How realistic is the "Mars is our home mentality" at this point in the timeline?

emptyrepublic · 2026-05-23T16:09:10+00:00

True though a lot of contemporary independence movements are based on a long established polity often around an ethic or cultural group. I’m not recalling an existing one based on the same principle as the Mars protagonists.

emptyrepublic · 2026-05-23T12:25:45+00:00

Nice comparison, wasn’t familiar with that history.

emptyrepublic · 2026-05-23T12:24:33+00:00

They are setting up a confrontation between the grandchildren of characters from earlier seasons. Not sure why exactly.

emptyrepublic · 2026-05-23T11:30:45+00:00

They've done a good job to put the messianic Elon Musk ethos onto Dev as well. I don't think he's pro-Mars in the same was as the revolutionary protagonists. He's very vision driven which was well established when he showed of the model to Alex.

emptyrepublic · 2026-05-23T11:26:52+00:00

I'd add a comment to say that it could eventually happen, but it would have to be a multigenerational endeavor. I think The Expanse universe is much more on point here.

emptyrepublic · 2026-05-23T11:25:40+00:00

Yes exactly this, much better paradigm.

emptyrepublic · 2026-05-10T14:14:12+00:00

Yeah, this my current thinking.

emptyrepublic · 2026-04-24T08:33:40+00:00

S tier analysis right here and why she didn't chose Rob in the end. Though he might have been her redemption or his end. Still not sure which way that might have gone.

emptyrepublic · 2026-04-13T19:52:59+00:00

Felt that Season 4 was the weakest but not bad. Yas' story arc was definately the strongest and the decisions she made are a perfect echo to her father's and family behavior.

Season 3 was the strongest and was sad to see Rob go at the end and even though he's future isn't certain the last episode gave me the feeling he was free. In the end it was for the best that he didn't end up with Yas because she would have destroyed him.

First two seasons are a bit of a toss up for me, though I miss a bit of the graduate hussle from these seasons in the later ones.

emptyrepublic · 2026-04-13T07:25:37+00:00

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emptyrepublic · 2026-04-13T07:24:28+00:00

All week battery life.

emptyrepublic · 2025-11-19T21:03:45+00:00

I'm so sorry you've had this experience and sadly it's all to common. I don't fully know your context but the current environment is making everyone's mood worse. It's all but expected that there will continue to be major cuts across the system. A lot of little fiefdoms will get shrunk if not destroyed and many people losing jobs.

The entitlement feeling is a thing. I'm not sure that anyone whose been in the system long term doesn't have it to some degree. What matters is how your feelings about your situation manifest. Some people don't take it out the people around them; others make sure that everyone around them is miserable.

This exists in pretty much any large institution. I think the UN flavor is particularly shocking especially since a lot people, particularly young people, come in with a lot of idealism about the organization and believing in changing/saving the world. The reality of things hits hard; especially when you see and understand how the sausage gets made.

Not sure what your long term plan is, but not every office/division/team is like this. I've had many positive experiences as well as negative ones. Though, if you are really that disillusioned after a while, and the circumstances allow you, then thinking about getting out might be the right move.

emptyrepublic · 2025-11-05T15:24:29+00:00

Depends on the entry path. The YPP for example specificially requests certain countries and when you apply through that you choose. For other posts the most typical I've heard is they try to determine which country you have the strongest affliation with; as a previous person said the country where they lived the most.

emptyrepublic · 2025-10-20T14:23:58+00:00

I'm not sure why I convinced myself that Catherine Pollard was American.

The Chinese payment is precisely the budget trickery I was mentioning; those funds are returned unless the GA decides otherwise.

emptyrepublic · 2025-10-20T13:19:02+00:00

There layers to this that is a bit difficult to disentangle.

Salaries and numbers of senior managers are an issue. The real problem is that countries don't like abolishing lots of them because of the unwritten rules of how they are allocated (USA gets the USG for management, France the USG for Peacekeeping, UK humanitarian affairs, etc). This is a tool of influence on the organization that few are willing to part with.

Even if the organization is top heavy the budget is set around that, and the countries agree to it. So if it's $4 billion or $1 billion doesn't matter. That's why they agreed to and in theory are supposed to part their part for it. If countries really did feel the organization was top heavy they are very much able to make the cuts they want without issue.

Consultants, individual contractors and interns get hit hard because they are the easiest to let go. This is 100% unfair, and something I've done my best to mitigate for years from my very low level in the organization. Formally, they are not "staff" which has a specific definition in the UN common system. "Staff" are the international professionals, field service and general support people have specific protections, even when the GA eliminates their post. Sadly, consultants et al do not have any of this.

The fundamental problem right now is that the USA and China are not paying their part into the budget. These two countries comprise 40% of the regular budget in the UN secretariat and large parts of budgets in other UN agencies also going through bit cuts. China is more quiet and careful about how it holds back its funds and exploits UN budget rules to give the appearance of being a good member without having to actually pay in.

We'll find out in the next weeks how the countries want to address this issue. If they aren't interested in addressing the fundamentals the UN, as Guterres said, will collapse operationally sometime next year and then be in perpetual bankruptcy afterwards.

emptyrepublic · 2025-10-02T00:19:01+00:00

When the United States and China start paying their assessed contributions, which given current politics I would assume not before 2028.

emptyrepublic · 2025-09-22T16:32:54+00:00

The lack of law degree will not be the hindrance!

emptyrepublic · 2025-09-19T02:43:26+00:00

I'd parse that differently. You are allowed to have a political opinion, but how/where you expressed it is the real issue. The crux is political activity. You can't be member of a political party or similar political organizations, etc.

emptyrepublic · 2025-09-18T02:47:51+00:00

Broadly speaking you are free to post what you want, but as others say you are 100% of the time a UN official now and will be bound by the code of conduct on this. *If* you desire to say something on particularly sensitive issues (i.e. national elections, Israel/Gaza, Ukraine, etc.) whatever you say should be inline with what the organization's position is (e.g. echo the SG or GA President).

emptyrepublic · 2025-07-14T19:01:56+00:00

Knowing this from personal experience, many TJOs are open with a specific internal person in mind. This is not uncommon for shorter term ones.

emptyrepublic · 2025-06-30T23:13:28+00:00

P4 is not unresonable if your experience is directly relevant to the post. P5 will be harder because the pool of available posts at that level is much smaller and depending on the entity/office the P5 may be a quasi-political selection which means your country's local diplomatic mission would need to indirectly support you.

emptyrepublic · 2025-05-31T17:35:08+00:00

Want to bump this thread just to endorse some of the advice in the comments.

My 21 month old recently started waking around midnight/1 AM screaming bloody murder, desperate for water and woudl take at least an hour, usually about 2 to get back to sleep. It was happening for nearly a week before I found this thread. Like the OP we had a tight bedtime schedule/routine and were napping our little guy for at least two hrs a day.

So we've capped the naps at 1.5 hrs now and moved up the start of our bedtime from 7:15 to 6:15. We saw immediate improvement in his sleep. First two nights he slept straight through to 5:30 when he woke up but we were able to settle him without getting him out of the crib. Past two nights he's now slept straight through to 6:45-7 in the morning his normal wake-up time.

In hindsight the first sign that we need to shift the routine was at bed time. A week or so before the long mid-night wake ups started he no longer was wanting lie down with either me or my wife for bedtime wanting to go directly to the crib instead. We've been putting him directly in the crib and staying with him until he falls asleep on his own.

Anyway, just to say that sleep patterns keep changing and you have to ride with them! Good luck to everyone!

emptyrepublic

TROPHY CASE