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Reposted by Yit Xiang Wong

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Colombian President Gustavo Petro's full post ordering an increase of import tariffs on U.S. goods, says he doesn't really like traveling to the U.S. because it's “a bit boring” and invokes the ancestors

Trump, I don't really like travelling to the US, it's a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things. I like going to the black neighbourhoods of Washington, where I saw an entire fight in the US capital between blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together.

I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller

I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I follow them. They were murdered by labor leaders with the electric chair, the fascists who are within the USA as well as within my country

I don't like your oil, Trump, you're going to wipe out the human species because of greed. Maybe one day, over a glass of whiskey, which I accept, despite my gastritis, we can talk frankly about this, but it's difficult because you consider me an inferior race and I'm not, nor is any Colombian.

So if you know someone who is stubborn, that's me, period. You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die in my law, I resisted torture and I resist you. I don't want slavers next to Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves. What I want next to Colombia are lovers of freedom. If you can't accompany me, I'll go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world and you didn't understand that, this is the land of the yellow butterflies, of the beauty of Remedios, but also of the colonels Aureliano Buendía, of which I am one, perhaps the last.

You will kill me, but I will survive in my people, which is before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea and of freedom.

You don't like our freedom, okay. I don't shake hands with white slavers. I shake hands with the white libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the black and white farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking the mountains of Italian Tuscany and after being saved from Covid.

They are the United States and before them I kneel, before no one else.

Overthrow me, President, and the Americas and humanity will respond.

Colombia now stops looking north, looks at the world, our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the civilization of that time, of the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood has the black resistance fighters turned into slaves by you. In Colombia is the first free territory of America, before Washington, of all America, there I take refuge in its African songs.

My land is made up of goldsmiths who worked in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.

You will never rule us. The warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, who is called Bolívar, opposes us.

Our people are somewhat fearful, somewhat timid, they are naive and kind, loving, but they will know how to win the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all of Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, today's Panama, formerly Colombia, which you murdered.

I raise a flag and as Gaitán said, even if it remains alone, it will continue to be raised with the Latin American dignity that is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather did not know, and mine did, Mr. President, an immigrant in the USA,

Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know that you love beauty as I do, do not disrespect it and you will give it your sweetness.

FROM TODAY ON, COLOMBIA IS OPEN TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE AND HUMANITY.

I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same.

Let our people plant corn that was discovered in Colombia and feed the world

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

I saw @lalamur.bsky.social's 2024 book list and read @alessandronai.bsky.social's Dark Politics before going back to thesis writing. The book was an absolute eye-opener. Even spent a few hours playing around the NEGex dataset he used to write the book. I definitely recommend it! Some cool ideas:

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Been using the end of 2024 to read stuff beyond my field and figure out my future academic goals. One of the best things I have read is this ACX article on prisons. Really good introduction into why prisons are not cost-effective. www.astralcodexten.com/p/prison-and...

astralcodexten.com

Prison And Crime: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

...

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Reposted by Yit Xiang Wong

Max Boot @maxboot.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

This is another argument, if any were needed, for even stricter sanctions on the Russian economy and even more support for Ukraine. Only by making Russia pay a high price for its violations of international law can the West dissuade Putin from further aggression. bit.ly/40aUmjN

bit.ly

Opinion | Russia has a history of downing passenger planes — and covering it up

The track record tells you what Moscow’s word is worth on the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Marking papers get exponentially depressing because of those who don’t write an answer good enough but not an answer bad enough. This also so happens to be the peak of the bell curve. Academics truly don’t get paid enough.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

This graph from the @iea.org can be slightly misleading. Here's what it broadly shows: 1. Global coal consumption is rising. This is driven by the ASEAN, India and China's increasing use of coal. 2. The West (EU and the United States) are reducing their coal consumption. (1/5)

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Shocked by the number of abstentions and some of the countries on the list. Went on to look for the resolution - attached here. Will include any official government statements I can find when I wake up tomorrow documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ge...

documents.un.org

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

This was my dissertation title two weeks ago. This is what the world looks like today. Maybe I should reevaluate my case study selection strategy

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Met a key deadline yesterday and finally had the time to go back to reading fiction. Really enjoyed the short stories series by this year’s Nobel Prize winner Han Kang. Absolutely phenomenal how she comes up with these ideas.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

As someone who spent the better half of his Christmas break researching Germany's geopolitical ambitions under Scholz for his dissertation, this is possibly the worst news I could ever receive.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

This feels insane, not just from a climate perspective but a state balance perspective. If states could shelter specific actors from the consequences of lawsuits, it gives certain groups insane amount of power.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Found this excellent video by @dwnewstoday.bsky.social on Chinese companies exploiting weak financial systems in Germany. Goes to show that research on climate finance should sometimes start with: does it even exist? youtu.be/aU_S97Ae1eg?...

youtu.be

How a small Chinese company tricked the German state | DW Investigation

YouTube video by DW Planet A

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

This shows promising signs that green financing strategies have been effective in becoming the market norm. Coal suppliers would now need protectionist measures to survive in the market, which would be political suicide in many countries (but somehow not the US).

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Reposted by Yit Xiang Wong

Felix van Hoften🟥 @felixvanhoften.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Absolute must-read: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... We critically examine ten key hypotheses that form the foundations of mainstream economics. Each fails to satisfy one or more of the basic requirements of scientific practice.

cambridge.org

Sustainability scientists’ critique of neoclassical economics | Global Sustainability | Cambridge Core

Sustainability scientists’ critique of neoclassical economics - Volume 7

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Reposted by Yit Xiang Wong

Donato Di Carlo @donatodc.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

1/ 📢 How Manufacturing Interests Dominated the German Response to the Energy Crisis Check out our new article with Anke Hassel and Martin Höpner, now open access in Politics and Society! 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0032...

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Reposted by Yit Xiang Wong

Felix van Hoften🟥 @felixvanhoften.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

The industrial revolution represented a linearization of material and energy flows with the goal to overcome the low pace and density of biological, anti-entropic, (or more contemporary circular) transformations. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

On the Circular Bioeconomy and Decoupling: Implications for Sustainable Growth

This paper explores the existing confusion around the conceptual definitions and interpretations of the term circular bioeconomy. The co-existence of …

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Watched this documentary when commuting today. Thoroughly eye-opening and impressive. While the message of the documentary is about corporations taking more responsibility for their waste, I think an equal argument can be made that we should be more conscious about unnecessary spending.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

If Putin manages to make the WiFi in Cambridge slower than it already is I promise I will do everything in my power to end this conflict

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Procrastinating work to go boulder feels like a rite of passage into academia

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I was going to quote it and explain it through a tweet but ended up writing a lot more than expected. I have attached a short opinion piece of my thoughts on this on an old blog of mine. TLDR: reduce the amount of classes but intensify the learning process. (1/n) open.substack.com/pub/yittythe...

open.substack.com

The University Hive Mind

And why breaking out of it would require a revolution

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Every time I speak to my dissertation supervisor I get reminded why he has a PhD and why I don’t

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Attended an event from one of the authors that inspired my undergraduate dissertation. Was a pleasure to listen to @amirleb.bsky.social speak about his new book. Key takeaway: The Global North are self interested in the green race, and developing countries should find alternatives to survive.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I’m making a similar argument for my research but it is worrying that the narrative around green transition is one of “self-interest”. It has severely affected how we view global climate financing, where we pursue self interested energy strategies instead of seeking regional integration.

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

The graph from Milanovic says a lot about global inequality. Asia’s growth, specifically China, closed a significant gap between the poorest and the richest. However, our focus on global inequality can no longer be on China, but the new global poor - India, Brazil, Africa

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Yit Xiang Wong @yitxiang.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Attended a fantastic event with Clover Hogan, @paulbehrens.bsky.social, @rachgarr.bsky.social, and Dr Belinda Bell on climate activism. The space has a lot of potential to grow with many academics interested to engage, and we should be shifting away from “traditional” methods of activism.

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