nudge

Sky Sport 6

Did Melanie kick ass again?

Not yet... A lot of work, and Werder play in the cup today. Will watch later... You have already watched it, I take it??

Starship SN9 to attempt a 10km hop in less than 10 minutes.

@Dr. Gonzo: pico de gallo was perfect! Made a huge bowl earlier today and it's all gone already Went with parlsey instead of cilantro as I couldn't find any at the store, but it was still very good.

None of it changes the fact that both clubs have serious financial difficulties and need to sell their most valuable players in order to survive.

Dire financial situation, which is made even worse by no matchday revenue in foreseeable future. We're expected to make a 40 million Euro loss this season, and have already taken a 20 million credit to ensure liquidity for this season - first time in the club's history. Schalke's financial situation is even worse, with over 200 million debt and relegation looming.

Yeah, they're deluded... That's a ridiculous offer.

Don't think it matters much to them, one way or another. They have strategical interests in the country, and they've been on pretty good terms with both the military and Aung San Suu Kyi (bar a few issues regarding the Chinese-backed armed groups in the north), so this probably doesn't change anything as much as they are concerned. If anything, international community potentially increasing sanctions on Myanmar as a reaction to the coup will likely make the Burmese military more dependent on China and strengthen their ties.

I'd say that the main criticism is not for what she has done, but rather for what she failed to do though - namely, for not standing up for Rohingya, no? I understand why people in the West would have expected her to do that; but in all honesty, I think that's a very naive expectation to have. First of all, she has had limited say in what is still essentially a military rule pretending to be a democratic civilian government, a move that was made in order to improve the country's image, get international sanctions lifted and qualify for international aid. Military still has 25% guaranteed seats in the parliament regardless of the outcome of the elections, they control defense and home affairs ministries as well as the police force and border controls, former high-ranking military personnel occupy top civil positions, the generals have the majority of seats in the National Defence and Security Council which has the power to suspend democratic government, and they also have veto power over constitutional changes. So essentially any reforms that the military doesn't approve of have no chance of being implemented, and all of Aung San Suu Kyi's and her party's attempts to ammend the constitution have been fruitless. Secondly, given how divided Myanmar is by ethnic and sectarian lines, standing up for and speaking in favour of the Rohingya would be a political suicide in a country where the majority of the Bamar population holds very negative views about most of the minority groups and where numerous ethnic conflicts have been brewing for decades, with ethnic armed groups controling roughly a third of the country's territory. The anti-Rohingya prejudice, in particular, is so deep-seated among the Buddhist Bamar population, that being seen as a defender of Rohingya interests would have cost her and the NLD a significant amount of votes. A peaceful resolution of those conflicts has actually been one of Aung San Suu Kyi's and the NLD's key priorities in their political agenda. In fact, after getting elected, she requested the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State to be formed, it was led by Kofi Annan, included other international and Burmese experts, and called for improvement on human rights, a review of the citizenship law, and investing heavily into the infrastructure in order to lift the population out of poverty. Interestingly enough, shortly before their final report was released, the military moved troops into the Rakhine State, and a day after it was released, the Rohingya rebel groups launched several attacks on military/police outposts, basically starting the events that led to the atrocities and the ongoing humanitarian disaster. Other efforts for peaceful resolution of other ethnic conflicts in the country also failed miserably after proposed constitutional ammendments were blocked by the military, and most of the ethnic armed groups refused to sign the nationwide ceasfire agreement as a result. As sad as it is, both the Burmese military and the numerous armed ethnic groups as well as other countries and entities backing them all have major political and economic stakes in the continuation of hostilities; none of them are interested in peace. The extreme tribalism in Myanmar's society is another factor that significantly hinders any progress, and in all honesty, I don't see that changing, ever. So yeah, Aung San Suu Kyi definitely had to keep balance between opposing the military and working along with them in order to be allowed to be a part of the political process, and her political actions (or, in case of the Rohingya issue, her inaction) are also heavily influenced by the views and attitudes of the general population. She's not a saint, but I don't see her as a villain either. Truth is though, she is still the symbol of hope to tens of millions of Burmese, and her popularity and personality cult is probably the only thing threatening the status quo of the army rule - which is even more evident now after yesterday's coup. A bit funny how a huge military apparatus is still afraid of the popularity of a frail old woman who doesn't even have constitutional power to lead. Anyway, as I said in my previous post, regardless of what anyone thinks of Aung San Suu Kyi, a return to a fully blown military junta will only make things worse. The new acting state leader after the coup is Min Aung Hlaing, an army general and Commander-in-Chief who has prior record of human rights violations against ethnic minorities, with several court cases in various international courts still ongoing. He's the one who has been calling the shots in military crackdown against the Rohingya too, and it's a bit amusing to see how the West (and Muslim) countries prefered to ramble about Aung San Suu Kyi "not saying anything against it" instead of paying attention to the ones who were actually directly responsible for it. If anything, her tarnished image led to significantly decreased support for her internationally, and thus has only benefited the military and encouraged them to seize complete power again. It's another sad indication that the region is once again succumbing to instability, internal conflicts, authoritarianism and stagnation, while a significant part of the population is still in poverty and has little to no access to proper education, housing and health services, indicating little hope for any progress in the future.

By "people", do you mean posters on reddit and fb comments section with a saint complex who used to deitify her in the past and now think she's a literal reincarnation of Hitler? I would say they know little about Myanmar’s political landscape and the complexity of the country's ethnic conflicts throughout the ages. Anyway, regardless of anyone's opinion on Aung San Suu Kyi, the fact that there's another military coup in a region which already consists of very frail democracies - or rather of military-controlled facades of democracy - is worrying and sad, and will definitely hinder the stability and development of the region.

Military seized power and declared state of emergency for one year. Telephone and TV signals are cut off, internet expected to be shut down soon, too.

It seems there's a coup happening again in Myanmar... Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s president and other senior ruling party figures have been detained by the military in early morning raids.

"They say it's a classic"

Yeah, it's nothing groundbraking, but it has that certain campiness, silly wit and a bunch of scifi cliches that make it feel like a throwback to the 80s/90s TV I like the premise and character development too... Adventure scifi about a bunch of renegades on a spaceship with quite a few twists in the story, it's fun.

And, how do you like it?

Dark Matter. A sci-fi series that I somehow missed when it initially aired. A bit campy, but in a good sense. Binged Season 1 in two sitting, very enjoyable.

Michael Zetterer is recalled from his loan at Zwolle and will take Kapino's place as the second goalkeeper. In worse news, Hertha are apparently very interested in signing Rashica - a loan until summer with a compulsory purchase clause of 15 million is reported

Thanks!

I follow your lead Also @Dr. Gonzo where is my pico de gallo recipe?

Chong's loan terminated @DeadLinesman

Decided to be all fancy and cooked some mussels today...

You mean the Sanofi one? The EU ordered 300m doses of it in September, a month after it ordered 400m doses of Astrazeneca, which is the biggest order along with J&J and CureVac (both also 400m doses).

I agree they shouldn't get political and involve the UK into something that is basically just a contractual dispute between the bloc and a private pharmaceutical company. I don't know if the EU is trying to save face and hide their own mistakes or not, but from what I've read so far, for me it looks like the main issue in this particular case is AZ having contracts with the UK and the EU that are basically incompatible with each other. Mainly as their contract with the UK apparently guarantees that all vaccine produced in the UK will stay in the UK until they get the promised 100 million doses and thus essentially bans any exports to other countries before that, whereas the contract with the EU also lists the UK manufacturing sites as part of the EU supply and delivery chain; those sites are also listed in the delivery schedule appendix, which is sadly redacted, so we unfortunately can't see the delivery dates and number of doses that AZ was expected to deliver. So now that AZ faces problems in their EU sites, they can't redirect any doses from the UK because the UK contract strictly forbids that, while the EU expects that to happen because based on their contract, they consider the UK sites part of the supply network. It is a complete clusterfuck and a legal minefield for sure, but I don't see how the EU is the main (or the only) culprit in all this (other than the unnecessary political shite), and I think it's well within their rights to be vocal about it.