#that's how i feel. that's how we kurds feel

[navramanan]

Aquiring knowledge -> getting filled with frustration and anger and dread -> wanting to stay informed regardless -> aquiring knowledge -> getting filled with frustration etc etc

#i am fucking talking to the void and vallahi i WIIIIISSSHHHH i had a proper oulet to let out my frustration #but FFFFFFUUUUUCCCCKKKKK #nothing scarred me and showed me how fucking alone we were in our struggle and grief than the muslim world's reaction to rojava's invasion #in 2019. you know ok i know kurdistan gets little media coverage usually bc it's not relevant to american interest #but the invasion 2019 was HEAVILY covered by western media as it was the direct result of trump withdrawing the troops #and having a phone call with kerrrrrrrdogan saying hey you can invade now #so there was ZERO reason or possibility the muslim world wouldnt see what was happening #it was EVERYWHERE it got great western media coverage #but when i saw big muslim news accounts staying either silent OR siding with turkey i felt so fucking enraged and disturbed #and rejected. in turn there also werent individual muslims showing support as big crowds #like obv there were some here and there but not as a collective. they either sided with turkey or simply didnt care #you have to clock that. i cant say how many died but hundreds of thousands were displaced #turkey USED FUCKING WHITE PHOSPHORUS. WHICH IS A WAR CRIME. IT'S A CHEMICAL WEAPON #they literally said theyd create a strip of land to move syrian refugees there. arab refugees on kurdish land to change the demographic #and every fucking one went yeah that's fine nothing wrong with it. vallahi those people's plights are on you #and allah will ask. dont think he wont. while we were screaming for the muslim world to see us #they in turn pointed there fingers at us. said turkey was fighting terror. said they wouldnt hurt civilians #but what ever do you guys know what it's like to scream and scream but have no one bet an eye? #that's how i feel. that's how we kurds feel #man fuck off whatever i want to strangle someone #nesi rants

[bill-the-dog-for-the-check]

I want to go back to how things were.

I want to go back to when I believed that the progressives were on the right side of history, fighting against oppression in all its forms, and had critical thinking, honest compassion, and understanding in a way that the right--inundated with racist conspiracy theories and absurd lies--did not.

In many ways, I'm a perfect demographic fit in the pro-Palestine circles. I'm bisexual. I'm a young university student who's been progressive for as long as he knew what progressivism was, and I never experienced genuine economic insecurity or wondered if I'd eat that night. In another timeline, maybe I'd be there marching and shouting their horrible slogans. But there's one, teeny little thing that ruins it, which makes me fall through the cracks and renders me politically homeless, outcast by the progressive left and the MAGA right.

I'm a Jew.

And I'm trying so, so hard to hold compassion for the suffering of minorities who have not extended us that same compassion. I'm trying to maintain my progressivist urge to go out and help minorities in solidarity, but it's so hard when they make it clear that they hate us and want our state dead and gone. I supported BLM, but Al Sharpton, Leonard Jeffries, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Louis Farrakhan, Malcom X, Jesse Jackson and many others either were or are wildly antisemitic, especially Sharpton and Walker, and so are the BLM movement's leaders, who openly sneered at Jews for being shocked by them by announcing, "I guess their activism was just transactional. How (((Zionist))) of them!"

And the queer community forced me out of their ranks for merely questioning whether the war in Gaza is a genocide, for pushing back against them saying that Hamas is fighting oppression. And spread antisemitic lies about me, claims of harassment and supporting genocide to my friends because I dared to question them. And they've chosen to side with those who would throw both of us off roofs for being queer. Cast out by the outcasts.

Like, what do I do? Our only allies are Hindus, Iranians, Kurds, Republicans, and Christian Zionists (respect to all of these groups for that... even you Republicans. This is one of our only points of agreement). That's literally it. No loud show of from indigenous nations supporting what is effectively the most successful anticolonial land back movement in human history. No push from "antiracist progressives" against rising antisemitism and genocidal terrorism from a reactionary fundamentalist group against a historically discriminated group.

And they aren't even just leaning back and being silent--many members of these groups are being actively antisemitic--especially the progressive left, which has morphed into the most antisemitic mainstream political movement since the Nazis. Instead, we're 'Zionazis' and genocidal colonizers who aren't even oppressed anyway, that's just evil Jewish Zionist lies designed to stoke sympathy for their unrelentingly evil nature, which we can't even help. The notion that Jews are intrinsically predisposed to evil acts and deception--never heard that one before.

So now, when I look at pictures of Pride Parades, a celebration of an identity of which I am a part and would have previously killed to attend--I wonder... would I be allowed to hold up a rainbow flag with a Magen David on it? If I asked any of their views on the state of Israel, what will they say? What about on Zionists who support its existence? Would all parts of my identity be respected, valued, and celebrated? Or would I be forced to leave the Star of David flag at home, pretend I don't notice their antisemitic views, and pass the litmus test of disavowing Israel before being accepted?

I feel suspicious and wary of the very community which I am 'supposed' to belong in. I feel uncomfortable. I hate, hate, hate that I feel this way. That I've become more closed, more cynical, more angry. Those of us who fall through the cracks, who hold multiple marginalized identities--queer and Jewish, black and Jewish, Indigenous and Jewish--we are ignored and silenced, our voices and experiences entirely spat upon as being a front for 'Zionist crimes' or whatever new buzzwords they create.

I've decided that first and foremost, I am Jewish. The me that was proud to be a part of the queer community is dead. I want to support the progressive causes of antiracism and social justice, but they hate us. They want us dead. They wouldn't view my participation as being a genuine gesture of solidarity, but an evil Jew Zionist seeking to con them and co-opt support in order to aid our evil apartheid genocidal settler-colonialist white supremacist illegitimate entity in a land that should really be given to Hamas anyway.

How am I supposed to hold space for other minorities when nobody is holding space for us right now?

#antisemitism #jewish #jumblr #leftist antisemitism #left wing antisemitism #jewblr #antizionism #progressivism

[feluka]

The icj ruling a step in the right direction and I think will be important in the long term... but it's difficult to feel optimistic while people are dying right now. All my thoughts about it begin with "at least," at least maybe this will make it difficult for western governments to arm israel, at least they didn't throw out the case, at least maybe some more food will get in and people won't be getting bombed and starved... just bombed. My greatest hope is that this will force the usa to stop sending weapons, my second greatest hope is that it gives biden and netanyahu heart attacks and kills them

i understand how you feel when you say that all your thoughts begin with "at least". my gut reaction also was to think "well that wasn't much, but it's probably all they could do" and then i learned that's not true! they *are* able to call for ceasefires and have done so to russia and azerbaijan. these calls were ignored, but it is insulting that they didn't even grant palestine that courtesy even if israel would have definitely ignored it.

i don't mean to dissuade anyone from feeling "at least it's something" but we can't cut them *too much* slack on the basis of it being "as much as they could've done" because they can do more and we must pressure them to do more because at this point it's not nearly enough for the US to stop arming israel or to give either of them a heart attack i'm afraid.

mohammed el-kurd expressed this very well, and i thank him for recalibrating my feelings because i definitely got too hopeful at a point. it has to be a persistent balance between hope and anger, only one or the other is harmful to the cause.

#asks

[luminalunii97]

It's been almost two months since the MURDER of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian kurd girl who's MURDER sparked a wave of protests against the regime. I insist on the word "murder" because I feel like some non Iranians are still dubious about the cause of her death. Which is understandable, the authorities in Iran denied the accusation and are still insisting that her death, plus every other murdered protesters, aren't the regime's doing!!! These denials are widely ignored by Iranians because it's a widespread known fact that islamic republic goons only lie. No one remember the last time this regime's figures and followers or IRIB, their monopoly media corporation, spoke the truth. They are the empire of lies, to the point that if we ever watch their news programs, it's to find the truth in reverse of what they say. If they deny something, then with no doubt it has happened. If they claim something, that's definitely a lie.

I won't be able to explain how this mistrust and this circus of fabricated lies happened, there's a history behind it, but I'll give you one very painful example to see why you should never trust what IR says.

Flight PS752, Iran - Ukraine

On January 8, 2020, a plane with 167 passengers and 9 crew members aboard took off from Tehran to the destination Kyiv. Shortly after takeoff, it was shut down by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shooting 2 missiles at it. All 176 occupants were killed within seconds.

Islamic Republic authorities immediately claimed the crash was because of a technical issue, that an engine was caught on fire, that it was the pilot's fault. Within the same day, the USA followed by Ukraine, Britain, and Canada claimed that the cause of the crash was most probably a missile strike.

At the time, there was tension between Iran's regime and the US because of the assassination of Ghasem Soleimani, the guy who was directly responsible for part of the destructions in the middle east, the guy whose family's life was full of contradictions, the guy Islamic Republic swore to take his revenge on the US, but instead, they took his revenge on innocent civilians.

For the next 72 hours, our regime lied and lied and lied and countered every accusation and proof with denial and slander. In response to every claim foreign intelligence agencies made, they said things like it's "a rumor", "lie", "American deception", "psychological war" and "false scenarios of the West" by "enemies", "adversaries" and "counter-revolutionaries" for "hostility", "marginalizing the attack on the Ain al-Assad barracks " or "Boeing's attempt to prevent the stock from falling and to cover up the technical problems of its plane"! For 72 mother fuckin hours they looked into the eye of the families of the victims and our nation and lied. Until they couldn't hide it anymore. So after 3 days they finally admitted that it was a missile strike, that they had mistaken the plane for an American cruise missile. A human error. And then they refused to give any more explanations.

There have been arguments around this "human error" excuse, doubt and speculations. But most important of all there has been public demand for prosecution. The families of the flight victims rightfully demanded a just trial for the responsible parties. Can you guess what did the regime do? They called it "a bitter accident", "a human error" and "an unforgivable incident". That's it. No one resigned, no one apologized and no one took responsibility. They didn't even want to pay compensation, saying "why should we pay when the plane had European insurance?!". Our beloved parliament, the parliament that's calling for the execution of protesters these days, praised IRGC for doing their duties so well! Hossein Salami, IRGC commander-in-chief, gave a speech in parliament about the incident that was salt in the wound. He lied "we were under pressure by our people to avenge Soleimani", "I wish I was in that plane", "we never wish to harm our own people" and the biggest lie of all "we were the first to announce this hypothesis of missiles hitting the plane causing the crash. If we were not the source of the formation of this hypothesis, no one could understand"!!!

It was only about 2 months after the 2019 protests in Iran in which the government shut down the internet for a week and mass murdered more than 1500 protesters in only 3 days. As was expected anger stirred up again and there was another wave of protests in the country where people chanted death to the dictator and demanded the overthrow of Khamenei. They tore Soleimani's pictures and put them on fire. Do you know any better way to say he wasn't popular among people and we didn't put anyone under pressure to avenge him?

To add a side note here, there have been protests after protests in the past couple of years. Here's a diagram of all mass protests in iran since Islamic revolution:

Protests got suppressed again. The families of the flight victims were offered bribery or threatened to keep their mouths shut. Some of them even got arrested and were put in jail temporarily. But the families didn't back down so The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims was formed. (Website, Instagram, YouTube)

Out of 176 lost lives, 147 of them were Iranian or Iranian-Canadian and the other 29 were Canadian, Ukrainian, Afghan, and Swedish. The association represents 140 of the victims. Through this association, we learned more about the lives of the victims as the association stated that it has been established to keep the memories of the passengers alive and seek justice.

Among the passengers, there were 15 children, one infant, and one pregnant woman. Many university students and professors were on board too. You can read some of their stories on the association's website or social media.

Hamed Esmaeilion, the spokesman of the association, has one of the most tragic stories. He lost his wife, Parisa Eghbalian, and 9-year-old daughter, Reera, in this incident.

The association has been active in every anti-regime movement since its establishment. In the uprising of Mahsa Amini's murder, Esmaeilion organized global rallies in more than 150 cities all over the world. Someone described that day as Iranian New Year's Eve, not because it was a merry occasion, but because Iranians around the globe came together, united, and rallied, like a wave, from the most eastern side of the earth to the most western side, like how clock strikes 12 in every country from east to west for waiting crowds. Esmaeilion, later on, organized another big rally in Berlin, where the Berlin victory column is located. The first picture is of the said rally.

The 2019 protests and massacre happened 3 years ago these days. There's going to be protests all over Iran on November 15, 16, and 17 (24, 25, and 26 of Aban). Outside of Iran in an act of solidarity, the association has called for another global demonstration on November 19 (28 of Aban). More informations about time and location in different countries are posted on the association social media. In case you're interested to participate and meet some Iranians, everyone's welcome to join.

#iran #mahsa amini #iran protests #human rights #politics #flight ps752 #iran news #iran revolution #people of iran #middle east #government lies #us politics #canada #iran demonstrations #plane crash #missile strikes #islamic republic vs iran #muslim #ukraine #don't trust islamic republic of iran

[peenor]

Just because Gelman made his twt bio “zaddy” (zionist daddy) “only” because people were pointing out how zionist he is doesn’t fucking make my point moot, that we should punish behavior like this and celebrities need to understand how much influence they have with what they say, especially in a huge national march for Israel - the country currently committing said genocide, it actually makes my point quite clear that this man does not value human life, or at the very least does not value Palestinians lived

If you still refuse to see that he really could care less about Palestinian life look no further than google - heres a October 24th article - by 10/24/23 it is estimated 5,000 Palestinians were already killed.

Quote taken from above article by a Palestinian activist who I feel should be quoted more than Gelman, Palestinian activist Mohamed El-Kurd

"There's a population that lives inside a cage without citizenship, without right to movement, without access to clean water... when you compared an occupied population, a population that has been ethnically cleansed, a population that lives under a system of apartheid to a population that is afraid of that population. That is occupation."

Ceasefire now, end the genocide, boycott stranger things s5

#there is a fucking genocide happening #full stop #if you’re STILL ZIONIST EVEN NOW #im BEGGING you to read a book #also get off my blog #brett gelman #stranger things #boycott stranger things #stranger things s5 #murray stranger things #zionism #anti zionism #free palestine #i stand with palestine #palestine #jay speaketh

[thethief1996]

In November, displaced children in Al Shifa posted a video pleading in English to be protected. It was the first of four raids that were conducted on the hospital before Israel burned it down this week. Gaza's Civil Defense Office says all departments and buildings were purposefully destroyed. According to verified reports, two vendors who sold water and food to the refugees at Al Shifa revealed themselves to be IDF soldiers as the raid began and instructed the troops to start the massacre. Anybody who didnt flee was indiscrimately executed. Euro Med Human Rights Monitor estimates that 1.500 people were injured or killed, of which at least 13 were children and 22 were shot in their hospital beds. Some of the bodies found after the carnage were zip tied. Doctors report that some of the victims were buried alive. We have graphic videos of bodies crushed and buried by bulldozers. Al Shifa is the site of a mass grave. I keep thinking how many of those children are still alive.

The official narrative by Israel is that not a single civilian was killed. It is laughable that they expect us to believe this shit. They lie to our faces, against a barrage of videos showing they are conducting a very clear and unapologetic extermination campaign in Gaza, and yet every single western media outlet hems and haws around their intent like there's plausible deniability. Biden approves unconditional military aid for Israel and Gazzans show us the remains of missiles with name and address of the American factories that produced them but he can mumble through phlegm about red lines and no newspaper calls bullshit. Hillary Clinton can come on national television and condescendingly tell voters to get over themselves like they're doing you a fucking favor by putting up a serial killer for you to vote, and nobody calls bullshit on her manipulation. Ursula Von Der Leyen can smile cynically at a protester who calls her a war criminal and nobody calls bullshit. And we know why. The New York Times said they found no anti Palestinian bias in their reporting of October 7th only for a memo to come out showing they instructed reporters to not show any ounce of sympathy for Palestinians, even avoiding the word Palestine. Why are those people up there? Why do they act like we are children, when they are the ones who damned their souls? I refuse that narrative.

Palestinians are not more resilient to atrocities. Do not let the world dehumanize them. The terror Palestinians feel is the same you would feel if babies were killed in your neighborhood. If a crazed maniac started shooting at a family as they walked down the main avenue of their city, it would be national news. War is not an extenuating circunstance for these actions. The people who are conducting these massacres are serial killers who live among you by justifying their murders as acts of war, like Nir Maman, USAmerican cop and Bernaya Cherlow, who was invited to Congress. They should not know peace.

Giving up hope is not a choice for us to make. For 75 years, Palestine has resisted and it will be free within our lifetimes.

I have said this before and I will say it again, The South African apartheid collapsed due to boycotts. We have to do everything in our power to stop Israel's hegemony. Even talking to a group of friends about Palestine changes the status quo. There's no world where we can live peacefully if Israel accomplishes their goals.

If you have Israeli citizenship and wish to denounce it, a group of Jewish anti zionists have organized a guide on how to.

Keep yourself updated and share Palestinian voices. Muna El-Kurd said every tweet is like a treasure to them, because their voices are repressed on social media and even on this very app. Make it your action item to share something about the Palestinian plight everyday. Here are some resources:

Al Jazeera, Anadolu Agency, Mondoweiss

Boycott Divest Sanction Movement

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing protests and direct action against weapons factories across the US

Muhammad Shehada (twitter)

Hind Khoudary - reporting directly from Gaza.

You can participate in boycotts wherever you are in the world, through BDS guidelines. Don't be overwhelmed by gigantic boycott lists. BDS explicitly targets only a few brands which have bigger impact. You can stop consuming from as many brands as you want, though, and by all means feel free to give a 1 star review to McDonalds, Papa John, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks. Right now, they are focusing on boycotting the following:

Carrefour, HP, Puma, Sabra, Sodastream, Ahava cosmetics, Israeli fruits and vegetables

Push for a cultural boycott - pressure your favorite artist to speak out on Palestine and cancel any upcoming performances on occupied territory (Lorde cancelled her gig in Israel because of this. It works.)

If you can, participate in direct action or donate.

Palestine Action works to shut down Israeli weapons factories in the UK and USA, and have successfully shut down one of their firms in London.Some of the activists are going on trial and are calling for mobilizing on court.

Palestinian Youth Movement is organizing direct actions to stop the shipping of wars to Israel. Follow them.

Columbia students are organizing in coalition with Jewish Voices for Peace to divest from Israel. Support them if you are on site.

Educate yourself. Read into Palestinian history and the occupation. You can't common sense people out of decades of propaganda. If your arguments crumble when a zionist brings up the "disengagement of Gaza", you have to learn more.

Read Decolonize Palestine. They have 15 minute reads that concisely explain the occupation (and its colonial roots) and debunk popular myths, including pinkwashing.

Read on Palestine. Here's an amazing masterpost.

Verso Book Club is giving out free books on Palestine (I personally downloaded Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe. If you still believe in the two states solution, this book by an Israeli professor debunks it).

Call your representatives. The Labour Party in the UK had an emergency meeting after several councilors threatened to resign if they didn't condemn Israeli war crimes. Calling to show your complaints works, even more if you live in a country that funds genocide.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE USA: USCPR has developed this toolkit for calls, here's a document that autosends emails to your representatives and here's a toolkit by Ceasefire in Gaza NOW!

FOR PEOPLE IN EUROPE: Here's a toolkit by Voices in Europe for Peace targeting the European Parliament and one specific for almost all countries in Europe, including Germany, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Austria, Belgium Romania and Ukraine

FOR PEOPLE IN THE UK: Friends of Al-Aqsa UK and Palestine Solidarity UK have made toolkits for calls and emails

FOR PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA: Here's a toolkit by Stand With Palestine

FOR PEOPLE IN CANADA: Here's a toolkit by Indepent Jewish Voices for Canada

Join a protest. Here's a constantly updating list of protests:

Global calendar

Another global calendar (go to the instragram of the organizers to confirm your protest)

USA calendar

Australia calendar

Feel free to add more.

#palestine #save gaza #free gaza #gaza under attack #free palestine

[koheletgirl]

"I’ve already lost more than 16 relatives in this war - uncles and cousins. I’m in shock and can’t even cry. I feel emotionally disconnected. I try to put on a brave front for the family, but it’s very difficult. We have no idea how this will end and what will happen to us. These could be our final days."

- Olfat al-Kurd

Read more testimonies:

https://www.btselem.org/voices_from_gaza

#palestine #gaza #genocide tw #death tw

[brtender]

I feel like something we should all acknowledge is that Azerbaijan is in fact, a terroristic state just like Israel. Know what? Bring Türkiye in it too, they're fucking inhumane about Kurds, Arabs, Chinese, LGBT, and Armenians. But today we are talking about the racism and xenophobia against Armenians and Kurds from Turks. Today, it's about how Türkiye and Azerbaijan are just like Israel. Today, and everyday, it will always be about the fascism and the dictatorship of turkic nationalism. And it's all thanks to Türkiye for starting it. How disgusting it is for Azerbaijan to be built off of hatred for Armenians. How gut wrenching it is for Türkiye to support Azerbaijan. And how horrifying it is for Israel to provide Azerbaijan.

Azeris and Turks will either be with Palestinians because they too are our Muslim brothers and sisters + the fact that they have an ounce of human decency, even if turkic nationalism is against Arabs, OR Azeris and Turks will be with Isntreal because they are so nationalistic that the genocide of Palestinians don't matter to them and the support of Isntreal for the genocide of Kurds and Armenians is all they want. They drive and live off of that hunger for power, for victory, like crazy fucking animals. They are like neo-Nazis for fuck's sake. They are just like... Oh I don't know.... Israel!

And if we, as a society, became aware of the genocide of (Artsakh) Armenians and Kurds, two groups that are mind you indigenous to their land, they would feel our support and have uplifting for their voices.

Know their history. Know the present. Hear their voices. Stand for what's right. Know the real history behind Türkiye and Azerbaijan. Know that silence could kill.

#armenia #artsakh #israel #isntreal #kurdistan #turkic nationalism #genocide

[pizzaapplecheese]

I found out that there was an arabic dub for Lego monkie Kid, and being an Arab (who has a pretty weak arabic), I thought it would be killing 2 birds in one stone. However, I noticed how I noticed they used the English names for the characters, not only that it missed so many opportunities with arabic names.

The reason I am upset with the English names being used is that the Chinese names are way easier to spell and sound in arabic, like جاوتان (xiaotian) looks way better than ام.كي (mk) imo and شاوجاو sounds way better than ماي. Though, this is just all opinion (except for pigsy, there is no P in arabic, so you just get 'big z', which is kinda funny). Also, for some reason, they use the English version for Monkey King, Redson, PIF, etc. Instead of just fully translating the name like ملك القردة (monkey king, malik al kurd), الابن الاحمر or الصبي الأحمر (red son, al ibn al ah-mar or sabi al ah-mar), and الأميرة مروحة الحديد (Princess iron fan, al amera marwa-ha al had-ed).

(Side note: i cannot find episode 9 in arabic, but i found out on the wiki for some reason, Macaque's name changed to 'مكاكو' (Makako) when it can be easily translated as 'ماكاك' (edit: apperantly he is called 'ماكاكو الغامض' (the mysterious macaque) which i found cool))

If I were writing the names, I would give them all the Chinese names since it suits way better, with the exception of the ones that are literally translated (i.e., Redson, princess iron fan, Monkey King, Azure, ect.) Who will just have their name literally translated to arabic.

Also I would play around with the nicknames because.

Like for example Tang would call Xiaotian 'ابن زو' (son of zhu) because Tang is definitely the type of character to tease Dachu Zhu over this, but also it makes the "pigsy's my dad" scene 10x funnier.

Speaking of Tang (and Dali) I would have Xiaotian and XiaoJiao straight up call them 'عم تانغ/دالي' (uncle Tang/Dali) since they are middle aged, also it can be seen as double meaning in Xiaotian's case since it shows he sees Dachu Zhu as a father figure, again makes the "Pigsy's my dad" even more funny , also considering how we use uncle a lot (sometimes old men who are strangers get called uncle) it makes the whole Uncle Lion scene make more sense in an arab context, though I feel like it would take away the impact and comedy of Xiaotian suddenly calling him uncle.

I would also would have Demon Bull king be called 'ابو الابن الاحمر' (father of Redson) by Wukong while Princess Iron Fan calls him 'حبيبي' (my love). Actually, I feel like both them would straight up call each other 'حبيبي'/'حبيبتي' (they both mean my love, but the other one is feminine).

I can go on an even bigger rant, but I feel like I would go all day.

#lmk monkey king #lmk mk #lmk mei #lmk qi xiaotian #lmk dachu zhu #lmk chef pig #lmk pigsy #lmk xiaojiao #lmk sha dali #lmk sandy #lmk tang #lego monkie kid #I am so normal about this rn #my arabic is limited #so if I make mistakes or sound like an idiot fell free to tell me #monkie kid

[topicstoughtotalkabout]

On where the money goes

Genocide:

noun

the deliberate killing or severe mistreatment of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group:

The Khmer Rouge lost power in Cambodia the year before I was born.

Mugabe, in Zimbabwe, orchestrated a genocide of the Shona people (and others, there are always others) from 1982 until 1987.

Between 1987 and 1989, the famine in Somalia covered up an ethnic genocide, as well.

People “disappeared” under Pinochet in Chile until 1990.

Between 1981 and 1993, it was unofficial policy in the United States to ignore AIDS.

Guatemala systemically eradicated their Maya population until 1996.

And of course, there’s Bosnia-Herzegovina, the former Soviet States, Myanmar, the Kurds . . .

Which leads me to Palestine.

There are a lot of people upset right now that fans of a certain show are spending time, money, and effort to get their show back on the air. Time, money, and effort that their detractors feel could be better used to help victims in Palestine.

First: it’s never ok to police how someone spends their free time, free money, or free energy.

If that doesn’t deter you, then, let me explain why I started with the Khmer Rouge. If you follow the timeline, there has been at least one, and usually more than one, active genocide every year since I’ve been born. 

This has been quiet and loud, with no international intervention and with very high-powered and high-dollar international intervention. The UN has been involved. The Red Cross (and Red Crescent). The EU. NATO.

But, even more telling, depending on the political winds in the United States (where it seems the majority of these fans, and the company they are protesting, are based) we may be looking at a cultural genocide of our own.

In big ways and small ways, the LGBTQIA+2S community is being outlawed, state by state, community by community. Canceling the art that showcases queer actors and characters is a beginning part of that.

#lgbtqia #our flag means death #ofmd #free palestine #genocide #oppression #charity

[inqilabi]

Hi, could you please elaborate how radical/separatist feminism is bourgeois controlled dissent?

I have genuinely only heard this sentiment as a way to say that when women do things only for women they serve Big Bad Evil and they should do things that serve men's lot instead and STFU about all that stupid girly shit like DV and workplace inequality, because it's all just a result of men being oppressed anyway. Soviets branded feminism that way, and the treatment of women here was and is fucking atrocious as a result of historical inability to organize and subversion of female dissent into other causes instead.

Do you have any other criticism?

Oh no I was talking about liberal feminism there being controlled dissent. I think radical feminism has always been anti-industry like properly, so it would be hard for ruling class to co-opt it.

There's aspects of it that can be co-opted imo, self-criticism is important and we should be open to that. Radical feminism isn't anti-imperialist, doesn't have a proper anti imperialist base or economic understanding. Which is why you'll see so many radfems be okay with liberation wars to free women in Afghanistan or Iran. It doesn't understand that national liberation of people from imperialism has to come first for the nation to then to progress and develop towards liberation of women. Without national liberation, whatever interventions that take place even if they're in the name of "freeing women", they'll always end up being worse for women in the long run. This is unfortunate because the original radical feminists like Carol hanish were actually inspired by Mao. But you know feminist philosophy changes over time and that's the direction I feel radical feminists went as a whole in the later years

Separatist movements in general has always been a tool by the empire to make the nations small and controllable. Internal discord will always make the country more open to US intervention or coups or having a US aligned gov. This has been tried with Kurds, was why the Balkans were balkanized. Was also used by Brits for Muslims vs Hindus to seperate India. And Hutus and Tutsis. But I don't believe it applies to seperatism or could happen with female seperatism because the female sex isn't like a nation. We are organized by sex as a species but not as a nation, if that makes sense. I know in china there's some push and pull between CPC and radfems within the country there.

[writingwithcolor]

Middle Eastern /Arab Muslim mercenaries

Anonymous asked:

Hi there. I wanted to write a Middle Eastern action story set in near future Kurdistan. These are 5 of the most important points: 1) It’s about a syndicate called “The Kurdish Order”. 2) My two heroines are a Kurdish woman and her Arab partner. 3) The reason for them living their lives as professional assassins was because their parents were survivors of a civil war in their country. 4) The supporting characters are the Kurdish woman’s parents who contacts her from the headquarters via a radio, and informs her about the targets’ whereabouts. 5) The main villain is an Arab woman whose evil plan is to distribute a lot of firearms to the mercenaries around the world. When the two heroines confronts her and asks, “What did your parents taught you when you were young?”, the villain’s response is; “You’re correct, my nemeses. This is not a ‘My mom and dad hated me for no reason when I was young’ type of excuse. It’s more of a ‘My mom and dad taught me that the world is about the survival of the fittest’ type of motive.”. The issue here is that I want my story to take place in the Middle East, but I don’t want to perpetuate the “Muslims = Mercenaries” stereotypes. Would my story still work the same if my characters are coded as Christians or Atheists?

I don’t know enough about this topic to speak on it authoritatively but I do want to point out that Kurdistan isn’t currently a country. It isn’t clear from your ask whether you want to set your story in a near-future setting in which Kurds have gained independence and founded their own country, or whether you are referring to the geographic region that spans present-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran in which Kurdish peoples are mostly concentrated. 

Either way, it’s worth noting that Kurds are currently a marginalized ethnic minority in all of the countries in which they reside. Kurdish nationalism dates back over a thousand years and has a complex history including many instances of violent repression. If you are not Kurdish yourself, I would recommend doing a lot of research into Kurdish history and current political issues before attempting to write this story. 

-Niki

The Middle East is diverse in ethnicities and beliefs. Even though Islam is the religion that many people from the region follow, is not the only one. My suggestion in this case, to avoid the “Muslims = Mercenaries”, is to give your readers a clear image of how much of a mosaic the Middle East is. And this can only happen when the worldbuilding is correctly done and the focus is not only on the Muslims but on the rest of the people as well and their customs. As for the rest of your question, I agree with Niki that before you proceed with this project you must inform yourselves deeply about Kurdish history and especially the current political climate 

-Asmaa

We would like to turn this over to our Kurdish and Arab readers. How do you feel about the asker’s story premise? What advice do you have for them and which stereotypes would you like them to avoid?

#Kurdish #Middle eastern #Kurdish women #Arab #Arabian #Middle Eastern Women #Islam #Muslim stereotypes #Muslim characters #asks #Arab women #villains

[gavisuntiedboot]

Hey I was just wondering if you could link some articles about everything israel has been doing to Palestine in the last 16 years (so basically the time Gaza’s been an open air prison) bc tho I’m pretty invested in politics the media in my country hasn’t been covering this whole situation in Palestine apart from this past week (and the bigger attacks from a few years back) and even then the articles are pretty clearly pro israel so I do know to a certain extent what the situation is and has been like between Palestine and israel (the basics of these two countries’ history since WW2) but not the details and I’d like to inform myself

Unfortunately the media in Canada the UK the United States (obviously) and France (again this isn’t really surprising) isn’t really good at covering what’s happening in the Middle East so informing myself objectively and via reliable sources on the history of these places (when it doesn’t affect the western world) can be a bit hard I genuinely spent a lot of fucking time researching the subject but I just haven’t been satisfied with what I found (it’s all really repetitive and it doesn’t really cover the details tho I did find some really interesting articles written by Palestinian journalists) I did try watching documentaries but they all cut out the more awful parts of history which kind of really sucks (the one thing that was easier to find and that conveyed good and objective info is the statistics of the conditions Palestinians in Gaza have been living in)

If you don’t want to that’s totally fine feel no pressure about doing it but if you don’t wanna link articles could you maybe pls talk about what you know and again no pressure

Hello lovely,

So this has been sitting in my inbox for a while because I've been busy (school, protests, funerals and vigils, etc). I decided to respond to this one because I think the ask is framed very well.

It is common knowledge that Israel puts forward a large media and PR effort to hide the atrocities being committed. There is a huge monetary fund dedicated to this - what other country pays fully for college students to come for week-long trips and see how wonderful the country is? The entire regime is built on propaganda, and I think it's important that everyone try and dismantle our reliance on one or two sources of media. In school, we are constantly told who are the "reliable" sources of information, but in times like this, when the media and press are so controlled, look at the best and most reliable source: primary sources. I encourage you all to follow people who are on the ground in Gaza like Motaz Azaiza, who is on the ground in Gaza and has been for several years. I also encourage you to follow Mohammed El Kurd, who is from Sheikh Jarrah in occupied Jerusalem. He is brilliant and articulate and doesn't mince words, and he has done dozens of interviews and talks about the plight of Palestinians, both at home under occupation and in the diaspora. For news, I think one of the best sources has been Al Jazeera, which is a Middle Eastern news reporter. It is banned in some countries, but they release the most accurate information about what is currently happening. Many of their journalists have just had their families wiped out for the work they are doing.

In regards to what you can watch, there is a plethora of Palestinian film that you can consume. The ones off the top of my head are '5 broken cameras' and 'Omar', which are both critically acclaimed, brilliant films on Palestine. Here is a link to more documentary than film style pieces on Palestine: https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix/films_main.html

There are many YouTube videos on the subject as well. A very good article is the one published in n+1 by Saree Makdisi.

I personally don't have many articles to share, because everything I know about my home and my people was told to me by my family. So, allow me to share with you a little bit of my life story:

My grandfather was born in a small village in Palestine just outside of Nablus. He would have been about 8-10 years old when the Nakbah happened. Nakbah is the Arabic word for 'catastrophe', and it describes the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948. My grandfather was not one of them because of how far in the West Bank he was. He remained in Palestine, trying his hardest to flee despite the immense debt that his own father had passed onto him. He worked in shops. He picked olives from the hundreds, if not thousands, of trees in the village. He was trying to save himself and his 12 siblings, all on no income and a 4th grade education. There was no more school when the occupation started.

My grandmother was born in the neighboring village. She was looked after by two brothers and a father that would have torn the world to shreds for her. She met my grandfather when he came to help repair their home. They were married young, around 19, and they had their first son, my uncle, in their home in Palestine. The occupation got worse and worse, with people having their homes invaded, guns to their faces, being told to leave. My grandmother fought one such settler, and they took one of her beautiful green eyes for it. My grandparents tried everything they could to keep their house in Palestine, but it was no use. They had to flee to Kuwait (twice actually), a journey that takes 72 hours nonstop on foot, in order to not be killed by Israel. My grandmother took her house key with her, thinking she would need it to open the door when they were able to return. And that key still sits in her house, staring at her and her 8 children and 30 grandchildren who have never seen our home in Palestine.

I fortunately don't have direct family in Gaza, but I have living family that fled Palestine. I have so many family members who will never be able to see our land in our lifetime. Our house is gone. The olive trees are gone. Everything that my grandparents knew of the world for a quarter of their lives is gone. How long until we are gone? How long until the plan is successful, and our young are murdered and our old left to die so that Israel can say that Palestinians never existed in the first place?

Between three of my friends, they have lost 100 family members. Between Palestinians, we have lost over 7000 people. Civilians. Children. Mothers. Fathers. Neighbors. People. I want to educate, I want to be a voice and rally, but I can't do it every day. I'm struggling with the guilt of being alive as a Palestinian right now. My entire bloodline, my history, is being wiped off the face of the earth before my eyes. And I'm sorry I can't be more help.

#free palestine 🇵🇸 #free palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #save gaza

[zestingbloodorange]

the first feeling I felt when I came from my mother's womb was grief. I was born into witnessing people get massacred witnessing my family my friends my classmates my neighbors suffer get kidnapped and flee with nothing and suffer in foreign countries and live in camps, and get killed in the most evil ways possible and it has never stopped I was the child and then I grew up to witness children continue to go through this and even worse than what I've experienced, in iraq in palestine in syria in sudan in yemen and the more I grew up the more I witnessed. and i will never understand how this amount of childrens' pain isn't haunting everyone on this earth to change. what are people waiting for and how do they live with themselves ? even if I know the answer I will never understand.

I remember not crying as a child I remember holding my scared grandmother and telling her don't worry the loud sounds are just thunder. I remember the limbs i remember the glass in my face and hair i remember the smell of blood I remember everything and if I forgot something it will come back to me suddenly when I'm eating or showering or trying to fall asleep or or or.

and it never became just a memory. things change but the feast of being eaten alive never stops.

when i first got internet i saw those try not to cry and reunion videos and all I could think about is why soldiers and their children get to reunite and people praise them but my cousin found his dad's mutilated decomposing body in a dumpster ? why does my classmate's dad was forced to see his children blow up in front of him ? and we "did it to ourselves" every single time. seeing all of these going back to school commercials and school clothes in the stores and knowing school means we are going to get bombed and we will find out which classmate or teacher we have lost in the break.

i grew up with refugees from many different backgrounds in Baghdad that were seeking a safer place to grow up in and it's heart shattering and it haunts me that they were in danger again and again.

In school we were iraqi arabs assyrians ezidis sabians kurds palestinians syrians sudanese muslims christians and all I could think about is why the kids I see on the TV are kids and we are not why is our lives not like theirs and even tho I knew the answer even as a kid I was still confused or I don't know really it's hard to explain the feeling. and I remember all of us used to fight about the dumbest shit possible like that's my anime crush you cannot have him in yu gi yo.we were kids.

the child that survives grows up but the child will forever be here.

I hate how people react and use these type of conversations. even if no one reads them It's still very sacred to me and it's public. so if you read this be normal or ignore it.

#swana #iraq #assyrian #iraqi

[biblioflyer]

What is Picard's narrative style?

Just sort of thinking aloud here, but I'm finding myself rather baffled by a particular sort of response to Jack Crusher that seems to be a reaction to a saccharine, uncritical adoration of him that I'm somehow completely unaware of. Maybe there's a huge area of the web that is fawning over Jack that I'm just not seeing because of the whims of the algorithm.

I have a feeling this reaction might be dependent on what framework people are looking at the show through and whether its the classic Trek framing of pulp drama and "protagonist centric morality" where Jack is somehow supposed to make us feel seen and be presumed to be correct in all things.

Which I think flies in the face of the sort of "prestige drama" framing of the streaming era where the protagonists are limited and fallible and while they may be motivated by high minded principles, adhering to those principles is not always easy: see also Crusher and Picard talking themselves into executing Vadic or Seven executing the gangster in season one, and the right course of action is not always obvious. I strongly believe that this is the more appropriate way to analyze Seasons One and Two of Picard, and I suspect Discovery becomes a richer series if one adopts this posture.

Speaking of which, this is all very reminiscent of criticism of Burnham oddly enough, which makes it extra odd and ironic because it also seems to be rooted in lingering anger over how the fandom has responded to Burnham and a perceived hypocrisy in the reception of Jack. Don't get me wrong, I got to like the guy even though I dislike both the secret lovechild trope and the messiah antichrist trope, but if I had thought I was supposed to assume he's objectively correct about everything and uber special, that would not have been the case.

If the assumption is that characters like Burnham and Jack are pulp action heroes then yes, the entire plot falls apart like a house of cards because they repeatedly do very poorly thought out things that turn out through happenstance to have been the right move after all for reasons no one could reasonably predict ahead of time. Additionally the plot winds up centering them as a key element in saving or condemning the Federation, the galaxy etc.

However! Greek tragedies involving Fate with a capital F also deal in self fulfilling prophecies and narratives that are going to fulfill themselves no matter how the characters try to resist. Some of the darkest stories humanity has ever told involved predestination paradoxes.

Which to me means that if we are to assume that modern Star Trek is more like The Expanse, Babylon 5, or even Deep Space Nine; absolutely no one should be assuming Jack is supposed to be an audience surrogate. He's just another mortal flailing his way through the story who didn't ask to be a chess piece in a Borg Xanatos gambit and, if anything, keeps trying to get people to stop dying in his stead.

People who are making these choices are very explicitly doing it not because Jack is uniquely deserving, but because he's not. The argument advanced time and again is that of solidarity. That actually the Vulcans are wrong and throwing people to the wolves because it would be more efficient from a consequentialist view is an error.

Now you don't have to buy that and I don't think Picard S3 actually did a great job of making this argument (major credit to Todd Stashwick for making what could easily have been yet another in a long line of Starfleet antagonists who have taken consequentialism too far and made him seem like the smartest guy in the room a lot of the time.)

But! If you think for instance that Turkey ought to be kicked out of NATO for its treatment of the Kurds with full recognition of the potential of earthquakes in the geopolitics of Southeastern Europe and the Middle East, or that the US is right to risk nuclear war to help Ukraine*: then there is an argument for sending a message to bad guys that there are people who will put skin in the game because its the right thing to do even if the risks are extreme. You could even make consequentialist arguments for following one's conscience that are rooted in solidarity and inspiring better behavior from others who may be inclined towards timidity.

*You are free to disagree with either of these propositions if that disagreement is rooted in reality and a legible ethical argument, I'm mainly using these as analogies rather than trying to sell the reader on them. The what, hows, whys, and other contingencies of geopolitics are fussy, the consequence vast, and I don't mean to flatten them.

Admittedly the debate over individualism vs consequentialism and Jack's narrative role is an argument that I think would have been strengthened if the series hadn't done an abrupt 180 on the recurring themes of the validity of people trying to solve problems on their own without having to be in Starfleet.

But there again, I get what was trying to be signaled by putting Jack, Raffi, and Seven on the bridge: Starfleet is turning the corner on excessive proceduralism. Which incidentally forgets that at several points in the narrative, the entire season might have been derailed if people had listened to Shaw, although I'm not unaware of the counter arguments about solidarity, humanity, and standing up to bullies....these just weren't arguments that were made well.

#star trek ethics #star trek picard #jack crusher #fandom critique #fandom commentary #michael burnham #liam shaw #picard season 3 #picard spoilers

[darka-art]

kabal of the blood diamond- 40k AU

So I have decided to make my own lil AU with @rowscara 's accord.

Some people where having some fun making AU with her Ocs, and I though I could do my part with a darker AU ( for now I'm gonna call it the Blood Diamond Kabal)

It is a plot that mingle the Ynnari and Vect conflict , where Marc , El-Shay and her lil team have to cooperate to survive and discover who betrayed them and have revenge.

Please note that Marc-André and El-Shay belong to @rowscara

The detaillaid sinopsis is down but I'll first introduce the OCs

（＾∀＾●)

The OCs

El-Shay : A ouce powerfull noble leader of the Blood diamond Kabal, she now seek revange for those who had destroyed her Kabal.

Marc-André DeFrague: A elit sniper , ounce Hero of the Emperium, who was enslaved by drukari. He now''work'' with Shay's lil surviving team. He hope to get free and finish his hit list and confront his father for secretive reason.

Evra: She is El-Shay 's most ''trusted'' right hand, and generally take care bureaucratic , business and control information. She is Berbedual's wife.

Berbedual: He his a Haemonculi that used to take care of shipping ''alfblood'' that where born in his lab. He sadly lost almost all the embryo during the aid, but was able to save a few. He actually like the human and let Marc-André tell bedtime story to the surviving encapsulated child.

Veex: He is the equivalent of a ''Haker'' and is good with technology. He has alcoolic probleam

Sha'vara: an ex Mercenary who is now an assassin. She is good with poison and sneaking. And strangly, a good pilote.

Now is the more detailled plot:

El-Shay is one of the many nobles that has influenced the dark city of Commorragh. Her Kabal, the Blood Diamonds, had been feared and also revered for being one of the best trade/ courier company in the city.

Recently, her business has been disturbed since many of her trade ship has disappeared without trace. Her agent was able to lead her to a wealthy Arena owner ( named Kurb ) where many slave and gladiatrix combat each other.

It turns out the guy really like to party for weeks and invite many other nobles to his bloody parties and bloody games.

 She and her team , Evra, Berbedual, Veex and She’vara go on a spy mission in the hope of finding an answer and kill the one who dares hurt her Kabal.

It is during gladiatorial combat that El-Shay first meet Marc-André. The gladiator had special implant and spine augmentations that make move and react in a flash of light, making him Kurd ‘s most talented and deadly slave the Scourge has seen. She thought she could perhaps use him for her own agenda.

During one night , she met the ex guardsmen in his cell and used her charm to make a pact with him: She would get him free , alongside some nice night in her room, and in exchange the men would tell everything that happened to his ‘’owner’’ that he hated so much.

She of course had no intention to keep part of her bargain and after using him, she planned to sell the mon-keigh. What can we say, that's just how it is in Commorragh.

After a few pleasant night , Marc-André kinda started to feel used by the scourge and he didn’t liked to be betrayed ( especially that a part of him got really attached to her).

So he decided to escape by himself. Sadly he was caught and after a few misadventure,  tortured by Kurb who told him that he would be free if he explained himself.

 El-Shay and her team where captured and brought to the Slave owner, and a mysterious Eldar that Marc seem to recognize. Shay’s plan was exposed by Marc-André. He demanded his owner to set him free. But Kub told him and everyone : No, for you are all Ynnari traitor. 

After a bloody battle, El-Shay , her team and Marc where able to escape Kurb and the mysterious guard ‘s house. But it costed El-Shay ‘s whole empire: Her house , her guards and crew where all killed and destroyed. The Scourge was in ruin.

The lil group were able to hide in a ancient tower, where both the human and Drukharis reluctantly have to cooperate to stay alive.

Unknown to them, they are about to discover a great plot that mingle Ynnari and Vect ‘s conflict, betrayal amongst Eldar  and The Empire’s secrets.

#Plot #story #warhammer #drukhari #original character #Haemonculi #assassin #guardsmen #drawing #illustration #digital art #fanart #warhammer 40k