Café Leningrad

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in the past months, you might have heard some things about argentina

what you probably didn't hear is what is actually happening in argentina

there's probably a reason for that, but don't think too hard on that right now

what I want you to focus on at the moment is how, while alleged leftist social media accounts from self-identified "first world countries", who heard one tiktok and decided that we're worse and more "dangerous" than any country currently in a state or war or practicing neo colonialism in other nations, we have been fighting the relentless right wing conservative threat that they helped put upon us

you might have heard that we are one of the countries that is currently stuck with a deranged and embarrassingly awful right-wing president that is only one of the many trump allies he's been able to establish in latin america by either economic support, political support, economic threat or by force

the past years of his tenure, people have been doing marches and strikes, campaigns and activism EVERY SINGLE WEEK, in support of all the causes he's been trying to take away from us:

retiree rights and security

the financing of public higher education (which we freely offer to foreigners, by the way, I'm sure you heard that one while we were being trashed for being the worst scum of the earth)

lgbtq+ rights (especially the gender identity law we've had since 2012 and the law that secures a minimum work offer for trans people that we've had since 2021, I'm sure you've heard of that as well with the very objective coverage we've been having)

the laws for protection of books and publications (including those that allow publishers to establish a singular price for books as well as guarantee support from the State for alphabetization and book production and distribution, supporting indie publishers, indie bookstores and authors)

the law that regulates sexual assault claims

and many more I won't even make you read because I need to get to the crucial one right now that I really need you to listen to

our law for land sovereignty protection

in the past years, our current right-wing trump-minion government has been already slowly and steadily selling, giving away and offering out:

our land

our rivers

our sea

the land of native peoples

our resources

our infrastructure

we have had suspicious fires in patagonia

we've had our scientific teams losing finances and space to study land and sea

and on august 6th, congress will again evaluate the law for land protection and people are already planning action and response to prevent it from changing

we are in danger of losing even more sovereignty than we already have but the world won't care because suddenly, after a very well-timed and effective short-form misinformation campaign, everybody thinks we deserve it

nobody asked our afro descendant population what they thought or how they live, nobody asked our native peoples about who's pushing them out of their land, nobody asked the foreigners who come to study here under the law we're all trying to protect, nobody asked us anything

we are all, in some of your minds, a bunch of "colonialists" (of what?) nazi and israeli supporters (at the same time) who were always bad and we deserve to be taken over by a good, nice "first world" nation who can teach us how to be less bad

one would think that, after doing this to so many nations before and with a world more connected, this silly little game of making the "other" a "bad guy" to justify colonialism or genocide would be over, but we keep seeing it and it keeps happening

is argentina devoid of awful people? no, but which one of you lives in a country were there are no awful people in it?

if you choose to look at the right wing asshole on twitter instead of the activist who goes to the march every wednesday to help save us from this so that you can justify these things being done to us, that one's on you

if we don't judge you all for your right wing fanatics on social media or your president, why are we any different?

there is a certain type of superiority complex some "first world" people have in which they think they can judge your entire culture through their lens and opinion and dictate if you deserve to be assimilated or not and, sadly, this whole thing has shown me that no matter how "leftist" some of the us and european activists think they are, they still think they're better than all of us and can judge our history, culture and curate which voices should be heard over others just because they speak english and have a social media following

latin america is been taken over day after day and we're made to fight each other because of fútbol instead of seeing that if one of us goes, we all go

on august 6th argentina is going to, once again, be fighting for our sovereignty and survival

you weren't there when the us supported the military dictatorship that disappeared 30 thousand innocent people, you weren't there when the malvinas war happened, we don't expect you to be there now

but, just so you know, conveniently while this anti-argentina campaign was going and it overnight became a matter of shame to be argentinian online, even if we haven't shot a single gun outside our borders and don't have a single colony in our name, unlike others, what was happening in here was that our land and resources have started to be taken from us

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What I like about PMMM and what makes it so engaging for me, is that it can be read on multiple levels--both as a literal journey and as a symbolic one. In-universe, witches are the shadow selves of magical girls; is it really so surprising that they also serve as narrative foils to those who face them, thus making victory or defeat as much of a character issue as a tactical one?

It is not a coincidence that Mami Tomoe, a girl who was forced to grow up too fast and who could have wished to save her dying parents but didn't, meets her end at the hand of a particularly childish and immature witch, a lumpen, misshapen doll that transforms into a clown--a girl who never grew up, who could have wished to save her dying parent but didn't. Mami, an experienced veteran who wiped the floor with the Rose Witch and her familiars earlier, is completely caught off-guard and is eaten alive by a witch who embodies all of the issues she herself struggles with and has yet to overcome within herself.

Yes, Mami was careless and overconfident, which led to her doom--but she had also fulfilled her role of introducing Madoka to the world of magical girls. On a narrative level, her death was necessary--not only to free Madoka from her impulsive promise to become a magical girl too early in the story, before she'd learned all the facts and could make a fully informed decision, but also to teach Madoka one final, horrific lesson about what life as a magical girl is really like.

This is not to say that AUs where Mami survives are wrong or missing the point--I've written them myself and I love them! (It helps that Mami's survival is usually the result of someone else's interference, not something she accomplishes on her own.) Nor do I mean to suggest that Mami's death is a moral failing on her part--merely that I think that Charlotte represents Mami's own particular brand of kryptonite at that particular point in her life, one she might have been able to survive if she had been able to move beyond the psychological issues hobbling her.

Meanwhile, Homura is able to easily defeat Charlotte, because metaphorically she's moved beyond the childish worldview that Mami is still stuck in. From that same symbolic perspective, it's this relative level of maturity, as much as her time stop and pipe bombs, that allows her to win.

Likewise, it is not an accident that the next witch Madoka encounters is one that specializes in extracting the memories of its victims, trapping Madoka in a spinning carousel as she is tormented by her own grief and guilty conscience over Mami's death. She is freed by Sayaka, who has moved beyond such angst by her decision to take on Mami's role as an idealized magical girl protector. Later on, Sayaka's descent into dualistic thinking is symbolized by her fight against a witch whose world is literally black and white--whom Sayaka defeats, but only at the cost of pushing herself dangerously to her limits.

As with Mami, Sayaka's death is directly tied to her own psychological issues--in this case, by her incredibly strict rules about how magical girls should behave and her refusal to cut herself any slack whatsoever. Her metaphorical self-denial results in literal self-denial, and her death as a magical girl and rebirth as a witch.

Then we come to Walpurgisnacht, a witch made of cogs and gears--the one witch Homura cannot beat, no matter what she does. Homura is stuck in her loops, unable to imagine a future beyond them, increasingly isolated from any meaningful connections or relationships--Walpurgisnacht may be the "fool that spins in a circle", but so is Homura. The inside mirrors the outside; when we watch Homura fight against Walpurgisnacht, we are also watching Homura's struggle with herself. Unlike Mami and Sayaka, Homura's magic allows her to fight this battle over and over again--again and again she is forced to retreat and start over, unsatisfied with the results and determined to do better next time. She doesn't die, but she doesn't win, either--instead, she's locked into perpetual stalemate with no end.

Madoka, however, is able to see beyond the vicious cycle represented by Walpurgisnacht and thus easily and repeatedly defeats an enemy that Homura cannot, regardless of her relative power levels in any given timeline. It's probably too simplistic to say that hope triumphs over despair--and yet, that's exactly what happens, every single time. Homura has numbed herself through repeated exposure to where she no longer feels hope or despair, thus existing in perpetual stasis with her purpose the only thing driving her. Paradoxically, the one thing she needs to do to win is the one thing she cannot do--and the thing that Madoka can do all too easily.

(This is not to say that Madoka doesn't have her own issues--she does!--just that her issues are different from Homura's, meaning she's not tripped up by this particular obstacle in the same way that Homura is. And it's not that Homura's struggles were pointless--they were what allowed Madoka to get to point where she had both the power and the knowledge that she could save everyone, including Homura.)

Homura's final battle with Walpurgisnacht shows Homura going to insane lengths, including a wall of C-4 explosives inside a refinery, a flaming oil tanker, and a submarine with Type 88 Surface-to-Ship missiles--none of which has any lasting effect on Walpurgisnacht whatsoever. That episode goes to great lengths to show that Homura's approach to fighting Walpurgisnacht fundamentally isn't working; I don't think adding more nukes would help.

The one time Homura gets the closest to her happy ending is the one timeline where she and Madoka fight and fall together--the one timeline where they are shown as equals, and the one where they debate becoming witches together and destroying the whole world before Madoka thinks better of it. This is also not a coincidence. If there is ever to be a truly happy end to this franchise--or an end at all--Homura and Madoka must be equal and willing partners, not one protecting/sacrificing themself for the other again and again. It is also likely that they will remake the universe in the process, through the combined power of their mutual wish.

[It also wouldn't surprise me if that line foreshadowed future plot elements--after all, Madoka technically became a witch in the final episode of the TV series (she got better, thanks to the nature of her wish), and so did Homura in Rebellion--but we shall see if the series ever follows up on this.]

This is why I'm so excited that Walpurgis no Kaiten seems to be laying the groundwork for Homura creating her own enemies and her greatest enemy being herself--once again, making the metaphorical literal. I'm excited about the prospect of Homura getting a do-over with Walpurgisnacht, which would represent a chance for her to confront her narrative foil one more time, and show us how her character has changed. Though it may play out on a larger stage, the real battle will be inside Homura's mind and heart--and, I would argue, always has been. The only way the outcome will change--the only way we can move beyond what's been and into something new--is if/when she changes.

Festival of the Good Death Celebrated in Cachoeira, Brazil

The Afro-Brazilian Sisterhood of the Good Death is made up of female descendants of slaves, all age 50 and over, and honours both Catholic traditions and Afro-Brazilian Candomble religious rites. The sisterhood is believed to be the oldest organization for women of African descent in the Americas. The state of Bahia received at least 1.2 million slaves from Africa and remains the most African of Brazilian states, where blacks make up around 80 percent of the population.

Rules: Type “[Your name] + core + aesthetic” into search-box on Pinterest (or any photo curating site, I guess) and use 9 images to make a mood board.

I was tagged by @cafeleningrad, thank you !