A thread
1/9
"Srinagar, January 4, 1990. Aftab, a local Urdu newspaper, publishes a press release issued by Hizb-ul Mujahideen, set up by the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1989 .. asking all Hindus to pack up and leave."
by @KanchanGupta

2/9
"In the following days, there is near chaos in the Kashmir valley with Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference government abdicating all responsibilities of the State."

3/9
"Walls are plastered with posters and handbills, summarily ordering all Kashmiris to strictly follow the Islamic dress code, ... masked men with Kalashnikovs force people to re-set their watches and clocks to Pakistan Standard

4/9
"Srinagar, January 19, 1990. Jagmohan arrives to take charge as governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq Abdullah, whose pathetic, whimpering, snivelling government has all but ceased to exist and has gone into hiding, resigns and goes into a sulk."

#KashmiriHinduExodus

5/9
"As evening falls... three taped slogans are repeatedly played the whole night from mosques: 'Kashmir mei agar rehna hai, Allah-O-Akbar kehna hai' (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah-O-Akbar);
#KashmiriHinduExodus

THREAD: tomorrow, Jan 25 is the global day of action for Yemen. Here’s a list of everything you can do to support it 🇾🇪👇🏼👇🏼

Show up in person if you can! there are protests happening all over the world. You can look at the action map here and RSVP to one!

Register for the online rally happening tomorrow featuring @mrdannyglover, @jeremycorbyn, @CornelWest , @shireen818 and more! We will be highlighting the importance of ending US/UK/Canadian etc support for the war and the weight of the crisis!

if you can’t get out to a protest, no worries, social media action is super important too! Use these super easy toolkits to take action online.
Here’s one the entire world can use!

Here’s one for the UK! thank you @STWuk ❤️

1/ This 10 year old Buhari-branded Tee must be my oldest piece of cloth (bar a couple of agbada inherited from our patriarch).

The story?

In 2011, when Buhari was a hard sell in the South, before he joined forces with Tinubu et al, some of us volunteered to sell him

2/ So a group of us on Nairaland then came together, raised some funds among ourselves. I was the coordinator. I remember one Nairaland guy - from Kogi? - I didn’t know came to my then office and dropped N500k cash and 100 pieces of this Tee from the booth of his car.

3/ We raised about N800k in all and did jingles in radio stations in Lagos, Osun, Oyo and Rivers states. I think we called ourselves Buhari Online Support Group or something like that. We also did some publicity material and distributed those shirts.

4/ I churned out over 20 articles in newspapers making a case for Buhari candidacy. That was also where I got to be friends with people like Femi Adesina and Tope Fasua, through pages of newspapers.

5/ Well, with GEJ’s 2011 goodwill (recall the “I had no shoe” & “Breath of fresh air” campaign mantras?), +with absence of political xture (forget volunteering by small boys like us, you cannot make inroads into a region without xture), GMB only managed to get 200k votes in Lagos

Most 🌍 comparisons for C19 go wrong as they don't considering demographics.

For countries I've managed to src detailed death data for, here's total d/1m numbers.

Sure,🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 look similar to 🇧🇷🇵🇪, but just look at the differences <60, 🇵🇪 4x larger.

So what does this mean?

1/9

Basically, fewer >80, means they've had⏫spread, and ⏫younger deaths, but👀equal.

Here ranking⏫2⏬by age are:
▶️20 countries
▶️NY city
▶️The World
That I've 👀at so far.

50% marks the median age, e.g.
🇮🇹 47
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿41
🌍30
🇳🇬18

So expecting similar deaths overall is silly.

2/9

So how have deaths actually played out?

Here are the props. by age to late Dec for places with detailed data.

Looks like NYC, 🇧🇷 & 🇵🇪 have seen far more in the young.

Now these all have younger pops. so is spread the same? Are diff just down to demographics?

3/9

No, many factors, the biggest age, and the likelihood of death in each age band.

🌍serology studies have sampled a similar risk in each 10yr band, with this going up 3 fold with each band.

Here is a plot of what🌍avgs are.

So what else do we need to worry about?

4/9

Factors like:
▶️healthcare: beds nos, better care, etc
▶️comorbidity rates: e.g. obesity, OECD 4x India, but only effects 15%
▶️lifestyle impacts: carehomes VS elderly@home
etc

But, many cancel out.
e.g. 1st🌍better healthcare, but fatter.

What about a lack of treatment?

5/9

A "brief" recapitulation of monthly events/turmoil in 2020 :-

⚠ LONG THREAD

JANUARY
-US airstrike killed one of the most important leader of Iran, Gen.Qassem Soleimani
-Philippines Taal Volcano eruption
-Trump impeachment inquiry
-Iranian military by mistake downed a Ukraine plane killing all 176 on board

FEBRUARY
-Anti CAA riots in India
-Namaste trump event
-Coronavirus Spreading
-UK leaves Brexit
-US confirmed killing of Yemen AlQaeda Leader
-US-Taliban sign peace agreement (withdrawal of American Soldiers from Afghanistan, releasing prisoners)

MARCH
-India becomes observer of Indian Ocean Commission
-Finland topped the World Happiness Report
-Olympics Postponed
-Former CJI nominated in Rajya Sabha
-Syrian strikes kill Turkish soldiers
-Migrant exodus struck India

APRIL
-India supplies HCQ and paracetamol worldwide
-Hole opened up in Ozone layer in Arctic got closed
-Global surge in violence against women due to lockdowns
-Oil prices hit negative
-KimJongUn "dead or alive"

One of the great mysteries of the Quranic reading traditions are their many phonetic irregularities, that seem to have no purpose except to show off some grammatical oddity. One of these is the ʾimālah of al-kēfīrīna. Ibn Ḫālawayh in his Ḥuǧǧah has an interesting discussion. 🧵

The plural of 'disbelievers', besides the now popular kuffār, is also kāfirūna in the Quran. In the genitive and accusative this becomes kāfirīna. Some readers read this (and ONLY this) as kēfirīna.
This is the reading of: ʾAbū ʿAmr, al-Dūrī ← al-Kisāʾī and Ruways ← Yaʿqūb.

In his al-Ḥuǧǧah fī l-Qirāʾāt al-Sabʿ, Ibn Ḫālawayh sets out to rationalize and explain the practices of the seven readers canonized by his teacher, Ibn Mujāhid. He also discusses al-Kēfirīna. Let's translate and give commentary along the way.

"As for the saying of the almighty 'wa-ḷḷāhu muḥīṭun bi-l-kāfirīna'", al-kāfirīna is read with ʾimālah or without ʾimālah whenever it is in the accusative or genitive.

So the explanation is that it is because of the meeting of four kasras within a single word"

"It is the kasrah of the fāʾ, rāʾ and yāʾ -- and the rāʾ can carry two kasras, so they pull the ʾalif, because it is quiscentent, by their strength, so they cause ʾimālah to apply to it".

So lots to unpack here. Where on earth is he getting four kasrahs from?!

The subject of true and false prophesying has been raised recently. See @derekradney especially. It’s important because as @PLeithart notes in his fine commentary on 1&2 Kings, Israel’s history is not so much political as it is prophetic.

One example - Ahab. Not only does he despise & reject the three prophets God mercifully sends him, but he embraces the hundreds who falsely prophesy in God’s name. That latter fact is the issue. It’s not that the false prophets are invoking Baal but YHWH.

Ahab’s prophets are false for numerous reasons but let me cite just one. They aimed to reinforce an unholy alliance between Judah’s future king and Ahab’s daughter Athaliah, a disaster that resulted in the attempted destruction of the Messianic hope.

Prophetically backing unholy alliances - defending the union of what God has separated - nearly led to the disastrous destruction of Judah. They are false not simply because of false predictions but because of errant theology.

I’m going to put this as plainly as I can. The Church today is disturbed, divided, and misled because of false prophets. They aren’t false in an obvious sense (or only in a narrow ‘charismatic’ sense) because they operate within otherwise orthodox settings & use orthodox terms.

Ahead of the 1st anniversary of Soleimani's assassination, senior Iranian officials praise his contribution to the liberation of Iraq from ISIS. But in fact, the Quds Force led by soleimani took advantage of the ISIS crisis to maximize the Iranian influence in Iraq.⬇️

The IRI sees great importance in Iraq as part of its own national security for variety of reasons. Historically, Iran has aspired to control the Shiite holy shrines of Iraq, mainly in Najaf & Karbala. For this purpose, fierce battles took place btw Iran and the Ottoman Empire.⬇️

Thus, Iraq became a major destination for exporting of the Islamic Revolution immediately upon the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The essence of Iranian motivation in the war was to establish a pro-Iranian Shiite puppet government there.⬇️

Highly motivated to establish a Shiite revolutionary regime in Iraq, the IRI rejected Saddam's proposal for a ceasefire in 1982. Accordingly, the war continued for another six years in which hundreds of thousands more people on both sides were killed.⬇️

In 2003, due to IRI's fear of the possibility of the U.S. establishing a Shiite democracy in post-Saddam Iraq, it meddled in Iraq's affairs and established an array of Shiite militias. Tehran used this transnational array to wage a proxy war against the U.S. in Iraq.⬇️

.@N12News assessment of Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi's tenure as IDF Chief of Staff at 2 yrs:

2-@n12news:IDF finishing 2 good yrs since Kochavi's appointment: few Israelis harmed by terror, terror attacks stopped at border, including sea and land penetrations from Gaza , bombs on Syrian border, rocket attacks, Cyber attacks

3-@n12news: On the offensive, IDF engaged in, intensifying "war between wars" -- most activity carried out by air or sea, small part through cross-border special forces ops. Not just in Syria, but also Iraq, Lebanon, Sinai, in addition to reported cyber attacks in Iran

4-@N12News: Significantly damaged weapons, bases, armament factories. "Iranians evacuated 50% of forces in Syria, moved bases east," mistakenly thinking this would complicate IAF missions. Damage also to Syrian Army, its missile factors and defense systems

5-@n12news: War Between Wars will expand in coming yr, but this brings Israel closer to point where opponents can no longer restrain themselves

Today, an emotional Sunday thread on signs & wonders in Lagos, and why my trip to Ajah is on hold.

TL:DR - God safe Lagos drivers

It all started after I decided I needed to hear God's voice directly this Sunday, and so I would go to physical mass, no more online.

I decided I would go to Divine Mercy in Lekki, as opposed to St. Charles Borromeo in VI.

My first decision.

As I parked my car, I noticed the car on my left side was not parked properly - one of those criminal offences people commit when they take up space for two cars, instead of parking properly inside the designated lines.

As a law abiding citizen, I hinted at this to the attendant

Fast forward to the end of Mass, filled with the spirit, I stepped out of church and walked towards my car.

As I did, a man said to me - 'this your corolla is fine o, very smooth and clean, you should borrow me'

Now, people who know me know that I like my car to be clean - inside and outside. I don't like scratches or bashes. I'm too good a driver to have such.

So after hearing this, I was very proud. I entered my car and drove to pick up something from the office (still Lekki)

Vladimir Putin extended his greetings on Christmas and the New Year 2021 to heads of foreign states and governments, as well as executives of international organisations, except Ukraine and Georgia.

HOW CHINA CHOOSE THEIR LEADERS

On twitter, I have seen many people say China is evil because it’s an Autocratic Government and Why don't Chinese support western style democracy? Why do Chinese people support President Xi, who has no votes?
Now, let’s enlighten ourselves.

1/n

Unlike the so-called "democratic countries," the Chinese people value experience more than votes or other abilities for government officials.
From the Sui Dynasty on (1400 years ago), officials were selected and promoted by examination, not by blood or birth.

2/n

In today's China, if you want to enter politics, you have to take a hard and competitive road. Whether you come from a grassroots family or a political family, you have to go through every step. Only in this way, you can reach the top of power, like President Xi.

3/n

To get started, you have to own a college degree, at least for most Chinese govt officials. You have to take the national civil service examination and be admitted. In 2019, 92000 people took the exam and 14537 were admitted, with the admission rate of 1.58%.

4/n

The ruling party in China is the CPC. In addition, there are 8 other parties. You have to join one of them. If your idea is to become the supreme leader of China, I suggest you join the CPC. You will be one of the 90 million CPC members. They are all your competitors.（5/N）

THREAD ON CHINA AND GLOB0HOM0

The conventional understanding of right & left, liberal & conservative, breaks down when applied to China

China, while ostensibly communist, differs from other communist countries and from Western leftist ideology in several important ways.

I.

China's "socialism w Chinese characteristics" is heavily nationalist & even racialist, in contrast to the internationalist & anti-racist bent of Western leftism. They have a clear (though somewhat flexible for political expediency) understanding of who is and isn't Chinese

The Han ethnic majority forms the core of Chinese identity, while other (Asiatic) ethnic groups within Chinese territory are still considered Chinese w equal citizen rights but who will be fiercely repressed if they cause problems (Tibetans and Uighurs)

Everyone else a foreigner

II.

China is fiercely protectionist

Their banning of Western social media served 2 purposes: 1) keep glowy foreign subversion out of their cyberspace, and 2) create domestic alternatives such as Weibo and WeChat for greater economic benefit to themselves

China was let into the World Trade Organization thanks to efforts by Bill Clinton (who took CCP $$$) and George W. Bush. They said China would become more liberal and democratic