The dombra, also known as the dombyra (Kazakh: домбыра, dombyra; Persian: دمبوره, dambūra), is a long-necked, plucked lute used in the traditional music of the Kazakhs, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Nogais, Bashkirs and Tatars, and the principal national instrument of Kazakhstan.[1][2] Together with the bowed fiddle qyl-qobyz, it is one of the two most widely recognised symbols of Kazakh musical culture.[3]
Until reading this I could not have named a single symbol of Kazakh musical culture.
‘Ridiculous’ for US to maintain current Nato support, Trump warns ahead of alliance summit
President says Washington’s relationship with Nato is ‘not reciprocal’ and ‘they were not there for us’ in Iran war
…
The US president has repeatedly lashed out at European allies over their response to the war in Iran, as several countries restricted the use of bases for American forces.
“response to the war in Iran”? 🤔 The United States and Israel have been bombing Iran, dropping mines, attacking Iran with missiles, threatening Iran with invasion. The Guardian’s phrasing sounds so neutral here, as if the US were a concerned bystander.
Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas, that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The aircraft, an Airbus A300, was destroyed and all 290 people on board, including 66 children, were killed.[1]
Here, once again, as always in critical moments of history, the root contradictions of the two social and political systems on earth were laid bare.
—Chingiz Aitmatov, The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 202.
I read this paragraph, reread it, reread it again. The assumption of there being two social and political systems on earth was something completely taken for granted during my childhood and while I was a young adult. Thinking over the phrasing of news articles I read today I am struck by the extent to which the names of individual leaders are used, as if these leaders, not countries, were actors. When countries are considered they are presented as unitary forces of good and evil. There is no mention of political or social system, except as a form of schoolyard name-calling: the mayor of New York and the US Democratic Party are attacked as “socialist” or “communist”, The Radical Right-Wing™ is a bogeyman ever threatening European “democracy”, a seemingly demonic Russian horde revs tank engines just offstage, however there is no general discussion let alone understanding of what terms like “socialism” or “democracy” or “rule of law” may mean in practice. It is an odd dystopia.
A heatwave is not the same when you’re in a shared room with three other people and no air conditioning, as when you’re in a villa with access to a pool and air conditioning.
It’s not “censorship”, it’s “age verification”. We’re doing it for The Children.
