Avatar Collection - Portraits of Women in NFTs.

 

I have renamed the Portraits of Women series as The Avatar Collection. The meaning of Avatar according to Dictionary.com is 'the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape; the incarnation of a god.' In the above painting the skin texture of the woman looks a bit like the Navi beings in the Avatar movie.

This is the most beautiful NFT collection ever created so far...by Mother Nature. The curvaceous feminine forms of the portraits are so beautiful and pleasant to the human eyes. The lines are inexplicable and beyond the hands of human artists. Viewers have the privilege to exercise their imagination on the faces of these female avatars. 

Mother Nature is the master painter. Seeing is believing. The wonders of Nature. 

I have created more than 400 NFTs for this collection and with a target of 1,000 NFTs.

The Collection can be viewed at https://opensea.io/collection/rarart-portraits-of-women

Russian Energy Paid For in Renminbi is Heading to China

 Coal cargoes will arrive this month, followed by crude oil in May

Russian coal and oil paid for in yuan is about to start flowing into China, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

According to the media outlet, citing Chinese consultancy Fenwei Energy Information Service, several Chinese firms used local currency to buy Russian coal in March, and the first cargoes will arrive this month.

These will be the first commodity shipments paid for in yuan since the United States and Europe hit Moscow with unprecedented sanctions, cutting several Russian banks off from the international financial system.

Traders said that Russian crude sellers have also offered Chinese buyers the flexibility to pay in yuan. The first cargoes of the ESPO grade bought with Chinese currency will be delivered to independent refiners in May, people familiar with the purchases told Bloomberg.

According Fenwei, both steel-making and power-plant coal are being paid for in renminbi. These deals are traditionally made in dollars, but many Chinese buyers temporarily halted purchases after Washington and its allies cut off Russian lenders from SWIFT.

Data shows that Russia was China’s second-largest coal supplier last year. Nearly half of the imports from Russia are metallurgical coal.

Chinese buyers are interested in importing more Russian supplies. However, logistics and financing barriers could ultimately cap the flows, the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association said last month.

[ RT - You can share this story on social media ]

 

Anonymous

Many Non-Western Countries Find Arrogant US Repugnant

The US warned India once again. Brian Deese, White House top economic adviser, claimed on Wednesday that the consequences of New Delhi's "more explicit strategic alignment" with Moscow would be "significant and long-term."

What a bullying manner! This is an open threat by the US toward India on the latter's own business. When it comes to the Ukraine crisis, the US is blatantly displaying its hegemonic mentality - either you are with the US, or against the US. This echoes exactly the same slogan of George W. Bush, made in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Even if India has not "aligned" with Russia, and has kept a relatively balanced position during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US does not buy it. Remaining neutral makes no sense to the US. What Washington wants from New Delhi is completely standing by the US side.

The US is afraid that ties among China, Russia and India may further develop due to the Ukraine crisis, although systematic cooperation of the three countries is not rare.

Moreover, the US expects that everything goes well in terms of the Quad summit, which is scheduled to be held in Japan, tentatively by the end of June. Yet, if India does not make a statement in line with the US expectation, the summit may hardly take place. Constant warnings over "consequences" against India emerged from the US, revealing Washington's anxiety.

Before Deese's remarks, the US has already warned India more than once against constructing alternate payment mechanisms with Russia or buying more oil from Russia. Yet the threats turned out to be in vain, as India benefits from its ties with Russia, which can't be substituted by the US.

Also, India's response mirrors an increasingly obvious trend - the US has underestimated the antipathy the rest of the world holds for it. Not only India, but the majority of the general public in China and Latin American countries and other developing world have not taken sides with the US in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, even if the US believes it is standing on the moral high ground. They do not support sanctioning Russia.

Quite a few countries have long been bullied by the US. They have long developed a rebellious psychology. This time, the more sanctions Washington imposes on Russia due to the conflict, the more aversion the US will have to face.

The US has long believed it masters superior strength, values, and civilization, which in turn has given birth to its overbearing arrogance. As a result, when interacting with non-Western countries, the US either coerces them or issues warnings to them. Since Washington is used to dealing with others from a position of strength, its relations with other countries have never been on an equal footing.

That's why the world has been witnessing the US talking about the so-called democracy while it makes dictatorial orders toward other countries.

The resentment from non-Western countries toward such hegemonic arrogance has long been lurking. It is now surfacing during the ongoing Ukraine crisis, along with the real status of the US in international society - It has imposed sanctions on Russia yet has failed to reach expected effects; It claims to be on the justified side, but most countries believe it is the US-led NATO that has turned Ukraine into a pawn, threw it under the bus, and worse, attempted to prolong the war; It pushed India, one of its closest partners, to take sides, but only gained India's cold shoulder.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, Indian people seem to have been fed up with the US putting pressure on or threatening India. Many of them asked: What kind of a partner is this? New Delhi's current balanced diplomacy is thus warmly welcomed by the Indian public. This is a sign of their repugnance toward Washington.

Today, the US would be self-defeating if it stubbornly believes that whoever it cozies up to would feel honored and dance to its tune. Gone is the time when US warnings work. 

 

 Anonymous

Afghanistan - Vlogger Ji Xiang and Yaoyang's adventure: a few heartwarming moments in Afghanistan

Below are 3 short clips of Yaoyang's trip to Afghanistan and doing his little bit to bring a little warmth and physical comfort to the hungry stomachs of Afghans living in trying times. In the first clip he bought and delivered 1,500 packs of naans to a refugee camp. A few days later he hired a chef to cook 300 packs of rice and mutton, to the same refugee camp, for the refugees to enjoy a meal with meat that they did not have for a long time.

In the last clip he delivered rice and chicken prepared by a specially hired cook during the Afghan New Year to 20 families that he met during his trip, to let them have a sumptuous meal with meat on thir New Year.

Cannot believe nor imagine how the Americans could launch a cruel war against these poor tribesmen in a remote corner of the world and accusing them of the 911 attack, as terrorists and a threat to the American Empire. The merciless and lying Americans must pay for their crimes against the poor and hapless Afghans, the women and children that don't even have potable water or electricity in their mud homes.

The clips are all about 20-30 minutes each.

There are several of these Chinese vloggers travelling around Afghanistan and Pakistan doing their little bits to help the poor and refugees in these two countries.  The poor children were out in the streets from early morning to 9 or 10pm either kneeling on the road sides hoping for some kind souls to spare them a piece of naan. Some were trying earn a few cents cleaning the shoes of passer bys. Many are below 10, some as young as 3. 

These beautiful children, yes, the boys and girls are very good looking, green eyes, yellow eyes, blue eyes, brown eyes. They became refugees when their homes were destroyed by the American bombings. They were the victims of pretentious wars inflicted on their countries and their parents by evil and wicked white men from the USA, Europe and Australia. And the UN keeps mum, no war crimes, no genocide, no crimes against humanity, because the invasions were led by the Americans.

The UN is a sham and a shame for not condemning the crimes against these poor tribesmen and farmers. More than 20 years of killings and destruction by the Americans and their equally wicked allies against poor tribesmen that could barely fight back.

Shame on you Americans, Europeans and Americans and everyone participating in the butchering of the hapless Afghans and Pakistanis whom they simply branded as terrorists. The white men are the real terrorists. The atrocities against the Afghans are incomprehensible. These tribesmen are living their lives in the mountains of Afghanistan, oblivious of what was going on around the world, but got butchered by the white men from Europe and across the Atlantic Ocean. How could this happen, for what reason but some white men's lies and hegemonic agenda.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl_EubpMvbQ

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCsE7UeRB_M

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alDcUA8QkeE

 

 

Who is the real culprit in creating debt traps?

The IMF has such a bad name nowadays, known by many to be setting real debt traps for countries like Argentina. Argentina is a good study of how the trap works. Argentina had been paying back it's loans over the years, but the amount of debt has not been reduced. The Argentina currency had continually been depreciated, so the loan gets bigger in US$ terms. That is the trap they set and that is how they control countries that went to them for help.

When China started the AIIB, it was widely criticised by the USA and the West, as it was now competing directly with the IMF and World Bank. When China upped the game plan by offering loans to poor countries to develop infrastructure, it was strongly criticised and demonised to no end as a debt trap. But taking loans for infrastructure development and promise of economic progress certainly trumps taking loans to buy destructive weapons with nothing to show. Why would sensible countries opt for destruction rather than progress and a better life for it's citizens? The USA and the West is intent on keeping poor countries perennially poor, so they can be controlled, while China is helping poor countries to rise above poverty. China itself has shown the road to others by lifting people out of poverty, hundreds of millions of their own people, and it does not escape the attention of those poor countries in South Asia, South America and Africa.

Anonymous 

PS. The debt trap that Sri Lanka is owing is mainly to the IMF, after so many years still paying and never ending. The proof is in the pudding as they said. Look at the number of loans that are being taken up by the poorer countries and you will know who they would go to for cheap loans. 

If the IMF is that good, why are they flocking to borrow from AIIB and not IMF? Should not they abandon AIIB and go knocking at the door of IMF? It is exactly because of the fear of debt trap by the IMF.  

And the West and IMF have resorted to bad mouth AIIB because they are losing customers to AIIB.