Latest Posts by slightlyanxiousvillain - Page 4
While all of Europe is responsible, I think it’s also important for people from the UK to acknowledge the particular and direct culpability of our government in what has happened in Israel and Palestine - mostly because it never is. Politicians don’t mention it, the media never mentions it, they tell you nothing about it in school, no one talks about it. I was just saying exactly the same thing about India, but if you ask an average British person if they think their country did a good job of ruling Palestine you’ll get a blank stare, maybe they’ll pull a massively uninformed opinion out of their arse, I doubt many could tell you exactly when it was. But the fact is that when Britain assumed control of the Holy land in 1918 both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism were relatively minor concerns, and when we left in 1948 there was a civil war raging between those two sides. All of the important seeds of the conflict were sown and took root while Britain was in charge. The first major Palestinian uprising of 1936-39 was an anti-colonial struggle against the British Empire.
But today, watching the news, British people are like ‘wow guess we’ll never understand why Jews and Arabs just naturally hate each other’… just like those Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan, and those Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland’….. and all of those other places on earth where the legacy of British occupation and partition is division, violence and misery. The Empire is not a distant memory we can feel vaguely proud and nostalgic about (as most British people apparently do) it was a global crime of almost unimaginable proportions and it’s still (in some cases quite literally) blowing up in our faces.
some things that have happened since you stopped hearing about p/alestine after the “ceasefire” was declared
1,000+ palestinians were arrested in a mass-arrest campaign designed to, and i quote, “instill fear” - including children
al-aqsa mosque and worshippers were attacked and beaten
literal children, not even teens, children, were arrested and tried in a military court (this is not new, thousands of children have faced this terrorization over the years. Isr@el is the only country in the world that tries children in military courts. 500-700 children are prosecuted each year.)
a soldier deliberately ran over a child on a bike for having a pales/tinian flag on his bike. an adult man ran over a child with his car. on purpose. the child is 12. read that again.
sheikh jarrah was blockaded, illegally
whatsapp blocked the accounts of over 100 pal/estinian journalists
silwan, another pal/estinian neighborhood like sheikh j/arrah, is being violently ethnically cleansed to make way for more settlers
Isr@el has forced social media sites to censor the hashtags “free pal/estine” and “save sheikh ja/rrah” many posts and accounts have been deleted
25 pales/tinians have been murdered by the ID/F and settlers
in Jaffa, 300 arab families are under force expulsion orders to make way for more settlers. 300 families.
suicide rates in g/aza have risen to an all-time high due to PTSD and hopelessness
Pales/tinians in G/aza still do not have access to safe drinking water, electricity, medical care, and nutrition. families are still being displaced from their homes by settler colonialism. There is still an inability to mobilize freely, pursue a career, seek an education, or gain access to decent healthcare or mental health resources. The occupation, genocide, and ethnic cleansing continues whether you see on your feed or not.
#ReleaseThe21
On May 21, 2021, 21 members of the LGBT+ community in Ghana were arrested in Ho (Volta Region) as they held a workshop to strengthen the Ghanaian LGBT+ community. They were arrested on charges of unlawful assembly because they were "...advocating LGBTQI activities". Essentially they were arrested for being, or suspected of being, part of the LGBT+ community. The press release by the police even states "...the Command assures the public of its resolve to get to the bottom of this issue whilst also cautioning the public, particularly parents to be wary of activities of persons involved in this misbehaviour and report them to the Police."
This is not the first instance of community members being arrested simply on suspicion of being LGBT+. Less than two months ago 22 community members were arrested in Kwahu Obomeng on suspicion of attending a lesbian wedding, which attendees said was actually a birthday day. LGBT+ Rights Ghana and other organizations like Humanist Association of Ghana, Economic Fighters League, etc. have condemned this latest arrest and are demanding for the immediate release of the 21 community members.
It hurts not only to see the LGBT+ Ghanaian community being attacked this way, but also to see the lack of support for the community both within the country and amongst the diaspora. Queer Ghanaians need support to help fight the homophobic, transphobic, and overall intolerant government. We've got to spread the word and make noise until every single one of the Ho 21 are released!
#ReleaseThe21 #ReleaseThe21 #ReleaseThe21 #ReleaseThe21
this made me cry, so i have to share it. i can’t tell you how much of this feels like it was about my childhood.
“Some nights, always alone, I go out in stolen makeup and women’s clothes with an ID I found in a lost wallet. I never feel more male than on these nights”
we say this after every ceasefire but even if active bombing has stopped, palestinians still face israeli violence on a daily basis. in gaza alone, and as a result of the recent violence, the water supply is now facing 40% shortage, roads leading to hospitals are destroyed, at least 70,000 people have been displaced, 12 families have been completely wiped out, and close to 2000 injured, many of whom will not be able to go abroad to receive crucial treatments as the 14-year siege on gaza continues.
and as always, israel is going to enjoy total impunity on all of these crimes which allows it to continue with the siege on gaza, home demolitions, land/resource theft, detention of children, terrorizing worshippers and so on.
the momentum that was built, especially on social media, has got to continue. it has become quite clear that the movement has done so much specifically in terms of shedding light on the magnitude of israel’s crimes and the absurdity of the justifications that we have been battling for ages.
yes, i cried literal tears seeing people in gaza celebrate the ceasefire but this is a reminder to all that a ceasefire is the bare minimum as different forms of violence enacted by israel never ceased. the fight for human rights has got to continue. keep talking about sheikh jarrah, the occupation, the apartheid, the siege; keep palestine present so that israel is held accountable for its crimes.
Help protect British transport workers during the pandemic! Please share
David O'Sullivan has been a London bus driver and tube worker for 30 years. His company has just sacked him for standing up for his colleagues' health and safety rights during the pandemic.
The fatality rate for London bus drivers is almost three times the national average and Britain has been one of the worst-affected countries during the pandemic.
In January, Dave asserted the rights of himself and his colleagues to a safe workplace. This is covered by Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act (1996). When he warned his colleagues about the spread of COVID-19 at the bus garage and informed them of their rights under the Act, he was sacked.
The union colluded with management in the sacking.
Because of serious safety breaches by management, Dave and his colleagues had already written to the company's Managing Director, the London Deputy Mayor for Transport, and Unite the Union officials. They were ignored.
Section 44 gives all employees the right to refuse to work “in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believes to be serious and imminent”. Employees can remove themselves until “appropriate steps” are taken “to protect themselves or other persons in danger.”
All British workers have this right.
Dave's claim against Metroline is a test case for the rights of key workers during the pandemic. Please don't let the legal system force key workers into yet more unsafe conditions!
Dave has evidence. He has secured legal advice. What he and London bus drivers need now is your support.
Please donate and / or share this message now
uk folks, there are active government petitions to introduce sanctions against israel and formally recognise the state of palestine
with enough support and coverage, this could really make a difference, so please sign and share if you’re a uk resident!
Speak up. Raise awareness. People are dying.
Post made by this account.
Educate yourself here, here, here and here
Donate here
This post is everything. (via @sukunasfootrest)
this website was made by actual palestinians. it debunks myths, answers faqs and it also explains the history of palestine in detail for those who want to learn more. spread this instead of spreading carrds!!!!
decolonizepalestine.com
today it was revealed that a white woman in brownface was amita suman’s stunt double in shadow and bone.
at a time when hollywood is preaching to stop aapi hate the show has shown us, twice so far, that they don’t care about our community. by having a south asian coded character make racist remarks towards an east asian coded character they added nothing to the plot or character development- all they did was try to create a divide between our communities. this hurt more especially because zoya was never racist in the books.
they condoned putting a stuntwoman in brownface because they couldn’t be bothered to find a desi stuntwoman for amita. there are truly so many talented desi dancers and acrobats out there but shadow and bone refused to cast accurately solely because stuntwomen are supposed to show up in blurry or fast moving shots, making it “easier” to rely on brownface. this speaks volumes about how much they care about diversity.
for a show that has been praised for representation and diversity and was going to mean so much for asian viewers, shadow and bone failed to deliver time and time again, showing us that all we can count on when it comes to south asian representation in hollywood is constant disrespect and racism.
netflix and leigh bardugo along with the rest of the showrunners and writers marketed the show as being a diverse fantasy but were surrounded by a team that approved brownface should tell you all you need to know about how much they respected desi people in the first place. so many south asians were excited to finally see themselves onscreen in inej and zoya, especially as the show was praised by reviewers and writers as being diverse and accurate representation and this is what we got.
amita was so excited to play inej, a strong brown woman whose identity was not solely defined by her race and i can’t imagine how she felt watching a white woman paint herself brown so that she could perform stunts that amita had trained for as well. if anything, this proves that hollywood’s pushing of diversity on screen does nothing to help poc and representation unless that same diversity exists behind the camera.
i don’t know how you can look at this and not be enraged at the state of this fucking island
Fuck the daily mail but considering they are the most Tory/loyalist newspaper ever this is an incredible headline.
Be interesting to know if leadership circles are forming.
To all my followers who are citizens of the EU and of voting age, please consider signing and sharing this EU citizens' initiative requesting that the European Commission stop upholding intellectual property rights regarding COVID vaccines and treatments and make them a public good instead.
In order for the European Commission to read these proposals this initiative needs a lot more people signing that it has now, so every person counts.
COVID is slowly becoming a “third world” disease. While first world countries are hoarding vaccines, having doses for populations many times their size, third world countries can’t get any because pharma companies want to sell to the first world countries first. Even then, first world countries will receive them first. While rich countries recover from COVID, they will forget about the pandemic while many other countries live the absolute worst moment of the pandemic without being able to vaccinate their population.
So, India is dying.
Look, I know a good number of you are from the US and things aren't amazing there either, but my country is literally on the brink of collapse. So I'd love it if we could talk about that for a minute.
If you can't do anything else, please just read and reblog.
A second COVID wave has taken out the healthcare system. There are no more hospital beds. There's an oxygen shortage. There's a critical vaccine shortage. The Central Government has thrown its hands up and is passing the baton to the State Governments to do what they can.
There are over 16 million covid cases. A record 330,000 new cases reported yesterday - comparable to the US at its peak. 187,000 dead as of today.
There is no plan.
Mass cremations are taking place. The cremation grounds are running day and night and they are short on wood. People are watching their loved ones die while waiting for a hospital bed, and then they're unable to give them the proper burial rights.
Hospitals are overwhelmed. Patients are being confined, two to a bed. They're the lucky ones.
We are on the verge of people dying in the streets.
This is the second-most populous country in the world. The largest democracy. A country that encapsulates over 15,000 years of recorded human history and has endured everything from famine to invasion to colonisation.
We might be at the end. This might be the thing that does us in.
People are dying.
People are dying.
People are dying and there is no plan.
More good news? Variants are popping up. A double mutation strain has shown up. It is resistant to current vaccines. This will not go away. This is the devastation they warned of when the anti-maskers were out protesting the minor inconvenience of covering their face in public.
My country is on the verge of an emergency state. Our government has failed us. This is as dire a situation as it ever could be.
Look. I don't do much with my life. I write fics, some of you have read them and that's pretty much it. I spend my days with my head in the clouds because that's where I like to be.
But two days ago, my grandmother tested positive, had to be taken to hospital and the ambulance caught fire.
She barely made it to the urgent care she needs.
So, here I am, using whatever meager platform I have to cobble this request together. Because I have to do something.
If you can, donate.
Or spread the word.
Help. Please.
So, India is dying.
Look, I know a good number of you are from the US and things aren't amazing there either, but my country is literally on the brink of collapse. So I'd love it if we could talk about that for a minute.
If you can't do anything else, please just read and reblog.
A second COVID wave has taken out the healthcare system. There are no more hospital beds. There's an oxygen shortage. There's a critical vaccine shortage. The Central Government has thrown its hands up and is passing the baton to the State Governments to do what they can.
There are over 16 million covid cases. A record 330,000 new cases reported yesterday - comparable to the US at its peak. 187,000 dead as of today.
There is no plan.
Mass cremations are taking place. The cremation grounds are running day and night and they are short on wood. People are watching their loved ones die while waiting for a hospital bed, and then they're unable to give them the proper burial rights.
Hospitals are overwhelmed. Patients are being confined, two to a bed. They're the lucky ones.
We are on the verge of people dying in the streets.
This is the second-most populous country in the world. The largest democracy. A country that encapsulates over 15,000 years of recorded human history and has endured everything from famine to invasion to colonisation.
We might be at the end. This might be the thing that does us in.
People are dying.
People are dying.
People are dying and there is no plan.
More good news? Variants are popping up. A double mutation strain has shown up. It is resistant to current vaccines. This will not go away. This is the devastation they warned of when the anti-maskers were out protesting the minor inconvenience of covering their face in public.
My country is on the verge of an emergency state. Our government has failed us. This is as dire a situation as it ever could be.
Look. I don't do much with my life. I write fics, some of you have read them and that's pretty much it. I spend my days with my head in the clouds because that's where I like to be.
But two days ago, my grandmother tested positive, had to be taken to hospital and the ambulance caught fire.
She barely made it to the urgent care she needs.
So, here I am, using whatever meager platform I have to cobble this request together. Because I have to do something.
If you can, donate.
Or spread the word.
Help. Please.
CPD just killed a fifteen year old child.
anyway now that we’re all talking about britain i want everyone to read this article and educate themselves on how fucked up the class divide in my country is
10 miles away from where the Derek chauvin trial is taking place, police murdered Daunte Wright, a Black man, today on April 11th. They then left his body on the ground for 6 hours. They pulled him over for having an air freshener obstructing his rear view mirror. This can't be reformed. Abolish the police
I know everyone's making jokes about it but also as a british citizen it is just so Fucking weird to see how the country stops when a royal dies. this man was almost a hundred years old. the news story begins and ends at 'very elderly man dies after being ill for a long time'. and yet it's EVERYWHERE. as if it was remotely unexpected. as if it actually affects the people in this country. every kind of broadcasting stops in its tracks and talks about this and only this, on and on, tributes, memorials, the same things again and again. when all that's happened is an old man has died. and people consider it disrespectful if you're not interested in it - disrespectful, to not grieve for a complete stranger! to treat his death with the exact level of engagement you would any other person you didn't know!
it just kind of feels like a wake-up moment to how fucking backwards this country is. you realise that every single media outlet has been feeding you the idea that these people are more important and monumental than anyone else. you realise they've been pushing that on you for your whole life. in the year of 2021 we are still their subjects and we are still expected to care about the royals as though they have a single fucking thing to do with us
prince phillip is dead and the newsreader was like “this has come as a shock to many” babe where have you BEEN
some of my favourite prince phillip tweets so far
I think there are schools where what might be called a “behaviour problem” exists.
In said schools, I don’t think banning mobile phones would have an impact because a) phones aren’t the issue and b) it won’t be enforceable anyway.
We live in a world where kids will have constant access to mobile phones, and we ought to be teaching them how to use phones safely and responsibly- banning them doesn’t help.
Meanwhile, what schools with behaviour issues need is:
-Funding for interventions with kids who struggle in a classroom/school environment for whatever reason.
-Funding to attract and retain experienced staff.
-Resources in the wider community (e.g. youth workers) to deal with things like drug problems that spill over into school.
-Funding for decent alternative provision for kids who can’t cope in a mainstream school environment.
-A broader curriculum with more vocational opportunities for kids who don’t thrive in traditional academic subjects.
But also, there needs to be an acknowledgement that every single kid has been through a traumatic experience in the last year, and when you are eleven or fourteen, a year is a much higher proportion of you life than when you are thirty or forty.
And the expectation that kids will just seamlessly slot into their old routines and everything will be fine is ridiculous.
Things that happened in Bristol and London late last night:
-In Bristol, at about midnight, the police put dispersal order in place and brought the dogs out again.
-They arrested a number of protestors in a violent and aggressive way, including a medic who was providing first aid.
-In London, a large number of arrested protestors including legal observers are still being held. Organisations suck as Green and Black Cross and Black Protest Legal Support are challenging the legality of some of these arrests.
If you are in either of these cities and can provide post arrest support, please get in touch with the relevant organisations.
Otherwise, keep fighting the good fight.
Note how the outrage about Sarah Everard was all deemed legitimate in the beginning, when the conversation was all about women being able to go out late and men holding men accountable, etc. These discussions are relevant, but they don't change the status quo.
The second the discussion started to involve criticism of the police, as soon as it became clear that this was not just a concern of white liberals, then suddenly the police behaviour at the vigil was deemed totally appropriate and much of the media lost their appetite to talk about it.
it’s very inch resting to me that mainstream british media is trying soooo hard to make us feel sorry for cops when theyre the ones quite literally out there assaulting and murdering women and disrupting vigils and turning protests violent. fucking choke
on the left: police escort football fans through glasgow city centre, march 7th 2021
on the right: police disrupt a peaceful vigil commemorating a victim of police violence against women, march 13th 2021 (x)
people are talking more about the grammys than the uk govt trying to screw over queer and abused kids but sucks to be us i guess