it feels like its been a week lol. their daily user count has fallen by over 1/6th since defed. and while this could be attributed to less traffic during the work week, the posting situation there is abysmal. in the past 24 hours, 78% of the posts came from c/196, making it difficult to tell that their instance is a dedicated queer space. and while they have gained ~30 users since defederation, we have gained over 200! its pretty much just 196 at this point.

while its sad to see a queer space fail, i suspect its for the best. i hope all the anti-capitalists there find their way here, as many already have. especially the trans folk there, its genuinely sad that they feel like they have to accept chasers in their space in order to have a community that accepts them. that is the difference between liberal tolerance and socialist liberation— tolerance allows for objectification and marginalization, while liberation demands dignity and equality. may all the blahaj gender diverse who oppose capitalism find their way to c/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns!!!!

stuff like this are the best “dunks” the 196 reactionaries can manage: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/2042262

this meme is weak and displays their ignorance. you cant have a conversation with ppl like the OP. they will just bombard you with thought-terminating cliches. gulag gulag! Uyghurs! hologramodor! no food! purges! NKVD KGB Stasi! free Tibet so they can have their wholesome slaves again! Taiwan is a legitimate state!

countless hexbears would be willing and even enthusiastic to have a good faith, respectful, nuanced discussion about these topics with them. but they dont want that. they want to roll in their own shit like a pig with massive balls. the good ones will find us, or other socialist spaces. but for such a small instance, there are too many scratched and soon-to-be scratched liberals for us to do any good with federation.

i was trying to be tactful, respectful, and understanding by posting this thread for ppl to ask questions abt our beautiful hexbear. i didnt get any questions.

it took 4 hours for Ada, their admin, to respond. she locked the thread shortly after responding her reply above was disheartening, as she seemed willing to work with us previously. equating ableism to a dunk tank post is just vile. and claiming the transphobia in 196 is “a specific event that occurred around a month ago” proves she didnt read any of our concerns. i didnt know abt that event, im sure most of us here dont. our concerns are rooted in the chasers of 196 (non-trans ppl who fetishize trans ppl). someone replied to her saying we were “concern-trolling”. is it that unbelievable that we care abt not having bigotry in the same space as us. i want to grab some of these users by the shoulders, shake them, and yell, “WE ARE BEING GENUINE. WE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT PROVIDING A SAFE, SUPPORTIVE SPACE FOR ALL PEOPLE, AND YOUR COMMUNITY IS ALIENATING TRANS AND DISABLED PEOPLE!!”

responses were not very positive of us

they think this is a bit! lol, lmao even! this whole thing has me

this chain of comments particularly upset me “its a troll”. my pronouns are right next to my name, and “it” isnt one of them (even tho thats 100% a valid pronoun to prefer)

this one had me fully

and the cherry on top warranted its own post https://hexbear.net/post/373453