“Colonialism has never ended. #Slavery has never ended. #Feudalism has never ended. The power elite just find more and more inventive ways to #exploit the majority.”
by Alnoor ladha
August, 2021
"When we think of colonialism, slavery, and feudalism, we perhaps envisage these subjects as elements of our history: abhorrent, destructive, and with lasting repercussions - but essentially something in our past which we must recognise, address and account. What we perhaps don’t think of is the food on our plates, the clothes we’re wearing, or even the phone in our hands.
"But what does this have to do with colonialism? When it comes to consumption and the material objects which occupy our daily lives, people are increasingly talking about the hidden cost, or the true cost of things. We often see that it is communities and peoples in the so-called #GlobalSouth who are bearing that true cost. It is not by coincidence that economic globalisation, the inevitable consequence of capitalism, leads to more destruction in nations which have historically been colonised, marginalised, and labelled as ‘developing’ countries. This is because the ostensible ‘success’ of both capitalism and colonialism hinges upon exploitation."
Pierre Benz & coauthors identify family strategies to preserve elite power in 20th century Switzerland using social network, kinship & sequence analysis. Other families lost influence while some lost & then regained it.
New & open access in Social Science History! https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2024.6
The terrible human toll in Gaza has many causes.
A chilling investigation by +972 highlights efficiency:
An engineer: “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed.”
An AI outputs "100 targets a day". Like a factory with murder delivery:
"According to the investigation, another reason for the large number of targets, and the extensive harm to civilian life in Gaza, is the widespread use of a system called “Habsora” (“The Gospel”), which is largely built on artificial intelligence and can “generate” targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible. This AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory.”"
"The third is “power targets,” which includes high-rises and residential towers in the heart of cities, and public buildings such as universities, banks, and government offices."
"The unit is engaged in the same kind of AI work that the world’s biggest tech companies, like Google, Facebook and China’s Baidu are doing in a race to apply machine learning to such functions as self-driving cars, analysis of salespeople’s telephone pitches and cybersecurity — or to fight Israel’s next war more intelligently."
“I’ve always loved algorithms. I was already involved with them in high school and worked in the field. When I [was] drafted I wanted to combine the technology with a combat,” Maj. Sefi Cohen, 34, recalls.
The unit’s only female member left recently. so for the moment it’s an all-male team. Cohen says: “Everyone who’s here is the tops.”