Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalCenturies-old Aztec texts detail history of their capital, conquests and fall to the Spanish
By Owen Jarus
published 11 hours ago
Three codices from the 16th and 17th century describe historical details about the Aztecs and the area that is now Mexico City.
A private family recently sold three Aztec codices from the 16th and 17th centuries to the Mexican government. (Image credit: ©SC, INAH, BNAH)
Centuries-old codices from what is now Mexico hold a wealth of knowledge about the Aztecs in their native language, including details about the founding of their capital, their conquests and their fall to the Spanish, according to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
The Mexican government recently bought three illustrated codices, known as the Codices of San Andrés Tetepilco, from a private family that had passed down the Aztec documents for generations, the Spanish newspaper El País reported.
The Aztecs ruled over a large area of Mexico during the 15th and 16th centuries. Their capital was at Tenochtitlán, in what is now Mexico City. Between 1519 and 1521, a Spanish force conquered the Aztecs and established Spanish rule over the area. Codices written in the Indigenous Nahuatl language and Spanish continued to be produced into the early 17th century.
One of the newly purchased codices describes the founding of Tenochtitlán around 1300 and the lords who ruled it in pre-Hispanic times, INAH representatives said in a translated statement. The codex also describes the Aztec conquest of the city of Tetepilco around 1440 and how that city's ruler swore vassalage to the Aztecs. It even details the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 and their rule up to the year 1611, the statement said. The Spanish continued to rule Mexico until 1821.
The centuries-old codices still contain traces of color, largely from plants, charcoal, ocher and indigo. (Image credit: ©SC, INAH, BNAH)
More:
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/centuries-old-aztec-texts-detail-history-of-their-capital-conquests-and-fall-to-the-spanish
The IMF's Bottomless Bottom-Line Cruelty
How the IMF & the World Bank—in the name of progress—succeed in keeping poor countries poor.
Rob Larson
Everyone knows there are many extremely poor countries in the world, but people rarely talk about why. These nations are sometimes collectively called the Third World (being neither the Western First World or the Soviet-aligned Second World); the more recent euphemism is usually the “developing world.” Whatever the name, these states are imagined by most Westerners to be scary, struggling places, and they tend to take the blame for global woes like terrorism and unsanctioned migration. Some of our greatest billionaires polish their public personas by donating to charities that supposedly aid the people trapped in grinding poverty across parts of Africa, southern Asia, and Latin America.
These countries have been The Poor Countries for quite some time now. At the end of World War II, the great states of the developing world—like Brazil, Indonesia, India, and the Congo—were dramatically poorer than the developed world. Today, 75 years later, and after decades of “investment” and “development,” they’re still very poor. In fact, huge numbers of people in these large, resource-rich countries are much poorer than their ancestors. What the hell is going on here? Colonialism ended years ago—didn’t it? Or did it just change shape?
. . .
After the imperial powers were beaten, exhausted, and/or occupied during World War II, the developing world strove for independence—and the Europeans fought like mad to avoid giving it to them. From French Algeria to British India, the colonial powers used ungodly violence and torture on a huge scale against dissidents, keeping cruel pro-Western dictators in office as long as possible. As the developing countries of the Global South gradually won independence through long, bloody struggles, their traumatized societies came under what leftists often call “neocolonialism”—a system in which rich capitalist states install and support local dictators and strongmen, allowing Western companies to continue owning many of the same old crucial resources and selling products to profitable, effectively captive markets. This pattern widened after the Cold War, when the “fall of the Soviet bloc… [created] a new imperial age,” as the conservative Financial Times of London related, with “a system of indirect rule that has involved the integration of leaders of developing countries into the network of the new ruling class.”
From Regular Slavery to Debt Slavery
One of the most valuable tools used to keep developing countries from developing some real independence has been debt. The battle-scarred governments arising from the wars of independence—some authoritarian and some managing to remain partially republican—often wanted compensation from the former imperial powers, which they’re mostly still hoping for. This was in recognition of the scale of imperial crimes against the developing world, from the enormous violence unleashed against them to the massive wealth that was stripped to build up Western economies, plus the fact that choice resources like oil deposits and rich farmland often remained in the hands of citizens of the colonial powers. Europe and the United States refused, though they frequently indicated they were prepared to lend developing countries the money instead.
Despite requests for capital grants as reparations rather than lines of credit, many developing countries ended up borrowing money, ostensibly for development—investing in education, health, and domestic infrastructure to begin the journey to something more like the developed world’s standard of living. Often funds were needed to pay the developed powers “compensation” for nationalizing their assets, like the Suez Canal. Frequently these loans were organized by the World Bank, created by the Western powers after World War II to help provide development credit to the Third World. These loans for roads, bridges, schools and hospitals were supposed to be paid for by the countries’ great future economic growth, although notably the World Bank and Western investors favored projects that built on poor countries’ existing comparative trade advantages. This meant exporting basic commodities like bulk crops, or raw materials like oil and copper—largely leaving the higher valued-added processing and manufacturing to the developed world.
More:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/02/the-imfs-bottomless-bottom-line-cruelty
Argentina: Firearms Resolution Opens Door to Abuse
March 25, 2024 11:00AM EDT
Milei Administration Should Strengthen Investigative Capacity, Fight Corruption
Security Minister Patricia Bullrich shakes hands with security forces deployed to Rosario, Argentina, on Monday, March 11, 2024. The Argentine government sent federal security forces to the city following a wave of killings in public areas. © 2024 AP Photo/Celina Mutti Lovera
(Washington, DC) - A new executive branch resolution broadening the scope for security agents’ use of firearms in Argentina runs counter to basic human rights standards and opens the door to abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.
On March 14, 2024, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich approved the resolution citing increased gang violence in the city of Rosario, Santa Fe province, which Human Rights Watch visited in late February. The resolution contains loopholes and ambiguities that could allow security officers to employ firearms in an unacceptably broad set of circumstances. It applies to all national security forces, including the national police and the national penitentiary service.
“People in Rosario and elsewhere in Argentina should be able to go about their daily lives without fear due to insecurity,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “To achieve that, the government should be strengthening judicial capacity and preventing gang recruitment, not opening the door to excessive use of force.”
The resolution is an extended version of another resolution that Bullrich passed in 2018, when she was also Security Minister. Human Rights Watch had called for its modification as it ran counter to international human rights standards.
More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/25/argentina-firearms-resolution-opens-door-abuse
Papers Show U.S. Role in Guatemalan Abuses
By Douglas Farah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 11, 1999; Page A26
During the 1960s, the United States was intimately involved in equipping and training Guatemalan security forces that murdered thousands of civilians in the nation's civil war, according to newly declassified U.S. intelligence documents.
The documents show, moreover, that the CIA retained close ties to the Guatemalan army in the 1980s, when the army and its paramilitary allies were massacring Indian villagers, and that U.S. officials were aware of the killings at the time. The documents were obtained by the National Security Archive, a private nonprofit group in Washington.
Some of the documents were made available to an independent commission formed to investigate human rights abuses during Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which killed an estimated 200,000 people. The report by the Historical Clarification Commission, which grew out of the U.N.-brokered peace agreement that ended the conflict in 1996, was released last month in Guatemala and blamed government forces for the overwhelming majority of human rights violations during the conflict.
But some of the documents were not released until yesterday. One was a Jan. 4, 1966 memo from a U.S. State Department security official describing how he set up a "safe house" in the presidential palace for use by Guatemalan security agents and their U.S. contacts. The safe house became the headquarters for Guatemala's "dirty war" against leftist insurgents and suspected allies.
"I have never seen anything like it," said Kate Doyle, Guatemala project director at the archives, expressing amazement at "the description of our intimacy with the Guatemalan security forces."
Three months after the cable about the safe house, on March 6, 1966, security forces arrested 32 people suspected of aiding Marxist guerrillas; those arrested subsequently disappeared. While the Guatemalan government denied any involvement in the case, a CIA cable sent later that year identifies three of those missing, saying, "The following Guatemalan Communists and terrorists were executed secretly by Guatemalan authorities on the night of March 6."
The CIA has a long history of involvement in Guatemala, having helped to orchestrate the army's overthrow of a democratically elected government in 1954. Nevertheless, largely because of human rights concerns, the United States never provided Guatemalan security forces with the same level of support it gave anti-communist forces in neighboring Nicaragua and El Salvador during fighting in the 1980s.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/march99/guatemala11.htm
So much is available on the InternetS which was ommitted by the public "educators". So much to learn for those who want to do the homework!
You may have noticed after Reagan triumphed by conquering Communism, without missing a beat, the US started going after all the new Narco Traffickers, and Heumann Trafickers! They're all the same people: people who don't put US interests before the interests of the impoverished, brown masses of the Americas.
50 Interesting Facts About Ancient Aztec Culture
(Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)
The Aztec Culture has a deep and rich history that not many people know about. The people of this vast empire were very intellectual and developed deep political and social organizations, as well as commercial and religious influences throughout their rule. They conquered many parts of Mesoamerica, what we know today as Mexico and some parts of Central America. They came into power around 1345 and were mercilessly taken out of power by the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1521.
This great empire would go on to create a deeply rich culture as well as much innovation for the world today. The Aztecs had many gods that were associated with everything in life. They had deeply religious values that affected everything around them. Aztecs were very innovative with architecture and agriculture. They were very clean and smart people who went to school every day and even bathed multiple times a day. The Aztec Empire reached a great height in its time but many things lead to the downfall of this great ancient civilization.
Ancient Aztec Calendars
(Photo by: Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The Aztecs had a very intricate calendar system it actually consisted of two different calendars. One was called Tonalpohualli also known as "The Counting Of The Days", which consisted of a 265-day cycle. The other calendar was called Xiuhpohualli or "Counting Of The Years", which consisted of a 365-day cycle.
Both calendars held important meaning within each day and thus had a different symbol and meaning to that day. Every 52 years each calendar would align its first days and was a celebration day for the Aztecs called 'The Binding of The Years' ceremony which they would make religious sacrifices on that day.
Montezuma II
More:
https://explore.reference.com/50-interesting-facts-about-ancient-aztec-culture-copy/51
Book Banning Attempts Are at Record Highs
A new report from the American Library Association found that the number of challenged titles increased by 65 percent in 2023
Ella Feldman
Daily Correspondent
March 18, 2024
Book-banning efforts reached the highest level ever documented by the American Library Association (ALA) last year, according to a new report.
In 2023, 4,240 unique titles were targeted for censorship in schools and libraries across the country—a 65 percent increase from 2022.
Book challenges are also becoming increasingly common in public libraries. The number of titles targeted at public libraries rose by 92 percent last year, while school libraries saw an 11 percent increase.
“I wake up every morning hoping this is over,” Emily Drabinski, president of ALA, tells the New York Times’ Alexandra Alter. “What I find striking is that this is still happening, and it’s happening with more intensity.”
The reported numbers represent “only a snapshot” of censorship attempts throughout the year, says the association. The ALA calculates its totals using reports filed by library professionals and book challenges covered in the media. Censorship attempts that don’t fall into these categories are not included.
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/book-banning-attempts-are-at-record-highs-180983964/
Suriname cancels controversial Mennonite pilot program, but bigger problems loom
by Maxwell Radwin on 20 March 2024
The government in Suriname said it cancelled a controversial pilot program that would have brought hundreds of Mennonites to the country to carry out agricultural activity, likely in forested areas.
Suriname President Chan Santokhi confirmed to local media this week that he shuttered a pilot program setting aside 30,000 hectares (74,131 acres) for 50 Mennonite families, easing some fears that the country was on the verge of destroying large parts of the Amazon Rainforest.
“We in the international conservation movement congratulate President Santokhi and the people of Suriname for taking a thoughtful and considered move in deciding how best to manage the country’s resources for the benefit of all the country’s citizens,” said President of Amazon Conservation Team Mark Plotkin.
More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/suriname-cancels-controversial-mennonite-pilot-program-but-bigger-problems-loom/
Truth and reconciliation: New study finds people less likely to acknowledge war crimes on social media
MARCH 20, 2024
Editors' notes
by University of Exeter
Social media could prove to be as much a barrier to post-conflict reconciliation as it is a way of helping communities move forward, new research has claimed.
A study has found that there are clear differences between how people discuss the legacy of war in face-to-face situations compared to those interactions on platforms such as Facebook and X.
Fear of being stereotyped and judged by foreign nationals or a concern of being viewed as a 'bad ambassador' by compatriots, can lead to people becoming defensive and closed-off about issues such as war crimes committed by their own ethnic group.
The study, which examined attitudes to the Yugoslav war, and in particular the killing of 8,000 men and boys by the Bosnian Serb army at Srebrenica, could have important lessons with regard to the work of human rights activists who use social media to raise awareness of genocide and other atrocities.
More:
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-truth-reconciliation-people-acknowledge-war.html
Scientists find galaxy supercluster as massive as 26 quadrillion suns
By Robert Lea published 4 hours ago
The Einasto Supercluster is so vast that it would take a light signal 360 million years to get from one end to the other.
A black screen with lots of golden speckled dots. One area of the scene is zoomed-in with a box to the right.
The Einasto supercluster located 3 billion light-years away and containing a mass equivelent to 26 quadrillion suns (Image credit: Shishir Sankhyayan)
Astronomers have discovered a cavalcade of monster galaxy superclusters, incredibly massive collections of galaxies and galaxy clusters in the universe.
The most striking example of these 662 new superclusters is located around 3 billion light-years away from Earth and has been named the "Einasto Supercluster." This particular supercluster is named in honor of Estonian astrophysicist Jaan Einasto, one of the discoverers of the large-scale structure of the universe.
The Einasto Supercluster is staggering in terms of its sheer size and mass. It contains the same mass as around 26 quadrillion suns (26 followed by 15 zeroes). This supercluster is so vast, in fact, that it would take a light signal 360 million years to travel from one side of it to the other.
The findings could help scientists better understand how these vast collections of galaxies come together. Down the line, it could also help answer questions about dark matter and dark energy.
More:
https://www.space.com/einasto-supercluster-galaxy-26-quadrillion-suns
Losing the Connection Between the Andes and the Amazon: A Price of Peace in Colombia
The South American country, where the biodiversity of the Andes meets that of the Amazon, is losing the great natural wealth of some 1,500 square kilometers of forest each year, mainly in areas formerly under guerrilla control
March 19, 2024 by Knowable Magazine
By Pablo Correa
In 2016, the same year the Colombian government and guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed to end a war that had lasted almost half a century, the forests that make northwestern South America one of the most biodiverse places on the planet began to vanish. The demise of a conflict that had claimed the lives of at least 450,664 people marked the beginning of an environmental tragedy: In 2016 alone, deforestation increased 44 percent over the previous year.
“Colombia is now experiencing the consequences of the power vacuum left by the FARC over large parts of its territory,” warned ecologist Nicola Clerici of the University of Rosario in Bogota and colleagues in 2018. For decades, the war had slowed colonization in the south of the country and impeded deforestation — a phenomenon termed “gunpoint conservation.” After the peace agreement, the dynamics changed.
Colombia is now losing an average of 1,500 square kilometers of forest each year, an area 25 times the size of the island of Manhattan. About 65 percent of this is Amazonian forest. The forests are replaced by land for cattle ranching and agriculture, or they are simply set on fire so that the land can be fenced and sold. In 2018 alone, fires in biodiversity hotspots increased sixfold over the previous year.
Most of this deforestation is concentrated in the areas formerly controlled by the FARC, which include a 500-kilometer-long strip of land where the foothills of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon lowlands meet — a place that is a passageway for thousands of species, an area for genetic exchange between different populations of the same species, and a region supporting an extensive network of rivers that flow down from the mountains to feed the Amazon basin.
More:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/losing-the-connection-between-the-andes-and-the-amazon-a-price-of-peace-in-colombia/
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