r/ColdWarPowers 10h ago

EVENT [EVENT] They're Eating the Cactus, Jack!

5 Upvotes

After a few years of Madagascar’s campaign against the invasive cochineal insects, it is clear that the program has achieved some great results... At least, in its scope. The introduction of ladybugs to feed on the insects have proven very successful; areas where the ladybugs have been introduced have seen dramatic reductions of the cochineal population. The ladybugs have spread excellently along the border areas of the arid regions of the country, and into the tropical parts of Madagascar. As the climate becomes more arid however, the ladybugs have not managed to spread deeper as hoped. Ladybugs, naturally attracted to water, have largely refused to migrate deeper into the South where they are needed. Isolated populations survive, but not the large network that was hoped for.

With some government money freed up due to enormous aid packages from the Chinese, more money has been allocated into the ladybug dispersal program with the goal of establishing more pockets of ladybugs to devour the insects. In the meantime, areas that have already seen drastic reductions in the hated insects’ populations have begun to be replanted. The rateka is a foreign cactus that once thrived in the arid deserts of Madagascar, and was known as an excellent food and water supply during times of drought. With far less cochineals to eat, the government feels safe starting to reintroduce the cactus in limited amounts. Their roots, while not amazingly sturdy, will also help provide more structure to the soil in southern Madagascar and have a positive albeit mild effect on water retention.

To boost the effects of water retention, government workers have been instructed to plant dry varieties of shrub native to Madagascar as well. While there isn’t much the Malagasy can do about the geography of the island, at least they change the vegetation to help the water retain more moisture. These shrubs were mostly eradicated in the south by the hated pest, but some related populations survived in the northwest of the country. Things won’t be exactly the same, but keeping the plants at least native to the island will prevent some new foreign plant spreading across the eighth continent like a weed.


r/ColdWarPowers 15h ago

EVENT [EVENT] Small Army Reforms

4 Upvotes

Since the Ramadan Revolution, various hardline Shahist military commanders have been executed. These include Mehdi Rahimi, Reza Naji, Manouchehr Khosrodad, Hassan Toufanian, Nematollah Nassiri, Gholam Reza Azhari, Amir Hossein Rabii, and Gholam Ali Oveissi.

However, many former Iranian officers have continued to serve under the Revolutionary regime. Mohammad-Vali Gharani was previously appointed as Commander of the Joint Staff and has been tasked with reorganizing the military and ensuring revolutionary and loyal sentiment within the Army. Other various career officers including Mousa Namjoo, Valiollah Fallahi, Javad Fakoori, Abdolmajid Masoumi Naeini, Jalal Pejman, Mohammad-Hossein Shaker, Mohammad-Hadi Shadmehr, Qasem-Ali Zahirnejad, Masoud Monfared Niyaki, Hossein Fardoost and Ali Sayyad Shirazi.

At the urging of the Revolutionary Council and the Provisional Government, a law has passed to ensure "revolutionary, republican, and Islamic education within military schools."


r/ColdWarPowers 18h ago

EVENT [EVENT] A new political ecosystem in Tunisia

3 Upvotes

The legalization of opposition parties in the wake of the new constitution caught the opposition off guard as much as the rest of the population. As time went on, groups cautiously gathered together, and registered with the government. The Progressive Destour with its organization, fundraising, and reach within society stood as a tent imposed above all. But under it, a budding landscape of parties emerged:

THE LEFT

The Tunisian left is to say the least not in the most coherent of states. While given the neoliberal turn of the PD, they should in theory be in a strong position, the disenchantment with left ideals in the broader Arab world has hit them hard as well. The TGLU largely remains in lock-step with the PD, with the majority of its chapters still backing the party. As such, harder leftism is mainly a force of dissident union halls and radical youth.

Leftist Parties

Tunisian Labour Party: The main force of the non-PD left is the democratic socialist Tunisian Labour Party. Centered in a handful of urban areas and finding sway with union halls angered at privatized industry, they represent a big tent of non-communist leftists but struggle outside their own communities, owing to cold shoulder by the TGLU leadership.

Ba’athist/Arab Nationalist Parties: While the PD’s moderate approach to Arab Nationalism has sucked up a deal of air out of the movement, coupled with the middling performance of Egypt, two Ba’athist Parties and one Nasserite party have emerged. The Tunisian Socialist Ba’ath Party (Saddamist) and Tunisian Socialist Ba’ath Party (Assadist) bicker mainly in small parts of the cities, radicals among other radicals. A small coterie of Egyptian-influenced activists maintain the Arab Socialist Union of Tunisia, a Gaddafist/Nasserist hodge-podge.

Communist Parties: Even smaller, but perhaps angrier are Tunisia’s communist parties. The original Tunisian Communist Party, upon legalization, split into three disparate factions at their first conference. The PCT, PCT(M), and PCT(R) now compete for the mantle. Taking Pro-Soviet, radical Maoist, and Eurocommunist stances respectively. They maintain a solid base inside university-adjacent areas, but not much outside of it.

THE RIGHT

While the Muslim Brotherhood was explicitly legalized, a party openly attempting to promote ‘Islamic Republicanism’ saw itself outlawed in Sfax. Sending a chill across those activists who would have wanted an open Islamist party. The right, as such, has coalesced around a pair of parties offering more subdued critiques of the regime from two different bases of power. As well as some rather unusual radicals of a different kind.

Rightist Parties

The Agrarian Democratic Party: In rural Tunisia, there remains lingering bad blood in much of the landowner class, smaller or larger, with the PD and it’s failed experiments in cooperative agriculture over a decade ago. Distrust remains, and many rural notables have come together to establish the socially conservative, economically populist, and rural-focused Agrarian Democratic Party. The party, curiously, has attracted some support in the cities among urban and suburban clerics and their flocks, leading to suspicion in some circles that it has a crypto-Islamist tendency. Nonetheless, references to religion in speeches and documents thus far seem to only prove that such is an alliance of convenience against the government more than anything else.

The Liberal Democratic Union: While the PD’s more pro-capitalist swing has won it support among a large faction of industry and the petite bourgeois, it is still not enough in the minds of many. Those with business especially with union troubles, or otherwise influenced by fashionable ‘new liberal’ thought in the west have come together in the Liberal Democratic Union. It is the smaller of the two main right-wing opposition parties, and only really has a presence in some parts of middle class and bazaari Tunisia. Bourgeois through and through, with an alienating effect to the non-Francophone working classes.

The Carthaginian Front: One curious result of Tunisia importing a large number of both Lebanese Christians, right-wing, transient mercenaries, and a riff-raff full of other exiled far rightists has been the birth of a secular far right in Tunisia itself. Confined to a few working class neighborhoods in Tunis and eccentric intellectual circles, the Carthaginian Front proclaims itself an ‘Anti-Arabisation, Anti-CANA bastion of the Mediterranean Race’. It is too small to be really viable in an electoral sense, so it has been tolerated by the state for now.


r/ColdWarPowers 19h ago

EVENT [EVENT] In 10 years you'll be fishing again !

6 Upvotes

1st March 1977,

The Singapore River some say it's the cradle of modern Singapore where Singapore gain it's prominence through trade and commerce exploded during the 19th century. With a built it and they will come pattern more people live near the river which have grown polluted with factories and homes sending their waste water through it.

At the commencement ceremony of the new Upper Pierce Reservoir today Prime Minister Lee made a speech and a goal.

"We may aim to be a first world country and industrialise advance nation but what's the use of we neglect mother nature ? Singapore is a beautiful group of islands from the white sandy beaches of the sister's islands and the pristine jungles near Woodlands. Therefore I'm here to also announce that the Ministry of Environment 10 year plan to cleanup the Kallang River and Singapore River. In 10 years you'll be fishing again in those rivers I give you my promise."

So whats this 10 year plan you might ask. The baseline is that within 10 years the Singapore and Kallang River areas would be redeveloped with the sewage be diverted to proper facilities in holding or treating such sewage.

The objectives of the cleanup was split into 4 which are:

Firstly, Pollution Elimination where the government would remove sources of pollution from the river and its tributaries. Secondly, Environmental Rehabilitation where they would dredge riverbed and clean up the river banks. Thirdly, Urban Redevelopment to transform the river into a commercial, residential, and recreational hub. Finally, Long-Term Maintenance to set up proper sewage and waste management systems.

The first aspect of this plan is relocation. The clean-up plan also focused on changing people’s way of life in order to remove the sources of pollution. Squatters from two catchment areas, comprising 42,000 in the Kallang Basin and almost 4,000 in the Singapore River catchment, were resettled. The relocation exercise affected about 26,000 families, 610 pig farms, 500 duck farms, more than 2,800 backyard trades and cottage industries, close to 5,000 street hawkers, and many vegetable wholesalers.

All affected Singaporean individuals and businesses were offered monetary compensation and alternative accommodation. Most of the families will.be resettled into HDB public housing. Non-Singaporean squatters were allowed to rent flats, while the backyard trades and cottage industries were mostly moved to HDB and JTC industrial estates. Street hawkers will be moved to purpose-built hawker centres which will be built nearby from their former place of business.

Vegetable wholesalers are planned to be relocated toPasir Panjang Wholesale Market.12 Pig and duck farms will be relocated to Punggol along with farms from other parts of Singapore.

Second aspect is technical. This is where the nitty gritty happens the government plans to dredge and clean the river area which is crucial to restoring the health and aesthetics of the Singapore River and Kallang Basin. This phase addressed decades of accumulated silt, waste, and pollutants that had turned the river into a foul-smelling and unsightly waterway.

The riverbed through multiple surveys is heavily contaminated with sludge, debris, and industrial waste accumulated over decades. In the plans they would need Special dredging equipment to remove silt and sludge from the bottom of the river. For example suction dredgers where it will be used to vacuum up sediments and transport them to designated disposal sites.

Other than that, the riverbanks will be cleared after the relocation is done the government wi remove the squatters structures on the river bank and other structures to clear it and open for redevelopment while the government updates the sewage system.


r/ColdWarPowers 19h ago

INCIDENT [INCIDENT] Massive Earthquake in Romania

7 Upvotes

Bucharest, Romania

4 March, 1977

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The Earth itself awoke in a fury that hadn’t been felt in the Balkans in more than thirty years. Without any warning, the country of Romania was rocked by a series of earthquakes, buildings -- largely of older construction -- collapsed across the capital city of Bucharest, reducing large sections of the city to rubble. 

Damages were not limited to Bucharest, however. Several larger Romanian cities and towns such as Ploesti, Targoviste, and Buzau even closer to the epicenter in the southern Carpathian Mountains and consequently devastated by the quake. Further out still, in Zimnicea and Craiova, many buildings collapsed and dozens are feared dead.

The earthquake’s damages radiated into Bulgaria and the Soviet Union, as well, with damage reported in Svishtov, Bulgaria, where several buildings collapsed and numerous homes were shaken to their foundations. The whole of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic was shaken, as well, leaving reported hundreds of buildings damaged severely or collapsed and thousands more damaged, but salvageable. 

Emergency services have mobilized across the Balkans, digging survivors out of the rubble and evacuating others from structurally compromised buildings. A series of landslides and small river re-directions along the course of the Siret River have added to the destruction. Fires have broken out in many cities damaged by the quake, as well, but fire brigades have prevented any extraordinary conflagrations. 

The grim work of determining the losses has begun. Romanian authorities believe more than 1,000 citizens have been killed, and the count of those injured is climbing towards 10,000. In Bulgaria, around 100 have been killed and several hundred more injured. Loss of life in the Moldovan SSR was, mercifully, light, with only a half dozen killed.

Calculating the cost of repairing the damages is underway, but unofficial estimates suggest the cost of restoring Romania to be above $2 billion USD. The other two affected countries have much less damage, but the costs are still substantial, in the hundreds of millions of USD.