This Brave New World, CXIX
for Emad Soliman Robaya Robaya, a lifelong Rafah resident in Gaza who plays his flute to lift children's spirits and keep himself calm as the Israel-Hamas war rages on
sitting cross-legged
next to mounds of rubble
the flutist
breathes out what's inside him
to a circle of hungry kids
FYI: I have so many memories here... I can't leave this place. I feel at peace in it. If they bomb all of Gaza, I won't leave it...I think playing music is a form of rebellion. I rebel with every song I play... What can we do. This is a test from God.
-- Emad Soliman Robaya Robaya, Dec. 4 interview with CBC News
Added: This Brave New World, CXX
for Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird
People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for, and they have a right to subject their children to it... Remark in Chapter 17 by Judge Taylor
138 candles
lit to mark the first night
of Hanukkah ...
freball after fireball
engulfing Gaza skies
FYI: Haaretz, Dec.7: This Year, Every Jew in the World Is Living the Real Story of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah is upon us. Not the comforting, all-purpose holiday version, but the historic conflict with deadly enemies, would-be friends and fierce partisans who own the "only truth."
Added: This Brave New World, CXXI
written in response both to UN Secretary General Guterres' invocation of Article 99 of the UN Charter
and to Doctors Without Borders' candlelight vigil and call for a ceasefire in Gaza as they honored colleagues who’ve been killed by Israel’s assault on hospitals and clinics.
a child is killed
every fifteen minutes;
if not dead
a child is (often not) rushed
to a bombed-out hospital
(FYI: FRANCE 24, Dec. 9: A death sentence: US vetoes UN Security Council resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Haaretz, Dec.9: The Israeli Army Has Dropped the Restraint in Gaza, and the Data Shows Unprecedented Killing)
Added: No More Fairy Tales, XXV
lobbyists swarm rooms of hot air
FYI: Democracy Now, Dec. 5 2023: Record 2,500 Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Descend on COP28 U.N. Climate Summit in Dubai
... there are at least 2,456 lobbyists at COP28, the U.N. climate summit in Dubai — nearly four times as many as last year — from companies like Shell, Total and ExxonMobil. The lobbyists outnumber the delegations of every country other than Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the summit, presided over by the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company, Sultan Al Jaber...
And Democracy Now, Dec. 7: “Cabal of Oil Producers”: Climate Scientist Kevin Anderson Slams Corporate Capture of COP28
These COPs have become little more than a scam under which the oil companies and the other fossil fuel companies are hiding that nothing is being done,” says Anderson. Decades of inaction make solving the climate crisis much harder, and Anderson notes “technology and fairness have to go hand in hand” in order to save the planet.
