I owe our commentator K an answer.

A bit of an intro. When Trump and his trumpets started with wanting to take Greenland and the canal and Canada and whatever more, my reaction was to get dreadfully and soul destroying tired, until I realised that it is not our business. if they want to eat their allies, heck, let them go right ahead. And then we had the discussion about South Africa and I had the same reaction .. because I have written screeds, explained, told history, gave links to read, suggested books and so on and now, I am tired of that. It is incredibly difficult without writing a book. And then, many stories will remain untold as now, they will not do any good. Perhaps I can make a joke and you’ll understand and I’ll make a few comments.

So, there is this old and fun movie, Cool Runnings, the Jamaican Bobsled team. Here is a clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gVG1wKrvk
So, let me tell you the ‘hell of a place’ that I am coming from. I fought politics, I fled a war and we all received military level training with weapons. I grew up in 3 African countries. I studied post grad 3 African countries. I studied the start of and the basis of apartheid in detail, as we knew the man who designed it. It is still today one of the most beautiful documents of state ever, with full freedom for everyone but separate development, but of course, not acceptable. He described this river with big trees on different banks, big trunks separate and in the branches and the leaves, an economic and social interaction. Dreams, I tell you, beautiful dreams.

You see, what we were dealing with, was a clash of civilizations. This was long before any apartheid or any group areas or any harsh repression of anyone. There was of course three colonialists in the mix .. the Dutch initially, and they built a victualling station at the Cape of Good Hope.

The whites were impoverished on their farms. They lived in what was called then, hartbeeshuisies .. take a look at the photos here. https://maroelamedia.co.za/goeiegoed/die-begrip-hartbeeshuisie/ I lived in one of those at some stage, though my dad bought and sold, cattle, farms and we were always in the meat business. As a young child I had one pair of shoes, school shoes – Mary Janes, exactly the same as the local workers on the farms.

As a young child, I remember traveling and migratory tribes calling in for a place to rest, water their cattle, and buy and sell animals. My mom always checked the kids to see if there were illnesses that she could do something about—fixing scrapes and sores and stuff. We were all ate out of one pot and were dunked together in the river to bath and we played madly. These tribes were not short of land, they were living what they always had done, migrating from place to place for fresh grazing for their animals. This lifestyle could not continue into the modern world.

The world changed. There was the results of the Bandung conference, we had the influences of Cecil John Rhodes who killed everyone in sight, and the regime of apartheid slowly became inculcated. In Namibia (at that time South West Africa there were the Germans). It was devastating. What I learned later was the devastation of control of information .. so, we started hearing of the fears .. the ‘black’ danger and the ‘red’ danger. As the fear of communism creeped in, so did the controls and the concept that ‘they are lesser’ because, and I remember this well, as soon as ‘they’ get any freedom, they create relationships with the USSR and China. (Thanks USSR and China, for training the military cadres to kill people like me). The white population were put to work in large social programs in order to deal with the poverty. Only certain colors could vote. The UN played its part with forcing countries to establish themselves according to UN laws and rules. The controls rolled into a racism unbelievable (If you want to talk about those lands, you need to know that racism was the dividing line to force people apart – it is really sickening to me that this is used now again, for the same purpose but turned against the Afrikaners .. the whites. It is like Israel doing the same to the Palestinians that was done to them by the Germans.) In South Africa at the time, the black homelands were legalized and the forced removals started. But this is something that few people know. The Black Homelands were financially support and paid for by the Apartheid government. So, look at it like this .. as the whites received social work programs to lift themselves out of poverty the Black Homelands received ample money, to perhaps do the same thing? Anyway, it was a horrible time.

From one country, we were in war and had to flee. We fled in convoy, all the farmers and it was horrible. I was end of convoy and had to gather those that fell behind. The military had helicopters overhead, big old troop carriers in and out of the convoy. The convoy had all kinds of vehicles, sometimes with a prize bull or a price horse on the back of something, chickens, goods of all kinds and in common, everyone was in fear. So, that forms part of the story of ‘where I am coming from’.

I was working for an attorney at the time. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer and this was part of practical work. We had a local guy working in the office part time, and we chatted a lot. He was paying for his studies with his part time job. He was adamant .. they don’t want the whites, they want majority rule (lots of UK interference and all kinds of things at the time). As we fled, I called him, to tell him there would be no office. He said this is not fair, who is going to pay for his studies now. I am not generally an unkind person as ‘we ate out of the same pot’, but said to him to apply at ‘majority rule’.

Then the harsh repression started. Again, it was different in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Segregated schools, group areas act, people taken from where they were to put up in ‘black homelands’ where I could not go in.

In the beginning of the europeans arriving in Africa, these rules were not there. The mines recruited all over the area workers and they were put up in horrible circumstances. But I lived in two worlds. My one grandmother was a founder member with Emma Mashinini of the Garment Worker’s Union and slept in jail many a time when she was out ‘fighting for her girls’. My grandfather fought for the Allies and the other for the Germans in that time South West Africa. My one uncle worked for a big steel manufacturer and he was the union representative and called a ‘sweetheart’ because he worked for his people and would make agreements best for all. My one grandfather in his school days had to wear a sign around his neck – I am a donkey, I speak Dutch. The Afrikaner community fought the Brits to a standstill until the Brits put the families in concentration camps.

Not only did this small community at that time fight the first war against British colonialism, but they also integrated into Africa.

You mentioned that there is a white town in South Africa and used that as a reason that the black community (many tribes – so please do not generalize) don’t have their lands. There is also Zululand, where the Zulus mainly live. (Now KwaZulu, Natal). It is theirs. How come they can have theirs and the white town causes outrage? The Afrikaners and the Zulus got to those lands more or less at the same time in history. Some Afrikaners went and wanted to negotiate for land with them (long time ago) and the leaders got hacked up for their troubles. This led to the Battle of Blood River, where the Afrikaners won and the river was red with blood. So, no, land was not stolen. It was generally bought and negotiated for. I am sure some was stolen. Bulalani abathakathi (Kill the sorcerers…), was the cry. Today the Zulus are in the process of appointing their King (2 brothers had a fight there for a while but this is happening), and the Afrikaners and Zulus work together to safeguard their lands from expropriation without compensation from the State. They also work together for schooling in local languages which is being outlawed. School should be in English you see, and universities should be woke — horrible.

So this is a bit of a rural historical story. There is nothing in here about cities and towns where there were as many rich black people as whites.

Nothing here should indicate that I support the first, or the second or the third colonization, or the learned racism that exists today. I don’t, not by word and not by deed. I was on platforms there, talking about a vote for everyone. The South African whites were and are a very special people and left to their own devices and without the pressure from the world (integrated and clash of civilizations) the place would have been different. The English colonizers came in, and colonized. They colonized the whites as much as the blacks. The Dutch not so bad, as they kept themselves to the Cape of Good Hope and no harshly repressive rules. The Germans, well, least said. Wars broke out for cattle theft, not for land per se. The story goes once the Afrikaners (at that time ‘voortrekkers’ went on trek and crossed the mountains from the Cape and trekked Northerly to get rid of English colonization, if land was open and available, they could take only as much as they could go with a horse in one day, into the 4 directions. There were no people, only tribes that came around to feed and water their animals.

We will talk about the towns next when I feel like it.

I posted up for you AHH.

Syrian Post-Colonial history (1945) until 2011 war

Yikes, some music too! Listen closely 😉

No AHH, that is not true.  The Indonesian statement after the Sandton, Johannesburg BRICS summit was:

President of the Republic of Indonesia (Joko Widodo)

“To become a new member of BRICS, a country must submit the Expression of Interest letter. Up to this point, Indonesia has not submitted the letter, since we want to review and calculate first, we do not want to rush. And also, we have excellent relations with the five BRICS members, especially in the economic sector.”

Indonesia was not mentioned in any way that stood out.

But yes, it is in terms of ASEAN a very good move.

I’ll tell what I think and nobody will like it.  I think Brazil is playing dangerous power games as we’ve seen them do in South Africa (Argentina) and in Kazan (Venezuela) .  This is what it looks like:

As of October 2024, BRICS has nine members and 13 partner countries:

5 original members:

Brazil
Russia
India
China
South Africa

4 new members (invited in August 2023; officially admitted in January 2024):

Egypt
Ethiopia
Iran
United Arab Emirates

13 partner countries (accepted in October 2024):

Algeria
Belarus
Bolivia
Cuba
Indonesia
Kazakhstan
Malaysia
Nigeria
Thailand
Türkiye
Uganda
Uzbekistan
Vietnam

OK, I might be missing here or there, but Indonesia never made a peep and nobody else did.
This time it worked, as there was consensus.  Congrats Indonesia.

Mr P .. nothing at that link and I cannot find anything at her main Twitter feed. Could you try the link again? Usually it has to be a link to the main tweet .. links to replies or secondary tweets don’t work. I click through until I am at the source – the net is a mess these days with different specs.

I’m interested in what she has to say, because I think it is not wrong at all, but shallow. It is a perversion of the search for individual power, i.e., I’m so woke that I can decide what I want to be in terms of gender – it is the epitome of freedom .. But it is actually just a vector of control. This is not the only vector of control on the sexual level. The old Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (not the new ones all messed up) clearly tells that the procreation urge is seated on the first step of finding the integrated human. So, if some clever Psych can ‘un-integrate’ on that level, you have a human being that is epigenetically bound to its ‘freedom’ but of course, there are no morals on that level. There are no morals because group connectedness is not real, only for show ..

Snap AHH .. I just updated my article with this very important video.

Thanks everyone, so much!  I have the basics and a high level answer.  The following is a bit older but the technology is developing so fast that the paper and definitions and classifications lag behind:

From 2020

WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: There are 14 countries working on 6th Generation (6G) fighter planes these days: the U.S. (PCA, F/A-XX, NGAD); the United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, and maybe India (Tempest); France, Germany, and Spain (FCAS); Japan (F-3); Taiwan (ADF); South Korea and Indonesia (KF-X); Russia (MiG-41); and China (J-XX).

There are six aircraft generation classification charts out there: Hallion, Aerospaceweb, Air Force Magazine, Winchester, Air Power Development Center, and China’s Air Force. All these templates have been overcome by advances in technology and evolving mission requirements.

6G stealth improvements:  There are six spectrums that stealthy aircraft must consider: physical shape (radar signature), IR (infrared or heat) signature, acoustic (sound) signature, visual (visible light) signature, EMR (electro-magnetic radiation) signature, and wake turbulence (vortices) signature. What can we do with shape to further reduce the RCS (radar cross section) on 6G fighters?

The real answer to the statements is kinda funny.  China has not defined what they’ve built, in other words, we cannot say what they have and what not.   Yet, reading the existing descriptions, checking the beautiful design drawings and the engineering specs, listening to Chinese observers, the bigger airplane in the videos that we saw is a solid 6G and the smaller one solid 5G tech, according to classifications that exist today.  Here is where the fight starts and then they get into differences in classifications and definitions.  That is not my bag.  I needed a high level understanding of methods of classification, and now I have that, sufficient for the day.

And of course, it is not in anyone’s mind that we could be dealing with some novel technologies in the mix.

¡Muchas gracias amigos!

This is from South China Morning Post:

Chinese experts believe the country’s first sixth-generation stealth fighter jet may have even greater stealth capabilities at hypersonic speeds, with one commenter suggesting the PLA has “fully surpassed global advanced standards”.

China’s official media appeared to tacitly confirm speculation that a fixed-wing aircraft with a three-engine configuration seen over Chengdu in the southwestern province of Sichuan on Thursday was in fact the stealth fighter on its maiden flight.

During the flight – which took place in broad daylight – the jet was flanked by a fifth-generation J-20 fighter jet, according to footage that was reportedly filmed near the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, which makes fighters and drones.

Observers noted that the mystery jet – which has a distinctive triangular, tailless design – was flying with its landing gear down – a common practice in the early stages of testing.

Chinese authorities have not yet officially confirmed the jet’s existence or given it a name, but the Chengdu-based Defence Times appeared to make an oblique reference to the aircraft on its Weibo account.

The media outlet posted an image of a ginkgo leaf and the comment “it really looks like a leaf”, in what was widely interpreted as a semi-official acknowledgement.

(And on that day was a celebration for Mao’s birthday – all that I know about the Chinese is that they will not mess around with this day).

Dear Mr P,

I need a hand as very soon I’m going to be pulled into something where I don’t want to be.  Do you know anything about 5G and 6G war plane engines?  I don’t need the full lecture but what I need is how to identify those.  What are the characteristics to call those planes by those names?  Is there a list of specs or definitions for such things?

This new plane, the big one that China flew just a little while ago, on Mao’s birthday – so, this plane has not been named and information about it is scant – the gossip calls it, and the little brother that flew with it, 6G technology.  China is keeping it very close to their chests.   What I do understand is that these planes are systems and able to instruct a batch of drones that would be flying with them.

So, our favorite Smoothie makes some comments that China does not have a 6G airplane, and neither a 5G airplane.  A friend of mine and ours, gave him name and ‘birthdate’ of one 5G.  Rejected out of hand.  This friend writes extensively on China’s technology, and military technology which China keeps very private, unless they want to speak about it .. new drones, new ships, new tech and so on .. when they want to.   I mean some Chinese people actually understand these things.

I’ve already had questions on an anti-China stance.  The previous time I wrote a softspoken article, reminding of the relationship between Russia and China and that it may be best to honor that.  That happened – my ‘softspoken’ was adhered to.  But now, there is this 6G thing and Smoothie wrote about a stupid little article on RT.  But what is happening, is that he is calling the whole of China as fools or at least, that is how it is perceived.

What I would like to do, is to very damn quick get outside the controversy and say something like:  Here are the specs – do your homework.  But dear heavens, I don’t know what a spec of this nature even would look like.  The research that I’ve done is that the differences are ‘soft’.

To crown it all Karlof1 (we’ve posted him many times) tries to ameliorate the issue, and states quite rightly that China’s defense requirements are different from that of Russia .. But, oh dear, he says all China needs to do, is to be able to attack or defend dear heavens, against Taiwan.  Oh dear .. first island chain, second island chain, third island chain, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, US troops moving from bases in Japan to outlying islands (think of the 2ndWW – those islands are they).  Brian Berletic has the movements on that one.  Well, I guess Karlov1 tried,  but ….

So, to summarize, how do I find or where are the definitive set of specs defining WTH is a 6G engine and a 5G engine on a war plane?  Yikes.  I need a ‘shield’ because just now we’re going to have a batch of Chinese war plane techs writing in fast Chinese and break some reputations.  The oreshnik could be novel tech, but so can China have developed some novel tech.  They do it daily.  Those planes are described to be highly stealth, and on other sources that method of stealth is described and clearly novel.  Strange, that part I get.

Specs por favor, if possible.  If not, I’ll just tell em all go go to hades and I won’t worry about a thing.

Well, Putin did issue an apology.

https://tass.com/politics/1894845

Putin apologizes for AZAL airliner incident in Russia’s airspace — Kremlin
The Russian leader conveyed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the plane crash victims

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/.

“Vladimir Putin offered his apologies that the tragic incident had occurred in Russia’s airspace and once again conveyed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the plane crash victims and wished those injured the quickest recovery,” the press office said in a statement.

Legal Issues? I guess when the investigation is complete.

Uhm, I just saw his formal on the Kremlin Website:

Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the Russian side’s initiative

🔹The presidents had a detailed discussion of issues regarding the December 25 crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.

🔹Vladimir Putin apologised for the fact that the incident happened in Russian airspace, once again offered deep and sincere condolences to the victims’ families and wished a speedy recovery to the injured. It was noted during the conversation that the Azerbaijani passenger airliner was flying according to schedule and repeatedly tried to land at Grozny Airport. At that time, Ukrainian unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) attacked Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz, and Russian air defence systems were repelling these attacks.

🔹The Russian Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under Article 263 of the Criminal Code (violation of the rules for traffic safety and operation of the air transportation systems). Initial investigation is underway, with authorities questioning civilian and military specialists.

🔹Two officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan are currently in Grozny, working together with representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Relevant services of Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are working closely at the crash site near the city of Aktau.

And just in from PressTV: Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev says the country’s jetliner that crashed this week was unintentionally shot down by Russian forces.