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Randomness is key...

@comicbooksuperheroine

Honestly, I don't really know what to say here. I love a lot of things and will reblog a bunch of random stuff, usually about things I like and sometimes about politics. Big on Harlivy at all times with other fandoms sprinkled in. So... yeah.

im still pissed off about シ and ツ

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I don’t シ whaツ bad about this?

im going to stab you in the face

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ソン of a—

There’s really ノ need to get ソ worked up over something as miンor as this!

ワt the フck is going on

this is my worst nightmare.

Oケ guys let’s chill out, it クld be a lot worse.

05.26 - Within the Ice

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[ID: An astronaut crouches on a large, iced over body of water within a low cave. The astronaut is down on one knee, visor angled down, one hand planted on the surface of the ice while the other holds a brightly burning neon red flare overhead. The light is reflected directly below, in the ice, and directly above, in dull pink patches on the low cave ceiling. The arc of the ceiling mirrors a wide curve of dull pink in the ice, just below the reflection of the flare itself. The curve, upon closer examination, is the spread fingers of a giant, reaching, clawed hand, at least three times the size of the astronaut. /end ID]

The local population in countries that export bananas typically eat different varieties grown primarily by small farmers. The ones for the Americans and the Europeans, Cavendish variety bananas, are grown in huge, monoculture plantations that are susceptible to disease. The banana industry consumes more agrichemicals than any other in the world, asides from cotton. Most plantations will spend more on pesticides than on wages. Pesticides are sprayed by plane, 85% of which does not land on the bananas and instead lands on the homes of workers in the surrounding area and seeps into the groundwater. The results are cancers, stillbirths, and dead rivers.

The supermarkets dominate the banana trade and force the price of bananas down. Plantations resolve this issue by intensifying and degrading working conditions. Banana workers will work for up to 14 hours a day in tropical heat, without overtime pay, for 6 days a week. Their wages will not cover their cost of housing, food, and education for their children. On most plantations independent trade unions are, of course, suppressed. Contracts are insecure, or workers are hired through intermediaries, and troublemakers are not invited back.

Who benefits most from this arrangement? The export value of bananas is worth $8bn - the retail value of these bananas is worth $25bn. Here’s a breakdown of who gets what from the sale of banana in the EU.

On average, the banana workers get between 5 and 9% of the total value, while the retailers capture between 36 to 43% of the value. So if you got a bunch of bananas at Tesco (the majority of UK bananas come from Costa Rica) for 95p, 6.65p would go to the banana workers, and 38p would go to Tesco.

Furthermore, when it comes to calculating a country’s GDP (the total sum of the value of economic activity going on in a country, which is used to measure how rich or poor a country is, how fast its economy is ‘growing’ and therefore how valuable their currency is on the world market, how valuable its government bonds, its claim on resources internationally…etc), the worker wages, production, export numbers count towards the country producing the banana, while retail, ripening, tariffs, and shipping & import will count towards the importing country. A country like Costa Rica will participate has to participate in this arrangement as it needs ‘hard’ (i.e. Western) currencies in order to import essential commodities on the world market.

So for the example above of a bunch of Costa Rican bananas sold in a UK supermarket, 20.7p will be added to Costa Rica’s GDP while 74.3p will be added to the UK’s GDP. Therefore, the consumption of a banana in the UK will add more to the UK’s wealth than growing it will to Costa Rica’s. The same holds for Bangladeshi t-shirts, iPhones assembled in China, chocolate made with cocoa from Ghana…it’s the heart of how the capitalism of the ‘developed’ economy functions. Never ending consumption to fuel the appearance of wealth, fuelled by the exploitation of both land and people in the global south.

Anonymous asked:

"Anarchist" but gets triggered when people voluntarily don't wear bicycle helmets.

Me when I know what anarchy is

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Gravity legally cannot hurt you if you scream "NO GODS NO MASTERS" immediately before impact

I'm so fucking tired of this bicycle helmet discourse. Bike helmets aren't going to do shit to protect you if you get hit by a car

Most of the time... Bike accidents.... Involve things.... Other than cars...... like the ground....also it's safety gear..... Wearing it is non negotiable.... You are one accident away from being permanently disabled..... You need to protect your brain

Not towards OP

Is OSHA and other safety regulations also cop behavior?

*sigh* The belief that OSHA and other safety regulations are cop behavior are common opinions that people have, anarchist or not. Wearing PPE is annoying and often uncomfortable, sweaty, and cumbersome. People also generally hate being told to be careful, because they believe that "be careful" is synonymous with "hey, you're too stupid to do that without hurting yourself".

But all it takes is one time for you to slip up and suddenly the grinder disk that would have gotten stuck in your safety glasses is in your eye, or you're getting treated for lung cancer because you didn't want to wear your respirator while you welded. These are decisions that you were free to make, but might seriously regret later on.

People will scream until they're blue in the face about how oppressive it is to have to wear a safety vest and hard hat on a construction site, but do you really think that the hammer that slipped out of your buddy's hand is going to take that into consideration when it collides with your skull?

No political theory will save you from an accident. You can either wear your PPE, or can die, unexpectedly, painfully, and slowly. The choice is yours. Go argue with a lathe if you feel so strongly about it.

Go argue with a lathe if you feel so strongly about it

@breelandwalker it is criminal to leave this scorching point in the tags

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a few points:

• every safety rule is written in blood

• OSHA exists so the boss can't force you to die for their profits. it was started as a result of union action, as a direct response to the triangle shirtwaist factory fire. OSHA is constantly fighting for worker's rights and protection. whistleblower laws protect any employee who makes an OSHA complaint against their employer, and anyone who reports is guaranteed anonymity and aggressive legal support against retaliation. there is also a separate health and safety administration for miners in the USA called MSHA.

• the people most likely to get hurt on the job are not apprentices or senior workers approaching retirement. the new hire is careful because they're green, and still learning, and still unfamiliar with the tools and the work. the old hand is careful because retirement is within sight and they want to make it there. the person who gets hurt is usually the journeyman at the peak of their career—in their 30s-50s, an expert at their trade, their tools feel like an extension of themselves, and they're so comfortable they forget to be careful. they've gotten lucky cutting corners or using something incorrectly or taking off a guard or leaving off some safety equipment 1000 times but one day they're tired or distracted or too comfortable or too confident and the luck runs out.

• some accidents you cannot just avoid with skill, or you have no personal control over them. sometimes you have to trust your coworkers with your life. the big blue crane collapse killed three ironworkers who were on an observation platform, doing other work, far from the crane, with no ability to prevent or escape the collapse. the crane collapsed as a result of being operated despite adverse conditions, despite the normal crane operator refusing to run the crane due to adverse conditions making it unsafe, and was filmed because a safety inspector was recording the violation and attempting to stop it. the operator of the crane got out safely, but three ironworkers who were hundreds of feet away, who didn't know the crane would be operating despite unsafe wind speeds, and who were trapped in midair anyways with no way to avoid or escape the collapse, and who above all just had to trust that everyone on the job site would be working safely and doing their jobs correctly, died. that footage has been used in every OSHA training i have ever been in.

• every safety rule is written in blood.

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if Candice has a picture phone why did she never just take a photo of what phineas and ferb were doing and text it to her mom

if she did this doofenshmirtz would just be like you see perry the platypus i sold my old computer at the pawn shop but i forgot to delete all those embarrassing photos from the christmas party, which is why i’ve invented the pixel-replacinator! and then as candace is going to text her mom the photo the phone gets hit with the beam and she looks down and she’s just texted her mom a photo of doofenshmirtz in a sexy elf costume or smth. candace can never fucking win the universe bends to facilitate her psychological torment

Middle-aged magical girl.

She's been defending the Earth since the early 90s and she's very tired.

My name is Tominaga Haruka. I was chosen by a magical talking animal, and for the last 29 years I've been Earth's one and only... Wonder-Sparkle Princess.

she's been fighting the same villains for three decades and they are also tired of it. Most of them aren't giving it their all. Half of them are in a groupchat they've added her to where they schedule their evil plans to make sure they don't interfere with each other, or more importantly, with *her* Xalkrax the space demon from outer space decided to attack the city when she was taking her vacation time once, and now he's dead, because even the power of friendship and redemption can't save you if you interrupt her rare vacations

Demon Queen Eluria: Gonna fill the city people's hearts with hatred on thursday to cause mayhem and discord.

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: Can't, got a PTA meeting.

Demon Queen Eluria: Friday?

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: A birthday party.

Demon Queen Eluria: Damn. How about I fill just the mayor's heart with hatred then?

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: That'd be redundant, lol. Maybe fill his heart with a desire to fix the fucking potholes?!

Demon Queen Eluria: LMFAO love you, bitch. Stay strong.

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: You too, gurl. How's the husband? Still dead?

Demon Queen Eluria: Yep. Thanks for that, btw.

Wonder-Sparkle Princess: Don't mess with my time off :p