BruceVC

I want to ask you a simple but important question and if you can answer this then it make me feel much better about what Africa is going to face due to Russia cancelling the grain deal Lets say for argument sake 1000 tons of grain per month come through the Black Sea and only 2% of that goes to Africa. But that 2% is what they use and UN allocates to certain African countries. Where is this grain going to come from now? There are supply chain realities and transport issues so that is also a consideration but I am more interested in where additional grain that is now blocked is going to come from?

This Girkin meme made me laugh

None of that changes the fundamental issue and the impact to Africa but its no surprise you are handwaving it, I was expecting that if you were going to comment It doesnt matter how much grain the EU uses because the supply chains are now broken by Russia ending the grain deal. The EU, like the energy from Russia, will make another plan. African countries cant and wont like we witnessed last year because they dependant on this deal And its not just one African country that will be impacted, to quote from the link below " Some of these countries are a part of a group of 16 African nations that import the majority of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Djibouti, Burundi, Mauritania, Togo, Cameroon, Senegal, Rwanda, Congo, Libya, Tanzania and Namibia all depend on the warring sides for 50 to 70 percent of their wheat imports. Meanwhile, Egypt and Madagascar import more than 70 to 80 percent and Somalia imports over 90 percent of their wheat requirement. And the African country most dependent on the grain deal is Eritrea – importing 100 percent of its grain from Ukraine and Russia " https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/which-african-countries-benefit-from-türkiye-brokered-grain-deal-62422

I have stopped pointing out the obvious lies with the general rhetoric that Russia cares about Africa or the global south The cancellation of the grain deal and its real impact to Africa gets handwaved by Vatniks and Russian supporters with comments like " yes but the grain all goes to the EU " or " its fine, Russia will supply grain directly to African countries " and other similar comments But it will absolutely impact certain African and ME countries the most and these are already mostly impoverished countries that are dependant on this deal for food security and we know this because this all happened last year. Here are 2 links from last year about the biggest outcome for Russia cancelling the deal https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/28/ukraine/russia-war-continues-africa-food-crisis-looms https://www.euronews.com/2022/07/23/peace-and-stability-african-leaders-welcome-russia-ukraine-wheat-deal

Correct and they should have arrested Al-Bashir as our courts ruled. This has been tested already in our courts. Why would the ANC want to go through this again with Putin? They were under an obligation to arrest him and our local laws expected that Also that was different leadership and era in SA, that was when Jacob Zuma was president. Zuma was incredibly corrupt and didn't understand or care about the Constitution and what it means. The current president does care and respect the Constitution

https://ewn.co.za/2023/07/19/putin-won-t-attend-brics-summit-presidency-confirms

Yes the idea of leaving the ICC is over now, the ANC reaffirmed commitment to the ICC at its elective conference in December and in April. The ANC could get the country to leave the ICC but it decided to stay because 30 African countries are part of it and we no have alternative in Africa. And the reason for staying is we cant change the ICC from the outside. Thats what ANC spokes people say Anyway its just been announced, Putin wont be coming next month and Lavrov will attend in his place. That makes sense on every level and its much better for SA

Okay, its still a confused message. Our government has said we will honor the ICC because we believe in it and we reaffirmed our membership of it in April but we also dont want to arrest Putin and risk war or other consequence The obvious and easy solution is simple, dont invite Putin. He can send Lavrov and attend virtually like BRICS meetings have been held in the past. It makes no difference to the functions of this BRICS meetings if Putin is here in person except for Russian symbolism, hubris and the optics of rejecting the ICC. Because Russia isnt a member of the ICC so they dont care but we are so it matters we enforce its warrants And SA has been through this before where we failed to arrest Al-Bashir of Sudan and our local courts ruled we had a Constitutional obligation to arrest him. So this is about our own laws and the ANC cant ignore that irrespective of their own ideological views and historical " friendship " with Russia

Whoah, yes you missed a lot There is an ICC arrest warrant on Putin and SA is a signatory to the ICC and therefore expected to enforce ICC warrants

You right and I agree Russia has demonstrated numerous irrational and illogical decisions But I am particularly interested in the statement " we will declare war on SA if Putin is arrested " . I did some quick research and I cant find anything from Russia. All I can find is what our president said because if the Russians did say that then we mustn't arrest him, its not worth the risk even if its just a meaningless threat And if it is true so much for the Russian " friendship " with the global south and SA

Nuke us when Putin is arrested in SA .....surly not Honestly I think our government is exaggerating or lying because the ANC lost a court case around all deliberations about enforcing the BRICS warrant and now all discussions have to be public record I want to know if anything is official about this in the Russian media or government comments , have the Russians actually said " we will declare war on SA if Putin is arrested "

According to the SA government Russia has said they will declare war on SA if Putin is arrested during the BRICS conference next month I find that hard to believe that Russia would do that? And I mean the threat and going to war with SA Putin can attend BRICS virtually and if Putin drops dead tomorrow BRICS will still continue. It makes no difference to BRICS if Putin is around, its like the UN. Its not about people its about countries. I find the threat hard to believe? Can you imagine Russia invading SA

Im watching s3 of the Witcher, its not that bad and seems to be getting lots of negative views? But I will miss Henry Cavill as Geralt, he was an excellent choice

What a interesting interview with Swen I have been watching some of the non-spoiler reviews and gameplay videos and I never seen such positive opinions in my life abou any RPG. BG3 is going to be epic

I think what the Swedish government is worried about is misinformation created by Russian propaganda about NATO. Better to counter it than let it potentially fester and grow

This is a good development and I support it. The only way to guarantee you wont be invaded by warmongering nations like Russia is to join NATO So well done Swedish authorities. The correct message about NATO primarily being a defensive union matters

Thats really industrious, an effective anti-drone weapon

So you misled us, you have often said you dont cook? It sounds like you quite the little gastronome

Im playing Gothic 2, I first played it about 12-13 years ago but I raged quit because I decided to be a Fire Mage and I couldn't defeat many dragons. This time I am going to be a Paladin Im about 13 hours in and its a great PB experience which include the normal open world and NO level scaling. I also like how resources like gold are scarce and everything is difficult at lower levels. Its the most effective and worthwhile way to implement risk vs reward exploration mechanics in an RPG and PB have the perfect design for this

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/12/analysis-ukraine-rolls-back-6-months-of-russian-gains-in-5-weeks Its hard to get confirmed information on the Ukrainian counteroffensive but here is a good summary on Ukrainian advancements

I love Wilfred Owen. you know he was killed 1 week before WW1 ended. It was tragic My best poem of his is The Parable of the Old Man and the Young "When lo! an angel called him out of heaven, Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, Neither do anything to him. Behold, A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns; Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him. But the old man would not so, but slew his son, And half the seed of Europe, one by one "

You mean you actually took seriously the whole " big rift in NATO around the support for Ukraine " rhetoric Bidens speech was exactly what I expected. It was the normal firebrand belief in NATO and continued support with words like unwavering. The crowd loved him https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-deliver-key-speech-high-stakes-nato-summit/story?id=101166108

I enjoy these types of war stories and I didnt know anything about it so thanks for sharing I read the article but I probably need to watch the move because the article mentions POW and not young boys rounded up from Germany as you said in this post. And they did use certain methods, like distancing, that woudnt be seen as safe today but the article for me is more about the overall success of the project Anyway interesting story, I must watch the movie

Gorhfuscious thats sounds like "British bashing " ....are you sure thats true? Do you links to share ?

Thats interesting, good to know. So the cluster bombs can clear minefields?