my, time certainly flies...

hard to believe that my two weeks off are just about over – and i didn’t even blog during that time… hey, there were times i didn’t even turn on the computer for days at a time… guess i needed a break from technology too…

i did the 'dutiful daughter' thing though – yep, the mother was ill - she thought her kidneys were 'packing up' so we got into the hospital and then spent 7 hours in the emergency ward while they monitored lungs and kidneys - once they discovered neither had deteriorated significantly they sent her home – the next day was spent checking up on her and doing her shopping…

of course, when she wanted more shopping a couple of days later i wasn't so happy when she insisted on coming - she refuses to accept she can't do what she once did - consequently she needed to take a break from walking (it wears her out - and she can barely breath) so we decided on a sit-down and a coffee… she thought we should eat but she just couldn’t (or wouldn't) understand that there was nothing in the shop i could get that was vegan-friendly and anyway, all i wanted was coffee, but she could have food... her response was typical - why couldn’t i just 'stop being so damn difficult' – hmmm,  apparently i went vegan just to antagonise her!!!!

you could say we get very niggly after too long with each other - conversation sometimes can get a bit strained between us - the mother's become really conservative over the years so we disagree on a lot of issues… i try to just let things ‘wash over me’ but after a while ‘bad daughter’ comes to the fore and stands up for herself and her beliefs… my mother just doesn’t ‘get’ vegan – vegetarian she could (just) cope with, but vegan - now that's just tooooo weird... never has she asked why i chose to be vegan - of course, why would she, she already knows i did it to be difficult!! – these days it seems if it’s not her belief system, it's not worth learning about - it's not the status quo so we just won't talk about it… fuck there are times when i wished i lived on a remote country property far away from my mother (and, at times, humankind in general!) – see, bad, bad daughter….

enough of the mother/daughter shit... 

i haven’t gotten through anywhere near the amount of reading i had planned… and now i’ve gotten even more to read because two new books i bought a few weeks ago arrived… ‘the sexual politics of meat: a feminist-vegetarian critical theory’ by carol adams, and ‘sister species: women, animals and social justice’ ed. by lisa kemmerer… being mine rather than the library's though means i can read them anytime...

i did watch a couple of interesting movies – one, a documentary called “troubled minds - the lithium revolution” – in the 1940s an australian doctor, john cade, discovered the ‘benefits’ of lithium for treating manic depression (as it was called then – bi-polar now) – this in effect marked the beginning of psycho-pharmacology (the use of drugs to manage psychiatric conditions) – up until this discovery electric shock ‘therapy’ and lobotomies were the dominant treatments… it explains his search for chemical alternatives to these brutal forms of treatment and the lack of interest from drug companies because lithium is a naturally occurring element so couldn’t be exploited commercially – it was quite fascinating actually….

i also watched ‘ironclad’ – set in 13^th century england when john was king – this is the story of what john did after being forced to sign the magna carta – his rampage across the country and the violence he and his mercenary army perpetrated against all who signed the document and supported limiting a kings powers – that included mass slaughter of families and villagers - in his desire to regain total control… this was also very interesting, but very graphic - i found myself closing my eyes a lot – but they were violent times…

i caught up with a number of people too – usually dinner at my place because it’s just easier – i know exactly what’s gone into the food and nobody that comes to share has any problems with my vegan menu – consequently i cooked, ate and drank soooo much – and i did catch up with a vegan friend that i hadn’t seen for ages – it’s always lovely to speak to a full-on, ra-ra-ra vegan - ahh, another's passionate belief in the things i hold important – it makes the heart sing...

two causes i strongly believe in take ‘centre stage’ this week…

the first one is the oscar’s law rally i’m off to tomorrow -  a campaign to stop the factory farming of companion animals… the campaign is named for this wee little boy who was finally rescued after spending 5 years as a breeding machine for the greed of humans… the sheer neglect these babes suffer is heartbreaking… my old girl allie who died earlier this year spent her first 4 years of ‘life’ as a ‘brood bitch’ in a puppy factory and believe me there are psychological as well as physical scars from the deprivations they endure…

the second cause is palestine’s 'push' for UN recognition of statehood…  over 120 nations from the middle east, africa, asia, and latin america have already endorsed this initiative, but israel and the US are trying to block it... europe is still undecided - sadly it appears australia is undecided too… 44 years of occupation is just way too long - please sign the petition calling on the UN to recognise the state of palestine here…





i'll leave you with this video a friend sent me... 'freed' after decades as laboratory animals in a pharmaceutical research facility, this is the extremely touching vision of a group of chimpanzees seeing the outside world, feeling the sun on their faces and bodies, for the first time... their pleasure is apparent - palpable - and brings a tear to the eye and a smile to the lips... (the commentary isn't in english - but who needs commentary - a picture paints a thousand words)... you can read more here...

after 22 days of death and destruction...

... Israel finally announces a ceasefire... they say they have "achieved their goal"... so their 'goal' must have been the MURDER of over 1200 Palestinians - and of course the destruction of infrastructure and resources for the surviving civilian population ...

according to the New York Times ...

"The announcement came on a day in which Israel was again criticized by the United Nations over civilian deaths in Gaza — this time after a tank fired at a United Nations school, killing two young brothers taking shelter there.

United Nations aid officials raised questions about whether the attack, and others like it, should be investigated as war crimes. The Israeli Army said that it was investigating the reports at the highest level but that initial inquiries indicated that troops were returning fire from near or within the school."

It's about time the international community stopped being apologists for israel; where america and the united nations (United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) stopped backing them to the hilt and started treating them as what they are - war criminals intent on genocide (perpetrating their own holocaust against the Palestinians!!!) where's the International Court and Security Council in all of this??? oops, forgot... part of the united nations which means dominated by america!!!! who really don't give a damn... or will they now that 'new blood' is in the white house???? I'm skeptical...

Just had to do another quick post in support of the Palestinian people... now I'm going to think about getting ready for work this afternoon... working with Katherine so I know it's going to be a good shift!!!!

Tomorrow I'm off to the hospital (at 7.30 am!!!) with me mum to find out results of tests she had last week and to (hopefully) get some insight into where her kidney disease is at and what we can expect over what period of time...

and then maybe another post tomorrow arvo on something far less gloomy!!!!

Israel - still trying for genocide

Sonia Karkar from Women for Palestine wrote this article in 2007...

"This year will see in 40 years of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands when Israel took control of the last 22 per cent of historic Palestine within the internationally-recognised Armistice “Green” line, known as the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. That was in 1967. It was a bold and deliberate plan to take all of Palestine, an idea that was put into effect with the UN Partition of 1947 giving European immigrant Jews 55 per cent of Palestinian land and the remainder going to the majority Palestinian population.

The plan was for an exclusively Jewish state on land historically known as Palestine. The Palestinians were never consulted, nor did they agree. It, therefore, required the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and throughout the months of 1947-1948, subversive European Zionist groups engineered the calamitous dispossession of the majority Palestinian population. Some 750,000 Palestinians fled their homes and homeland in terror as word of massacres and razing of villages and towns reached them. These events culminated in the al-Nakba or “Catastrophe” on 15 May 1948. The same day, the Arab states declared war on the newly-created Israel, but the weak and disorganised Arab armies were no match for the highly efficient and well-armed Israeli military force that had been formed from the Zionist terrorist groups already operating inside Palestine.

Like the Palestinians, the Arab states had only just emerged from colonial occupations and they were unable to withstand Israel’s blistering attacks. They lost the war and the subsequent armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab states increased Israel’s land acquisition to 78 per cent of Palestine. Again, the Palestinians were not consulted. It was a monumental betrayal of Palestinian rights by the Western powers and their own Arab neighbours. The Palestinians – both inside and outside of Palestine – were put in limbo and Israel continued to devise the most extraordinary schemes to ensure that Palestinians could no longer claim under Israel’s law, any of the land appropriated by the Jewish state.

Then came the six-day war of 1967 and Israel’s illegal military occupation which has continued for 40 years – a crime against humanity that has so humiliatingly oppressed and subjugated two, even three generations of Palestinians and is illegally and relentlessly stripping them of even more land. Today, there is barely 7 per cent of the land left for the Palestinians.

It is 40 years too many—an occupation that has no legitimacy in law and no morality in human behaviour. But, the crime is not Israel’s alone. The world powers—America, England, France, Russia and others —are all complicit. The ineffectual United Nations is complicit; the self-serving Arab regimes are complicit; the Zionist-controlled Jewish Diaspora is complicit; the Bible-struck Christian churches are complicit; and so is every person who has remained deafeningly silent in the face of Israel’s criminal acts. Only the remarkable resilience of the Palestinian people has stopped their deliberately planned demise. It is no wonder then that Israel’s crimes are becoming ever more blatant, in order to create immutable facts on the ground that will make it impossible for the Palestinians to realize self-determination in their own homeland.

And that is the inequity of it. Dispossession, displacement, ethnic cleansing and occupation have all been excused and accepted as a consequence of the shameful Jewish Holocaust. But, for the Palestinians, there will be no such universal acknowledgement, shame and reparations if Israel is allowed to continue its plunder of Palestinian lands with impunity. The world can no longer allow the vengeance of the victims to wreak havoc on a blameless people. After the original sin of dispossession and the wretched years of inhumanity that followed, we all have a responsibility to stop Israel’s crimes rooted in an illegal occupation and its colonialist expansionism. We must demand a free Palestine and seek a way forward that will redress the wrongs and finally bring justice to the Palestinians. Only then will there be a chance for peace and reconciliation between the two peoples – Jews and Palestinians."

nothing changes - one of today's headlines: "Israeli army moves into Gaza capital as war toll passes 510"

What more can I say - I am outraged, and my heart bleeds for the Palestinians...

here's "Warnings moving clockwise" by Do-Re-Mi...