Palestine Through the eyes of Photography

Hamde Abu Rahman is an award winning Palestinian photojournalist, activist and journalist and author of the photo book 'Roots Run Deep - Life in Occupied Palestine, a beautiful gem of a book, in which the photographer tells us ' left my work and studies to move back  to the West Bank to help my people and document the truth about  our struggle  against the illegal occupation of our land.' The book is dedicated to his cousin Bassem  who was shot and killed by Israeli  occupation forces during one of the weekly demonstrations at Bi'lin caprured so brilliantly in the Oscar-nominated  film Five Broken Cameras.
The book has been published privately, but I hope that   it gets to be seen by as many people as possible,  Hamde uses his photography powerfully to express what is going on under occupation, with beauty and insight, creativity,  allowing us to witness the steadfastness of Palestinians living in the West Bank. A truly powerful and moving book.
You can order the book here.

http://hamdeaburahma.com/

Eternities Dream

  

Let's go into worlds unknown
where we can search again  for humanity's glow,
a place where things can be forever regained
warmth and affection raining down  
Words growing on branches of love and passion
spinning tops of renewal and survival,
barriers becoming invisible again
as the world in slumber bathes,
fertile crescents shining on mountain tops
oppression and exploitation passing,
into passionate hands flowers bloom
delicate voices abandon anxiety,
having rid themselves of tyranny
despots, dictators, oppressors,
each morning waking to unity's exhaltation
universe surrounds us with multitudes of strength,
communal blankets wrap round protection
embers flicker with imagination,
glistening with eternities dream
our flames of hope, flicker with life,
every word released is magical
we flow as one, as we scratch the sky.  

Terence Mckenna (16/6/46 - 3/3/00) - Reclaim your mind

" Catalyst to say what has never been said. To see  what has never been seen. To draw, paint, sing, sculpt, dance and act what has never been done. To push  the envelope of creativity and language. And  what's really  important  is. I call it the 'felt presence of direct experience'. Which is a fancy term which just simply means we  have to stop consuming our culture.
We have to create culture. Don't watch T.V. Don't read magazines. Don't even listen to NPR (radio). Create your own roadshow.
The nexus of space and time, where you are now, is the most immediate sector of your universe. And if you are worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered. You're giving  it all away to icons, icons which are maintained  by an electronic medium so that, you know, you wanna dress like X or have lips like Y or something. This is shit brained, this kind of thinking.
That is all cultural diversion. And what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs.your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears.  And we are told 'No'. we're unimportant, we're peripheral, get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that - and then you're a player. You don't even want to play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world. Where is that?"

Any regulars to this blog, will notice that I have returned to Mr McKenna's  work several times over the years, but to anyone new, I strongly suggest you seeking out his work, always a treat to read. His life an endless search for mindblowing possibilities,  a perpetual quest of comtemplated consciousness,  psychonaut, teacher, writer, researcher.
Before anyone comments, not that may people do, the above quote does come across a little contradictary, this sadly is life, also mentions two people  that are not that relevent to the present age
replace them and I think it is applicable to anybody.
We still live daily in atmospheres of complete hypocrisy.
At the end of the day I guess  we all, need to learn again how to do it ourselves..

Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners on hunger strike.

Nearly all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails involving aproximately 2,000 political prisoners  have gone on hunger strike today, in solidarity with  administrative detainess who have been on hunger strike for nearly 2 weeks.
Administration detention is an Israeli policy under which Palestinians are held without  trial or charge  for one to 6 months. This periond can be extended to up to 5 years by an Israeli military court.
The current  protests can  be traced  back to May 2012,  when an agreement was  reached between the Israel prison service and representatives of the prisoners, which  brought an end to a previous hunger strike. At the time Israel agreed to limit its use of administrative detention to only exceptional cicumstances, but since then  they have  reneged on this deal and has  continued  to use administrative  detention on a systematic basis which has left the detainess  with little option  than to launch  a fresh strike.
Incidentally this is a lot of people imprisoned unjustly,surely the Israeli government can't imprison the whole Palestinian population to silence them? To many people this sadly appears to be the case.
Amnesty International has long campaigned against Administration detention's use  which effectively sees  Palestinian prisoners  being starved of justice.
Yet again these practices contravene Israel's obligations under international human rights law and international human law.
Today I support the Palestinian prisoners hunger strike in opposition to inhumane prison conditions and Israel's practice of detaining Palestinians without charge. It is more than time that the use of Administrative detention is ended.

Bring Back Our Girls

 

There have been global protests across the world in response  to a global social media campaign, fot the Nigerian government to  do more to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls  forcibly taken from a Northern boarding school in Nigeria, on April 14th  by Islamic militants. The girls   that wee abducted live in a region that has the  lowest  girl child enrolment in Nigeria. They were  taken and abducted   by Boko Haran, simply because  they wanted an education. 
The #BringBackOurGirls  hashtag  is keeping the story in the media lens. If it stays in  the media hopefully the Nigerian government will be forced to act. These girls are children of the poor, in Nigeria's deeply inegalitarian society and  must be saved. This tragedy touches the hearts of everyone, evoking a feeling  of revulsion, at their loss of freedom, their right to education. and the mistaken  assumption that  for these young girls their destination must be forced marriage and servitude.
Whatever mantra this militant group is following it is not  following the words of the Koran. The prophet Muhammed  categorically stated during his lifetime that women or children were never to be harmed under any situation that "oppression is worse than murder  (2:191)) and  that nobody "shall  force girls to commit prostitution." (24:33)
We must though stand in solidarity with these missing school children and any other woman around the world who continues  to fight for their basic human rights ,we  however must be careful of western intervention, we should remember that it is the Wests interests in Africa that has helped foster and spread this dangerous  misinterpretation and corruption of  Islam.
We must continue  to listen to what the  families and thinkers, the professionals  on the frontlines of this crisis have to say.
At the end of the day it is the people of Nigeria that has to find the answers, a troubled area   already, with their own backdrop of corruption and inequality. we do not want to  add to their problems and hasten a scenario that could result in a African Afghanistan.
We can continue to express our anger and frustration, and hope that the Nigerian government finds these girls, and they are taken from harms way and back into safety.
We should not forget many other innocent people who dissapear every day as well, migrants who drown seeking a better life, innocents  killed by remote control drones,  injustices daily incurring across the globe, in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, in all corners of the globe that sadly do not warrant the same headlines, all innocence is worth protecting.

 

The True Little Tramp

In February 1914, in  a time  of economic turmoil and international conflict, Charlie Chaplin walked into screens for the very first time as the beloved Little Tramp character, 100 years later, with homelessness on the rise, massive cuts to  social security, and an uncaring government trying deperately to drag the country  to war once more, Jack Brindell and friends consider what the Tramp's legacy can teach us in modern times.

My earlier post on Chaplin can be found here:-

Charlie Chaplin - Citizen of the World

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/charlie-chaplin-b1641889-251277-citizen.html

 

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters and Nick Mason: Why Rolling Stones shouldn't play in Israel

Like many other musicians across the world, two former members of Pink Floyd Roger Waters and Nick Mason made this call in an op-ed that was published in  http://www.salon.com/2014/05/01/pink_floyds_roger_waters_and_nick_mason_why_rolling_stones_shouldnt_play_in_israel
 in relation to Israel's systematic violations of the rights of millions of Palestinians,  heeding to the recent appeal made by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committe and plans of the Rolling Stones to play in Tel Aviv in June.

" Playing Israel now is the moral eqivalent of playing Sun City at the height  of South African apartheid, regardless of your intentions, crossing the  picket line provides propoganda that the Israeli  government will use in its attempts to whitewash the policies  of its unjust and racist  regime."

Definition of apartheid: from the findings of Russell Tribunal on Palestine - Daniel Machover, Michael Mansfield lawyer and experts on international law and human rights.

http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-

The legal definition  of apartheid applies to any situation anywhere in the world where the following three  core elements exist:

(1) that two distinct racial groups can be identified;

(2) that 'inhuman acts' are committed against the sunordinate group; and

(3) that such acts are committed systematically in the context of an institutionalised regime  of domination by one group  over the other.

On July 30 2013 Israel and Palestine agreed to enter a negotiation process of nine months in order to achieve  a final staus agreement. With the active  sponsorship of the United States and encouragement from the  rest of the international community, all final status issues were supposed to be discussed, in order to achieve a two-state solution  on the 1967 border. However rather than achieve a final status agreement, Israeli occupation and colonization  policies were increased advancing settlement units for over 50,000 settlers during the past nine months.
In open violation  of international law and its own obligations, Israel, the occupying power continues its policies of aggression against the people of Palestine, killing dozens of Palestinians, injuring and detaining thousands, demoloshing homes, and carrying out thousands of military incursions within the occupied areas.
At the same time, Israels government incites against the Palestinian people, the Palestinian leadership, the two-state solution and the international  efforts being made in orderto achieve peace.
I believe there is nothing joyous or light hearted in a musical gig, when daily life under occupation, and all aspects of Palestinian lives are under control,the Palestinian people daily  denied basic freedoms, like the freedom of movement, access to land that has been stolen, and the freedom to protest against injustice, against repression. Whilst this is the case in question,  I do not believe it ok or right for musicians like the Rolling Stones, Neil Young etc to play concerts in Israel,under circumstances that seek to normalise the occupation.I believe musicians should continue to back the boycott until their is justice and equality for all.

There is a petition that is circulating that I would urge people to sign below asking the Rolling Stones to cancel their show.
I would be grateful that anyone visiting here could sign.
Thanks...heddwch/peace.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-rolling-stones-the-rolling-stones-please-cancel-your-show-and-boycott-apartheid-israel

The Worker's Maypole - Walter Crane (1845-1915) Happy May Day

Today I remember May Day. The origins of which can be traced back to 1886, and Haymarket where people were shot down, which led to us having the 8-hour day. The sacrifice of so many people  down the years also cannot simply be forgotten.
Today across the world people embrace the ideals of the Haymarket Martyrs, who were ruthlessly gunned down, and those who established this day as an International Workers Day.
And still today the powers that be seek to crush and repress workers who organise, try to divide, silence peoples voices, but I believe in all sincerity  it is impossible to drown the spirits of those who struggle, who daily show fierce resistance.
Solidarity , heddwch/peace, and remember an injury to one is an injury to all. Even where there is no work, we stand together.

The Worker's Maypole

World workers, whatever may bind ye,
This day let your work be undone:
Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye,
And come forth and be glad in the sun.

Now again while the green earth rejoices
In the bud and blossom of May
Lift up your hearts up again, and your voices,
and keep merry the World's Labour Day.

Let the winds lift your banners from far lands
With a message of strife and hope:
Raise the Maypole aloft with its garlands
That gathers its cause in its scope.

It is writ on each ribbon that flies
That flutters from fair Freedom's heart:
If still far be the crown and the prize
In its winning may each take a part.

Your cause is the hope of the world
In your strife is the life of the race,
The workers' flag Freedom unfurled
Is the veil of the bright future's face.

Be ye many or few drawn together,
Let your message be clear on this day;
Be ye birds of the spring, of one feather
In this - that ye sing on May Day.

Of the new life that still lieth hidden,
Through its shadow is cast before;
The new birth of  hope that unbidden
Surely comes, as the sea to the shore.

Stand fast, then, Oh Workers,your ground,
Together pull, strong and united:
Like your hands like a chain the world round,
If you will that your hopes be required.

When the World's Workers, sisters and brothers,
Shall build, in the new coming years,
A lair house of life - not for others,
For the earth and its fullness is theirs.

Happy Beltane too

May your baskets be overflowing 

Say no to UKIP

Lets Unite and say no to UKIP, say no to racism, say no to homophobia, say no to Europhobia, by not voting UKIP.
I quote: 'In the UKIP local Manifesto  2014, the party leader mentions  that "Today, local communities are under attack... On 1 January 2014, the UK opened its doors to people from both Romania and Bulgaria. Up to 29 million people  more people  are therefore entitled to come here, to take advantage  of our benefits and social houses".

The reality is that just 0.06% of these 29 million have come to Britain but the bad news is a total  of 400 million people from Europe are entitled  to come to the UK if they wish so, because all EU citizens have the right to decide where to reside and work within the European Union. According to Mr Farage, one of these 400 million people  is a member of his own family.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-lon-jinga/ukip-romania-immigration_b_5204688.html

Personally  I find UKIPS  brand poisonous and toxic, pandering to racist rhetoric. They are deploying the same language and tactics  used  openly by racist parties and organisations like the BNP, the EDF and the NF before them, who now instead  of targetting migrants from Africa are  now targetting migrants  within the EU.
Scratch under the surface  and their racism is exposed. Many of their candidates, activists and representatives have been caught out  making derogotary and offensive comments. People like to joke about them, but they continue to spread their venom, and the prospect of them gaining any credence or any asssemblage of power is very frightening indeed.
A wote  for UKIP  is like voting  for the mafia as  representatives of  law and order.It is very worrying that  people are  being attracted and drawn to their dangerous ideas that seem intent on stirring up hatred and fostering division.
In Ceredigion, Wales where I live, we have already seen a so called independent councillor  recently joining their ranks.
I really hope  people stop their tide and stop them in their tracks
Oh and UKIP  also have a freephone  number that  will cost  them from their funds everytime  you call...send them some love  folks...the longer  you stay on the better.....

Here's the number

0800  587  6 587

UKIP top brass can add poor driving to their list of recent controversies after one of their  buses  collided with  a railway roof in Portsmouth recently.... ho ho ho.

Remembering Rana Plaza

On 24 April 2013, over 1,100 people were killed and thousands more were injured in the collapse of a building in Bangladesh which housed factories making clothes for Benetto, Primark, Matalan, Mango , Costa and other major brands The fate of the Rana Plaza building turned into a tragedy because workers were forced by their bosses to come to work in a place inspectors had previously ordered closed for safety reasons.It would be the worst factory tragedy in the history of the Garment industry. The majority of the victims were female garment workers. The disaster was entirely preventable. No longer could consumers, workers or governments turn a blind eye  to the dangers facing workers every day.
To this day Gap refuses  to sign a trade agreement that would improve conditions for the workers that produce their clothes. Survivors spoke about the intense costcutting  pressures from Austalian retailers Like Costa. Many of these brands are still stocking clothes made in Bangladesh sweatshops and many workers have no choice  than to return to an industry despite ill-health and fear of another collapse.
We should continue to  demand from the rubbles and ashes of this disaster  that workers particularly women workers  the capacity to fight for a better life, and  as we remember the victims of Rana Plaza we should carry on expressing  our anger at companies mentioned earlier, their disregard for the workers in their supply chains in their thirst for profit.These companies  must take responsibilty for their part in this disaster.
It is more than time  that the fashion industry  make human rights and basic safety non-negotiable. I remember today all those who lost their lives, remember their families, husbands, wives, children, mothers and brothers, all left mourning a loved one and still waiting for justice. A year on, the families of victims and the survivors  are still waiting for full compensation, so they don't  have to live with the additional burden of financial hardship.

In Memoriam

http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2014/apr/24/memoriam

As we remember all those affected, here is a link that names and  calls on all brands that source from Rana Plaza to pay up.

https://www.cleanclothes.org/ranaplaza/pay-up

The real cost of fast fashion