Grateful to Annabel (The Call Out podcast, with Henna) for giving me pause on my crass and wrong Talk like a pirate offerings below.

a straight consideration, mind you...

the policing/colonisation of language and what this affords bodies and their identities. What was it Hannah Black said about trauma? A stupid word for parts of yourself becoming inaccessible?

Tiyang pinten wonten kapal punika? ("How many men are on this ship?", Javanese)

Jangan lihat saya. Lihat lurus ke depan. Coba berlutut. Taruh tangan anda di belakang kepala! ("Don't look at me. Look forward. Kneel. Hands behind your head!", Bahasa)

Di mana senjata-senjata itu? ("Where are the weapons?", Malay)
- A straight consideration of Talk Like a Pirate Day

Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues

Rumour. Open your ears; for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth.
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace while covert enmity,
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world;
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepar'd defence,
Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wav'ring multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomise
Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
I run before King Harry's victory,
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? My office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,
And that the King before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learnt of me. From Rumour's tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.

Plenty of fine responses to the recent, woeful Economist slavery review. Will B. Mackintosh goes hard here.

Will has a interesting point.

'Why write a review that’s basically guaranteed to piss off the whole world and then waste it on quibbling over a relative detail?...And that’s why they don’t like Baptist’s book: it demonstrates unequivocally that modern capitalism was born in blood. Let me say that again: whatever else you might say about capitalism, it took on its characteristic modern forms of capital accumulation and labor “management” in the context of American slavery. For a group of journalists with a deep, largely unarticulated commitment to modern capitalism’s fundamental benevolence, this is an uncomfortable truth indeed.'

2008 archive piece from Vincent Munié concerning the CAR and "France's long hand"

What Do The Birders Know?

'Resistance'

(there's a great point about Bangladeshi garment workers in here too.)

Jayati Ghosh's latest for the Guardian, arguing that "Asia’s ‘success’ in reducing poverty uses a flawed system for measuring income and ignores food insecurity".

'BANGKOK, 3 September 2014 (IRIN) - Activists warn of a harmful regression in the World Bank's safeguard policies, claiming that proposed changes being considered this autumn could weaken the rights of indigenous people, and others in danger of displacement and abuse as a result of Bank-funded development projects.' here

Teju Cole's seven short stories about drones: here

(via JC.)

Jamilah King at Colorlines flags up a forthcoming HBO show about Brazilian sex workers.

Don't think HBO will get any joy from Latino Rebels, then. cough

re-up from last summer re: 'mysterious' Bronze Age Cretan language, Linear B

'The Celebrity Photo Hacker’s Message To All Women', by Jessica Goldstein

(via EWF)

on Limits to Growth

It seems unlikely that the quest for ever-increasing growth can continue unchecked to 2100 without causing serious negative effects – and those effects might come sooner than we think.

here

'finite planet'

Much has been said — and much more should follow — about the militarization of the police in American cities. The images coming out of Ferguson, MO these past weeks testify to the distribution of military-grade hardware, gear, guns, and vehicles to your everyday police officer.

Here I’d like to focus on just one small part of this distribution of military-grade equipment: the uniform.

here

[h/t: EWF]