Uncategorized

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Chitirmas

At the Solstice, Balumain rides into the valleys of the Kalash, the Black Kafirs, and the festival of Chaumos is celebrated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash

Breaking Palestine’s Peaceful Protests

In Counterpunch, Neve Gordon answers once and for all the daft question, “why haven’t the Palestinians established a peace movement like the Israeli Peace Now?”

Here’s an article on the same theme, by Amira Hass of Haaretz: Danger: Popular struggle. Hass also mentions the repressive tactics being used against Israeli demonstrators against Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah (Jerusalem).

Also “Cracking Down on Peace”, a blog post on Palestine Note by Nadia Hijab

And: Israeli repression wave targets activists

And Jamal Juma’, coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign, in Israeli jail

And Haaretz editorial.

The wandering life

Having a permanent address in a small village means that old friends always know where to find you. Facebook is not necessary. Yesterday someone showed up on our doorstep who we had literally not heard from since he stayed with us in 1989.  At the time he was with us for several months. This time he plans to stay until January.

C., now 78, spent most of his life on the road. His journeys took him to every continent. He would plan his year around the seasons of grape picking or hop picking, earning just enough at one temporary job or another to enable him to move to the next destination.

Nowadays he lives alone in a flat in northern England; grows his own vegetables, buys his clothes from charities and his books from used bookshops; doesn’t own a telephone, a TV, or a computer;  doesn’t bother with heating. A modest pension and government rent-subsidy permit him to live in luxury. And, although he claims to have given up travel, he still gets away three or four times a year, mostly to continental Europe.

It takes a certain quality of character to live like C. He isn’t easy-going, but abides by strict principles. He is disturbed by things that normal people don’t even notice. When he was here last time, distant traffic sounds from the highway four kilometers away disturbed his sleep.  He’s uppity and easily distressed. He talks to every stranger, makes friends easily, but retains an aloofness. He lives like a vagabond, but exudes the aura of a man of culture and old-world values.

At 78, he’s a little thicker around the waste, and just slightly stooped. But overall, the years have been kind to him. He continues to exercise three times a day: a regimen that includes eye exercises to preserve his vision. He goes for long walks; eats well, but still has that fondness for wine.

Someday he’ll settle down permanently, beguiling younger people with tales of his adventures. Or perhaps he will slip a ring on his finger for one last time, and vanish.

Madaa – Silwan Community Center

Madaa – Silwan Community Center.

A friend forwarded this:

Dear Friends,

We want to wish you all a happy and beautiful holidays period!

As you know we are volunteering since two years in Madaa Silwan Community Center. 
Madaa believes in empowerment through creative activities. Hundreds of children are involved in the weekly music, art, theater and dance activities. There is now also an Internet room where they can work for school, and a library where the children can read or take books home.
In our attempt and challenge to make the community center sustainable, we put up a new system:
http://gifts.madaasilwan.org

Are you looking for an original present for Christmas, for your best friend’s birthday or your parents’ anniversary? Or maybe you just want to surprise someone you love?

By choosing gifts, you will sponsor activities for the youth of Silwan in the community center. If you wish, you can send the gifts as a present to someone in the form of an electronic greeting card. He or she will receive an email with a link to see the different gifts you have sponsored in their name.

Please share this donation system with your friends and family, so our different projects will continue and grow, and that more children can follow classes.

You are warmly invited to visit the community center, so you can see the activities yourself.

Love,
Fabienne and Danny

Thinking about blogging platforms

I decided to move my self hosted blog back to WordPress.com because of an urge to simplify. It seemed to me more natural that the platform would be identified with the webhost, and take care of the operations I had been neglecting to do, such as updating the software and safeguarding against hackers. I would not be averse to paying something to Auttomatic for this privilege but think that payments should be scaled better according to number of visitors or bandwidth. It seems that in blogging either it’s free or you pay rather a lot. Blogs with many visitors should be able to offset charges with advertising.

Twitter Times and Feedly: interesting to compare the results

Feedly takes all of one’s RSS feeds in Google Reader and produces from them a compelling newspaper. It’s a joy to look at, and a joy to read. Everyone who tries Feedly loves what it can do.

Twitter Times has the harder job of taking one’s twitter stream and producing a news stream. It selects for stories that are capturing the attention of one’s twitter friends, and even friends of friends. The result is that Twitter becomes much more useful as a source of news and stories.

Both are great news readers, depending on the quality of the material they are given to work with. Twitter Times has the advantage that the “newspaper” produced goes public. Mine is here. The Twitter Times homepage has better examples from famous bloggers. Still, Jack Schofield’s Times had at least three separate almost identical stories on the new Google phone, so robotic editors do have their limitations.