You know it’s been way too long and far too many innocent lives have been stolen. You don’t need to take my word for it- You can take it from Bisan. If you don’t know who she is, you haven’t been paying attention.
Do more. To all of you who have been quiet letting others “do the talking,” this is for you cowards.
GET UP!! SPEAK UP!! STAND FOR JUSTICE!! or believe the lies the media tells you. The choice is yours.
FREE. PALESTINE. FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF TIME!
written by Safreena Rajan (Passionate advocate for justice and goodness)
My dear readers,
This is the first time in over a decade I haven’t posted a happy international women’s day message.
You see, there is a particular situation that is weighing so heavily on my heart, that posting messages like wishing all women a happy day is no longer relevant to me.
There is an enduring situation in a particular part of the world, in which, mothers and children are being slaughtered on a daily basis. A situation in which men are being slaughtered, tortured, beaten and punished for being who they are. All are subject to starvation as a weapon of war. As of this writing, (03/23/24) 32, 436 people have been killed. 78, 838 people have been injured, over 2,000,000 are displaced, close to 12,000 have been detained and 360,000 homes have been destroyed.
Inherently, they are being butchered because of where they were born, what they represent and the land they occupy. And because of their faith. Let me be clear here; a brutally ugly genocide is taking place because one country wants the land of their neighbours and is doing everything they can to take it for themselves, with impunity.
What is happening on screens internationally, in real time, is a textbook example of what I call the “Christopher Columbus” disease. It’s the supremacist, racist, imperialist, colonialist, reprehensible genocidists, believing in the old world order wherein “Lands” were for the taking, damning the people who’ve been there for thousands of years.
Were this same situation happening because a group of Muslim militants marched into a “Christian” country and took over, slaughtering thousands, mutilating thousands more, starving the rest of the population, we’d be in World War III already.
Ask yourself if I’m wrong.
You all know my position here; if you’ve read anything I’ve posted, ever, you would know I stand for justice. And you would be able to infer that I’ve taken issue with how the world ran to the rescue, with rather alarming alacrity, of another particular country, opening their borders, sending food, aid, and especially weapons.
This happened because they are not Muslim.
What’s happening in the first country to which I referred is not just a genocide against men, women and children. It’s a genocide against Arab and Muslim people. By levelling their cities and killing off their populations either by bombs or starvation, they are preventing future populations from being born. The world powers love the aggressor in this situation. I don’t know why; it’s totally beyond me. And the populations who are demonstrating every week are indicative of politicians being weak, deaf, deliberately ignorant and superficially open to all peoples of all faiths.
International law and order was set up for a reason- so there would never, ever be another world war ever again. In fact, a particular group of people who were targeted, were heard stating “never again.” The world agreed.
And yet, cue Apartheid South Africa. Cue The Congo. Cue Rwanda. Cue the Rohingya. Cue the Uighurs. Cue Sudan. Cue Somalia. Cue all First Nations and Native Peoples. Cue Ethiopia. Cue Syria.
Never again?
There is something all those people have in common that has nothing to do with coming from impoverished countries. You can fill in your own blanks.
I will end with this: you have to always ask yourself “who benefits” and “where is the money coming from?” in order to understand what’s really happening here.
Please, please, please don’t be one of those people who are on the wrong side of history. Because future generations will ask….
Hello All!
My original thoughts on writing this post were to begin with an apology. You see, every year, I post a “Happy New Year!” message of some sort but this year, I didn’t. And then I realized that I don’t need to apologize, because if I’m telling you what I really feel, and that feeling is a result of what’s happening in the world (and wanting to stand in solidarity with those who are being oppressed), then really, for what do I need to apologize?
I was so disheartened by the world’s lack of attention to the situation in Gaza and Palestine, that I really didn’t feel like celebrating anything or even acknowledging that others were ringing in the New Year with bangs and whoops and booze and all other “happy time” things. With the death toll at (at the time of this writing) nearly 23,000, half of whom are children, and close to 60,000 injured with a further few thousand under the rubble, this for me, is no time to celebrate. There are those of you out there who may disagree with me, and that’s fine. However no one can deny that the response in this situation has been grossly egregious and done with bigoted impunity.
However, I did want to thank you, my loyal reader because you keep coming back and if you were expecting a message for the new year, then I will tell you this: I wish happiness, prosperity and good health for all, peace on earth, a renewed effort to stem climate change and true goodness in all things.
Yes, I’m an idealist. What’s wrong with that? The world needs more of us because we keep the balance between the stupid-nonsensical-idiotic-stuff and what’s good. So here’s what’s good: for every tree you plant, and every item you recycle, you do make a difference. For every dollar you donate to feed people you make a difference. Every time you help an elderly person, it makes a difference. And when you eat “farm to table,” it makes a difference. Keep doing good things.
You know what else is good? Informing yourselves.
You have the right to your own opinions, thoughts and feelings. Please complement what you feel with information. Not the Wikipedia kind of instant information that doesn’t take into account hundreds of thousands of years of history, but the actual “I read books on it or I did a deep dive into this issue…” kind of being informed. Don’t believe everything you’re told on news networks because I promise you, they all have their own agendas.
Finally, I just really want you to know how grateful I am that you keep reading this blog! Stay tuned – you might just find me on other media soon!
May the blessings of this beautiful universe shine so bright in your lives, that you help others without even thinking about it! May 2024 be good to you.
#Free Palestine
If you really want to know why the “Western Powers” are not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Palestine, watch the video below.
Shout out to @celinelilas Thank you!!
I am reblogging a TikTok that was sent to me on whatsapp a few days ago because I think everyone needs to hear these words!!
The Western world and media have the coverage of the situation in Gaza and Palestine all wrong. The People of Palestine have been oppressed and under an illegal, genocidal apartheid regime for decades.
Please remember that as you judge them for being less than human.
A lot of things have been on my mind lately; the genocidal apartheid occurring in Palestine, the number of people dying due to environmental and climate change, and that we’re now in the era of Global Boiling, as António Guterres, the UN Secretary General stated in his speech to the U.N.
It’s scary; we passed the point of no return 30 years ago. We’ve been saying – for as long as I can remember – that what we’re doing to this beautiful planet is not good. Now, we’re beyond “Climate change.” The climate has already changed and it’s time for you naysayers to jump on the “we need to fix this yesterday!” bandwagon. We’re in the era of “Global Boiling,” which means the earth is much hotter than it should be and we’re going to be affected by this in a huge way. The fires in Maui, the Northwest Territories (Canada), BC (Canada), Alberta (Canada) are prime examples of this ….
For every forest that’s lost, we lose the ability to protect the earth from uncaptured Carbon Dioxide. We lose the ability to cool ourselves, to breathe in oxygen, to protect our wildlife. This planet is starting to feel quite dystopian. And no one can tell me we don’t need oxygen.
It’s scary that the world cares more for people in the Ukraine than it ever will for the people of Palestine and Yemen, both of which are suffering from drought, famine, extreme hardship and in Palestine, from the manipulatively imposed, genocidal Israeli apartheid. What is it that makes it so easy to turn away from people who may not look like you?
Does Rwanda ring any bells? Congo? Uganda? Afghanistan? 70% of the world’s population does not live in the “Western World.” Nor do they look like the presupposed Caucasian “norm.” Canada and the United States only account for .48% and 4.3%* (respectively) the world’s population. Given that we’re eight billion and counting, that’s not a huge amount.
Every day in Palestine, people have to ask the Israelis for permission to pray, to get water, to go to school, work or university. Would you tolerate that? Did you know that Palestinians are under water restrictions just because the Israelis feel they own the land? Would you tolerate that? Some of you won’t even tolerate your neighbours building fences near your property, let alone having them usurp your land, water and food supplies. Every day that you turn a blind eye is another day that a Palestinian person is killed, imprisoned, prohibited from prayer or forced to choose between going grocery shopping and protecting his/her home.
You think Palestine doesn’t matter. It does. It’s one of the longest, most continually inhabited places on the planet. And if you think “well, the Palestinians always retaliate,” you would be right. And you would be wrong.
We’re talking about young men, with sticks and rocks perpetually facing tanks, rifles, military grade weapons, grenades, and soldiers with killer instinct training, brandishing weapons that could tear a person apart in mere seconds. Young men who are being systematically, perpetually killed off so that they cannot produce offspring. You call this a fair fight? Really? You cannot fault the Palestinians simply because they were born where they were born. And you cannot call this a “fight.” It’s systemic. It’s genocidal; the cultural erasure of one nation by another. Just ask the Uighurs of China if they’re in a fair fight.
China has just outlawed “God,” and is in the process of rewriting the Torah, the Bible and the Qu’ran because it wants the president to be worshipped and all loyalty to its own state. it literally wants to “rewrite history.” Who gave them the authority to determine what’s legit and what isn’t? And what will happen to the people, many of whom are Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Buddhist and Daoist? Are they to stop believing just because their president wants them to?
You know, when you mess with things that are beyond your control or comprehension, consequences abound.
Which brings me to my next scary point; consumerism. People cannot help where they were born. And most live in countries which are being harmed by the overconsumption, degradation and harm caused by developed countries, who, quite frankly, ought to know better. The mass consumerism that feeds our seemingly insatiable desire for more, faster, better, is going to tear this fragile planetary ecosystem apart.
These fires are not a result of a cool planet. The droughts affecting lands once fertile are not a result of a cool planet. The mass scale flooding, viruses spreading like they’re perfume, and boiling summer temperatures are not results of a cool planet. These result from neglect on a humungous scale; an industrial scale. Humans are destroying the planet faster than we can heal her.
So, let me ask you this: when every tree has burned and there are no more to grow, what then will you build? What will be left to rewrite?
It seems like every time I turn around, there’s more and more bad news. And the thing is, the bad news goes from bad to worse.
The discovery of the bodies of 215 children buried on residential school grounds is so disgustingly heart-wrenching– it’s taken me this long to process. I can’t even imagine what the Indigenous populations are feeling right now – and my whole heart goes out to them.
Hearing this news angered me too – on what planet were people living to think that this was justifiable behaviour? And are we not seeing the very same in other places today? In 2021, a good portion of our Indigenous population doesn’t have clean water to drink. Would you tolerate that in your communities? There would be international outcry if the rights of the “non-BIPOC majority” were not being met.
I’m sickened to think that people of a certain faith group, who claimed to follow the teachings of their holy book, would invoke such incredulous and grotesque conduct towards people who looked nothing like them. (I understand that those people are not representative of the Catholic whole, the Catholics I have met are indeed nothing like that. )
It’s taken two whole years for Canada to finally have movement on the Truth and Reconciliation committee. Two years!! I suppose we should consider that lightning speed given that people are still under a long-term boil water advisory!
I think the real atrocity here is that there has been silence from the Catholic Church on this issue. Even when pressed by world leaders to adapt to changing times, the Catholic church will recognize people of differing sexual orientations, but won’t admit to cultural genocide. Should this be surprising in light of how many of its pedophilic-oriented bishops and archbishops were promoted rather than jailed?
Is it really surprising that Israel is getting away with murder because they have aligned themselves with the most Non-Bipoc oriented of allies? The U.S. congress hated having a black president so much, that they forgot who elected them and made it their mandate to get rid of him no matter what.
The saddest thing is that all this bad news is deafening the wonderful things that are happening in the world. Clean energy tech and organizations are skyrocketing. People in Africa, India and parts of Asia are “re-greening” desert areas! We are learning how to fish and farm responsibly – and repair the environment at the same time. People have remembered their humanity.
One day, I would like to turn on the news and see more good than bad. We can do it people — there is hope for us yet!
Peace and love
and the reckoning of past institutional hatred:
I’m so tired of lecturing to the world. I’m tired of giving advice and yes, even a little tired of speaking truth to power.
W(hy) T.F. is it so hard for us as human beings to treat other human beings as human beings?
When something like a pandemic happens, or incredibly difficult social strife occurs, we learn a lot about peoples’ behaviours. Those of us who chose to wear masks and abide by governmental health orders had to square off daily, against those who just don’t give a damn. Why was that necessary?
Your rights are your rights yes, just as my rights are mine. When you do something stupid, you remove the agency which governs our lives. And by extension, my right to protect myself from you.
Much in the same way that Israel is doing to Palestine. which brings me to the “reckoning of past institutional behaviour.” How do we condemn this apartheid when Saudi Arabia is basically doing the same thing in Yemen? Where is your moral outrage for them? For the Rohingya or the Uighurs? The Yazidis, the Syrians, the Lebanese, the Afghanis, et al?
There doesn’t seem to be a country on this beautiful, struggling planet that has “gotten it right.” If there is one, please do correct me. What I mean by getting it right, is treating each of citizens, regardless of race, colour, creed, gender, sexual orientation or religious beliefs, as human beings. One that doesn’t rely on preferential treatment based on institutionalized gender preference. Indeed, that is the larger problem. Women, on the whole, prefer dialogue to war.
Hateful words, behaviours and attitudes are taught. Sadly, mostly at home. Children do not go to school to be taught hatred. In fact, most have to be “untaught.” The deconstruction of home-taught hatred is a hard battle to fight, but so damned worth it!
There is no planet B. There is no superior race coming to save us. Trust me, there’s no chance of that. We blew that the moment we made war a method of behaviour and discrimination a way of life.
Palestine needs saving. And Israel needs to give their land back. That’s all there is to it. They are long-lost cousins who need to forgive each other, love each other and live in harmony. That may be a pipe dream, but it’s also it a fact.
There is a reckoning that is happening here; for all the ways in which we have harmed each other, the universe is responding. The earth is responding. And now, so are all the communities who have been oppressed, suppressed, depressed and recessed into marginalization. You can’t keep good people down for very long.
You see, ethnic communities teach their children about what not to do around “white people.” We grow up being taught “learn the system, beat the system.” because “the system” was not designed for our success. Ironically, Israel has done this beautifully. It’s like when two people who are attracted to each other meet and get to know each other. One of them says to the other “this is what hurt me in the past.” Then the other turns around and does exactly what hurt the first one, but does it in a spectacularly evil fashion. “Learn the system, beat the system.”
Behaviour is taught.
Israel has learned a great deal, and the Palestinians have no choice but to live in fear of a short-sighted Hamas and hate-filled Israelis. From whence does strength come when strength is always being tested?
So you see, as tired as I am, I will keep “getting into good trouble.” And I will keep deconstructing unnecessary behaviour. I just need your help to do so. Will you step up?
Social and print media have been bombarded with images of war and state sponsored terrorism lately. No more so than images being leaked from Syria and not surprisingly, from Israel and Palestine. France struggles with electing a new President in the midst of continued economic down turn and America is on the road to deciding once again if change is necessary. In Canada, we recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Yet, I ask you, how many of you Canadians even knew that our Charter is only 30 years old? Better yet, how many of you even knew we had one? Our “culture” is so consumed by Americanisation that it surprises me that many do not know that there is an entire “Charter” that protects fundamental freedoms, like our right to freedom of expression. While we have miles and miles to go before the Charter is reflective of every walk of life, we have come a very long way since 1982.
Rights activists will no doubt be screaming out that the Charter is lacking in a great many areas, however, compared to living in Syria or Palestine, I think we have things pretty good. While we could undoubtedly give more recognition to our Aboriginal Peoples and to those who identify through sexual orientation, we are incredulously, among the luckiest people in the world. Our government has not sponsored its forces to commit terrorism against us. Nor has our government walled us off from friends and family telling us that due to religious beliefs, we have no right to life or no access to water. Although I am sure that many in Attawapiskat would tell you otherwise, the people of Palestine are facing a struggle so dire that, left unchecked, will result in the most covert, deceitful form of apartheid there is: civil apartheid. Human Rights activist and coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Frank Barat writes on Al-Jazeera that “we’ve gone way beyond Apartheid.” That annexation of certain areas of Palestine to Israel is happening on such a civil level that the offer of citizenship to Palestinians in areas being annexed is nothing more than apartheid because it forces the walled in separation of Arabs from Jews.
Check out his article:
We’ve gone way beyond Apartheid
What is more concerning to me is what happens when most Palestinians are walled off from water sources. Many no longer have access to water wells and sources that once belonged to them through ancestral inheritance of land. Is this the new level on which wars will be fought? And has this been done deliberately so that each party can turn to the world and say “see? we told you they would….!”
We have become so complacent in our lack of understanding others that there is no longer outcry when Syrian forces kill young students without hesitation. When people are starved of their rights to provide for themselves and educate themselves, what is left are a people so marred by violence and hatred that even the mundane activity of buying bread can become an event in rage. Why is it necessary to murder in the name of a man who is so far removed from his own truth that he is creating a nightmare for all those who have the misfortune to be living under his rule?
For a world economy that is so fragile, so based in deceit to repair itself, will take leaders of all nations to come together to recognise the validity and the value of human life. Even if it takes fifty or one hundred years, the end result will be well worth the effort. Without the energy and the spirit of human kind, no amount of money will replace the lives, the dignity of all those who have fallen victim to apartheid, genocide, economic disaster, civil strife and war. Today our lives aren’t just about the economy — they are about the meaning we derive from every moment. Perhaps one day, Palestine and Syria will have charters akin to Canada’s. Perhaps one day, resources that are part of our environmental commons will be shared between all peoples, regardless of historical ancestry.
Here’s hoping….
wantchangeformyworld.com 