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unopenablebox · 9 months

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Holy God This Is All So Boring

i am taking microscope images of the cells i'm studying. the cells were grown on a glass plate before i fixed them (killed & chemically preserved), so by default a microscope image of them is taken from a camera below them, looking up through the glass. they're stained with fluorescent dyes for four different proteins, so every single picture has to be repeated four times with a different laser light illuminating the cells (imagine taking a photo with a red filter, a blue filter, and a green filter, and then composing them all together to get the full picture. it's actually almost exactly the opposite of that, but that's close enough).

i care mostly about how the cells are shaped in three dimensions, and i'm using a laser which is specially shaped so it can collect only a very thin slice of the cells in the Z-direction, without interference from the parts of the cells just above or just below what i'm taking pictures of. as a result, i need to take lots of pictures at different depths in the cells, so i can get slices that i can stack on top of each other and get back a 3D shape. also, because i am using a tiny concentrated beam of light to achieve the above effects, it has to scan across the image to collect each picture, like a scanner; it can't just be collected in a single snapshot like a photo.

the distance between one slice and the next is less than a quarter of a micrometer. i'm using a 63x magnified magnifying lens to magnify the image, and the light detector that picks up the light is specially made to allow the images to be processed even further, so i can resolve structures that are less than 200 nanometers, which is the Abbé limit and is the technical resolution limit of light microscopy (don't worry about this). i care about things that are the size of, like, three proteins stuck together, and therefore maybe 10nm wide, so this is important to me.

all of this is, you know, scientifically great, very useful to me, i'm getting some very interesting results that i am genuinely looking forward to thinking about more, except the upshot of all of this is that just getting a single picture of two cells from the bottom to top of the cells involves 80-100 slices and takes like 27 minutes per image to collect, and i need at least six pictures tonight, and certain bastards in certain other labs habitually pre-book the microscope so i can't use it except at 5-9pm on a friday. no one else is here in the lab and my mother is busy with elder care and my girlfriend is busy with like, groceries, so i can't call either of them even if i weren't too irritable to be good company, and oh my god, i am so bored, i am so so bored, i am bored enough even to type out this whole explanation even though none of you could possibly care because it took most of my current round of waiting for 27 minutes to do

#in theory i should collect seven additional images on top of the six named #but 'fortunately' i stained this plate a while ago and the dye for the other images has kind of faded #so instead of doing it now. i will stain another plate. and do it the next time i can wrestle four hours away from aforementioned bastards #now certain of you who are in the know about microscopes might be wondering something #''glass'' they might say #''don't all modern microscopes come with the ability to pre-select positions and then just wander off and let the microscope run on its own #all night? why stay there and do this instead of setting it up and going home?''#and yes that's correct. but there are two issues #one is that i am obviously using an oil objective and this particular one can only do 2-3 positions before it needs the oil refreshed #so i would rather notice that need prior to taking the image than the next morning #and secondly. i can't figure out where the positions function is in ZenBlue. and the scope core staff only work for a random three hours of #every day. none of which i can get a booking in anyhow. so i have no one to tell me how to find it.#box opener #doctor worm #my life is so much harder than anyone else's ever.

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unproduciblesmackdown · 10 months

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similar to the greentext stuff - i was visiting with my neighbors and their grandkids were around, and I said to this eight year old, "Hey, you wanna know something cool? I was playing the game when the Endermen came out." and his eyes went wide, like this kid looked like i told him i landed on the moon. His grandma thought it was really funny, and she said she has no idea what i'm talking about, but her grandbabies do, and that's incredible to her.

oh that's fun lmao, when minecraft & that update's existed for more than your whole life, and yknow being that young and like Next Year fr is this huge time scale away, a couple of years is a quarter of your life thus far and like maybe nigh half of the part of your life you actually have longterm memories for....i was checking out this dev's blog's archives about a:tdd's release in 2010 & in one entry they compared the implicitly Roughly concurrent release of Minecraft and i was like hey whoah. forever primarily being a game i've Heard Of more than any more direct exposure so i had no precise sense of [before minecraft release] [after minecraft release] Year 0 there but it's like for sure back in thee day when minecraft was a new thing, huh

#add in that [i also basically Heard Of mass effect but that's a game series w/a 2010 median which i had Any knowledge abt already]#so i have that reference point for a still like [niche video for When You've Played These Games For Sure] there but then like #if you were ten or even 5 yrs younger at the time you May Well Be much more at sea as your starting point there #(but i mean not that much; i didn't know a ton. reread those wikipedia plot summaries myself)#enderman came out? happy pride #shoutout to this one time i crossed paths w/this kid who was at the time probably like late middle school early high school age #who started talking abt pokemon like Clearly A Big Interest and i'm like my only Direct experience is playing pokemon go but i know Some #stuff b/c i was 5 in '99 when it was first making that huge splash lol. can make Some remarks....but also just Listening Attentively To You #Monologue like uh huh go off....i sure remember like the Sense of a couple yr's sagacity like being 9 i think reading a book abt 6th or 7th #graders (i.e. two or three yrs older) like My God They Must Be So Mature....#and like ofc when skimming passages as an adult it's like omg l'enfants. Both Perspectives Being Accurate respectively lol #my vintage experiences like i've def saved things on the floppy discs of [save icons imagery]. have heard the dialup tones organically....#but also; say; Home Computers That You Didn't Really Need To Know Much Abt Computers To Use were forever an everyday thing for me #having been born mid '90s....vs like in the '80s being nicher but also like. the programs to amateur code not being As Complex either #like [working on cars] of yore vs more modernly lmao....plus ofc in their designs; opening up a desktop Tower vs what? a tablet??#ppl my age who had more substantial Online Access earlier than i did maybe having at least picked up some html; which i did not lol #also didn't have too much Gamer Experience ever; what i did largely desktop then laptop pc wasd+mouse style....#didn't have a smartphone till maybe 5 yrs after they were starting to become more commonplace #vs that again to an 8 yr old of today [commonplacer smartphones] is your whole life basically too. i remember when we flipped those phones.#(i do fr lol. did have one of those first for a good while.)#granpa granpa....mh being fourteen yrs old meaning like the Teen Fans of Today were probably not watching it as it aired lol #whereas i Was that teen fan of those yesteryears. and all my stories for it like fuckin uhhhhhh [crickets chirping] [studio audience laugh]#though You Don't Need The Fans like mh is a long movie ppl can newly discover Whenever that holds up; plus it has bonus lore #mostly what i could even Possibly bring is just the particularly nicher older bonus lore. but like grandpa simpson (the simpsons) for sure #which is to say: humorously irrelevant & perhaps somewhat cantankerous #whilest i'm vaguely aware there may have also been that minecraft resurgence (esp through streaming?) from 2020 on....#but evidently Like Mh something that continually revives / takes on New Fans / Participants #for sure i might well be playing some tf2 myself if i had the technical capability (i would have the poor personal ability i always did lol #real games of yore but it never gets old also. though i know Of Late there was a bot problem / just neglected maintenance? that get fixed?#These Have Been The Tag Tangents. maxed out thirty tags i know that's right

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alexiaugustin · 8 months

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god nobody understands how fucking happy i was exactly two weeks ago and how much ive been feeling like im never gonna be this happy again ever since

#last thursday/friday night was like My day.#waking up on thursday i knew that it was rw*b night which like. i was so fucking excited about Bing not in the way most people would think #or understand. anyway. i woke up knowing this and to the 1989 tv announcement. it was the first day of summer again after two weeks of cold #and rain. i got up and did my make up and got on a train to a bigger city nearby on my own just to get coffee and buy a book.#then i sent to the supermarket and bought stuff to make my honey we gotta get you on truvada rw*b cake. got back home around midnight and #started making the cake until almost three am which is when the movie dropped and i was like. so fucking excited and had the time of my life #with those first 45 minutes. had barely to none symptoms of mental illness that day. i was SO happy.#and i woke up the next morning feeling so angry about the way the rest of the movie wasn’t a bad masterpiece and also felt so empty.#and i haven’t stopped feeling empty since and rn the mental illness symptoms are back in full force. nice

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hella1975 · 2 years

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loses the will but in a cute way that makes you want to analyse me

#I’m. still studying #I’m alone in the study room that’s the level of dedication I’m at #like fully everyone else has packed it in and gone home #there’s rlly a certain vibe to study rooms at night alone #airport energy #and I called my mum bc I was just really getting bogged down and needed a break #and ig I’ve been calling her a lot lately bc I’ve called every night for three days now #but keep in mind my sister calls her MULTIPLE times a day just to complain and complain and complain about everything #like she’s so negative and miserable atm #so I was like ‘I am actually at a stressful point in my life so I’ll take a leaf out of my sister’s book and actually rely on my mum’#LIKE IM SUPPOSED TO #and as soon as my mum saw I was in a bad mood she was like ‘wow it’s like talking to your sister’#(derogatory)#and I KNOW she was joking and I KNOW exam season is making me hypersensitive #but I was just there like damn I can count one one hand how many times I’ve acc reached out for help from my mum during first year of uni #and every single time she’s found some way to make me feel like a baby #laugh out loud!!!#sooooo sick of stats rn #anova what about aNOva #anovNOT if you will. anovn’t #hella goes to uni #this is free to reblog but ignore the tags lol

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blunderpuff · 1 year

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almost kicked a small child in the head today bc he was running around during story time while i was acting out this page:

lucky for that kid i’m SHORT but otoh if i *HAD* given him a traumatic brain/face injury, MAYBE THEM LITTLE KIDS WOULD STOP FUCKING RUNNING DURING STORY TIMES!! maybe their parents would, idk, NOT LET THEIR LITTLE KIDS BE SO FUCKING DISRUPTIVE ALL THE TIME

artist’s rendition

#yes i hate story times #our story times are aimed at the preschool set... and the only kids who are coming are the Under Threes #they're not old enough to understand hardly any of the concepts (letters/numbers/colors/sequences and patterns/etc)#they don't have the attention span to sit through even one mf picture book #they mostly don't even have the coordination to do fucking Head Shoulders Knees and Toes #WHAT ARE THEY GETTING OUT OF THIS???????? nothing!!!!! they're dragged there by their moms and the squirm and run and whine and cry #the ENTIRE time and the moms are chatting with each other and letting the kids do whatever #and it's SO FRUSTRATING for US bc we're having to shout over fussing infants and chatty toddlers bc the parents are sooooo self-involved #so the employees are frustrated bc we're doing our regular Dog and Pony Show to a loud and disruptive crowd #and the toddlers are frustrated bc they literally do not have the attention span for this. they aren't there in their development yet #and the moms have started to get Big Mad bc we're limiting how many ppl can be in story time (20 ppl)#so the moms who come too late to get their admission tickets are pissed off that they came all the way to the library for nothing #and other moms are just blasting right past the 'STOP! STORY TIME IS FULL!' sign that we post #and it makes the room even more crowded and loud and awful #one of the behaviors that really cheeses my crackers the most is when they kids are having a picnic buffet during story time #like... they're just standing there. eating their snacks. and staring at us while we do stupid dances and read silly stories and sing songs.#it feels like they're just staring at us like we're a tv show. they could have stayed home for that.#and when the weather is treacherous and moms still show up for story time.... it blows my mind #they really risked life and limb (literally-- we're talking blizzards and ice storms and heavy snow accumulation) so they could play on #their phone for 25 minutes while their toddlers ran around a room and collided with other toddlers while i sang Hot Potato in the background #the wiggles ftw #long tags #whining

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thegremlingirl · 1 year

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the Painted Devils reading experience is going to go one of two ways for me.

Either

I'm gonna read the whole thing over the course of one night and wake up with the biggest book hangover known to man (headache, v*miting, crying all included)

2. It's going to take me like three months to finish it because every sentence is going to make me put the book down and scream into my pillow and/or pace around my room for several hours before continuing

#but most likely I'll split the difference and just have the worst three days of my life lmao #the worst part is itll just be sitting there waiting for me like as soon as I drive back home from college for the summer #so i can just trade in one stress for another #although im pretty sure this books gonna make me wish for finals week stress #i cant wait #i BARELY know whats gonna happen in this book ive avoided every single bit of promotional material #just every non-spoilery review ive seen is just: this book destroyed my entire being. 5 stars #as expected #little thieves #painted devils #ya fantasy

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quietwingsinthesky · 1 year

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Hate the Winchesters not because it’s bad but because every time I watch an episode I wake up at 3 AM to my brain trying to construct a better version of the show out of scraps

#thinking rn about what if they went more early season spn and leaned into American urban legends #specifically thinking about. headless horseman episode.#headless horseman killing people who try to leave Lawrence #it’s going to go after Mary at some point obv. She’s trying to keep people from leaving town #but in doing so she accidentally gets on the ghost’s radar #imagining her like. wrecking her car into someone else’s. just to keep them from leaving #she’s saving their life! they don’t know it but she is! but then as she’s getting out of her car to go make sure they’re okay #turns around and oh shit. headless horseman. run #meanwhile Carlos and Latika have figured out the whole ‘can’t cross bridge with running water’ thing that I think is part of the mythos?#anyway the point is that Mary’s running. and then Carlos pulls up after having driven here like a madman. blew right past the horseman.#van back doors open for Mary to jump in #and then they fucking book it #shit is falling out of the van all over the road #and latika was in the back to help Mary climb in so they’re holding hands (this is because they r gay. also. important detail.)#they get rid of the ghost. maybe there’s a reason for the bridge thing. maybe he got his head chopped and his body thrown in the river #scare the ghost to not existing like the guy from the fear illness episode #but the three of them make it over the bridge. and the thing is. they’re free. nothing is chasing them. Carlos could keep driving.#he’s not going to though. because the thing that keeps everyone in Lawrence. the thing that’s got them trapped. it’s not a ghost.#I think there could be something to that. you know how the thesis of spn’s pilot was ‘you can never go home’#what if the thesis of the Winchesters was ‘you can never leave home’#a v different kind of horror story #mary is going to die in this town. she’s never going to escape. and the thing is that Carlos and Latika love her. they do.#which is a terrible thing in the spn universe. gets you as tangled up and trapped as the person you love.#presumably they’re going to end up like Mary’s other old friends that are referenced as having suspicious deaths in s3 of spn #and we know that. they don’t.#anyway you may have noticed John wasnt in this at all #that’s because I would just. write him out. of the hunting parts.#he’s the love interest guys. he’s not here to contribute to the plot. he’s here to make heart eyes at mary.#(and ultimately damn her because she loves him and saving his life will be what jumpstarts the whole mess.)#also no weird aliens in this version. samuel’s just kidnapped by a run of the mill demon. which is actually a threat.

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cityelf · 2 years

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#me: i love my dog #some random every single time without fail: actually having a labradoodle is evil and selfish and your entire family is stupid #please fucking stop jesus christ #what do you want for us to do??? euthanize him? genuinely shut up #educating people on ethical dog breeding and appropriate home lives for them? good. sending me shit bc i have a dog who's one part poodle #to three parts lab? im begging you to get a life #maybe take a leaf out of that op's book #dont be condescending and assume that everyone doesnt know how to take care of their dog breeds and shouldnt have them

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orcelito · 1 year

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Tho ex assistant manager aka miss bitch, her boyfriend came in. Or ex boyfriend at the time, except he used her rewards account & I had to see her name (ughhh), so I'm like. Are they back together? Who fuckin knows

Anyways I had to make a drink today that possibly went towards the person that holds the #3 spot for most hated in my personal life. I was Slightly tempted to spit in it, but I did not.

#speculation nation #number 1 is my bad ex number 2 is my mom's shitty boyfriend. number 3 is my old assistant manager that id thought i was friendly with #but who was probably the primary reason for my general alienation amongst the workforce #causing misery to me. & then eventually coming clean about how much of a fucking BITCH she was #ok the times i have cried this year. 1 time in january that i dont remember aside from that it happened #THREE times in february bc of her. and then one Kind of cry in like. idfk. the summer. bc dorian was leaving critical role #i dont fucking cry. like. Most of the time. as a rule.#but this bitch had me full on bawling for like an hour the first time #then the 2nd was after she followed me around the store yelling at me and i just. had to go into the storage room to cry for half an hour #i n e v e r struggle to not cry as thoroughly as that #even when my fuckin grandma died i managed to get through my classes without crying. and then cried when i got home lol #but i just couldnt Not. she was so fucking awful to me.#and yes we 'made up' aka sent apology messages for shit. but imma b real im the type who never forgives and never forgets.#if you truly wrong me im gonna b YEARS down the line. remember u. and be momentarily filled with contempt b4 moving on #i dont care if youve apologized lol. my blood is made for malice.#not gonna let it rule my life but UGH anytime im reminded of her i just get so angry.#dont ask me what the other top rankings are bc i dont know lol #these r just the ppl that have personally slighted me. and so they are in my stink book indefinitely.

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thanatoseyes · 3 days

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I bought an NRSV bible because it was the cheapest one in the shop. I wanted the oxford one with the apocrypha but I guess this will do for the time being.

#i have esoterica brain rot idk man #whoever fills out my order is gonna be weirded out #the rest of the order is skeleton keys the secret life of bones #sacred gender and traditional home remedies #lmfao i feel like when i went to the book store today i bought the kabalion by the three initiats spooky and then i offset it by buying the #fiancee farce which has two women dressed in formal wear staring at each other #it's very gay and i hope its good honestly #occult #i mean im using it for occult stuff but whatever #i also bought some cowboy toothpicks so roxk on #idk ive been like sleep deprived for a week #haaaaa insomnia is real #witchblr #this is decidedly not hellenic lmfao #goetic if anything really #ars goetia #listen the occult deck was like make an offering and i went down a hole and i tripped on the snake bones man #thems will get ya

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beepmeepmeepbeep · 5 months

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i fucking hate myself i have to gget up in 4 hours

#life is sooo great atm #im continually getting excited abt things just to have them taken away #i was excited abt my alevel results being good bc i was consistently predicted a*a*a and then did much worse than that #i was excited abt being able to drive bc i live in the middle of nowhere and then i failed. im so terrible i will actually never pass #i was excited that i kissed a girl who i thought was pretty and who liked me back and then she ghosted me. havent spoken to her in three #months #i was excited abt seeing my home friendss in a nearby city and goibg clubbing and such and then i found out they dont like me and hhate #having to be around me #i was excited abt my best friend coming to see me but he refused to book train tickets until they were too expensive and now hes not comi #im excited abt Christmas. but im home for 5 weeks and i have at most 5 friends that i can occasionally see (but none who will want to hang #out with me more than once a fortnite)#so like. i dont know why i try #why do i even think i could ever be happy #i have consistently fucked up all my friendships for the past 7+ years #i was really fucking depressed and suicidal and managed to help myself out of that but i still havent managed to find anything other than #very fleeting happiness.#im so tired of this. i really donnt know how or why to deal wifh this anymore #kes' random stuff #honestly if you have advice feel free to give me some. im so hopeless and i really have no one i can talk to about things

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inkskinned · 5 months

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i think a lot about exactly 1 thing from the roman empire: the concept of bread and circus. the idea was that if your population was fed and entertained, they wouldn't revolt. you are asking us to give up our one small life, is the thing - for under 15 dollars an hour.

what would that buy, even. i am trading weekends and late nights and my back health. i am trading slow mornings and long walks and cortisol levels. i am trading sleep and silence and peace. for ... this. for what barely-covers-rent.

life really is more expensive right now. you aren't making that up. i make almost 3 times what i did 5 years ago, and despite an incredibly equal series of bills - i am still struggling. the most expensive line item i added was to own a dog. the money is just evaporating.

we were okay with it because it's a cost-benefit analysis. i could handle the customer harassment and standing all day and the manager's constantly changing temperament - i was coming home to hope, and my life planned in a blue envelope. three hours would buy me my dog's food for a month. i can give up three hours for him, for his shiny coat and wide, happy mouth. three days could be a new mattress, if i was thrifty. if i really scrimped and saved, we could maybe afford a trip into the city.

recently i cried in the car about the price of groceries.

business majors will be mad at me, but my most inflammatory opinion is that people should never be valued at the same place as products. your staff should not be a series of numbers in an excel sheet that you can just "replace" whenever you need something at that moment. your staff should be people, end of sentence.

it feels like someone somewhere is playing a very bad video game. like my life is a toy. like someone opened an app on their phone and hired me in diner dash ultra. they don't need to pay me well or treat me alright - they can always just show me the door. there is always someone more desperate, always someone more willing.

but i go to work and know i could save for years and not afford housing. i am never going to own my own home, most likely. i have no idea how to afford her ring, much less the wedding. my dog doesn't have his own yard. everything i love is on subscription. if i lose my job, i have no "nest egg" to catch my falling.

this thin life - they want me to give up summer for it. to open my mouth and throat and swallow the horrible hours and counted keystrokes. they want me to give up mountains and any non-federal holiday. to give up snow days. to give up talking to my mom whenever i want. to give up visiting the ocean and hearing the waves.

bread and circus worked for a while, actually. it was the kind of plan that would probably now be denounced by republicans as socialist commie liberal pronoun bullshit.

but sometimes i wonder if we should point them to the part of the history book that says: it worked until it didn't.

#spilled ink #warm up #writeblr #i have a good job please shut the fuck up before telling me to get a better job #girl i have vision and dental.#if u blame the victim that's wild. do u know about economic systems

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withbriefthanksgiving · 6 months

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The director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN (UN OHCHR), Craig Mokhiber, has resigned in a letter dated 28 October 2023

the resignation letter can be found embedded in this tweet by Rami Atari (@.Raminho) dated 31 October 2023.

The letters are here:

Transcription:

United Nations | Nations Unies

HEADQUARTERS I SIEGE I NEW YORK, NY 10017

28 October 2023

Dear High Commissioner,

This will be my last official communication to you as Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

I write at a moment of great anguish for the world, including for many of our colleagues. Once again, we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the Organization that we serve appears powerless to stop it. As someone who has investigated human rights in Palestine since the 1980s, lived in Gaza as a UN human rights advisor in the 1990s, and carried out several human rights missions to the country before and since, this is deeply personal to me.

I also worked in these halls through the genocides against the Tutsis, Bosnian Muslims, the Yazidi, and the Rohingya. In each case, when the dust settled on the horrors that had been perpetrated against defenseless civilian populations, it became painfully clear that we had failed in our duty to meet the imperatives of prevention of mass atrocites, of protection of the vulnerable, and of accountability for perpetrators. And so it has been with successive waves of murder and persecution against the Palestinians throughout the entire life of the UN.

High Commissioner, we are failing again.

As a human rights lawyer with more than three decades of experience in the field, I know well that the concept of genocide has often been subject to political abuse. But the current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs, and coupled with explicit statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military, leaves no room for doubt or debate. In Gaza, civilian homes, schools, churches, mosques, and medical institutions are wantonly attacked as thousands of civilians are massacred. In the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, homes are seized and reassigned based entirely on race, and violent settler pogroms are accompanied by Israeli military units. Across the land, Apartheid rules.

This is a text-book case of genocide. The European, ethno-nationalist, settler colonial project in Palestine has entered its final phase, toward the expedited destruction of the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life in Palestine. What's more, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe, are wholly complicit in the horrific assault. Not only are these governments refusing to meet their treaty obligations "to ensure respect" for the Geneva Conventions, but they are in fact actively arming the assault, providing economic and intelligence support, and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel's atrocities.

Volker Turk, High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais Wilson, Geneva

In concert with this, western corporate media, increasingly captured and state-adjacent, are in open breach of Article 20 of the ICCPR, continuously dehumanizing Palestinians to facilitate the genocide, and broadcasting propaganda for war and advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence. US-based social media companies are suppressing the voices of human rights defenders while amplifying pro-Israel propaganda. Israel lobby online-trolls and GONGOS are harassing and smearing human rights defenders, and western universities and employers are collaborating with them to punish those who dare to speak out against the atrocities. In the wake of this genocide, there must be an accounting for these actors as well, just as there was for radio Mules Collins in Rwanda.

In such circumstances, the demands on our organization for principled and effective action are greater than ever. But we phave not met the challenge. The protective enforcement power Security Council has again been blocked by US intransigence, the SG [UN Secretary General] is under assault for the mildest of protestations, and our human rights mechanisms are under sustained slanderous attack by an organized, online impunity network.

Decades of distraction by the illusory and largely disingenuous promises of Oslo have diverted the Organization from its core duty to defend international law, international human rights, and the Charter itself. The mantra of the "two-state solution" has become an open joke in the corridors of the UN, both for its utter impossibility in fact, and for its total failure to account for the inalienable human rights of the Palestinian people. The so-called "Quartet" has become nothing more than a fig leaf for inaction and for subservience to a brutal status quo. The (US-scripted) deference to "agreements between the parties themselves" (in place of international law) was always a transparent slight-of-hand, designed to reinforce the power of Israel over the rights of the occupied and dispossessed Palestinians.

High Commissioner, I came to this Organization first in the 1980s, because I found in it a principled, norm-based institution that was squarely on the side of human rights, including in cases where the powerful US, UK, and Europe were not on our side. While my own government, its subsidiarity institutions, and much of the US media were still supporting or justifying South African apartheid, Israeli oppression, and Central American death squads, the UN was standing up for the oppressed peoples of those lands. We had international law on our side. We had human rights on our side. We had principle on our side. Our authority was rooted in our integrity. But no more.

In recent decades, key parts of the UN have surrendered to the power of the US, and to fear of the Israel Lobby, to abandon these principles, and to retreat from international law itself. We have lost a lot in this abandonment, not least our own global credibility. But the Palestinian people have sustained the biggest losses as a result of our failures. It is a stunning historic irony that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in the same year that the Nakba was perpetrated against the Palestinian people. As we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the UDHR, we would do well to abandon the old cliché that the UDHR was born out of the atrocities that proceeded it, and to admit that it was born alongside one of the most atrocious genocides of the 20th Century, that of the destruction of Palestine. In some sense, the framers were promising human rights to everyone, except the Palestinian people. And let us remember as well, that the UN itself carries the original sin of helping to facilitate the dispossession of the Palestinian people by ratifying the European settler colonial project that seized Palestinian land and turned it over to the colonists. We have much for which to atone.

But the path to atonement is clear. We have much to learn from the principled stance taken in cities around the world in recent days, as masses of people stand up against the genocide, even at risk of beatings and arrest. Palestinians and their allies, human rights defenders of every stripe, Christian and Muslim organizations, and progressive Jewish voices saying "not in our name", are all leading the way. All we have to do is to follow them.

Yesterday, just a few blocks from here, New York's Grand Central Station was completely taken over by thousands of Jewish human rights defenders standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demanding an end to Israeli tyranny (many risking arrest, in the process). In doing so, they stripped away in an instant the Israeli hasbara propaganda point (and old antisemitic trope) that Israel somehow represents the Jewish people. It does not. And, as such, Israel is solely responsible for its crimes. On this point, it bears repeating, in spite of Israel lobby smears to the contrary, that criticism of Israel's human rights violations is not antisemitic, any more than criticism of Saudi violations is Islamophobic, criticism of Myanmar violations is anti-Buddhist, or criticism of Indian violations is anti-Hindu. When they seek to silence us with smears, we must raise our voice, not lower it. I trust you will agree, High Commissioner, that this is what speaking truth to power is all about.

But I also find hope in those parts of the UN that have refused to compromise the Organization's human rights principles in spite of enormous pressures to do so. Our independent special rapporteurs, commissions of enquiry, and treaty body experts, alongside most of our staff, have continued to stand up for the human rights of the Palestinian people, even as other parts of the UN (even at the highest levels) have shamefully bowed their heads to power. As the custodians of the human rights norms and standards, OHCHR. has a particular duty to defend those standards. Our job, I believe, is to make our voice heard, from the Secretary-General to the newest UN recruit, and horizontally across the wider UN system, incisting that the human rights of the Palestinian people are not up for debate, negotiation, or compromise anywhere under the blue flag.

What, then, would a UN-norm-based position look like? For what would we work if we were true to our rhetorical admonitions about human rights and equality for all, accountability for perpetrators, redress for victims, protection of the vulnerable, and empowerment for rights-holders, all under the rule of law? The answer, I believe, is simple—if we have the clarity to see beyond the propagandistic smokescreens that distort the vision of justice to which we are sworn, the courage to abandon fear and deference to powerful states, and the will to truly take up the banner of human rights and peace. To be sure, this is a long-term project and a steep climb. But we must begin now or surrender to unspeakable horror. I see ten essential points:

Legitimate action: First, we in the UN must abandon the failed (and largely disingenuous) Oslo paradigm, its illusory two-state solution, its impotent and complicit Quartet, and its subjugation of international law to the dictates of presumed political expediency. Our positions must be unapologetically based on international human rights and international law.

Clarity of Vision: We must stop the pretense that this is simply a conflict over land or religion between two warring parties and admit the reality of the situation in which a disproportionately powerful state is colonizing, persecuting, and dispossessing an indigenous population on the basis of their ethnicity.

One State based on human rights: We must support the establishment of a single, democratic, secular state in all of historic Palestine, with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and, therefore, the dicmantling of the deeply racist, settler-colonial project and an end to apartheid across the land.

Fighting Apartheid: We must redirect all UN efforts and resources to the struggle against apartheid, just as we did for South Africa in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s.

Return and Compensation: We must reaffirm and insist on the right to return and full compensation for all Palestinians and their families currently living in the occupied territories, in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and in the diaspora across the globe.

Truth and Justice: We must call for a transitional justice process, making full use of decades of accumulated UN investigations, enquiries, and reports, to document the truth, and to ensure accountability for all perpetrators, redress for all victims, and remedies for documented injustices.

Protection: We must press for the deployment of a well-resourced and strongly mandated UN protection force with a sustained mandate to protect civilians from the river to the sea.

Disarmament: We must advocate for the removal and destruction of Israel's massive stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, lest the conflict lead to the total destruction of the region and, possibly, beyond.

Mediation: We must recognize that the US and other western powers are in fact not credible mediators, but rather actual parties to the conflict who are complicit with Israel in the violation of Palestinian rights, and we must engage them as such.

Solidarity: We must open our doors (and the doors of the SG) wide to the legions of Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian human rights defenders who are standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their human rights and stop the unconstrained flow of Israel lobbyists to the offices of UN leaders, where they advocate for continued war, persecution, apartheid, and impunity, and smear our human rights defenders for their principled defense of Palestinian rights.

This will take years to achieve, and western powers will fight us every step of the way, so we must be steadfast. In the immediate term, we must work for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the longstanding siege on Gaza, stand up against the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank (and elsewhere), document the genocidal assault in Gaza, help to bring massive humanitarian aid and reconstruction to the Palestinians, take care of our traumatized colleagues and their families, and fight like hell for a principled approach in the UN's political offices.

The UN's failure in Palestine thus far is not a reason for us to withdraw. Rather it should give us the courage to abandon the failed paradigm of the past, and fully embrace a more principled course. Let us, as OHCHR, boldly and proudly join the anti-apartheid movement that is growing all around the world, adding our logo to the banner of equality and human rights for the Palestinian people. The world is watching. We will all be accountable for where we stood at this crucial moment in history. Let us stand on the side of justice.

I thank you, High Commissioner, Volker, for hearing this final appeal from my desk. I will leave the Office in a few days for the last time, after more than three decades of service. But please do not hesitate to reach out if I can be of assistance in the future.

Sincerely,

Craig Mokhiber

End of transcription.

Emphasis (bolding) is my own. I have added links, where relevant, to explanations of concepts the former Director refers to.

#Israel #Palestine #October 2023 #28 October 2023 #United Nations #Described #Long post #I’ll add more links to the things he is talking about later

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ursie · 5 months

Text

Brennan’s statement on Palestine :

[ ID: Statement from Brennan Lee Mulligan, on Instagram. It consists of three black squares with plain white text. The text reads as follows:

"I'm calling on my government officials to immediately demand a ceasefire and de-escalation in Gaza.

I applaud anyone and everyone calling for peace, with the understanding that real peace only exists if it deeply and honestly accounts for and fully ends violence in all its forms. Real peace addresses and corrects wrong-doing in the past and guards against it in the future. It goes hand in hand with justice and requires truth, restoration, reconciliation, reparation.

Peace cannot co-exist with collective punishment, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement. It cannot co-exist with blockades, embargoes, or with 2.2 million people, half of which are children, trapped with no hope of escape or political recourse. it cannot co-exist with murdered journalists, bombed hospitals, or years of protesters being shot and killed at the border. it cannot co-exist with illegal settlements, segregated roads, and the silent, imperial chill that settles over the gaps in the violence - the unspoken geopolitical consensus that a group of people need to unflinchingly accept permanent subjugation and occupation.

My hear breaks for every Israeli person who lost loved ones during the attacks of October 7th. It breaks for every Ukrainian person who has lost their loved ones. It breaks for every Congolese person who has lost their loved ones. I do not speak on behalf of Palestinians now because some lives are worth more than others. I speak on their behalf because I, and all Americans, have a responsibility to pressure our government because we are responsible for this. Some have said that this situation is complicated. The Unites States government clearly disagrees. It has definitively, categorically, militarily chosen a side, and I do not agree with that decision.

In wiring this, I have been wrestling with what I am sure many people like me wrestle with: There is a powerful narrative surrounding violence in the Middle East that asserts and ever-moving goalpost of self-education and study in order to even be qualified to have an opinion. As someone with a love of research, I have at times in my life fallen into the trap that I am not educated enough clever enough, or aware enough to have a worthwhile perspective, and that three more articles and two more lectures and one more book will do the trick. Unfortunately, democracy doesn't work that way - we, the citizens of any democracy, cannot possibly be experts on every aspect of the policies of our governments, and yet if we do not constantly weigh in an make our voices heard, the entire experiment falls apart. Not only do people constantly doubt themselves and the things they can see with their own two eyes, but old shortcuts for political action can fall apart as well: This specific issue exists along a raw, charged and unique faultline in American Politics. Nobody I grew up with has ever challenged me on my support for abortion rights, LGBT rights, Black Lives Matter, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, none of it. The people in my country who would despise me for those positions are, for all intents and purposes, strangers to me. But there are people who I've broken bread with and shared honest affection with who will see the words I've written here and incorrectly conclude that I do not wish for the security, dignity and happiness of them and their loved ones, and that breaks my fucking heart. Full-throatedly condemning the actions of the Israeli government while battling rampant anti-semitism at home is an urgent moral necessity, and doing so is made unnecessarily challenging for the average person to navigate by the pointed obfuscations of cynical opportunists, bigots, and demagogues on all sides of the political spectrum who see some advantage in sowing that incredibly dangerous confusion.

So, I'm calling my representatives. I'm having hard conversations with friends and family. I'm here, talking to you. I should have done it sooner. If you're Israeli and hurt by this statement, know that I want freedom, dignity, security and peace for you, and that every ounce of my political awareness believes whole-heartedly that the actions of your government are not only destroying innocent lives, but doing so to the detriment of you and your loved ones' safety. If you're American and feel lost and confused - I understand and empathize. This, the whole country, only works when we get involved. I am constantly haunted by the specter that maybe I missed some crucial piece of information on this, or any, important world event. I'll just have to make my peace with that self-doubt and trust my gut by going with Jewish Voice for Peace, Amnesty International, the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations, etc. And if you're Palestinian and reading this: I unreservedly support your right to life, to freedom, to happiness and human flourishing, to full enfranchisement and equal rights, to opportunity, prosperity and abundance, to the restoration of stolen property and land, and to a Free Palestine." End ID ]

#if anyone wants to do the id I will love you forever btw #brennan lee mulligan #d20 #dropout #free palestine #dimension 20 #I babble

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