And I totally forgot. I literally woke up this morning confused as hell with all the texts I was getting from family, when I unlocked my phone I saw all the “Happy Birthday” messages and realized I am a year older today!

I know we aren’t supposed to reveal our ages but I will say that I am not yet 30 but it’ll be really cool once I get there.

My spring/summer semester is also over which means I am free until September so thats nice. My male dog also started on fluoxetine for his terrible anxiety, so hopefully he does well. Overall I am trying to stay chill and happy now that a new year has started for me, from today I will finally have time to start up on my Russian language lessons too.

I must disclose that this is not a common opinion. If I had a nickel for every time someone called Parenti a genocide denier I’d have two nickels, once on twitter and once on tumblr, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

I have a feeling this has something to do with his book To Kill a Nation but I have yet to read it so I have no idea.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8123702

Hello comrades! I made a post about Anaam a while back and I am coming back to share her campaign because she has been messaging me on WhatsApp about her struggles.

Right now she has a rash and is in severe pain. She has asked for 1000 Danish Krone, but I am unable to give much as I am on a very limited income. She told me no one else is responding to her so I said I would reach out on her behalf.

Her campaign is almost completed, she only needs less than 2000 danish krone to make it to 100%. I know money is tight for everyone, so if you are unable to donate then please help spread this.

I do not know what else I can do.

Hello comrades! I made a post about Anaam a while back and I am coming back to share her campaign because she has been messaging me on WhatsApp about her struggles.

Right now she has a rash and is in severe pain. She has asked for 1000 Danish Krone, but I am unable to give much as I am on a very limited income. She told me no one else is responding to her so I said I would reach out on her behalf.

Her campaign is almost completed, she only needs less than 2000 danish krone to make it to 100%. I know money is tight for everyone, so if you are unable to donate then please help spread this.

I do not know what else I can do.

I considered posting this in Comradeship but I figured it would fit here better.

I did say I would let everyone know how my presentation went so here I am to tell you all it did not go well, at least not to me.

I read out my slides and although my voice was still shake-y, I did project enough for people to hear me. I like to think some of my commentary was funny although I understand my tone was less so. I do wish people chuckled at least a little.

When I got to the imperialism slide I was looking forward to people maybe giggling at my dog and even asking about it, but that did not happen. When I did ask the class questions mid way through they did not engage. I asked the class if they knew what the school of the Americas was, no one put their hands up which was what I was hoping for, I then asked if anyone wanted to hazard a guess as to what it is, no one tried which was a bit embarrassing for me. It is their right not to answer but I thought it would be fun as a pivot into my next slide which was just a bunch of photos of the graduates (dictators and generals, plus the logo of a cartel).

The energy in the room was fucked. I felt like nobody was interested in what I had to say. Even the democratic socialist seemed out of it.

When I got to the activity part of the presentation, AKA the end, I put up a series of questions that the students could answer. I said they could answer whichever they wanted, but when nobody said anything I stated that I could just read the questions for them and they can raise their hands. When I read my first question: what are some skills that universities and its students can use for imperialist purposes? No one raised their hands so I was going to move on but the instructor (no PhD yet) told me to wait, so I did.

The DemSoc raised his hand and said “well, like you said, language classes.” I was surprised because he is one of the most “chatty” students in the class, and I figured that since he is a flavour of socialist he would be incredibly interested in this topic. I even talked about the School of the Americas and how all their human rights abuses were all done in the name of combating communism. Another student raised their hand and talked about the definition of imperialism I gave, highest stage of capitalism, and how that relates to the “clout” elite western universities have over those in the global south. I then engaged with them about how I read a source that was about how global south universities are at a disadvantage regarding “university rankings” and this is a form of cultural imperialism.

Another student raised his hand and said he would like to change my question, replacing “imperialist purposes” with something else I said in my “lecture” which was about how these spy classes “expand global understanding.” He stated that rather than imperialism, diverse universities create a, well, diverse environment with multiple perspectives which fosters a better understanding of others and how to get along. I didn’t necessarily have an issue with this, sort of, but stated that his version was quite optimistic while my lecture focused on how the version of “global understanding” being created was actually for securing interests in another nation for imperialist purposes like extracting resources to the detriment of the host nation. I really hope I didn’t come off as rude and I did apologize for how terrible I am at speaking.

The fourth, and last, student spoke up to answer the question: should universities accept funding from the defence industry? He said yes, because it’s money and it can help students defend the country and foster nationalism. My immediate thought was “huh?” Because throughout my presentation I was showing how the defence industry was not using universities for genuine defence purposes but for infiltrating others. I thought maybe I should’ve changed “defence industry” to “offensive industry” since that is how it acts. Mainly to western capitalists nations, not others. I didn’t say anything as a previous student said that he believed the opposite, that universities should not accept the funding.

He then talked about his experience at the university of Chicago and how he and other faculty opposed the defence department for getting involved in their research. From what I can remember the military was trying to give funding to the biology departments in multiple universities, but the funding was only to be given with restrictive purposes attached to military agendas. The university of Chicago pulled away from this agreement and so did other universities, to the point where the US government had to pivot and instead of the funding coming from the defence sector, it would instead come from the sciences.

My presentation came to an end after that and I was applauded but I sat down with a bad taste in my mouth. I thought my information was good and my topic was great too, yet I did not get the response I was looking for. I should lower my expectations…

I did end up asking my teacher about my presentation and if she would be willing to give me tips on improvements when grading it and she agreed while also praising me on how well I did. I wasn’t convinced initially because of how off everyone was and the fact that I was still cowardly, but she didn’t agree. She even brought out her notes to show that she thought I did well and was very kind in my interactions. I also asked if the photo of my dog was too much or inappropriate but she said it was fine but that I should just explain the joke outright. To me, even if they don't know who Lenin is, it’s still funny to see a dog’s head on a man’s body. I mentioned that the lack of interest may be due to cultural differences and she agreed, she also said that the topic may have flown over their heads, next time I will have to do a lot more hand holding.

All in all I am proud of myself, my slides and script were good, but I am disappointed in the lack of interest in imperialism…

One of my slides for my presentation defines imperialism, using both Lenin and Parenti’s descriptions. Because of this I decided to take my male dog’s face and edit it onto Lenin to put on the slide.

It adds some humour, makes my slideshow visually interesting (most of the slides are plain), and it was a fun thing for me since I hate presenting. Plus he’s super cute. One day I will have to do the same to my other dog.

I have not done my presentation yet, it will happen in a few hours, but when I do I will let you all know how it goes.

For my political science class I have to make a presentation analyzing an article. She gave us a set amount to present on, all related to university, but because of my issues she’s allowing me to present by myself and on a topic I am passionate about as long as it is related to the university. I chose imperialism and how universities can be a weapon for it.

The article I am analyzing is called “Militarizing Education: the Intelligence Community’s Spy Camps,” it’s a chapter from the book the Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent. one of the chapters is actually written by Vijay Prashad but his felt a little less relevant to my project.

For the analysis part I had to find 5 scholarly sources, which you don’t have to worry about as I already found them. One of my sources is literally Lenin’s Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism. During my presentation I am going to talk about the School of Americas and I have some ideas on how to engage the class when that part comes, but at the end I have to do an “activity” with the class.

Previous presentations saw the class answer a series of questions, do group analysis on a few questions, and play a kahoot game. If it were up to me I’d just do my presentation and then sit my ass down. But I can’t do that so I’m asking for help from you.

Do you have any ideas on what I can do at the end of my presentation to fill out the “engagement” part of the grading rubric? I want to do well because I’ve been dying this semester.

I realize the title is confusing but I did not know what else to say.

A project for one of my semester 7 classes is requiring me to write a reflection paper on two conferences I attended. The problem? I have to have three academic sources to cite in this reflection, and the paper itself has to talk about “what impact the university has” based off these two conferences.

There were many conferences I could’ve chosen but I ended up choosing one that was about “multiculturalism, decolonization, and reconciliation through community” and the other was watching a documentary about Gay rights in Canada and then a panel was held with some of the makers of the movie.

The first conference made mentions about multiculturalism in Canada as a mere cover and not true justice, that they (the panelists, all radicalized women) were also being used in this way. One of the panelists even stated that decolonization requires a dismantling of the colonial system and a move away from capitalism, yet she did not state the alternative. When asked about China the woman, who is Taiwanese, stated that communism was a push against western imperialism but has its own form of imperialism. Another panelists talked about her experience with community gardens and how it connects people to the land and food production, this immediately reminded me of Marx’s alienation. This same panelist talked about how what they were talking about was risky as they could realistically be killed, but this was more in reference to her going back to, I believe, India.

So one of my sources is Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.

The second conference was difficult due to the fact that the bulk of it was a movie and I was unable to write any notes during the film, but it was about a man who was fired from his teaching job for being gay. This prompted him to go to the courts of Canada to fight against discrimination based on sexuality as it was not protected. That is inaccurate, it was protected in all provinces except one. First he went to the provincial court but the case was immediately dismissed with as much violent homophobia as you could think. Then it was brought to the Supreme Court where the case was won and sexuality was made a protected category under the Charter.

Anyway, the main important bits was that the people involved in the case were tacked ruthlessly with severe homophobia and that it took several years. One of the lawyers even invoked the memory of the Holocaust to make the case for protecting sexual minorities. During the panel everyone there agreed that, due to the current political climate, we could realistically see a sequel documentary based around trans rights. The director of the film also talked about the cuts to USAID being an issue for LGBT organization overseas, specifically in Poland.

I am sorry for the long explanations but I felt the need to provide this information as to give you all a better idea of what I am dealing with. My mind went to the “revolutionary academic” and how that is clearly not allowed, and thus I found a source kind of about that by Henry Etzkowitz called “The Second Academic Revolution.” I am mostly going to make my own point about how the revolutions described in that paper are not what I am talking about. I am having a hard time finding any pieces on academic revolutionaries, if thats even possible. I am also struggling with linking my second conference to the main point of the paper which, again, is about impact (whatever that means).

I apologize if this is too much to ask for, even steering me in the right direction would help, no need for actual sources if that is not possible or appropriate. I honestly have no one else to consult with on this.

If its any help I was also approved of using Lenin as a source for any of my projects, so nobody is off the table regardless of how “controversial” they are.

Thank you for any guidance you can give me.

Plus this other Mark Pettus book:

Pettus’ books actually have video lectures and free PDF worksheets that go along, so that’s cool. He also has bilingual books which may be helpful. I’ve seen around that the penguin book was a good intro as well. The dictionary is just for expanding my vocabulary.

This is all before I get a tutor, of course, which is something I’ll need to do eventually even if it makes me nervous as hell.

Just thought I’d share because of the Soviet aesthetics that Pettus uses, plus the Lenin one is funny (I promise it’s not the first book I’m cracking open).

April 11th 2025,

I do not believe I have ever written a post like this but please stick around as some wild stuff happened.

My first final of the day was my Canadian History one. This was hand written and was around 3 hours long, my hand was in a lot of pain. While I will not tell you exactly what the questions and topics were on the test as I believe that is illegal, or something, I will tell you some of the comments I made throughout. There was a topic about an economic theory, and while I was explaining what it was I mentioned in my answer (in parentheses) to read Das Kapital for a proper analysis of production and wages. Later on in the exam, during the essay, I mentioned Makenzie King’s affection towards Hitler and how the effected how he handled the war effort.

After that exam I had an hour before my polisci one and spent it studying with other students as I was invited to do so. It was fine for a bit but then things took a turn and I got uncomfortable. All the other students were very pro-Taiwan and essentially “cheered” on the DPP for not recognizing the 1992 consensus. One of the students said that, in a previous class, he had issues with the professor due to said professor “grading based on opinion.” I asked how and he said that he wrote a paper that claimed China was in a state of decline due to the birth rate and the professor didn’t agree, he then said “well I have the data.” So I asked him what data he used, he cited “a bunch” which included the WHO and “others.” I had to stop myself from saying “so only western sources?” I wish I was as strong as all of you, but I’m just not…

This same student also brought up how, when he was researching Taiwan, only 12 countries recognize it as independent. I asked “and you’re surprised by that?” He said not really but he was more shocked at which countries were on the list, like Haiti. He and the other students then praise Haiti for this and label it as “game recognizes game.” Which was annoying but I didn’t say anything. There were also comments made that “Communism killed millions” and that same guy as before said that he hated Mao but liked Deng because he was “smarter.”

Another student said that a planned economy was good, but then that guy made a ”🤨” face and replied “really?” The student backtracked and said that a planned economy was only good in the initial phases of development but not for industrialization, which the guy agreed with. This was hard to watch and frustrating but I was, again, too scared to say anything. It was like being met with a stereotype in real life. Also that guy is a big fan of Japan and is going there for his masters. I wish I could go overseas for mine but unless my rent and groceries are going to be paid for then I cannot do that.

After an hour we headed to our classroom and took the exam which was another 3 hours, my hand was already in pain and by the end of the day it could've well been put in a brace of some kind.

My results for both exams were A’s, and my GPA for the semester was a 4.0, so thats nice.

April 4th 2025,

Today is the last day of classes!

Canadian history was just a prep class for the final, going over the structure of the exam which was identification and an essay. The identification part was exactly like the midterm, he provides us with terms/events/concepts and we have to detail them regarding the whole/what/where/when/how. He is the type of professor that also does not require specifics, and if we forget a name or date we can just describes the person or the time period. The essay was new but he would give us a list of topics to choose from.

French Revolution was the only class left that had an actual lecture and this is mainly because this course does not have a final exam, it also did not have midterms, only quizzes. The “final” is a research paper. Anyway, the lecture began with the 1802 betrayal where France repeals the abolition of slavery and re-opens the slave trade. Saint-Domingue is not specifically mentioned in the decree but the re-opening, alongside finding out about Napoleon’s secret instructions regarding Toussaint, just confirmed the fears of black colonial subjects and sparked the most violent phase of independence. Saint-Domingue rebels against France again when Toussaint dies in prison (due to severe neglect). Yellow fever decimates the French forces and a racial war is waged against all sides in 1803. She softly mentions that maybe what happened to the white people in Haiti during this time was a genocide, some academics say it is but she doesn’t necessarily support that hypothesis (nor does she oppose it).

Now we get into Dessalines, I was worried he wouldn’t be mentioned which is a silly thought since you cannot talk about Haiti without talking about him. He was Toussaint’s successor although Toussaint distrusted him. He turns on French allies after they renege on abolition and he leads the black army to victory (there were atrocities on both sides and a lot of extermination rhetoric). The Haitian flag was created, it removes the white of the French flag and keeps the red and blue which represented unity of Haiti’s mixed-race and black populations. On January 1, 1804, Napoleon is thwarted by Dessaline’s forces and an independent Haiti is founded, the name comes from the Taino-Arawak. Although Haiti was able to get independence, its Caribbean neighbours were not so lucky. She then makes a comparison to Napoleon as Dessalines went from a victorious general to an emperor. Is this comparison fair?

After Haiti’s victory Napoleon gives up on a North American empire and just sells Louisiana. Because of this embarrassing loss, France demands “indemnity” from Haiti is exchange for recognition. In 1825, two decades of extortion, Haiti agrees to pay. More like forced to pay reparations to the loser, they had to borrow interest payments from French banks which pretty much amounts to ransom, Haiti is also unable to declare bankruptcy either. The liberty bond is considered the greatest heist in history ass Haiti was forced to borrow 30 million Francs from France Banks to make its first payment on a 150 million indemnity. This is just a cycle of debt bondage as Haiti’s “draconian” taxes were used to pay off interest instead of being invested in education, healthcare, and infrastructure in its first 150 years of independence. The Citadelle was built to protect the island from any future French invasions and it reflects the “precarity of existence” and the military origin of Haiti.

This debt is still an issue to this day and she shows us a Haitian bumper sticker that demands restitution for the debt. In 2003 Haiti was the first country to demand reparations; France rejects this but acknowledges the “moral” debt but not “material.” This rejection was supported by the USA, which makes sense because if it supported France paying reparations that would mean the US would also have to ope their own can of worms. In spring 2022 the New Yorks Times did a piece on “Haiti’s lost Billions.” Taubira Law, brought in 2001, had France formally acknowledge the slave trade as a crime against humanity. The law requires slavery as a topic in the school curriculum and established Slavery Remembrance Day.

Although my work placement was completed, the course itself was not and I had to do a presentation on my time a the agency I was assigned to and what the projects we had to do were. I cannot detail much of what I said I did make some mild, minor, jokes poking fun at my lack of public speaking skills. When I was finished a student told me I needed to give myself more credit considering at the beginning of the semester I absolutely refused to even answer a question, now I am doing a presentation.

My professor tried to courage others to ask my questions so I wasn’t let off the hook but nobody did, so I jokingly said “I think they’re letting me off the hook.” When I went to sit down my professor did ask me what challenges I would face if I was conducting an oral history of the town I researched. I said my main problem would be the lack of sources since most of the people involved are dead, and I also do not want to get jumped (the people of that town tried really hard to bury their communist past). After everyone was done with their presentations my professor asked me if I would be willing to send him my project write up as he was very interested in it.

So that’s the end of classes for semester 6 but I have one more post left as some weird stuff happened the day of my final exams. Yes, I had two finals back to back.