Balm and blade. Earth and empire, sliding across her in blinding hubris. The balam watching — not absent, but deferred, bound by the powerlessness to intervene and the compulsion of witness. You’ve named it: revelation is no longer mythic or distant. It’s tactile. Territorial. And yet, the land does not merely endure beneath — it pierces through, singing sharp against the delirium of imperial hallucinations. Empire is an ass.
Thank you for a lovely afternoon meander. Disturbing to think that the Global North will begin a new phase of remilitarisation now. What is the pathway to peace? Militarisation is just a tool for domination and unfair exchange. How do we get to solidarity and shared prosperity?
Thank you. The extractive advantage is challenged and so they seek war. This is who they are. This aspect of them has remained constant for a few hundred years. It's them. Therefore it is incumbent to plan considering who they are. A leopard does not change his spots.
We wander between bombs and blossoms because both are relics of domination—one violent, one velvet. The riverbank erodes; the empire recedes. What grows in the mud is ours to shape.
I’m still holding the resonance of what you both brought forth,
a walk among trees, yet our minds traversed continents, timelines, and ruptures.
Your brilliance moved like balm and blade:
the blossoms of earth-centered knowing,
the bombs of empire unraveling,
and the balam—watching from between the leaves.
A coming decade steeped in revelation,
where safety will no longer be presumed,
but negotiated through power, proximity, and the unspeakable calculus of war.
Balm and blade. Earth and empire, sliding across her in blinding hubris. The balam watching — not absent, but deferred, bound by the powerlessness to intervene and the compulsion of witness. You’ve named it: revelation is no longer mythic or distant. It’s tactile. Territorial. And yet, the land does not merely endure beneath — it pierces through, singing sharp against the delirium of imperial hallucinations. Empire is an ass.
Thank you for a lovely afternoon meander. Disturbing to think that the Global North will begin a new phase of remilitarisation now. What is the pathway to peace? Militarisation is just a tool for domination and unfair exchange. How do we get to solidarity and shared prosperity?
Salaams Hafsat
Thank you. The extractive advantage is challenged and so they seek war. This is who they are. This aspect of them has remained constant for a few hundred years. It's them. Therefore it is incumbent to plan considering who they are. A leopard does not change his spots.
We wander between bombs and blossoms because both are relics of domination—one violent, one velvet. The riverbank erodes; the empire recedes. What grows in the mud is ours to shape.
Thank you for sharing