the sick man of Europe
Yikes, that phrase is absolutely fraught with racism, colonialism, imperialism, and all sorts of awful attitudes. It’s a horrible way to get a point across.
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The original “sick man of Europe” was the Ottoman Empire, so the author is deliberately using it for irony.
Apparently the term “sick man” has a specific meaning in political theory, referring to a weak country that will neither pose a threat nor collapse. That doesn’t make it any more acceptable.
In geopolitics, a sick man is when one country of a strategic interest and risk to its neighbours, is or is made to limp economically, remaining at a stagnant state where it does not implode for internal security concerns that may ripple to the neighbouring countries, however preventing it from prosperity to avoid it imposing its diplomatic and military agenda. The term has been used by researchers with adaptations to describe the US[4], China[5] [6], Italy[7], Tunisia[8], Nigeria[9] and others.
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More recently, though, with China. The usage there contained racial overtones that I don’t know were present in the discussion of the Ottomans?
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There are certainly racist, Orientalist and Islamophobic aspects to the idea that the Ottoman Empire was backward or in decline.
The notion of a declining Ottoman/Islamic civilization was thus used as a foil for Western Civilization, in which the “decadent” Ottomans were contrasted with the “dynamic” West. Islam (as an all-encompassing civilizational category) often came to be portrayed as the polar opposite of the West, whereby Western societies valued freedom, rationality, and progress while Islam valued servility, superstition, and stagnation.
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If Putin’s going to steal something that big, he might as well get a member of a family of thuggish bandits to do the job.
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Zelenskiy: Russia ‘deliberately targeted’ Odesa port
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Russia “deliberately targeted” grain terminals and infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa.
On Telegram, Zelenskiy said: “At the morning conference call, I heard information about night-time Russian strikes on Odesa, Zhytomyr, and other regions of our country. Russian terrorists absolutely deliberately targeted the infrastructure of the grain agreement, and every Russian missile is a blow not only to Ukraine, but also to everyone in the world who seeks a normal and safe life.”
Putin will not attend BRICS summit next month in ICC member nation South Africa
Russian president Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, with foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov taking his place.
A statement released by South Africa’s presidency on Wednesday said: “By mutual agreement, president Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the Summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.”
On Tuesday, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa had asked permission from the ICC not to arrest Putin, because to do so would amount to a declaration of war, according to a local court submission.
On Wednesday, Russia said they did not tell South Africa that arresting President Vladimir Putin on a warrant from the international criminal court (ICC) would mean “war”.
South Africa is due to host a summit of Brics nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – next month. But the ICC has an arrest warrant out for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. South Africa, as an ICC member, is obliged to arrest him should he appear in person at the summit.
Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has made an unannounced visit to Kyiv where he said “Russia cannot be allowed to succeed”.
Speaking at a media briefing after talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Varadkar said: “My visits to the sites of these atrocities this morning, and my meeting here in Kyiv, has confirmed to me that Russia will not succeed, and Russia cannot be allowed to succeed.
“If Russia thinks that targeting civilians and essential infrastructure will discourage Ukraine’s friends, including Ireland, well, it’s wrong.
“Volodymyr Zelenskiy, we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. Ukraine will prevail and Ukraine will be rebuilt.”
On Twitter, Zelenskiy said: “Although Ireland is a neutral country, this neutrality does not mean indifference, and this is very important. Thank you for all your support!”
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Here are some images of damaged grain silos and cranes at the port in Odesa:
https://mtu.gov.ua/en/news/34522.html
The fig-leaf excuse why Russia insisted on a special grain deal was that Ukraine might be transporting weapons on grain ships, so the deal was that every ship would be inspected on its way in and out of the Black Sea in Turkey. Now the deal is off and Russia is demonstrating that the real intention was always to hamper Ukrainian agricultural exports, a major part of the national economy, without any consideration for what that means to all the people who rely on food from Ukraine.
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Ukrainian agriculture minister Mykola Solsky said on Wednesday that a “considerable” amount of grain export infrastructure at Chornomorsk port in Ukraine’s Odesa region had been damaged in a Russian attack, Reuters reports.
The attack also destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain at the port that should have been loaded and shipped via the Black Sea Grain Initiative 60 days ago, he said.
“The night-time attack put a considerable part of the grain export infrastructure in the port of Chornomorsk out of operation,” Solsky said on Telegram.
In fact they took the impact on poor countries into account and hoped to use it as leverage.
From June last year:
On Sunday during the Economic Forum in Saint-Petersburg, Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the pro-Kremlin channel RT, seemed to be betting on famine changing westerners’ attitudes towards Moscow. “The famine will begin and they will lift the sanctions,” she said.
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The Jordanian Chieftains aren’t quite that old. They were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Khalid
Also known as “4030 Phase 2 Jordan”. The sale of 274 MBTs was negotiated with Jordan in June 1979 following the cancellation of the Iranian contract. The Khalid tank is based on the Shir 1 design with the addition of the Integrated Fire Control System (IFCS), Tank Laser Sight (TLS) and the No 84 Day/Night Sight. The first 125 were reworked Shir 1’s and the remaining 149 were new production tanks. The order has been completed, the first being delivered in July 1981.
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Forbes can’t afford a spellchecker?
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Forbes is now mainly an SEO content farm and vanity press. Why would they bother?
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Panama and Liberia are in deep trouble then… 
OTOH … if 
decides to shoot at a NATO-flagged vessel, this war could get a whole lot shorter.
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And scarier…
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