It’s still there

From my experience perusing and discovering both devotionals and Bible reading websites from countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Britain, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Romania, Finland and Russia, whilst it’s true that Europe is less religious than America but I’d argue Europe seems less religious than America is because it doesn’t have a particularly substantial Christian right wing bloc comparable to the United States. It could vary between countries but even then I don’t think many of them have this much of a substantial Christian media industry the way America does, like how practically none of them have their equivalents to things like DC Talk, Veggie Tales, so on and so forth, let alone be famous outside of their borders.

The Chronicles of Narnia, Divine Comedy and the like may count, but they’re from the past and it’s kind of hard coming up with what amounts to the European equivalents to Veggie Tales and DC Talk, and even if European countries do have their own Christian media industries they still wouldn’t be on par with their United States counterpart in terms of quantity, scope and scale. Thus contributing to the perception that Europe is very secular compared to America, even though by going to online Bible readings and devotionals from these places reveals something to the contrary. In the same way that China might be less anti-Christian than one realises, especially from going to its own online Bible readings and devotionals, or for another matter India, Vietnam and Indonesia. And even if they have their own issues with Christianity, this hasn’t stopped Christian ministries from being operational in any way.

This hasn’t stopped Christian ministries from growing and popping up whenever one discovers or finds them at all, to the point where they seem to be this way due to something like media illiteracy. Media literacy is when somebody critically analyses the way media communicates messages and portrays or conveys ideas and sentiments to people, which may reveal certain biases that may not be found in media coming from said country this nation’s talking about (i.e. China, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Ireland and etc). Countries like India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and China have more of a Christian presence than one realises, so logically countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania still have more of a Christian presence than one realises. They seem less Christian because they don’t fit American expectations of Christian religiosity/fidelity.

Not just in terms of numbers/quantity (though in China, Vietnam and Indonesia it is growing), but also the apparent lack of a substantial Christian socioeconomic bloc that contributes to the perception of being less Christian than America is with the odd exception of Israel. I could be wrong about countries like Germany, Ireland and Italy, but as it stands I don’t think all three of them have a substantial right wing Christian subculture the way America does. That doesn’t mean they’re this irreligious as they do have Christian ministries putting out online devotionals and Bible readings, as much as they don’t have a substantial insular Christian subculture the way America does. They do have Christian media industries but it’s not as large as the one in America, I don’t think European Christians have their own versions of people like Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson and James Dobson, let alone enjoy the same scale of influence these three have outside of their borders.

A Christian media industry exists in each respective European country, but it’s not particularly substantial compared to the US counterpart, thus contributing to the assumption (or perhaps presumption) that Europe is less religious than America. Or for another matter, China, Vietnam, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. If God keeps a remnant of his in Europe, then they will persist and go on for long.

End of American influence

I remember saying this before that American influence will be undone the world over and it’s already being undone in the west, though it remains to be seen if it were to spread to countries like the Philippines. There are actually some Christians who say that America is Mystery Babylon, the prophesised nation-state said to corrupt the entire world. If God’s out to undo American influence, that’s because much of it’s no good. Even if porn did exist in countries like France, Britain and Japan, but America is the nation-state that popularises porn media. Despite the fact that it boasts of its Christian heritage a lot, which is more grievous if it doesn’t act the part, it talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. Lukewarm in other words.

A very doubleminded country that’s on the verge of civil instability, a country that alternates between profound piety and outright depravity. A country without this much spiritual integrity, a new Israel that became a new Babylon in a short time. Any nation that highly allies itself with Babylon/America will also be judged that the Philippines is no exception, whether if we like it or not but this is what God will do to us for our own sins. For following Babylon more than him, that he’ll let China take over us for good. Much like how God allow the original Babylon to take over Judah for its own sins, it’s no different if he made China do the same thing to us really. It’s a matter of him using evil to deal with evil as what somebody else said. Not only that, he’ll permanently undo most American influence here.

Filipinos will no longer be fluent in English, but rather Mandarin in its place. Chinese customs and holidays will replace their American counterparts in the Philippines, there will be no trace of most American franchises left in the Philippines. American music will no longer be played on Philippine playlists and radio stations anymore, perhaps save for Christian music as God keeps a remnant. But that’s all that will remain, only American Christian media will be kept for a long time. American-initiated churches will remain here, but there will be almost no trace of American cultural influence left in the Philippines anymore in the future. But at present, America has the world’s largest music and publishing industries, so if these are undone these will leave a big gap.

To fill in such a big gap, the Philippines would have to be more open to being more strongly influenced by its closest neighbours. Not just those in Southeast Asia, but also China (though this is my personal preference), but even then this is more than necessary with American influence getting undone in many more places to come. Something like the popularisation of Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Malaysian foods here, but also Philippine publishers publishing their book counterparts and so on. If American influence turns out to be temporary, given how a thousand years is just a day to God, perhaps American influence was never really going to last the more it gets undone the world over due to being the prophesised Mystery Babylon in the Bible.

It would be more shocking to think that cartoon characters like Jean Grey and Mickey Mouse will be largely forgotten in the future, the more God makes people forget about the United States. But even if they’re not immediately forgotten for now, brands like Disney and Marvel will get less popular over time. The more the world boycotts American products, the less popular American brands get. Their best chance of survival is to be bought by non-American companies, Italy’s Ferrero Rocher bought Kelloggs, Russia’s Sup Media bought Livejournal and China’s Shein bought Forever 21. If a Chinese company buys Alphabet or a Russian one buys Meta, it would be more of the same thing really. A real best case scenario for such companies if they were to remain viable in the future, but also a sign that America’s increasingly less powerful these days.

America might not remain in its current form, whether if it becomes Russianised over time or if it disappears from the face of the earth, it’s never going to last long in its current appearance. To the point where if the Philippines were to realise this, it would be far better off building stronger ties to the rest of the East instead of being reliant on America a lot. I even said that Korean influence in the Philippines isn’t that strong compared to its American counterpart, considering that Philippine publishers don’t even bother translating Korean books, despite dubbers being so fluent in Korean as to practically understand Korean texts real well. Many Korean animations don’t get dubbed here in the Philippines, as opposed to KDramas, thus depriving Philippine children of programmes like Fly Superboard and Dooly the Dinosaur.

Maybe some Korean animations have been dubbed in Tagalog, but numbers wise it pales in comparison to KDramas. Philippine publishers don’t really bother translating Korean comics as well as those from our closest neighbours like China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia, but don’t hesitate to republish American comics. Most Filipinos also aren’t that exposed to other Korean musical genres like Trot, KRock, KRap and KBallads, but many more of them are exposed to the full spectrum of American music. Not just US pop, but also US rock, US rap, US jazz, US Christian music and US orchestral music. We get books and comics directly imported from America, but Philippine publishers don’t bother translating Korean books and comics into the Philippine vernacular.

They don’t even do the same for Japan, China and the rest of ASEAN, even when it could’ve done so. Maybe in the future, they will get around to it, since this is something that I prayed for and prayed for others to cope with. Even then I feel the Philippines is far too westernised for its own good, never particularly this close to any East Asian country despite being geographically closer to them than we are to America. I don’t think Philippine dubbers bother dubbing the rest of Japanese television programmes either, since this is mainly restricted to animation and to a lesser extent, the special effects hero school (tokusatsu). Tagalog-dubbed versions of Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian programmes would’ve been nice, considering that three of them are written in the same script as Tagalog does.

Both Malaysian and Indonesian are relatively closer to Tagalog than both Vietnamese and Thai are, speaking from my experience learning Indonesian and Vietnamese, the learning curve for Indonesian is relatively less difficult. So it shouldn’t present this big a challenge for Philippine dubbers and translators to translate Indonesian media into Tagalog, but I suppose the loss of American influence in the Philippine should force the nation and its peoples into considering viable alternatives. I personally believe the Philippines is better off becoming closer to its neighbours, not just economically but also culturally, since we’re too westernised for our own good. It should even be noted that Indonesia, Vietnam and China actually have fairly sizable Christian communities.

Sizable enough to justify the existence of ministries and their associated websites, speaking from personal experience going there. Some Indonesian newspapers like Tribun News even have Bible readings, there’s a good number of Catholic ministries in Vietnam even. China has a handful of Christian ministries enough to justify the existence of Christian websites there, so this is something the Philippines has to reconsider and if the Philippines is East Asia’s number one Christian-majority country, then it should act as a kind of role model to these three and the rest of East Asia. But since it doesn’t generally bother acting like one, it will be judged for its sins and for being too close to Babylon for its own good. As God offers second chances, perhaps losing America’s a blessing in disguise.

Not only will the Philippines get to be truly dewesternised in the future, it will act as a proper role model to East Asian countries with growing Christian populations like those in Vietnam, China and Indonesia. Or even to those with negligble Christian communities like Japan, Thailand and Cambodia, so this is something the Philippines needs to do to not only get redeemed by God, but to evangelise to its neighbours a lot more than it does at present. This is much more preferable to imitating and following the worst America has to offer, given how and why some say that the US is Mystery Babylon. It remains to be seen if the Philippines were to stop following America at any point, but it’s necessary because America’s not a good influence to it.

It’s better off evangelising a lot more to its neighbours than caving into America’s whims, given how countries like Vietnam and China actually have growing Christian populations whilst Thailand and Japan are in great need of God, so they really need the Philippines to act as a mediator and role model of sorts. Building stronger ties to the rest of East Asia is what it should’ve been doing, but for as long as we ally more with America we suffer not just culturally and economically, but also spiritually.

Exotic Black People Part Five: Chris Claremont’s biases and the state of American imperialism

I said before that going from the book From Krakow To Krypton, longtime X-Men writer Chris Claremont has admitted that he didn’t find black people particularly relatable (not that he hated them), but it does colour the way he wrote black characters when compounded by his Zionism, holiday in Israel and finding Jewish characters more relatable, that it does reveal a kind of racist bias in his works. In the sense that Jewish characters like Magneto and Kitty Pryde, for all their faults and with the latter being a repeat ingratiate to Professor Xavier, tend to be portrayed more sympathetically and also more sensitively than he would with black characters. It seems when black people do show up in his stories, they fall into three portrayals: exotic black people (Storm), black friend to white people (Storm and Stevie Hunter) and gangsters.

Considering that Cecilia Reyes, an African Caribbean doctor, was created by somebody else (Scott Lobdell), even if Lobdell himself’s not without his own faults it seems antiblack racism is not one of those but my exposure to his stories is very limited, so bear with me here. Given Chris Claremont never found black people particularly relatable, it does make one wonder why he never seemed actually interested in them or experienced with them the way he would with fellow Jews be they American or Israeli. This may not be true for how he portrays other black characters, but based on what I’ve read, it does feel this way at times. I said before that Claremont never seems particularly this exposed to African media, even when the Internet now makes it possible in a way. As in with the Internet, if you use it to upload X-Men fanart and listen to X-Men podcasts, you could also use it to livestream African sermons and the like.

You could also use it to scour for African documents, devotionals and the like, which is exactly what I tend to do with those. I’ve never been to any African country, though I do intend to go to one, but it’s still telling that Chris Claremont never seemed particularly interested in African countries, nor is he extensively exposed to African media in any way, online or not. As he’s never been to any African country, let alone stay there for quite a while like he did in Israel, he’s never particularly exposed to African media given when he was writing the X-Men stories at the time the Internet was in its infancy or something if it did exist at all. As Chris Claremont stayed in Israel for a while, it’s the country that’s going to have any real bearing over his stories. It’s not much of a stretch to even assume that he could’ve been exposed to Israeli media in any way, which would’ve further coloured the way he wrote the X-Men stories.

The fact that Chris Claremont wrote a substantial chunk of the X-Men canon, encompassing related magazines like New Mutants (in-story, they’re pretty much the junior wing of the wider X-Men organisation), Kitty Pryde and Wolverine and a number of Wolverine stories (I think), that his contributions are further reaching than those of Joe Kelly and Scott Lobdell. For every X-Men writer who seems particularly interested in any real African country (or at least has been there for a while) as it is with Joe Kelly towards Maggott/Japheth, there are many more who’re practically indifferent to it. In the case with East Asians and West Asians, and if we restrict it to Chris Claremont’s output, with the exceptions of Karma and Jubilee, they’re almost always portrayed in a kind of antagonistic light.

But then again Jubilee is Asian American and Karma hailed from a former French colony, so westernised Asians will be portrayed more sympathetically than those who’re not. I don’t read much comics so bear with me here again, but it’s kind of telling that there’s a racist streak in Chris Claremont’s stories. It also plays into a wider American sentiment against rising Asian powers that those who’re westernised (the Philippines for instance) will be regarded more favourably than those that aren’t under America’s control (China and at some point, Japan), which also kind of plays into a model minority rhetoric by pitting one against the other in some way. Even as a Pinay, I felt that X-Men stories were pretty iffy. But reading more of those stories makes them even iffier than one realises, especially if you remove those rose-coloured glasses and see the problems for what they really are. This kind of speaks to certain issues I knew before.

I said elsewhere that the Philippines does have a neocolonial relationship with America, especially whenever Philippine cartoonists chose to work for American publishers a lot, over actively supporting the local comics industry in search of money. It’s even worse when you realise that not a lot of Philippine publishing houses bother translating our neighbours’ books into local languages, like would it hurt to translate any of Haruki Murakami’s novels into Tagalog? Filipinos are no stranger to dubbing Japanese programmes into Tagalog, so translating Japanese books into Tagalog would really be more of the same. But we’d rather rely on US imports over personally translating Asian books into our languages, that I feel despite our infatuation with South Korea it’s a distant second to America.

Why? There’s a paucity of Korean books translated into Tagalog. Any Kpop fan that habitually translates Kpop songs into Tagalog should be eligible for translating Korean books into Tagalog, or even Korean comics as one of them could easily be our very own Erika Fuchs. She’s the woman who translated Disney comics into German, and she’s a very lauded translator. Regardless of how one feels about Korean comics or literacy in the Philippines, if you have Kpop fans who translate Korean magazines for personal use, they should be eligible for translating Korean comics into local languages, as Erika Fuchs may not have started out as this familiar with comics at some point but grew to love her job over time.

With America we get the whole package where we don’t just get exposed to America music, but also America television, American cinema, American food, American clothing, American video games, American books, American magazines and also American comic books. Our relationship with our closest Asian neighbours is painfully remote, not even our relationship with South Korea is as close as that of America, which is saying. I don’t think Filipinos are really this extensively exposed to Korean culture this much, despite the common sentiment, since our exposure to Korean culture is largely restricted to Korean programmes, films, food and music, since there are practically not a lot of Philippine publishers translating Korean books and comics for the Philippine market.

And even with music, it’s largely restricted to Kpop for most people and not something like Trot, Korean ballads, Korean rap and Korean rock as these do exist. Whereas Filipinos are highly exposed to a wider range of American music (rap, rock, jazz, pop and country), or for another matter American programmes (drama, comedy, reality television, educational programming and animation). Maybe I’m wrong but even then Filipinos are disturbingly distant towards their neighbours, not even as close to South Korea as they are to America. At any point where Philippine publishers could’ve translated Indonesian books into Tagalog, or Philippine television dubbing Indonesian programmes, these don’t happen. Most Filipinos’ exposure to Indonesian culture on our soil is usually just limited to food, Philippine radio stations don’t play this much Indonesian music.

The average Filipino really isn’t this exposed to Asian cultures this much, given how Philippine publishers barely translate Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai books into Tagalog, how Philippine television doesn’t dub Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese and Thai programmes this much and so on. Philippine radio stations may play Kpop, but they don’t play K-Rap, Trot, K-Ballads or K-Rock. Actually the other two (Trot and K-Ballads) are pretty popular in South Korea, though not widely exported to other countries the way Kpop is. I still think the Philippines’s exposure to Asian cultures is pretty shallow compared to America’s, even our exposure to South Korean culture isn’t this deep since we don’t bother translating Korean comics and books into local languages.

Such is the tragedy of American imperialism in the Philippines where despite much closer to Indonesia and Vietnam than we are to the US, we’re more heavily exposed to US culture than we are to both Indonesia and Vietnam. We’re more heavily exposed to American comics than we are to Indonesian and Vietnamese comics, and despite the existence of Japanese programmes dubbed into Tagalog, we don’t do a lot of the same to Japanese comics and books for some reason. Jline Comics is the only Philippine publisher that does this to my knowledge, it wouldn’t hurt for Philippine publishers to professionally translate something like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Saiyuki into Tagalog. But one possible objection is that it’s too extensive to translate multiple volumes of those into Tagalog, as the Philippines is bilingual in Tagalog and English, we could just import translated Japanese comics instead.

But since Philippine dubbers are experienced in dubbing hundreds of episodes from almost any anime into Tagalog, translating Japanese comics into Tagalog would be more of the same thing. I find myself wondering if Filipinos aren’t just remote towards our neighbours, but also suspicious or disdainful of them on some level. Not just China but also Japan at some point for elderly people alive today, even though it shouldn’t be this way. Even if these two have faults, America’s not any better either. America has repeatedly evicted Native Americans off of their lands and have them marginalised in some way, especially through reservations, whereas white Americans (descendants of European immigrants and colonists) needn’t to live in reservations. Even if not all Native Americans live in reservations, it’s not hard to see how and why they’re so marginalised on their own soil.

America is built on stolen land and what was once Native American territory has been made into American cities and towns by European settlers, you have some people suggesting that there were a lot more Native Americans back then. But once European settlers came, their numbers dwindled over time. Not to mention Hawaii was its own country but got subjugated by America and then got made into a US state as the 1950s came to a close, which goes to show you what an imperial hegemon America became. Any country it can’t readily subjugate is ripe for demonisation, which is how it feels around China and also Japan before. This is particularly evident in one X-Men story where the Mandarin decides to sinicise Jubilee even further, but she’s aghast at this or something.

Not to mention the other nonwesternised East Asians in that story are also antagonistic and though I could be wrong about the way the rest of the East Asians are portrayed in other Chris Claremont penned stories, but it does make sense how and why East Asians are generally written the way they are in the X-Men stories. It seems most of the more sympathetic East Asians in the X-Men canon tend to be westernised ones (Galura who’s Philippine, the Vietnamese Karma and Chinese-American Jubilee), but the antagonistic ones are the least westernised (the Mandarin and Matsuo). Also it seems most of the more sympathetic East Asian characters are also female, but the antagonistic ones tend to be male (I don’t read much comics to be honest).

It kind of does play into a sort of fetishisation of East Asian women, made worse by the presence of US air bases in some countries. Which means US soldiers will be out to have dalliances with Philippine, Vietnamese and Korean prostitutes, which sort of explains why DC’s very own Cheshire is portrayed the way she is. Though Chinese men having African women isn’t any better, but when it comes to American soldiers having dalliances with East Asian prostitutes, it kind of furthers or deepens the fetishisation of East Asian women at times. For every AF/WM relationship that’s actually not based around prostitution at all, there are those who come over for the prostitutes and the like. It’s a really insidious form of colonialism where people get trafficked for sex in some way or another, or if people are nothing more than living commodities for white people.

Nothing more than playthings for white people, which I feel makes the sexualised transformation of Betsy Braddock into an Asian woman worse. Early on she didn’t dress this skimpily (by superhero standards), but once she turned East Asian she started flirting with Scott Summers (who’s married to Jean Grey). And she habitually wore a thong leotard, which makes Peach Momoko’s take on her all the more refreshing. Instead of using her to act out fetishistic fantasies of Asian women, this Psylocke comes across as authentically Japanese. She’s not a white woman who got bodyswapped with an East Asian woman, but an actual Japanese woman whose name contains the Chinese character for west (clever one!).

It also helps that Peach Momoko is Japanese herself and would churn out a real Japanese sensibility, but she’s far from the only one out there in Marvel. But there’s something troubling about the Philippines’s sympathy for the west and especially America, where we’re quick to distrust easternisation like Filipinos drawing in a more anime style, but have no issue working for American publishers themselves. Coupled with a more distant relationship with our closest neighbours and it’s pretty shameful that we’re too close to America in ways that are really inappropriate, like the Philippines can’t effectively decolonise itself without letting go of America in some way. I even said before that most Philippine publishers don’t translate our neighbours’ books and comics.

Which means the Philippines’s relationship with the east is painfully and embarrassingly remote, compared to our inappropriately close relationship with America and the rest of the west. Not that there’s anything wrong with liking western countries, but when the Philippines is rather distant towards its closest neighbours it’s not a good sign really. Actually I don’t think the Philippines is close to the rest of the global east (which in my view includes Africa) either, given how most Filipinos are still far more exposed to western media than they are to East Asian and African media. It’s not something I like in the Philippines but it’s vanishingly rare for Filipinos to be this extensively exposed to nonwestern media, I could not be the only one here.

Even if something like the Bumilangit comics canon isn’t entirely resolved of other problems, at least offers a more authentically Indonesian sensibility and it’s proof that it’s possible to sustain a local big name comics publisher for long, something the Philippines barely even does with its own superheroes and our very own Bayan Knights didn’t last long. Philippine cartoonists would rather work for American publishers and get a higher payrate, over actively supporting our own superheroes which hints at the inappropriate persistence of American colonialism in the Philippines. And since it’s been speculated that Israel itself is an agent of western imperialism, it kind of does play into how certain ethnicities are portrayed.

Those that are westernised are highly favoured (Israeli Jews, Filipinos, Koreans, Vietnamese) and those that aren’t are highly demonised (Chinese, Arabs, even the Japanese at some point), biases that are very much reinforced in the X-Men canon from time to time that gets inculcated onto America’s allies. It may not even be the X-Men comics that do the trick, but any other American story would do and it will turn out the same for as long as it helps reinforce these biases onto others. It’s worth noting that there’s nary a Palestinian X-Man, even though the Arrakkians serve as proxies for Palestinians. But when writers almost always side with Zionism, in which a good chunk of the X-Men canon owes itself to through Chris Claremont, it’s probably why there’ll never be a sympathetically prominent Palestinian mutant at all.

The sort of Palestinian characters who do get to appear in X-Men stories in any capacity are more likely to be Israeli Jews, something like Gabrielle Haller and her son with Professor Xavier, David Haller. As he appeared in the earlier stories, he was like Professor Xavier’s skinny teenaged son who got possessed by an evil Arab hellbent on killing Israelis. Outside of the X-Men and part of the larger Marvel canon is the Israeli Sabra/Ruth Bat Seraph, again one would wonder why Marvel Comics never had a prominently sympathetic Palestinian character in any way. Sympathetic Egyptians and Lebanese maybe, but not a single sympathetic Palestinian. That would run counter to the stronger bias towards Israeli Jews and Jews in general.

And whenever Sabra does appear with another character called Arabian Knight, she’s almost always portrayed as a sort of heroine against him. Like you have to side more with the Jews than with the Arabs, even those at their worst like Magneto and Kitty Pryde at times will still be portrayed more sympathetically, than is afforded to nonwhite, non-Jewish characters like John Proudstar. It’s like both of them are ungrateful towards Professor Xavier, but only Kitty Pryde’s spared from the consequences of her actions that befell John Proudstar. The fact that Claremont’s so biased towards her that it feels really racist when you realise why she barely ever faces the consequences of her own disdain towards Professor Xavier the way it did for him, which is really racist.

It’s like he sides with her more than the Native American guy, even though they’re more resentful towards Xavier and Kitty has fought with him like three times to my knowledge. It kind of communicates a certain message that you can get away with that attitude for as long as you’re of the right ethnicity and culture, like anybody who’s not a western white person will almost always face the consequences of the same actions that their white, western counterparts do often. It’s not a good message and when compounded by other iffy portrayals of nonwestern and/or nonwhite people, it’s as if despite X-Men writers and especially Chris Claremont embracing multiculturalism, it’s mostly on paper and not in action.

Most of the people making up the classic New Mutants lineup are white westerners (British Rahne Sinclair, white Americans Doug Ramsey and Sam Guthrie, white Brazilian Amara Aquila and white Russian Illyana Rasputin in my opinion, and then another white American like Tabitha Smith), given there are only a few nonwhite or nonwestern members of that subgroup (Native American Dani Moonstar, Vietnamese Karma and Afro-Brazilian Sunspot). It’s like despite attempts to portray Japanese culture and Japanese characters, X-Men writers and especially Chris Claremont seem far more biased towards white westerners above everybody else.

And when compounded by the paucity of sympathetic Palestinian Arab characters like there is for Israeli Jews like Sabra, it’s not hard to see that Chris Claremont and the overall Marvel canon seem far more biased towards white Jews than they would towards Palestinians. It’s kind of telling that the most prominent Muslim characters in Marvel Comics aren’t Palestinians themselves, be it Pakistani American Kamala Khan, Lebanese American Fadi Fadlalah and Turkish American Nakia Bahadir, which still sends a certain message that it’s okay to be Muslim and/or West Asian for as long as they are westernised in one way or another. It’s not just that all three of them are from their countries’ diasporas.

But that both Pakistan and Lebanon were former European colonies (British and French respectively), with Turkey being a West Asian country that’s in close geographical and cultural proximity to Europe. There’s nary a sympathetic Palestinian American among them, not even Palestinian Christians are portrayed much at all in American comics. Perhaps outside of Joe Sacco’s journalistic forays into Palestine, which they likely do appear, Palestinian Christians are vanishingly rare in the American comics canon. And Palestinian Christians are very much ignored in most western media, like this might tarnish the perception of Israel as the Christians’ favourite country. This is even more ironic that not only does Israel persecute Palestinian Christians, but that it’s rarely mentioned as one of those countries that persecute Christians at all.

The ones that do get mentioned are ironically the same countries that have very substantial Christian populations compared to Israel, namely these are Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Mexico and Uganda. Even if they have their own issues, they’re actually less hostile to Christianity than one realises. Uganda not only has Christian YouTube channels and radio stations, but also a newspaper called New Vision that even publishes devotionals online. Same thing goes for Nigeria’s Nigerian Times and Elanhub, in addition to having its own Christian radio stations and YouTube channels. There are even Christian websites coming from Nigeria, Indonesia and Vietnam, just as Indonesia has its own version of Radio Maria (a Christian radio network) and Vietnam even has Christian YouTube channels.

Even China has a sizable number of Christian websites, despite taking a few of them down. Unfortunately it’s easier to side with Israel for all its faults, than to see the good in these countries due to the Halo effect both Israel and Jews have in the Zionist mindset. And there’s a tendency for some Protestants to view Jews as honourary Protestants, which only deepens people’s suspicions of Christianity as linked to colonialism, especially if/when there’s no regard and respect for Christian traditions and denominations that have a longer history in countries like Vietnam, China and the Philippines, namely Catholicism. But others don’t see Catholicism as Christian, so it’s like Jews get a pass for being Protestant-like.

It’s not hard to see how and why a Zionist bias is prominent in not only some Christian circles, but also western circles as a whole and why it kind of drives a wedge between people really. Whether if it’s Zionism in Chris Claremont’s stories, the overall trend of Zionism in the wider Marvel canon and also Zionism in western culture, one gets the impression that Jews are the model minority to end all model minorities. The ones that can readily assimilate into white, Protestant cultures in a way not even those from white, Catholic cultures can’t aspire to (something like Ireland and Italy), which communicates a message that invalidates those cultures and countries.

Jews are the model minority’s model minority, which would make the Romani the original ‘bad’ minority. The former is stereotyped as high-achieving and amenable to white, Protestant cultures, the other will always be the scapegoat and the outsider. Both of them come from other places, with Jewish people that’s like twice because although a few Ashkenazi Jews are descended from the Levant, most of them are more directly descended from Judacised Turkic, Iranian, Greek and Slavic populations between West Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Conveniently where the Khazar Khaganate would’ve been, whose own people were speculated to have converted to Judaism en masse to avoid taking sides.

There are studies that are conflicted over whether or not Ashkenazic Jews are even descended from them, even if they’re not wholly descended from them as they’re also descended from Judacised Slavs, Greeks and Iranians, but if Palestinians are said to be directly descended from the Israelites in some studies, even if Palestinians could really be Arabicised Jews in some regards (in the sense of being directly descended from the Israelites) but to most people, being Arab and Jewish are fundamentally incompatible concepts. Like to be Arab is to be Muslim and to be Jewish is to be westernised on some level, even if the possibility that Palestinians are directly descended from the ancient Israelites confounds these assumptions.

It seems in the world of Marvel and also in Chris Claremont’s contributions to the X-Men canon, an Arab can be a prominent character but never a Palestinian Arab. A Muslim can be a hero for as long as they’re not Palestinian, as if the Zionists that may be try to bury any memory and positive mention of Palestine at all. Not to mention a Palestinian can’t even be a Christian, despite Palestine/Israel housing the world’s oldest continuous Christian community. It’s not hard to see how western media’s greater bias towards both Israel and Jews make it harder to see Palestinians as people, let alone as practising Christians because that would surprise and upend one’s ideas about them.

So a Palestinian will never be a character in Marvel Comics, much less a heroic one or even an X-Man at that. If Marvel has Israeli Jewish characters like David Haller and Sabra, why not a Palestinian? But it’s never going to happen anyways, perhaps other than the coded residents of Arrakko. And even then mutants having to have their own ethnostate’s right there in Chris Claremont’s writings, who spent enough time to Israel to have both Magneto and Charles Xavier do the same thing. There’s also no mistaking that he would’ve been this exposed to Israeli media, in lieu of a more sophisticated Internet back in the 1980s and 1990s as this was a thing before.

And even in the early to mid 2000s, though the Internet and broadband connections were there, livestreaming had yet to emerge. And even then Chris Claremont’s still more biased towards Israel and western cultures, at least generally less antagonistic towards the former two than he is towards East Asia and especially both China and Japan (again, I don’t read comics much). His biases inevitably colour the way people are portrayed in his stories, his own inability to relate to black people or East Asians for another matter often results in dodgy portrayals, his greater bias towards Kitty Pryde has rendered her immune to the fallout of her own actions, despite being the same as what John Proudstar did.

David Haller was a poor Jewish boy (since he’s older now) who got possessed by an Arab, as if Arabs are out to corrupt Jewish minors at any point. And how Betsy Braddock came to look Asian, she actually got body-swapped with an Asian assassin with criminal ties, as like if being easternised makes you suspicious on some level. It’s no surprise that such portrayals of certain nonwestern cultures and peoples serve to drive a wedge between people, like how Philippine cartoonists kind of look down on their countrymen doing the manga style but have no shame working for American publishing houses. Even if it sounds like a stretch, it does inculcate certain ideas of what people ought to be and ally themselves with.

In American comics, even if there are white, western bad guys they’re still going to be portrayed more sympathetically than is afforded for their nonwestern, nonwhite counterparts, which affects how America’s allies see others as. This may not be the case anymore but it does influence people’s mindsets and sensibilities on a subconscious level, like if Americans have a habit of inculcating their culture onto Filipinos over Filipinos learning to develop stronger ties to their neighbours, then Filipinos will become more biased towards their cultures. Even if they sympathise with their neighbours on some level, they’ll still sympathise more with anything western still.

It’s pretty evidently problematic that due to years of American inculcation that most Filipinos aren’t this particularly close to their neighbours, even though this should make good logistical sense. They begin to absorb and internalise American ideas and mindsets, resulting in a worldview no different from their American counterparts. This also includes parallel attitudes towards Chinese, Arabs, British and so on, even if this isn’t how these people see themselves as. Or for another matter, how Europeans would see Arabs and Chinese as. If you keep presenting Arabs and Chinese as a threat to American hegemony, they will see them in this light. If you habitually erase Palestinians in your stories, people wouldn’t know they existed.

Let alone in a more humanising light as it is in Joe Sacco’s own comics, ditto the existence of Palestinian Christians. And unfortunately given the nature of American hegemony in the Philippines and the like, it makes it harder to see these biases as what they really are, instead of finding out Chinese and Arab made media to better understand where they’re coming from and see a different side to them. Or for another matter, Vietnamese, Ugandan, Nigerian and Indonesian made media, but the problem will be the same for as America and Israel both want to earn people’s graces. For as long as America continues to tarnish their reputations, it makes harder to understand and learn how they see themselves as. Even for all their faults, countries like Indonesia and Vietnam aren’t this hostile to Christians.

Israel might be more hostile to Christians than one realises, especially if these are Palestinian Christians at that, which go unnoticed in most Christian media. When coupled with poor media literacy, it’s not hard to see things in a biased manner. Unfortunately even researchers are biased towards something, making it harder to evaluate things objectively and are human in a way. So media literacy comes in handy when it comes to evaluating such media, which should also extend to something like the X-Men canon. Media literacy is really helpful in understanding one’s biases towards something and how it colours their work, such as how Chris Claremont’s Zionist bias coloured his tenure on the X-Men magazine series and its ilk like New Mutants.

Unconscious or not, it colours the way they see and expect things to be. No wonder why it’s so hard to see the Zionist bias and racism in the X-Men stories without realising it later on, well as it is for me, but it’s increasingly obvious how different certain people are portrayed compared to others. And why these media influence people’s perceptions and assumptions of something.

Salvation for Native Americans

There’s somebody who had a dream with God telling them that Native Americans do need to be saved, though it’s something that risks being kind of politically incorrect at times. Especially when violence and any other form of abuse were used to make Native Americans convert to Christianity, to the point where it’s something they remain largely hesitant about. Especially among the younger generations, though it needn’t to always be this way. Even if not all Native Americans are necessarily antagonistic towards Christianity, a good number of them tend to be this way, especially from my experience. It doesn’t help when abuse was used to make them convert to Christianity, that this distrust is kind of intergenerational.

It should be noted that it’s not particularly exactly the case among a number of African countries like Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda where it seems to be widely accepted and practised, as they were converted without being abused by missionaries. Even if not all African countries are like this, it’s common enough to be almost taken for granted in other places. East Asia’s kind of a mixed bag where you have countries that do oppose Christianity, but even among them they’re unable to stop its rise and presence, even if they try hiding them. Something like China, Indonesia and Vietnam actually have substantial numbers of Bible reading websites, even if their stances on Christianity can get antagonistic, but it’s a sign that it’s growing there.

Christianity seems to be a harder sell to Native Americans given their negative experiences with it make it harder to actually reach out to them without finding a way to catch them off-guard, though it’s sometimes on them why they refuse God, especially if it comes with negative consequences. But it’s kind of tricky to find a way to get them to accept God without hesitation, where it’s like the case in Japan even if not all Japanese are this antagonistic to Christianity. Except that the real issue with Japan at this point has to do with wanting to put on a strong facade, that’s to avoid being seen as weak and vulnerable, even if it impedes the ability to confess sin once people accept God. That’s from a Japanese blog that I read before, which kind of reveals one other reason why Christianity’s a minority faith there.

Even moreso than in China, Vietnam and Indonesia, which is saying because you can still find substantial numbers of Christian websites there, relative to Japan. That speaks volumes about why there aren’t a lot of Christian websites in Japan, let alone where the Japanese could either read devotionals or Bible readings in some way. But I feel this could also be applied to Native Americans, especially given the social expectations of having to act in a certain way that keeps oneself from personally loving and meeting God. Even if not all Native Americans are this antagonistic to Christianity, as some of them are practising Christians themselves, for others it remains a hard sell even if it could’ve solved certain problems that they try to solve on their own. Again it’s like the thing with the Japanese, who’re expected to solve things on their own.

Not wanting to appear vulnerable and stuff, even if being weak is needed to rely on God more. Having to put on a mask just to please people and not God, it’s the same problem with both Native Americans and the Japanese. It’s pretty different with the Chinese, Indonesians and Vietnamese where a substantial number of them do sincerely turn to and rely on God a lot, which can also be applied to many Filipinos, Ghanaians, Cameroonians, Kenyans and Ugandans really. No wonder why the Japanese and Native Americans have these problems, even if it’s not unique to them, but when practising Christians are a minority among them that it risks making them even more prone to them than they wish they didn’t and shouldn’t. Perhaps it’s not a surprise why their attitude to Christianity influences why the number of Christians in their ranks is low.

Much less practising Christians, compounded by a tendency towards idolatry (which is something that I struggle with), that kind of explains why it’s so hard for them to come to God. Another is that they’re kind of afraid of letting go of their cultures, not just due to negative experiences with Christians, but also for fear of negative repercussions if they do convert that kind of complicates matters. As if they have the fear of man over the fear of God that’s why they’re hesitant about converting to Christianity, though I remember somewhere in a document stating that another reason why the Japanese have difficulty converting to Christianity has to do with their parental figures being absent from their lives. To the point where it shapes how they view God, as it’s been pointed out elsewhere that a parental figure helps influence the way people see him as.

This could also be true for a number of Native Americans, even if not all of them turned out this way. But it does influence the way they view God as, especially when it comes to having unreliable or untrustworthy parental figures, that it becomes easy to see God this way. It needn’t to be this way, but it turned out to be so, even if God does care about them and wishes for them to come to him.

Adjusting to reverse culture shock

Considering that it’s in God’s will for us to evangelise in Vietnam that it’s necessary to familiarise oneself with aspects of Vietnamese culture, including Vietnamese Catholic masses, to better get what Vietnam is like beyond stereotypes. Not to mention the pain of reverse culture shock from readjusting to the Philippines that a certain solution is needed, oddly enough before I came up with working in Vietnam, I prayed to God to help us cope with the Philippines becoming heavily influenced by China. The same country that heavily influenced Vietnam, Japan and Korea, that whilst a highly sinicised Philippines wouldn’t exactly be like Vietnam but a heavy Chinese influence is enough to alleviate some symptoms of culture shock.

That if more Filipinos started wearing white to funerals in the same way the Chinese and Vietnamese have for years, then it would be kind of reminiscent of both China and also Vietnam in a way. Same goes for the popularisation of chopsticks in the Philippines and other Sinitic customs that a highly sinicised Philippines could be more of the same thing in some regards, not necessarily exactly like China or Vietnam but sinicised enough to make the transition back home smoother. Whilst Korea and Japan also show idiosyncrasies of their own, but they’re highly influenced by China enough to readily transfer certain memes to one another. Most notably in the realm of animation and other customs and practises. The Philippines might be trickier.

It’s been westernised for a long time and whilst it’s going to take time for the western influences to be minimised at all, but with people pointing out that America is Mystery Babylon and its influence will be revoked the world over, so the Philippines might have a chance at getting sinicised big time. Its proximity to China would be a major logistical advantage, since Spain had to rule over the Philippines through Mexico. The United States is closer, but still farther from the Philippines than China is. It wouldn’t completely undo Spanish influence, but minimise it enough to bring the Philippines closer to other Asian countries in some way. Supposing if Chinese influence is strong enough to minimise this, coupled with the loss of American influence, then that’ll be the case.

It’s kind of already happening in western countries like Denmark and Canada, though who knows when will the Philippines follow suit, even in some fashion? But given how America’s declining a lot as a superpower that turning to alternative superpowers would be the more sensible, practical goal however hestiant we are to China, though it should be noted that for all its faults it’s got a growing Christian population. Similar things can be said of Vietnam and Indonesia where their Christian populations are substantial enough to warrant a sizable number of Christian websites and even online Christian devotionals/Bibles, substantial enough to house online ministries of sorts. There are even Christian stations in Indonesia.

Even if there are attempts to clamp down Christianity in these countries, if Christians are blessed whenever they’re persecuted, then they’re actually heading to a good future. As somebody who’s been persecuted often by my family members, I might actually relate more to Vietnamese Christians undergoing the same pain really. If misery loves company, then I’m in a position to reach out to them more. I might be getting proud here but from being persecuted a lot by my family that I might be able to reach out to them better, since this is also a thing in Vietnam as well as Indonesia and China. Add to that they have growing, substantial Christian populations then they’re actually off to a good start.

At times I have a feeling we tend to judge nonwestern countries by western standards, even if they might ironically be less sexist/bigoted than western countries in some places. (The west Asian countries have far more women in STEM than in the west, despite the latter seeing itself as woman-friendly.) Conversely speaking, even if persecution is a thing in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, that hasn’t stopped the existence of Christian ministries and the odd fact that there are even a good number of Christian websites there suggest that the Christian populations are substantial enough to justify and cater to their existence. To give you an idea of this, there are actually more online Bible reading websites from China (like these three*) and Vietnam (like these three again) than there are in Cambodia, which is just one.

Vietnam is almost like the Philippines in that not only does it have a substantial number of Christians, especially Catholics, it’s also colonised by a Latin European country (France) and a number of Vietnamese even have (derived from) French names. Conversely speaking, the Philippines could be more like Vietnam if it got heavily influenced by both it and China (since Vietnam does owe a lot to it), something like having the same name order, practising many of the same customs and holidays and stuff. But for some reason it’s more common to find Filipinos fascinated with South Korea, than one would with Vietnam even if you could find more similarities with this country in a way.

Also Vietnam’s much closer to the Philippines than South Korea is, so getting this influenced by Vietnam would be a major logistical advantage. Same with China, whether if we like it or not. Even then I feel the Philippines doesn’t seem particularly emotionally close to its neighbours, as opposed to those more distant from us like South Korea and America. Even if getting closer to its neighbours would be much easier and faster, logistically speaking, and I feel we could’ve found more common ground with both Vietnam and Indonesia than we are to South Korea. Both Vietnam and Indonesia are former European colonies, Indonesia was colonised by the Netherlands for nearly as long as the Philippines was under Spain.

Indonesia also has a substantial Christian population, though in a way that seems to reverse the percentages in the Philippines. The fact that the Philippines was historically much closer to Indonesia means if America were to collapse real badly, we could rebuild those ties again in years. Indonesia even uses languages coming from the same linguistic family as Tagalog and Ilokano do, so there’s a good chance at rebuilding those ties not done in centuries. But given the nature of American hegemony that for as long as the Philippines remains a US puppet state, we will continue allying more with other US colonies like South Korea (whether if they’re aware of this themselves), especially culturally.

Than we do with our closest neighbours like Vietnam, Indonesia and even China.

*Hong Kong is legally part of China.

Beyond the dichotomy

When it comes to nonwestern attitudes to dogs (and for another matter, cats), when it comes to places like say Iran and Vietnam or even China, it’s easy to apply Orientalist logic to it. Regardless of how the way dogs are used is sometimes pretty similar to what goes in the west, sort of like how West Asians do have a habit of hunting game with dogs. It’s even permitted in Islam, and some Muslim sects have a higher opinion of dogs, most notably Sufism. Conversely speaking, among East Asians (including Southeast Asians), the attitude towards dogs isn’t necessarily always this bad. Actually in both Vietnam and Indonesia, it’s pretty common to find news reports of people using dogs to hunt rodents.

It was even like this in China before the introduction and still is so to some intermittent extent, which is helpful for those with allergies to cats. I remember this book by Sima Qian about people using dogs to scare away mice or something like that, so this was there before and even in tombs where you have an image of a dog gobbling up a rat. It’s even like this in the Philippines as well really, so East and West Asian attitudes towards dogs aren’t necessarily antagonistic. But it’s kind of easy to other and malign them for things like finding dogs dirty, or dog meat even if dog poisoning and dogs getting shot by hunters is a problem in continental European countries like Hungary and Germany.

Not to mention the issue of dogs hunting wildlife is also present in western countries, so it’s not a problem unique to Asia and Africa really. But it’s kind of easy to malign Asia and also Africa to some extent, due to the nature of Orientalism, even if western countries aren’t really any better too. I feel when it comes to Orientalism, it’s kind of easy to other nonwestern countries. Regardless of the fact that you could pretty much find some of the same problems in the west suggests at a form of racism that ignores whatever the west does that’s not always right, not just for the environment but also for dog owners too. Though I suspect that in the west, it’s kind of taboo to point out that it’s a dog that kills animals.

For another matter, not all Asians and Africans aren’t necessarily this negligent towards their dogs. But given the nature of Orientalism that it’s very easy to point a finger at the east, when the west itself’s not any better either.

Why is America Mystery Babylon?

There are actually a number of people who say that America is Mystery Babylon enough to be somewhat commonplace, but not said in polite company given the nature of American Christian nationalism. In the sense of thinking that America has God’s favour and can’t be in the wrong for this, but the fact that God will hold every country accountable, so in this regard it’s not exempt. In fact there’s somebody who said that America went from being the new Israel (its past as a Christian colony) to the new Babylon (popularising or originating filth like porn, snuff and much more), add to that God foresees our failures and mistakes, so this wouldn’t come as a surprise to him that America really is Mystery Babylon.

Remember, an angel told Dumitru Duduman that America is Mystery Babylon. If because despite being a Christian colony, it condoned and permitted filth so it worsened over time. Even things that seem to have a wholesome public image like Disney turn out to be hiding skeletons in the closet, including that of Bobby Driscoll’s. For those who don’t know, Bobby Driscoll was an actor who appeared in a number of live action Disney films in the 1940s. It’s kind of hard to believe that Disney’s foray into live action goes further back, when Walt Disney himself was still alive and kicking. But it has to be said because he was the inspiration for its version of Peter Pan, but to make matters worse Uncle Walt made a deal with the Devil.

So he could’ve committed really heinous acts behind the scenes, thus inspiring rumours about his gay affairs and stuff. It would be kind of horrifying to learn that Walt Disney may’ve even molested Bobby, which some people had the misfortune of witnessing it in action. It kind of explains something like Hell’s Bells, which involves the Devil and his demons in hell. You’re better off not watching it, but if you do then it’s on you. Or why the Disney parks allude to Freemasonry, something that’s very anti-Christian. To be fair, there are Christians who do work for it. But to paraphrase the Bible, you could be in Disney but not of Disney. Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise why Sabrina Carpenter turned out the way she did.

Or for another matter, the Jonas Brothers and this is more grievous because unlike Carpenter, they were Christians. At any point where they could’ve actually stayed away from the world, or even repented and returned to God soon enough, they chose the world and make their bed. It’s a matter of time before Nick Jonas starts converting to Hinduism in earnest, not that there aren’t any Christians in India at all. The latter does exist substantial enough to support the existence of two devotional websites, Jesus Calls and APCWO. China could currently claim at least four with Crossmap, WMZG, Catholic-DLC.org.hk and Zhouzhidiocese, Vietnam has around three with Hoimancoi, HDDMVN.net and HTTLVN.org.

Indonesia claims things like Renungan Harian, Rehobot, the Catholic section of Tribunnews, Renungan Pagi and Renungan P Karmsce, so that’s five of all and so far the most substantial of all the non-Christian majority countries I’ve enlisted here. I’m getting off-topic but that’s to give you an idea that these countries, despite being non-Christian, do have substantial enough numbers of Christians to support their existence. Enough for the Jonas Brothers to interact with and call home in a way, given their Christian pasts, but unfortunately they chose the world and it’s on them why certain things happen. Or why Nick Jonas could convert to Hinduism at any point soon, which would be the most tragic outcome in their family history, spiritually speaking.

So it seems a deal with Disney inevitably corrupted the Jonas Brothers, as if their parents didn’t foresee what was going to happen in the long run. But it’s also symptomatic of the wider American culture at large, where being worldly and famous is considered a mark of success. Even if it didn’t start out this way with showbiz being largely looked down upon early on, based on this book called Celebrity Culture and the American Dream. It’s not that filmmaking for the sake of art didn’t exist in America before, but most of the filmmaking industry in America back then had a more suspicious reputation. It wasn’t something those from respectable backgrounds would do, though the Hollywood executives found a way to earn people’s trust over time.

Burk Parsons is a man who was going to be part of the band Backstreet Boys and had a father who also looked down on showbiz, seeing it as something that corrupts people. By becoming a pastor, despite his own reservations before, he practically dodged a bullet because otherwise he would’ve been the subject of pornographic Backstreet Boys fanfictions. Including some that were written by a former Christian, I say former Christian because at some point she was dedicated to God, but the more she made an idol out of her favourite band, the more she departed from God and reaped the consequences of it like becoming a single mother. It’s weird to me that a Christian like Brian Littrell never seemed to care much about her spiritual wellbeing, but I remember this sermon when I was thinking about him, insinuating that people like him are wicked.

Another insinuated that people like him are really arrogant or massive gloryhounds who want attention, this is something that I struggle with from time to time. If America is Mystery Babylon and it houses many things that corrupt people in the long run, perhaps it’s no surprise why even Christians like the Jonas Brothers and Brian Littrell are highly susceptible to it, sometimes with negative consequences that they didn’t foresee. One could like Disney or even the Backstreet Boys without turning them into idols, but when it comes to the existence of things like Backstreet Boys porn and Walt’s deal with the Devil, that a number of the things they do corrupt people. In the case with one Backstreet Boys fan, her idolatry of the Backstreet Boys really did corrupt her so much, as to continue wallowing in sin.

Perhaps this explains lines like Babylon, mother of all whores and abominations, or come out of Babylon. Don’t participate in the same sins as Babylon/America, lest you be judged the same way too. Unfortunately this is what many of America’s allies, including the Philippines and Canada, have done and continue doing, that they too will be judged for what they’ve done. No sooner or later, God will permit Russia to take over much of NATO and the European Union, or China to do the same with the Philippines, South Korea and Japan as they’ve participated in America’s sins as to have Babylon take over Judah again. This is in line with the passage of kings getting drunk by the same wine Babylon makes or drank from, if God foresees all, then this wouldn’t surprise him either.

In the case with South Korea, because it also participates in the same abominations as America does, that it also receives some of the same judgements too. There were wildfires in America, then there are now wildfires in South Korea. Consider how South Korea’s own showbiz industry participates in similarly shady practises, like getting a shaman to ensure the success of some K-Pop bands, the same industry that enables a lot of idolatry, that it really did ape the worst America has to offer. No sooner or later, we’ll be getting more of those in South Korea in some way or another, some of the same natural disasters that befell America will also befall South Korea. That eventually North Korea will reunite with it, then to goad it into joining China too.

So America really does corrupt its allies so well they get the same judgements too, if countries like South Korea are any indication. So it will be revoked, it will not be remembered.

Not as bad as you make it out to be

Based on my experience going to Chinese devotional and daily readings websites, not only there’s a Christian presence in China, but that you could even access to those kinds of stuff, despite the persecution. Similar things can be said of Indonesia and Vietnam, though it could be that God keeps a remnant that he’ll be faithful to. But it could also be argued that even for all their faults, they’re not entirely that hostile to Christianity. Well God will be faithful to his people, so even if bad things happen to them (sometimes as a result of their own undoing), he’ll also let them practise their faith and share it with others in whatever way’s possible like online devotionals for instance.

Conversely speaking, the Christian-majority countries in Europe and North America hardly act Christian. Especially with their growing tendency to flaunt and legalise the unthinkable like gay marriage, pornography and soon in the wings, polyamory, that while they may not necessarily legally persecute Christians they practically house a lot of backsliders. Sort of like how Europe got so secular over the years for whatever reason and circumstance, that it finally got there but as to risk getting taken over by Russia if people like Celestial are to be believed. That if you reject God, then certain things happen to you as it did to me before. No surprise why Europe will actually get conquered by Russia in the foreseeable future. It rejects God, it abandons God.

So the consequence is that it will be under Russian rule when this happens, whereas countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and China could eventually house a bigger Christian population together. What has happened to the sub-Saharan African countries will happen to the rest of East Asia, in the sense of having booming Christian populations that will become particularly substantial in the future. So even if countries like China, Vietnam and Indonesia persecute Christians, that hasn’t stopped Christianity from being a thing there, that a number of their Christian websites remain operational speaks to the staying power of Christianity there. They may not be Christian majority yet, but they’re getting there and it will be so in the future.

Consider what happened to Christianity in Rome, it was a minority faith that was actively persecuted by the pagan majority Romans. But it eventually became the dominant religion there and eventually towards its colonies, so if God can do the impossible then he can surely make Christianity grow substantially in Indonesia, Vietnam and China. It could be Christian majority for all of them, but even if it doesn’t, it’s still growing bigger each day. It would be kind of shocking to think that these countries might even eventually send their missionaries to the apostate European countries, but this goes to show you that not only is Christianity actually growing in the east, but that the centre of Christianity has shifted. Christianity’s increasingly a nonwestern religion.

So much so that one could make an argument for the global east (composed of Eurasia east of Europe and Africa) becoming the new hotbed for Christianity, if because they’re coming to house substantial numbers of Christians and especially practising Christians at that. So in this sense that China, Vietnam and Indonesia might not be entirely that bad, because their Christian populations are growing. Or for another matter, those in India, Cambodia and Pakistan. But it’s still telling that the global east is the one that’s housing a growing, practising Christian population and it will be so in the coming years.

The western bias in dog domestication studies

This may not always be the case for all studies on dog domestication, but when there is a strong western bias despite evidence pointing out to East Asia as the site of dog domestication, then we are missing out the actual origin of and purpose behind dog domestication. I guess it’s got to do with the whole dog eater stereotype that plagues East Asians, even if not all of us do this and it’s increasingly called out and no longer that popular here. There are actually surviving Chinese documents about dogs being used for pest control, that it’s possible it would’ve been much older and likely dating back to the Ice Age.

The practise still survives in other East Asian countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, also if Basal East Asians originated in what’s now present day China then they could’ve brought along dogs and their uses for them anywhere else whenever they spread out to other places. If Basal East Asians are ancestral to modern day East Asians, including Austroasiatics and Northern East Asians then it’s inevitable they would’ve brought along dogs and their uses for them when some of their relatives went elsewhere. But that would mean East Asians might have played a far bigger role in dog domestication than is commonly assumed, despite all their faults and misgivings about dogs.

Far bigger than is given credit for by westerners. East Asia could also be the place where dogs might have been deliberately domesticated, which would be in line with surviving documented evidence of dogs being used for rat control. That’s not to say that East Asians never used dogs for meat, except that they were historically eaten only on special occasions and also in times of famine. But the earlier use of dogs here would’ve excluded this, though they weren’t used for hunting bigger game like mammoths. While dogs did have their uses in prehistoric East Asian households, hunting bigger animals was not one of them yet.

So protodogs would’ve used in East Asia for hunting vermin and guarding households, not that there weren’t any other uses for them but that these were the main ones at the time. These two practises survive in some East Asian countries today and possibly some Chinese households and farms to a likely extent, so the earliest use of dogs as pest control isn’t entirely lost here. But the fact that western scientists often ignore East Asian cultures as the likeliest evidence of dogs being deliberately domesticated, even if it’s not for hunting bigger game at the time suggests a tendency to be coloured by racist stereotypes in their biases.

Albeit not in ways they don’t recognise for what they really are.

The use and training of dogs in the Bible

When it comes to the way dogs are portrayed in the Bible, I feel the Bible relies a lot on double-entrendres in which the word means both the literal animal and the type of person it’s associated with, though not in ways modern secular minds would get. When taken metaphorically, animals like dogs represent everything unholy and objectionable to the Lord. When taken literally, the Bible focuses a lot on the negative side of dogs like predation, aggression, greed, scavenging and a taste for blood. Sort of like what the stray dogs did to Jezebel, which is God using the wicked to punish the wicked. Since dogs don’t seem to be trusted much in the Bible, it makes sense why he’d do such a thing to her.

The few instances where dogs are portrayed or used more positive are those that lick a poor man, being fed crumbs, as herding dogs of Job, as Tobit’s guide and like I said before, as divine retribution to the wicked, as it is with Jezebel. What’s rarely ever mentioned in discussions about dogs in the Bible is how they’re used and trained, where if it did exist it would differ from modern day expectations. In the case with guarding, speaking from experience in the Philippines, people take this for granted expecting that if they’re getting dogs then the dogs will simply bark at intruders and strangers whenever they stay outside of the house. People in Biblical times would not have been any different.

In the case with hunting as it is with some African communities (Aka Pygmies, Baganda Ugandans and contemporary Cameroonians), dogs would either be fed with a special diet, starved or socialised to other dogs in order to get them to hunt. At other times as it would have been in ancient China, people take dogs’ hunting ability for granted with the hopes of them killing rats and mice on sight. The other problem is that many Middle Eastern people, ancient Israelites included, don’t have much of a tradition of using dogs to hunt vermin the way those in the Far East/East Asia (China, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia) would do.

They also don’t have much of a tradition of dog meat either, but that’s due to dietary restrictions on the basis of dogs being dirty. Not that all East Asians eat dogs, since it’s declining ever since. From my experience perusing Arabic language media online, the biggest and oldest uses of dogs in the Middle East are guarding, hunting and herding as the former two are even condoned in Islam. There doesn’t seem to be much of a deep-seated tradition of using dogs to hunt mice, let alone outside of news reports taking place overseas and if it does exist, it would’ve been rather rare. As the Israelites weren’t that big on hunting, so there were really only two uses for dogs.

That’s herding and guarding, the latter is where there wasn’t much of an incentive to train them. It’s not that dogs aren’t useless as much as while they’re useful, they’re not particularly reliable when it comes to incidents like dogs hunting on their own. Much to their owners’ dismay, which would’ve coloured the Bible’s mistrust of them. Sheep, on the other hand, were much more useful though not in the way modern secular people would understand. In the sense that they weren’t just useful for providing meat and cheese, but also wool and possibly even companionship in some cases that there could’ve been more of an incentive to train them.

Hence, why sheep and not dogs are the models of obedience and loyalty. Followers of God are frequently likened to sheep, but their enemies are likened to dogs and pigs. Two animals that arguably the ancient Israelites don’t have much use for, the latter none at all due to those dietary restrictions. That’s not to say dogs are useless as there was any real use for them, but when it comes to guarding people would’ve taken their habit of barking at intruders for granted so they didn’t bother training them much.

Also hunting with dogs isn’t mentioned that often in the Bible, perhaps hunting never had much importance in the lives of ancient Israelites the way it does for both Africans and East Asians. East Asians have a habit of using dogs for hunting vermin, Middle Easterners not so much but it’s not just that they leave it to cats but among Israelites, hunting really isn’t a big part of their culture so using dogs to hunt vermin is something they don’t really do much. Or perhaps none at all. It’s not that dogs lack any practical value among God’s people, but in the Old Testament it would’ve been limited to only a few things.

Then we get to how dogs and idolatry are so closely linked in the Nile and most especially Mesopotamia, the region that Canaan is very close to, that it could’ve furthered Biblical writers’ distaste for or distrust of them. Even if not all of them hated dogs, since there were likely some who enjoyed their company or liked having them around to guard houses and livestock with, they weren’t always looked at favourably if it weren’t for their neighbours practically worshipping them as gods. Or at least linked to idols like Gula for instance.

(It also doesn’t help when dogs are also linked to witchcraft where it’s not just linked together in the Bible, but also present in a number of churches that believe in this.)

Also the lack of any recognisable toilet and modern sanitary products meant that Israelites would frequently let the dogs outside to relieve themselves, which would explain why they’re often regarded as unclean. Even today, some people would do this. We tend to let our dogs out whenever they feel like relieving themselves or something, but it would’ve been worse for ancient Middle Easterners as they lacked things needed to dump poo or cover urine with.

Fewer than it would be with sheep, which is probably why they’re valued more. Either that or dogs are basically cats in the Bible, in terms of reputation compared to what sheep get. Well the Bible doesn’t mention actual cats at all as they were practically unknown at the time when the first parts of the Old Testament was written, that the first wave of cat domestication took place in what’s now modern Turkey and Armenia suggest that they hadn’t arrived in Canaan and Mesopotamia yet. A second wave of cat domestication occurred in Africa, though they’d be exported much later on.

This is a provocative statement but the way the Bible sees dogs is no different from how some dog owners see cats.