👋 @hongminhee@hollo.social maybe @admin@spark.box464.social can provide an account?

@mayel@sunbeam.city ​@_elena@mastodon.social

Time for New Zealand to become a Republic

You might ask what has a future New Zealand republic got to do with one of the worst sexual predators in recent history, a man who influenced some of the most powerful people in the world. And you would be right to do so. And I am obligated to give as straight an answer as I can.

I am a republican. I have been a republican since my time at high school, where during Legal Studies I came to know the differences between republics, monarchies, democracies. I came to learn how short a period of time New Zealand has actually been a dominion. All of this and other important learnings that shaped my early views of the legal framework that New Zealand should have, came during the years 1998-1999, which now we are finding out was during the period when some of the worst of Jeffrey Epstein was happening.

In this article I tell you what I know about the ongoing scandal. And in the second part (next blog article), I raise the case for cutting ties with the Royal Family.

The Royal Family have obviously had a long association with New Zealand – aside from being Monarchy, whose head is our head of state, the late Queen was someone that the wartime generation grew up with, and came to hold in high regard. She was the head of state for 20+ countries when she passed away in September 2022. I met King Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles when they visited New Zealand in 2019.

Across the 186 years that we have had a Briton as our head of state, we watched the dramas – the scandals, the tragedies, the weddings, the tours – and at one time or another we symapthised with William and Harry as they grew up in their mothers shadow; we watched the gym-gate drama, Sarah Ferguson being in the tabloids, Andrew’s infidelity; the country celebrated William and Catherine being married; we watched the tours where Prince William and others came to New Zealand. The ladies went all gaga over him and Prince Harry.

But all in the last 30 years, there was something infinitely darker going on. Those prone to conspiracy theories might ask if Princess Diana’s death in August 1997 was a terrible accident, or something more sinister. There were rumbles of thunder in the background that were ignored – Sarah Ferguson’s tabloid antics might have seemed trashy then, but now when we look at what is coming out, it is time to ask how much she knew. And I think the answer is going to shock as much as Prince Andrew’s downfall is. The very breadth of it with both parents of Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice being involved is going raise some serious questions about how much their daughters were exposed to.

To be clear, I have no reason to suspect the Princesses were involved in anything. However, one of them had an 18th Birthday party which was a costume dress up, and saw disgraced film maker Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell turn up. This was in 2008, when contact with Mr Epstein had allegedly stopped. Given that the first is now thoroughly disgraced, the second is dead and the centre of the biggest potential cover up in decades, with the third doing jail time. It might be that the Princesses wind up having to testify about what they know.

But Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson might not be the only Royals in a spot of bother. King Charles III might be the highest reigning Royal, but he knows even if he can never say so, that some extremely improper actions have been committed. He has committed to letting the Police investigation into Andrew’s recent arrest take its course. Of course, he will be trying to keep his late mothers reputation and legacy as intact as possible.

But it gets worse. Much worse. The crisis facing the Royal Family has no recent precedent. The last time it faced something this grave was when Edward VIII abdicated to get married to an American divorcee. The last time anyone in the Royal Family was arrested was when Oliver Cromwell ordered the arrest of King Charles I. With regards to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, it seems that the Queen gave him UKP12m to settle the case with Virginia Giuffre, which to me raises questions about how much the late Queen knew and whether she was complicit in covering things up?

So, where does this leave New Zealand. Fortuitously so far, we appear to have come away unscathed in the files that have been released. However, it raises questions about the wider integrity of the family that our head of state descends from. Were King Charles to be found of having some kind of collusion, it would possibly cause him to become just the second King to have abdicated since the arrest of Charles I by Oliver Cromwell. It would cause potentially irreparable damage to the integrity and prestige of the Royal Family, that would be long lasting and possibly not recovered from in my lifetime. Although the family probably would eventually recover, it might not be before republicanism in Britain and the countries like N.Z., where the reigning sovereign is the head of state, experiences significant growth as a political movement.

And because this seems to be reaching into the highest rungs of the Royal Family, including the late Queen Elizabeth II, one would do well to ask when the dust has settled, whether or not New Zealand should sever ties with the Royal Family and become a Republic?

Find out more in the next article.

@deadsuperhero@spark.box464.social not, we currently display events from gancio, mobilizon etc and have a custom feed for events that you can include in your navbar - but you cannot create events on bonfire yet.

We are working with @klasse_methode@chaos.social to federate Lauti, their community calendar...

@admin@spark.box464.social ​

@antanicus@puntarella.party ​oppure cryptoboyz

As of September 2026, Google will no longer allow distributing apps for the Android platform without first registering centrally with Google.

keepandroidopen.org

@keepandroidopen@techhub.social

#keepandroidopen

Academic Hiring Is An Extreme Buyer’s Market

Academic hiring is an extreme buyer’s market, where employers can afford to offend people really badly at their convenience.

I recently had a good experience in a Norwegian recruitment process that hasn’t been finalised yet. But let me tell you about my dialogue with a university in another country.

Uni N.N.: Hello world, here’s an opening for a senior academic in South Scandy archaeology, no particular speciality. Feel free to apply!

Me: Thanks, here’s my application that I spent several days writing!

Uni N.N. after a few months: No thanks, you’re not on the shortlist. Goodbye.

Me: I’ve published research for 30 years and worked at six universities, and you treat my application exactly like you would if I had worked full-time at McDonalds for all this time? I think you should give me a transparent and meritocratic explanation for why I’m not on the shortlist.

Uni N.N.: No, sorry, we got too many applications, we haven’t got time to evaluate them all properly.

Me: OK, so you haven’t got time to tell me why I did not get an interview. Instead, please then tell me the criteria that you used for the shortlist, the ones you didn’t put in your highly unspecific job ad. Were you actually looking for some chronological, regional, methodological speciality?

Uni N.N.: Sorry, not going to tell you. Goodbye.

@deadsuperhero@spark.box464.social ​oh thanks that's an accident, the project is alive, fixing the website now!

@jerod@theforkiverse.com cheers 😊

@newsmast@backend.newsmast.org ​

If you're in Amsterdam this Saturday join us for reading of Ada & Zangemann by @kirschner@mastodon.social & Sandra Brandstätter in English and in Dutch, followed by a conversation about Free Software maintenance as care work, together with @mayel from Bonfire, at the @internetarchiveeurope@toot.community, Oudeschans 16, Amsterdam on Saturday Feb 14th at 14:00. More information and RSVP here.

@box464@mastodon.social @smallcircles@social.coop ​@bhaugen@social.coop @lynnfoster@social.coop

@smallcircles@social.coop @box464@mastodon.social ​oh super interesting!

test tubefree.org/w/x715zm1Nkvqd8...

Interview: “After all the martyrs, sacrifices, and coexistence, how could we suddenly switch sides and ally with parties whose mentality we do not believe in?” Sheikh Akram Mashoush

Q: What is the history of your tribe in this region? How was it during the Assad government?

The tribal connections between different tribes and communities go back decades, not only to the Assad era, but even to the Ottoman Empire. In particular, the links between Arab and Kurdish communities date back to Ottoman times, continued through the French mandate, and survived throughout the Assad regime. These connections endured all those eras and were never broken. After the establishment of the Autonomous Administration (AANES), these links did not disappear. For those of us who have a conscience, they cannot be ignored. We have family ties, neighborly ties, and shared village life. In our villages, Kurds and Yazidis live together with Arabs. These connections cannot be forgotten or denied. They were not created by us, but by our grandfathers. They made our communities connected and cohesive, and with time, they have only grown stronger. Today, when we see our Kurdish brothers suffering and under attack, can we abandon them? We see our Kurdish brothers being attacked by ISIS and by different forces that have taken control of parts of Syria. No, we cannot abandon these humanitarian, social, and ethical bonds. These ties force us to remain together—not only within AANES, but in all aspects of life. Even if AANES were to end, we would not separate or cut these ties. They are social bonds based on coexistence. These connections go so deep that they even exist at the level of milk kinship, a Middle Eastern tradition in which a child breastfed by a woman who is not his mother becomes her milk-son or milk-brother to her children. Such ties are never forgotten, regardless of what happens. We will continue on this path no matter what we go through.

In Hasakah, there are around one million people from the Jabour tribe. This tribe has a different and special relationship with the Kurds compared to other tribes. The Jabour tribe has a long history of ties with the communities of the region, and because we lived side by side with Kurds in mixed areas, these ties became even stronger. My own name, Akram Hajo Mashoush, comes from a Kurdish person from Tirbespiye. These ties are not new. We learned the Kurdish language through living together. It is impossible for us to abandon all of this simply because of military circumstances.

At the military level, the situation of Jabour was different. Even during the Assad era, we were marginalized. Unlike the Shammar tribe, which comes from broader regions and formed the Sanadid Forces to protect borders, we did not form a separate military entity. We preserved our tribal structure and focused on social cohesion and family ties through marriage with different communities. With full respect to other tribes, these factors gave Jabour a unique relationship with the Kurds. There are members of Jabour from Sheddadi married to Kurdish women in Darbasiye, and the same exists between Tel Brak, Qamishlo, and Derik. These ties were not invented or recently created; circumstances simply made the Jabour tribe more closely connected to the Kurds than any other tribe. What is the SDF? It is a force formed from tribes. There is a clan called Mahasin with more than 5,000 fighters within the SDF. There are more than 800 martyrs from the Jabour tribe within the SDF. We did not seek an autonomous entity or structure; we only wanted to protect ourselves. We joined the fight against ISIS because of its brutality – killings, slaughter, oppression, and harsh treatment of women. These conditions only strengthened our cohesion and unity.

Sheikh Akram Mashoush talks to an SDF soldier in Heseke.

Q: What is your opinion about the most recent agreement between the SDF/DAANES and the Syrian Transitional Government (STG)?

The fundamental principle of the current agreement is the ceasefire. As people everywhere welcome such understandings, we, as people living in the area, strongly support and bless it. Government forces are only a few kilometers away, and we are surrounded. Deadlines were given for evacuating areas. Therefore, any ceasefire or agreement is something we genuinely support. All notable figures of the Jabour tribe welcome it. We have always sought a ceasefire between the Damascus government and the SDF. This agreement must lead to positive outcomes that serve the Syrian people. Fighting only brings bloodshed, displacement, and deeper divisions among communities. We want guarantors to take responsibility and ensure the agreement is implemented and not violated. We support the SDF and AANES delegations in their agreements related to security arrangements, integration, and the formation of brigades within the Syrian Army. In the end, we are Syrians. We do not want Syrian blood to be shed. All those killed are Syrians. None of the foreign states have lost their citizens; only Syrians pay the price. This agreement aims to preserve Syrian blood, and its most important pillar is the ceasefire, which can revive coexistence.

Q: Can you explain about the recent tribal defections from the DAANES to the STG?

Turkey has worked to divide the tribes in order to destroy the social fabric. They do not see the SDF as representing Syrians, but only as representing Kurds, and they consider it an enemy, despite the SDF having over 15,000 martyrs and more than 50,000 wounded. Some tribes were influenced by this mentality, including ISIS-like thinking. Turkish intelligence (MIT) also played a role, convincing some tribes—not all—that their situation would improve if the SDF were gone. Even some figures within AANES, such as Muhbash, the head of the negotiation committee, acknowledged this. Tribes are not political organizations and lack deep political experience. They were subjected to pressure, threats, and promises of financial support. This explains why some switched sides. When cities like Tabqa, Raqqa, and parts of Deir ez-Zor fell, uprisings happened even before the Syrian army arrived, proving that there were prior plans. Weaknesses in the security experience of AANES prevented early detection of these breaches. At the same time, the SDF and AANES did not want to be dragged into cycles of violence. They did not want destruction or to kill their own brothers and sisters who rose against them. That is why these areas fell quickly. Many of my relatives and cousins are in Damascus. They offered me defection, positions, and benefits. I completely refused. This goes against my principles and conscience. After all the martyrs, sacrifices, and coexistence, how could we suddenly switch sides and ally with parties whose mentality we do not believe in? This is for those in Damascus. But unfortunately, some members of our tribe, here in the area, used extremely bad language toward me. They threatened me, sent insulting messages and videos, and attempted to intimidate me.

Sheikh Akram Mashoush shows threats he received via WhatsApp from people in Heseke.

After the agreement is implemented, we hope bloodshed will stop and the situation will be organized. We are all Syrians, and no one should be denied their rights. The Kurdish people have a special situation and legitimate rights that must be recognized. They were among the first to fight and offer martyrs in the revolution, before the formation of the SDF, through the YPG and YPJ. They protected everyone, including Arab communities, even before the creation of the SDF and AANES.

Q: Do you have any critiques for the DAANES?

We do acknowledge shortcomings in services and administration. These were not military or political failures, but administrative ones. Despite having agricultural land, oil, and resources, we failed to meet people’s needs. There was no water, electricity solutions were lacking, bread shortages existed despite wheat abundance, and fuel crises persisted despite oil resources.

These failures are real. However, they do not justify switching sides simply because AANES is weakening. Administrative and service failures exist, but abandoning everything because of them is not justified.

Paranoia, Junior Grade

Recently I needed to do some pro-bono development that would get me hated by the Maple MAGA.

Introduction

For my customer’s project, I needed a git archive, a web site, and an email address, all under an alias. The alias was so that the bad guys would need a court order to figure out who to kill (:-))

The usual way to blow your operational security (OPSEC) is to start out ad-hoc, and leave easter-eggs behind for the bad guys to find. For example, getting a repo using your real email address.

Magic Order

To make this possible in Linux, you need to do it in the correct order.

• Start by creating a local account for your alias, to put all its data in
• then get the TOR browser, so you can do things as that alias,
• apply for an email address for your alter ego at proton.me, in Switzerland,
• use that to get a repo at someplace like Codeberg, in Germany,
• and use the Codeberg pages of your repo for the web site.

Caveat

If you use Libre Office to do your documentation, it will record who that created a document, modified it, or commented on it. That could turn your documentation into a neon arrow pointing at yourself.

Ditto for most image files. If you take any yourself, they will have the author’s name in the metadata.

@smeikx@graz.social ​you can do so here, thanks! opencollective.com/bonfire-n...