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PaperclipPerfector  16d ago (text post)   993 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 29, 2026

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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The Associated Press: In January 2025, Mexico passed a constitutional amendment banning the sale (but not the possession or use) of electronic cigarettes (vapes). A law to actually implement the ban was passed in December 2025. Naturally, the cartels have taken over the market.

So I guess Latin American drug smuggling boats have the green light now huh?

For those not watching American news, what has happened?

Prior to the Maduro operation, the US Navy was blowing up alleged smuggling boats in the Carribean and Eastern Pacific every week. The speculation was that the purpose of these was to put pressure on the Maduro regime. After Maduro was captured, they seem to have quietly stopped.

According to Wikipedia, there was one strike in the Pacific on January 23, so I guess it's a yellow light.

Maybe the drug smugglers got the message and stopped using that route, or reduced its usage, at least in the places where they can easily be intercepted and blown up? I mean, those people are not dumb, they should be used to adapting quickly.

Maybe the strikes continue, but US Navy is not announcing them anymore and keeps the snuff footage for themselves instead of proudly displaying it online. There are always many possibilities, only when, decades ahead, archives open, history nerds might start patching together what was actually happening.

Looks like they did change something - they are trying subs now: https://x.com/RickyDoggin/status/2021711954600157185 - obviously, this one didn't work out that well.

Possible but I don't see why would they suddenly stop announcing it. What changed?

We've done at least one since then, the anti-Trump media industrial complex has other things to focus on at this moment so they are doing that.

The Guardian: The garbagemen of Birmingham, center of England's third-largest urban area, have been on strike for almost an entire year—since March 2025. The contractors hired to replace them joined the strike in December.

I can't find any prediction markets for when the strike will end. Does anybody know of any? I'm surprised it lasted this long.

For those of us who have forgotten the plot

Long story short: The Birmingham City Council employed (employed) garbagemen, roadworkers, and grave diggers, who naturally were mostly men. They also employ cooks, cleaners, and caregivers for the elderly; these are mostly women.

At some point someone noticed that the former set of workers tended to earn more than the latter. A lawsuit was launched which argued that this was obvious sexism and a violation of the Equality Act since, in aggregate, male employees were getting paid more than female employees. The lawsuit succeeded, which spawned countless followup lawsuits. Any woman working in a job which paid less than a typically-male job was suddenly able to sue for damages, and consequently the Council has paid out over a billion pounds in equal pay compensation. The Council estimates that it is likely to have to pay an additional 800 million or so pounds before the thing has run its course.

Naturally, they also had to fix the problem, and so slashed the pay of garbagemen, road workers, grave diggers, and so on to match the female average. (Raising female pay to the male level would have been untenable before paying out >£1B, and certainly isn't possible now, as they're already basically bankrupted.) Unfortunately, it seems that people aren't interested in doing those jobs for so much less pay, and have declined to continue.

https://www.themotte.org/post/1827/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/316906?context=8#context

It's insane, but completely unsurprising, that the Guardian doesn't mention any of this.

  1. Why is every named person in this article Muslim? Is it really that bad?
  2. Logistically how do garbage men strike for a year? How are they paying their bills?

Why is every named person in this article Muslim? Is it really that bad?

Statistics page: In 2021, Birmingham was 31 percent Asian. This is up from 27 percent in 2011 and 20 percent in 2001, so presumably the figure is even higher among working-age people.

Logistically how do garbage men strike for a year? How are they paying their bills?

BBC article: The union pays them 70 pounds per day, and some have gotten second jobs.

That "Asian" category Brits use is very annoying. As if Japanese and Pakistanis are exactly the same and it's not worth differentiating between them.

The linked page does clarify that it's 17 % Pakistani, 6 % Indian, 4 % Bangladeshi, 1 % Chinese, and 3 % "other Asian".

Logistically how do garbage men strike for a year? How are they paying their bills?

Usually they are bankrolled by their union's warchest.

A Muslim activist who served a prison sentence for his role in an overseas terror plot is now seeking elected office in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, as local elections approach amid heightened communal tensions. Is there something special going in Birmingham, or it's just how things are in UK now?

Muslims are clannish and always vote for muslims. Non-muslims won't not vote for muslims. Left-wingers would rather vote for Saddam Hussein than a right-wing party.

Oh damn, I missed the best part: this guy is literally named Shahid Butt. They are going to have a terrorist named Shahid Butt on the city council. If I lived in Birmingham I'd vote for him (I would never live there so I can say whatever I like).

This is amazing.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_vwVLRXAAAyFit?format=jpg&name=small

Oi do you have a loicense for that noticing?

The three Birminhgam residents photographed and interviewed have Arabic/Indian(?) names and are clearly not ethnically British, while the garbage man photographed and interviewed is clearly ethnically British.

"Are you sure this will help us sell more burgers?"

The names aren't "Indian". Islamic names tend to be quite similar across MENA, but I'm confident that the people named aren't, especially the ones for whom we've got pictures. Even going off priors, Indians in the UK don't work those kind of jobs.

I suppose you're trying to tell me they're Pakistani which is theoretically interesting but does not change the thrust of my post. Is there some catch-all term I can use to avoid these tedious corrections from Indian/Bengali/Pakistani/etc people? I suppose "South Asian?". Or "subcontinental," though that sounds like it might offend people. What's the preferred term to refer to this collection of peoples? If there isn't one, I'm probably just going to have to continue saying "Indian."

Both South Asian or Subcontinental work, since Bangladeshis are at least technically more likely to be in the reference class.

What about "Desi"?

That's just another word for Indian. It effectively means someone from the country (of India, implicitly).

Good to know, thank you.

Seriously the only way to stop this rot is to let subcontinental and MENA migrants have a fast tracked promotion carveout in newspapers and judge allocations. Otherwise these people get ton continually pretend their pets are Progressive Liberals Like Us But Brown.

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