Luddites were not as opposed to new technology as you say it here. They were mainly concerned about what technology would do to whom.

A helpful history right here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown

Interesting seen this way.

Word of note though. Salaries are quiet spread out. The people likely to buy new iPhones are likely people earning top 1% of salaries in most countries in Africa.

If this viz is focusing on average salary, then it is a general description and should not be compared to other countries with different income spreads (min-max). It can be quite deceptive. Upper middle class in a place like Kenya or Myanmar live a far more better life overall than say lower middle class folk in the US.

The Federated Learning of Cohorts and now the Topics API are part of a plan to pitch an "alternative" tracking platform, and Google argues that there has to be a tracking alternative—you can't just not be spied on.

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

--James D. Nicoll

You may like this essay on why English has weird spellings. Think technological timings.

https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-english-spelling-system-so-weird-and-inconsistent

Ka-no. Why waste so many letters. :)

Approximately 750,000 Ethiopians live and work in Saudi Arabia. While many migrate for economic reasons, a number have fled because of serious human rights abuses in Ethiopia, including during the recent, brutal armed conflict in the north.

I wonder how many more operate below the legal registration.

Audiobookshelf helps solve two of my big needs with audios (books and podcasts). Excellent piece of software. Please throw some cash to them if you end up deploying.

I like how Cory Doctorow has managed to unite several seemingly disparate themes by focusing on a monopoly. From content moderation to AI, there is the close connection to how centralized systems breed most of the social ills we are facing.

Heard of PLAN's base in Djibouti? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_People%27s_Liberation_Army_Support_Base_in_Djibouti

I refuse simplified dichotomies. They are not helpful to me. May be to you.

The problem with tired dichotomies is you end up with these kinds of statements. Britain, France, Portugal, Germany, Spain, and Belgium do have long histories of violence in Africa through slave trading, colonialism, coups, and proxy wars. The Saudis, Emirates, Soviets, Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans have had their share of violent extraction either directly or indirectly. The question is whether it adds value to always compare these countries over and over again claiming one is more extractive and violent than the other, and refusing to see how the real world is organized, not as a block of harmonious people under "country" but as distinct divisions even in the most unified of a country. Elitism is one of those things that can help us explain what is going on.

In almost all these discussions, you rarely hear people talk about the African people. As if they are passive objects to be moved around. You need to appreciate the everyday forms of resistance waged by farmers, women, semi-structured labour groups etc against the heavy weight of colonialism and apartheid. A major problem was/and continues to be betray from fellow Africans and allies for material benefits. This is where notions of China being more beneficial to Africa via infrastructure come in. Extraversion^1 is a concept you can use here, because Chinese EXIM bank, especially, works with African heads or states or their representative to okay very expensive loans to fund infrastructure, some even not priorities, benefiting those elites directly. In China too, like in the US and Britain et al, it is also the elite who benefot the most from these relations. Some not even in the interest of their countries.

China offers alternative options to Western funding for major public projects. They are fighting for their interests, just like Americans. Just like Africans. To assume other wise is to go down the boring route of "moral equivalencies" which is a waste of time. I am more interested in fighting for my people get a more dignified life, whether that comes from relations with China, Russians, North Koreans, or Britain. Or all of them.

If that would be possible, how would you moderate comments, seeing how random things can get? Federating with only approved finstances (federated instance)? What if you keep your blog, then push every post you make there to your solo-community on a finstance? You can engineer your comment section on the blog to pint here or fetch the comments content from fediverse to your blog...