Tomorrow I will be sending money to a friend and his family in Rafah, Gaza, Palestine. If more money is sent, he will be able to also distribute it to other families.

They are desperate for money for the very basics - food, water, fuel. If you want to also send money, please let me know asap. You can email me glasgowpoly@gmail.com or leave a comment here. I need to know by lunchtime tomorrow (Tuesday)

Cheers

I ended up starting today instead of yesterday - the ward manger's decision.

I'm in an acute medical receiving ward.  They seem very friendly and supportive.  Seems like it'll be an excellent learning opp.

I turned on my phone to check for messages during my first break.  I received this from my friend in Rafah
"i have left the hous, all of the windows,doors and some walls of my house were destroyed i moved my family 3 min before the F16 attack the place i live in"

I must have looked shocked - the nurse who was looking after me for my first morning asked me if I was ok.  I didn't want to be Little Ms Controversial on my first day so just said I'd had some bad news from a friend.  I don't know how pale I'd gone but she kept asking if I needed or wanted to go home, but I said I'd rather be kept busy.  That was a lie, but if I start not being at work its going to be hard to ever go in.

I sent the message with a short explanation on to some friends. 

( includes decription of life in Rafah )


I'm going to be sending money by Western Union to my friend, ideally on Friday which is my next day off.  The fees are relatively large for a small amount.  If you'd like to give money too, you can transfer it into my bank account.  I have a spare account I'll use for this so the money stays separate.  If you are able to give, let me know when it will reach my account, and how much so I can hold off til all the money has arrived before I send it.

My friend is very good at distributing money fairly between his own and other families.  The more money there is, the more families will benefit.  If you can't give anything, don't worry about it. No apology needed!  Just keep writing to your MP, to all media outlets and the Israeli embassy.  I'm going to friends lock the post with my account details on it.  Comment below if you want to know them and can't read the post for whatever reason.

So, I stayed at work.  I ended up feeling a mix of desolation and intense motivation to learn as many skills and how to be a good emergency nurse so that I can one day, in the not so distant future, go and be useful there.

This is something I wrote after I got home from the pub last night.  Its a class piece of slightly pissed writing so I'm banging it up.

I know there were problems with the radio feed from the sunny govan website.  I heard the interview over the airwaves and it was an awesome bit of radio.  They're going to play it again on Sunday.  In the meantime they might put her up as a clip if there's enough calls for them to do so... :)

( Impotence is Unacceptable )

***

This week I've mostly been doing stuff around Gaza and drinking and playing mob wars on facebook as coping mechanisms!
  
At Monday's AF meeting we decided to put out a news sheet, so I wrote a sort of background glossary for it, and we used stuff from talestotell, and another member wrote some other stuff.  That went to the printers yesterday and we'll have 1000 to dish out in Glasgow on Saturday.

Tuesday I was too late and the doors were locked but I was supposed to be going to an interfaith prayer for peace at a local synagogue.  Fom those that did manage it, it sounded really good and I'm sad I missed it.  Later Tues eve I did get along to Glasgow Gaza Emergency Coordination meeting.  The room was packed - about 100 of us from lots of diff groups and backgrounds and some activity planned - not as much as I'd hoped but it was productive.

Wednesday was mostly writing stuff for the news sheet and doing other awareness raising about whats going on. Lots of emails, phone calls etc.  Then went to the pub with some friends.

Today I'm going into town to help with a Gaza stall outside Borders on Buchanan St - we'll be there til about 6 so come say hi if you're about.

Thats how I'm feeling now.

So many things lately seem to be bad and wrong.

I'll start this post with some positives and try to end on some too.

1)  I have a job starting soon (thats both pos and neg though - I'm dreading it and also feeling so wrung out now that don't feel ready to be starting my first nurse job, espec not as it looks like it'll be acute medical receiving)
2)  Nick is in my life.  Though our relationship can be frustrating it is also nurturing.
3)  Other lovers - though thats also hard as they all live so far away
4)  I have a home.  Food in the cupboards.  Safety.  Friends.
5)  Anarchist Federation Glasgow and other political projects are progressing reasonably well.

Ok, now I'll wallow for a bit.  I do feel slightly better for having made above list though.

Gaza.  What to say?  Its so horrible.  I feel so helpless and impotent.

I just found out yesterday that a couple of my friends in France were arrested in November and face really serious charges. I know them, and their politics, well enough to know that they would never risk civillian lives.  Sarkosy is looking for "terrorists" to enable him to continue his right wing agenda and they're being picked on.  There is no evidence, but famously "conspiracy" charges need little hard evidence.

I'd been looking forward to seeing a friend (and his girlfriend who it seemed I'll get on well with) this week.  He moved from Glasgow to USA 6 months ago.  I saw them briefly yesterday.  Only in email contact with him while he's on the road which is frustrating.  so i'd emailed him about time/place of the gaza demo and they showed up at the end while i was in middle of coordinating 3 diff lots of folks to go to same place for a drink afterwards.  i was like "come for a cup of tea" and they said no, but that they'd come over later to stay on my sofabed and hang out.  then i got an email to say they'd changed their plans, and talking of "awkwardness", which turned out to be nothing and that they just wanted some time to themselves. ok.  so i email a few more times.  brief IM chats last night and today.  i prob fucked up by saying why i was upset (that it was entirely subjective and that there were lots of reasons why i'm not cheerful right now but that i felt like they didn't seem to want to see me).  Now it looks like they're going to london tmr and i won't see them at all! :(

nick's arrived now. bye.

Update
Going to meet up with the USA friends in an hour. :)  And Nick arrived which made me feel less alone.

I am NOT pro Palestinian.  I am pro human life, pro peace, pro justice.  I am against all nationalisms be it Palestinian nationalism or Zionism.  I think Israel has the same right to exist as every other state - no more, no less.

Here's a brief explanatory text I wrote for the back of a leaflet we're giving out in Glasgow tomorrow.  I realised there was a lot of misinformation and lack of basic background.  I'd be interested to know your comments on it.  Is it still jargony?  Do you disagree with it?  I want to get something fairly neutral but factual together for future use.


Basic background on Gaza situation

Gaza is a 30 mile strip of land next to the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Egypt. 1.1 million Palestinians live there – its one of the most crowded places on Earth.

What is happening in Gaza?
The Israeli army has been bombing Gaza since 27th December. It claims to just be bombing Government buildings however this has included schools, mosques and medical facilities such as pharmacies.

There are constant F16 fighter jets in the air and they are firing missiles which have also hit residential streets. Over 500 Palestinians have been killed and 2000 injured (up to Sun 4th Jan).

But the news said that Hamas broke a ceasefire and thats why the Israeli army attacked.
For 3 years Israel has been blockading Gaza Strip preventing export of crops and goods manufactured in Gaza.  With the blockade also limiting imports into Gaza there has been massive inflation. Ordinary Gazan families are struggling to just feed themselves. Hamas called a six month ceasefire on the condition that Israel lifted
the blockade. However Israel did not do this so Hamas did not renew their ceasefire and have resumed their attacks which has resulted in the deaths of 3 Israeli civilians. We condemn all attacks on civilians, both Palestinian and Israeli.

What is happening now?
On Saturday, as people all around the world including a big  demonstration in Glasgow, showed their opposition to the Israeli assault upon the people of Gaza, Israeli tanks rolled across the border into Gaza. This means many more ordinary Palestinians will be killed. 


The blockade also means the hospitals do not have enough basic supplies such as surgical gloves, syringes and medicines.

How to donate money for medical supplies in Gaza

Yesterday's demo in Glasgow went ok.  We were mostly in the very quiet office district of the city centre.  I gave out hundreds of SJJP leaflets which had the Physicians for Human Rights financial appeal on the reverse.

Then Israel sent in their tanks, and began a ground invasion.  So we're taking to the streets again today

I'm so glad my job hasn't started yet.  I don't think I could cope with having to smile and act professionally while this is going on.

A letter I just wrote to my MP on http://www.writetothem.com/

( Read more... )

Below the cut is a model letter. Please send it, or your own version, to your MP asap.  Comments here to let me know you have will make me feel slightly less disempowered and miserable!

( Read more... )

You can read on the ground reports of what is going on in Gaza from my amazing friend who has been there for a couple of months now.

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/tales_2_tell/

I just did a local radio interview.  But nothing I do can be enough.  Over 350 killed so far.  Plus thousands injured.  Homes destroyed.  Children traumatised.

Sometimes when I'm in the Highlands a fighter jet roars over me practising.  Have you ever had this?  Its really alarming.  My friends in Rafah are suffering this 24 hours a day.  And whereas I can just shrug it off as annoying, missiles are being fired and my friends don't know what will be destroyed next.  They don't know where to go to be safe.

Please please please do at the very least one of :

1. Keep yourself updated with whats going on.  This way you can tell all of your friends and colleagues.  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/ is a good start.  Also english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/
2. Write to your MP as a matter of absolute urgency.  http://www.writetothem.com/
3. Go on demonstrations called in your local area.
4. Phone, write, email media outlets.  Challenge the reporting if necessary.  Let them know that their audience feels strongly about the situation and wants more and better reporting of the conflict.
5. Consider giving money to Physicians for Human Rights

Gaza Hospitals Already Filled to Capacity; Medical Supplies on the Verge of Depletion

Since the beginning of attacks in Gaza three days ago, over 300 people have been reported dead, more than 1000 wounded, and many hundreds more are in need of immediate medical attention. With a medical system already on the verge of collapse as a result of the ongoing closure, 1.4 million civilians are in desperate need of urgent medical help from outside the Gaza Strip.

PHR-Israel has the means to transfer this help within days and is seeking to raise 700,000 USD during the next week for purchase and direct transfer of supplies to Gaza hospitals.

( Read more... )

(I just found some scraps of paper on which I wrote while I was held by the Israeli state in May 2003 after I was arrested (never charged with anything) and then deported.  So here it is, as I type it up, unedited, not even correcting the spelling mistakes as that for me would be a slippery slope into editing more.  Anything I add I'll put in square brackets like this [blah])

( Read more... )

I'm slowly opening myself up more and more. I come across as withdrawn, and I often won't speak at all in social situations if I don't totally trust the people I'm with.  So I'm trying to relearn to talk about things I'm interested in, and as this is my lj, I'm trying to be brave and do this on here.

I hold a lot of views that I've had negative reactions to and I'm not very good at "normal smalltalk" [0] nor figuring out when to speak. I tend to find myself either interrupting or starting at the same time as someone else. I have to think before I speak - to consciously try to figure out if what I'm about to say is appropriate. By the time I've run through some filters, the topic of conversation has often moved on. However it also comes across as weird to not say anything at all, so I try to speak, but what I say is often seen as weird, or I try to make it innane.

The views I hold are not often shared by "normal" [0] people. I have had very different experiences to them. Very little about my lifestyle or views are normal [0].

I am polyamorous, I have had a lot of sexual lovers and experiences and I continue to experiment in that way. I don't dream of getting married/having kids. So talking about partners isn't a topic I can just relax and talk unfiltered. In a prev placement I did get caught out that I had more than one boyfriend (at that point I was living with N, which had come up previously, and then also mentioned I had been at my boyfriend's house (referring to A) at some point) and so decided to be more honest and told her I had 2 boyfriends but they both knew about each other and had agreed to it. This did not help my acceptance!

I am a queer (sexuality) dyke (gender identity) with full complement of body hair, cropped head hair.  I don't follow fashion and I don't wear makeup.

I'm a geek.  I get on with technology.  I was a computer programmer for 4 years.  I enjoy science fiction.  This is the sphere that I am most likely to overlap with the occasional person on.

My political views and the way I view the world are at odds with normalcy [0]. I am a feminist and Anarchist. This means talk about how so-and-so people (men, women, working class, foreigners, heroin addicts etc) are like blah not only sound prejudiced and dumb, but don't interest me at all.  In addition I can't challenge them as I need some level of approval of these people in order to get by at work.

And thats before we get onto having lived in a warzone, seen people killed, lived on the streets and in squats, been involved in direct action, riots, lived in a self sufficient squatted village in Spain, been assaulted mutiple times by cops...

I don't have a TV.  I'm not monogamous.  I don't hold Daily Mail views.  I'm a geek.  Basically, I'm not normal.  And add in my aspieness and it all gets weirder still.


But then I have my friends. :):):)  Wonderful wonderful people that are prob also a bit weird themselves, and who don't appear to judge me for my weirdnesses.  That I don't have to filter my chat with :)  Crucially, these are rarely people thay I *have* to get on with, in the same way that I have to get on with my flatmate or people at work in order to make my life run smoothly.

Usually they are geeks and/or Anarchists - most often some combination of both, just by virtue of being thoughtful about the world.  They are always intelligent.  By definition, they don't get freaked out by me. :)



[0] By normal, I mean my flatmate and the folks I work with or were studying with. Otherwise I am conscious that the people I choose to spend time with are, sadly, a minority. I don't know of a better term than "normal" and I'm aware that they are all different, but I can't necessarily see the differences as they are all foreign to me so its difficult for me to grok them enough to see them. Unlike my friends, these people are predominantly straight women, then gay men, with a small spattering of straight men and gay women. I've not identified any other non monosexuals, but they might be as closeted as me.

Scottish Jews for a Just Peace (SJJP) are currently fundraising to
help some working class, Palestinian children in Rafah to have a
summer outing. Please forward this on to whoever you think
may be able to help, and see the end for details of how
to donate money.

( Read more... )

Yayy - for the 2nd week in a row I have a chilled out Friday night at home. :)  I'm getting competent at arranging to spend time the way that makes me feel good. 

A friend is coming over and I have my favourite wine replacement - Tropicana's Blueberry Blend which is mostly grape juice but has enough apple to taste nice and best of all blueberries to make it a fab blood / red wine colour.  Great to make kiddush with.  I have a couple of nice crusty rolls for bread.  And then veggie sausages to make with tomatoes and onion with mashed potatoes, carrots and peas.

Tomorrow is 1st night of pesach (passover).  Got a really nice, chilled out, informal, lefty but orthodox seder.  Its the same place I've been going for 1st night for 4 years now.  I just printed out 6 copies of "Alice's Hippy Haggadah Supplement" from http://www.opensourcehaggadah.com/ for each of us.  2nd night I'm going to a very orthodox rabbi, which will make an interesting contrast.

For the majority of you that aren't Jewish - for passover we have a seder (order, as in sequence, not boss about!) meal.  Its quite long and involved with lots of rituals, story telling, symbolism and wine drinking.  For reasons I can't remember we do it twice on each of the 1st two nights of passover.  I think that in Israel they only do it once.  It starts after sunset, and goes on til the wee hours.  Its all centred around the Exodus story.  Thats the one where Moses leads the Hebrew people out from Egyptian slavery after the 10 plagues.  So there's lots of redemption and freedom and "once we were strangers in a strange land and they made us slaves" stuff which leads to nice openings for talking about how we treat strangers here etc.

Thanks to the amazing people at gphrc I was able to give some good news to my friend in Rafah.

His family are incredibly poor. They suffer further because they're not Hamas. His college was occupied by Hamas and his teachers were sent away. Two of his homes have been destroyed by the IDF (Israeli "Defence" Force) because his family are poor so can only afford vulnerable houses. At least 20 of his friends have been killed by the IDF, sometimes with him there too. Because of the Gaza blockade by the IDF food costs in Gaza have shot up. Bread costs twice what it did a year ago. And it is impossible to find paid work.

gphrc run a stall every Saturday from 1-5 on Buchanan St outside Borders. They're truly amazing - out every week without fail, whatever the weather (which is good as otherwise in Glasgow they'd never be there!) selling crafts made in the West Bank and collecting donations. They don't even take their own expenses out of that - every single penny they collect they send to people in Palestine. They've put several Palestinians through college - I think mostly to become nurses. They also have paid for surgery and medicines, as well as basic subsistence costs such as food.

I approached them on Sat (I'm friends with them and sometimes (not as often as I should) volunteer on the stall as well) and asked if they could send anything to my friend's family. Not only did they have enough for him, but for 3 other families in Rafah too! Turns out they were wanting to send money to Gaza but didn't have any contacts! Its not a lot (£75 to each family) but it'll enable them to buy food, pay rent and maybe relieve some of the daily stress of being civilians in a warzone for a month or so.

gphrc have a paypal button on their website, and if you have any money left over at the end of the month I'd really urge you to give it. Apart from the bit that paypal steals ("admin charge...") every single bit of your money will go to Palestinian civilians who are just trying to get by in horrific conditions.  The paypal button is on this page, halfway down on the left.  Ok, plug over!

And there's more!

And then they asked me if he, or anyone else, would be able and willing to do monthly live linkups with Sunny Govan FM - a community radio station.  So thats been arranged now too.  He'll be able to tell the people of Glasgow what its like to grow up and live as a young man in Rafah.