Support the ICJ case on genocide in Gaza by emailing your representative today
As the first hearing of South Africa's case in front of The International Court of Justice takes place on 11th January 2024, take action now to call on your government to support the case, and keep demanding an immediate ceasefire and end to the genocide.
UK residents
1. Use this PCS campaign page to email your MP demanding the UK's support of South Africa's ICJ case.
2. or Find your local MP by searching your postcode on the parliament.uk website here and contact them through their email address / phone number listed.
OTHER CAMPAIGNS
CJPME: https://www.cjpme.org/support_icj_case
AUSTRALIA PALESTINE ADVOCACY NETWORK: https://apan.org.au/support-south-africas-icj-case/
Use this opportunity to amplify Palestinian voices on the national scale; wherever you live, make sure your politicians hear you.
Watch the first hearing on the UN website here.
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1000 days of covid.... a reflection... what do you remember?
If I asked many of the memory of covid, it would be toilet paper shortages, the media call to treat nurses and doctors as heroes, lockdowns and social isolation. But there's more, though....
The picture above is of a near bare row of supermarket shelves, with only a few rolls of toilet paper.
My own memories, in general terms, would be:
The curious spread of this flu variant through China and its neighbouring countries. (Via media reports. Plus its rapid rise up the priority reading list for the broadcast reader/ reporter/ news team)
The slow response of most governments to the emerging cases (easy with hindsight)
The tourist ship Ruby Princess docking with (eventually a total of) 22 cases on board, docking in Sydney. No quarantine controls enforced effectively at that point in time. (And Covid had been a thing well reported)
The toilet paper shortages, followed by shortages of pasta, rice, disinfectant and other staple foods from shelves. Never seen so many bare shelves before, except in news reports where people cleaned out stores in the face of cyclones or snow storms.
The growing weirdness of still going to work when others were getting government pay to stay at home. Apart from the driver, there'd be 2 other people on the bus in.
Add in the loneliness and the ghost town feeling of walking through an empty city. Except for the essential food services, so kids could still get you your order of coffee and mcbreakfast.... odd contrast, you'd agree.
Oh, the anger and entitlement of the covid deniers and anti-maskers.
My father in law complained about mask wearing on a flight down from Queensland to visit us. While my wife, a nurse, is donning full personal protective equipment (PPE) to help with patients. He's not entitled, just an oblivious, selfish idiot.
A bit of resentment at those who got the payments to not work, while I was an essential worker, in the finance sector had to work through. Discussing insurance with customers. All of them wanting discounts for (multitude of self justified reasons). That was tiring...
On the 'others staying home' a lot of people were making bread, trying new hobbies, going back to old hobbies, riding bikes to get fit... that only seemed to last 2 months, then it was easier to watch digitally streamed shows...
Oh, the growing gap between those who could afford the digital upgrade to work and/or study from home. And those that couldn't... that gap is bigger, and will show up in a decade or so...
Travel? Yeah, we'd travel from the couch to the kitchen table, work, then we'd travel to the letterbox and then to the couch again. On weekends, some of us would travel to the shed, to mow the lawns as part of the outside world travel.
Then the acceptance, as we waited for the vaccine to be made. Too late for too many in China, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom....
The USA being the most vocal of the anti-maskers and covid deniers. Because of Trump and his idiot approach to the crisis and his vanity.
A few covid conspiracy people I have spoken to, and seen the marches. I don't have time for dealing with these kind of people. Got used to being able to distance myself pretty quickly.
Overall though, I've become a bit more self directed towards entertaining myself (books and going back to the scale hobby of modelling) and fed up with a big insurance company making lots of profit while increasing the consumers insurance bill by about 20% average per year...
And remote studying has become a lonely grind. I am succeeding in my course so far.
Overall, post vaccine roll-out, we've adapted.
It's gone from being "the Chinese flu" (a pejorative term) to the "spicy cough".
So far, I have remained covid free.
And I have science, medicine and society to thank for that.
23 December 2022.
1000 days of covid.
@bundibird @scrapironflotilla thanks for just engaging with this little effort (it will continue)
@tafkarfanfic @bouncinghedgehog your posts helped with hope and morale when things were tough.
I'd invite you to reblog and share your memories, no matter where in the world you are.
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