shv2 - s (it/its)
s (it/its)

250 posts

Latest Posts by shv2 - Page 4

1 year ago

In a press conference held by the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza earlier today, they confirmed that they estimate 10,000 people remain missing under the rubble and that, with their very limited means right now, in order to be able to locate and exhume these bodies, the operation could take up to three years. Until then, these 10,000 are not counted among the casualties.

As summer approaches, the trapped bodies are going to be a major source of illnesses and epidemics are expected to spread. Already, there are 20,000 cases of hepatitis in Gaza.

All of this of course is made infinitely more difficult by Israel blocking fuel from entering while it continues to target civil defence vehicles. As a matter of fact, Rafah now has only 3 functioning fire trucks according to a Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson.


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1 year ago

a lot of the coverage of the Palestinian genocide is focusing on the US student protests and the narrative is constantly in danger of shifting away from what the protests are actually about and a lot of the language is now speaking in terms of police brutality, silencing of free speech, etc. It's not a radical thing to say that this isn't exactly helpful to the Palestinian cause if the actual reasons for the protests aren't constantly front and center. A lot of people have already made this point. I do not think the genie can necessarily be put back in the bottle with how the protests and the police reaction to them are entering the public consciousness of the USian people. A lot of people are or will become aware of these protests through the lense of these simply being instances of police brutality, and police brutality is a critical issue that many USamericans are very passionate about thus making it difficult to reframe the context of these images of police slamming white professors into pavement towards awareness of Israels decades long illegal occupation and systematic and indiscriminate displacement and murder of Palestinians. What I feel needs to be done is try to reframe these images flooding the internet not *away* from issues of police brutality and homesoil fascism, but in the wider context of imperialist governments taking the lessons they learn oppressing "foreign peoples" and turning them inwards. That police brutality is not disconnected from imperialist mass murder. That the one thing connecting the assaulted USian protester and the trans israeli denied gender affirming care for refusing to serve in the fascist Israeli military and the Palestinian child buried alive for the crime of being Palestinian... the one thing connecting them is that, sooner or later, they are all victims of power. Our rights are granted to us inequitably, unevenly, and are just as quickly stripped away when we do not serve the interests of fascist power. We are either a tool of the state or an enemy of the state. The Palestinian, not the innocent or the guilty but the human being Palestinian, is murdered because she can not be useful to the state while she is still breathing. She can never have the "privilege" of being a tool. I'll say it again: We outside of Palestine who can go to protests, who have families, who are able bodied, who can work, who can keep their head down or speak without immediate retaliation have the "honor" of choosing to be a tool of the state or an enemy of the state. The Palestinian has no choice.

There will always be an armed cop ready to arrest you and kill your brother as long as there is a bomb ready to drop on the heads of Palestinian children. Fascism trickles up and inward.


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1 year ago
Logging In To Let You All Know That The Palestinian Relief Bundle Is Now Officially Live After A Few

Logging in to let you all know that the Palestinian Relief Bundle is now officially live after a few delays. You can get games like A Short Hike, Anodyne, Wandersong, Coffee Talk, Zero Ranger, They Bleed Pixels, A Monster's Expedition - and more indies for $8. (Also, my artbook Pocket Goods is there).

Fundraising goal as of writing is $100,000 - let's smash it! Live updates on the bundle are on @vgforpalestine.


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1 year ago

Hey everyone, please consider buying the 2024 itch.io Palestinian Relief Bundle- it's 373 games, game-making assets, tabletop roleplaying games, zines, and comics for a minimum of just 8 USD! They have a goal of 100,000 USD, and as of the time I'm writing this post, they have 8 more days to reach it.

Screenshot of a Twitter post. The tweet reads, "Launching a games charity bundle for Palestine on April 12th! All proceeds go the PCRF. Link below." End of text. Along with the text is an image. The background is red and with the fishnet pattern from the keffiyeh. On the left of the added image is a game controller coloured like the Palestinian flag. On the right of the added image is text that reads, "Palestinian Relief Bundle, April 12th-29th." Below the center of the image is a black stripe with text that reads, "370+ games/comics/more for $8." At the bottom of the black stripe is text that reads, "All proceeds go to the PCRF." 
The original poster's username is @ VG for Palestine, all one word.

Link will be in the reblog!


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1 year ago

Israeli soldiers are conducting a series of invasive operations across the West Bank, abducting numerous Palestinians, killing and injuring civillians, and engaging in destructive raids on homes and Palestinian property.

This is what happened today (April 18) in the West Bank:

At dawn - Israeli soldiers launched a widespread operation in various parts of the occupied West Bank, breaking into homes, damaging Palestinian properties, and detaining at least 26 Palestinians, including two young women.

At day - The aggression continued as soldiers proceeded to assault Adli Rayyes and his son, Hashem, resulting in various injuries to both of them. Palestinian medics had to transport them to Jericho governmental hospital for treatment.

Afternoon - The Israeli Occupation Forces moved to the central West Bank where they entered the town Deir Ballout (west of Salfit city). There, they confiscated a telecommunications car that was being used for repair and maintenance work.

Evening - Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded the Ein Al-Sultan refugee camp (north of Jericho). They stormed and ransacked homes within the camp and abducted a young man named Nayef Abu Dahouk, taking him to an unknown destination. At the same time an Israeli military jeep rammed into a young Palestinian woman in Jenin (northern West Bank). She was taken to the Jenin governmental hospital, and is currently suffering from fractures and severe bruising.

The Palestinian Detainees Committee reports that over 40 Palestinians were abducted by Israeli soldiers TODAY alone, from various parts of the West Bank, with a concentration of these abductions occurring in Nablus, followed by operations in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron, and Jerusalem.

Two homes belonging to Mohammad and Ahmad Zeidat, who have been kidnapped since January, in the town Bani Naim (near Hebron) were also demolished.

Over 8,310 Palestinians have been abducted by the Israeli Occupation Forces since October 7, 2023.

(Source: IMEMC News, International Middle East Media Center)


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1 year ago

how c.ai works and why it's unethical

Okay, since the AI discourse is happening again, I want to make this very clear, because a few weeks ago I had to explain to a (well meaning) person in the community how AI works. I'm going to be addressing people who are maybe younger or aren't familiar with the latest type of "AI", not people who purposely devalue the work of creatives and/or are shills.

The name "Artificial Intelligence" is a bit misleading when it comes to things like AI chatbots. When you think of AI, you think of a robot, and you might think that by making a chatbot you're simply programming a robot to talk about something you want them to talk about, and it's similar to an rp partner. But with current technology, that's not how AI works. For a breakdown on how AI is programmed, CGP grey made a great video about this several years ago (he updated the title and thumbnail recently)

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you watch this because CGP Grey is good at explaining, but the tl;dr for this post is this: bots are made with a metric shit-ton of data. In C.AI's case, the data is writing. Stolen writing, usually scraped fanfiction.

How do we know chatbots are stealing from fanfiction writers? It knows what omegaverse is [SOURCE] (it's a Wired article, put it in incognito mode if it won't let you read it), and when a Reddit user asked a chatbot to write a story about "Steve", it automatically wrote about characters named "Bucky" and "Tony" [SOURCE].

I also said this in the tags of a previous reblog, but when you're talking to C.AI bots, it's also taking your writing and using it in its algorithm: which seems fine until you realize 1. They're using your work uncredited 2. It's not staying private, they're using your work to make their service better, a service they're trying to make money off of.

"But Bucca," you might say. "Human writers work like that too. We read books and other fanfictions and that's how we come up with material for roleplay or fanfiction."

Well, what's the difference between plagiarism and original writing? The answer is that plagiarism is taking what someone else has made and simply editing it or mixing it up to look original. You didn't do any thinking yourself. C.AI doesn't "think" because it's not a brain, it takes all the fanfiction it was taught on, mixes it up with whatever topic you've given it, and generates a response like in old-timey mysteries where somebody cuts a bunch of letters out of magazines and pastes them together to write a letter.

(And might I remind you, people can't monetize their fanfiction the way C.AI is trying to monetize itself. Authors are very lax about fanfiction nowadays: we've come a long way since the Anne Rice days of terror. But this issue is cropping back up again with BookTok complaining that they can't pay someone else for bound copies of fanfiction. Don't do that either.)

Bottom line, here are the problems with using things like C.AI:

It is using material it doesn't have permission to use and doesn't credit anybody. Not only is it ethically wrong, but AI is already beginning to contend with copyright issues.

C.AI sucks at its job anyway. It's not good at basic story structure like building tension, and can't even remember things you've told it. I've also seen many instances of bots saying triggering or disgusting things that deeply upset the user. You don't get that with properly trigger tagged fanworks.

Your work and your time put into the app can be taken away from you at any moment and used to make money for someone else. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people who use AI panic about accidentally deleting a bot that they spent hours conversing with. Your time and effort is so much more stable and well-preserved if you wrote a fanfiction or roleplayed with someone and saved the chatlogs. The company that owns and runs C.AI can not only use whatever you've written as they see fit, they can take your shit away on a whim, either on purpose or by accident due to the nature of the Internet.

DON'T USE C.AI, OR AT THE VERY BARE MINIMUM DO NOT DO THE AI'S WORK FOR IT BY STEALING OTHER PEOPLES' WORK TO PUT INTO IT. Writing fanfiction is a communal labor of love. We share it with each other for free for the love of the original work and ideas we share. Not only can AI not replicate this, but it shouldn't.

(also, this goes without saying, but this entire post also applies to ai art)


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1 year ago
Alhamdulillah my dad is free after Israel took him and made him take all his clothes off except his underwear and subjected him to investigation because he's a "criminal" as he's a very well known surgeon in Gaza and worked in Alshifa hospital for 30+years

My dad is facing PTSD pic.twitter.com/wpIB5mumDJ

— Farah Baker (@Farah_Gazan) March 23, 2024
Urgent: Help my family evacuate from Gaza, organized by Farah Baker
gofundme.com
Israel abducted my dad (Dr. Basil Baker) and forced him to strip down to his und… Farah Baker needs your support for Urgent: Help my family

Help evacuate her father from Gaza


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1 year ago
Hi All! Can You Boost?

Hi all! Can you boost?

I’m a severely disabled trans migrant trying to move to a safer country (away from my trafficker). My visa lawyer bill is due this week…and I’m still over 90% short of meeting my goal.

Art commissions are open here to help fundraise!

Art examples:

Hi All! Can You Boost?
Hi All! Can You Boost?
Hi All! Can You Boost?

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1 year ago

goodnight everyone (:

do your daily click

spreadsheet of families in Gaza you can help today

donate to:

Buy an e-sim

Help diabetics in Gaza

The PCRF

Anera

UNRWA

Taawon

Help Gaza Children

Sudan Tarada Initiative

Help a Sudanese family escape conflict

Darfur Women Action

Ramadan for Sudan

Period products in Sudan

Sudan Emergency Appeal


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1 year ago

goodnight everyone (:

do your daily click

spreadsheet of families in Gaza you can help today

donate to:

Buy an e-sim

Help diabetics in Gaza

The PCRF

Anera

UNRWA

Taawon

Help Gaza Children

Sudan Tarada Initiative

Help a Sudanese family escape conflict

Darfur Women Action

Ramadan for Sudan

Period products in Sudan

Sudan Emergency Appeal

1 year ago

LET'S DONATE AND SHARE RAMADAN FUNDRAISER FOR GAZA

Ahmad informed us that he will distribute Food & Urgent needs for Northen Gaza.

The situation is dangerous but Ahmad will try to reach the North Gaza, let's help Ahmad and reach the goal!

we only have less than 2 weeks, Please donate if youĀ canĀ andĀ share šŸ’œ

LET'S DONATE AND SHARE RAMADAN FUNDRAISER FOR GAZA

https://x.com/learntoliberate/status/1762512518084534707?s=20


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1 year ago

Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you.Ā 

AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.

Here are the important details:

We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner.Ā 

We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.

To opt out of sharing your public blogs’ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogs’ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the ā€œPrevent third-party sharingā€ option.Ā 

For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc.Ā 

Please note: If you’ve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, we’ve automatically enabled the ā€œPrevent third-party sharingā€ option.

If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.

1 year ago
ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO
ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO
ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO

ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO

[I.D. three screenshots of the tags for asexual, aromantic and aroace all gradient highlighted and marked with the trending topic symbol. End I.D.] (thank you @lemondoddle for the id!!)

edit:

KEEP TAGGING THIS ā€¼ļø the tags aren’t trending anymore so keep tagging it if you rb ā€¼ļø (let’s make it to valentine’s day!)

edit 2:

asexual and aroace are trending again yall! but aromantic still isn’t trending so keep!! tagging!!

EDIT 3:

THEYRE ALL TRENDING AGAIN GOOD WORK YALL ITS NOT VALENTINE’S DAY IN MY TIMEZONE YET BUT HAPPY ARO/ACE/AROACE VALENTINES DAY WE DID IT ā€¼ļø (still keep tagging though, don’t want to let them stop trending before valentine’s day is over) (or ever šŸ‘€)

edit 4:

i’m adding valentine’s day tag because. let’s invade that tag with this

EDIT 5 (and 6) (edit 6 is the image ids):

CAKE AND GARLIC BREAD FOR EVERYONE

ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO
ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO

[I.D. a beige-frosted one-tier espresso cake with caramel-colored drips on top along with nine swirls the same color as the rest of the cake around the top border. each swirl has a single espresso bean on top of it, and the cake itself has espresso beans surrounding it. End I.D.]

[I.D. half of a baguette in the form of garlic bread with a garnish of parsley or another garnish of that sort on top. the half is cut in six equal slices. in the top left corner, there are a few short ends of a plant sticking out, and the bottom right corner contains a section of the other half of garlic bread. End I.D.]

EDIT 7:

ITS VALENTINES DAY AND THEYRE STILL TRENDING HELL YEAHHHHHH

EDIT 8:

ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO

NUMBER THREE TRENDING?? TUMBLR IS THE BEST

[I.D. a screenshot of the tumblr trending tags list, showing third place as aromantic, trending with ā€œ#asexualā€ and ā€œ#aroaceā€ in the same category. the background is a desaturated brownish-red, and the ā€œ3ā€ is written in black text within a red circle. the rest of the text is white. End I.D.]

EDIT 9:

ALL THREE AT ONCE LETS GO

WERE MOVING UP ā€¼ļø #2 ā€¼ļø

[I.D. a screenshot of the tumblr trending tags list, showing second place as aromantic, trending with ā€œ#asexualā€ and ā€œ#aroaceā€ in the same category. the background is a desaturated yellow, and the ā€œ2ā€ is written in black text within a yellow-orange circle. the rest of the text is white. End I.D.]


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1 year ago

An easy way to protest Israeli products that actively support the genocide in Gaza. This is something you can do.

Spread the word. Get involved. Free Palestine šŸ‡µšŸ‡ø


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1 year ago

reminder that you can get three free e-books about the palestinian liberation struggle from haymarket books!

1 year ago

how you can help palestine

*i regularly update this post with any new info i find so please always reblog the original post*

How You Can Help Palestine

Donations

donations currently reaching gaza:

ā€¼ļø help buy e-sims for people in gaza

donate to get food packages to gaza - care for gaza

donate direct aid to gaza - ehab rida (longtime activist and volunteer, has been carrying out donations and humanitarian projects in gaza since 2021)

palestine children's relief fund

world food programme

aid to gaza - taawon/bank of palestine

help gaza’s children

female hygiene kits for gaza - pious project

donate to UNRWA

urgent humanitarian aid to palestinians - anera

medical aid for palestinians

urgent support for medical professionals in gaza

donate to ahmed (@/90-ghost on tumblr)

he is born, raised and based in gaza. please help him reach his goal of $50K to get his family to safety across the rafah border into egypt. as of right now… it’s $7.5K per person to evacuate gaza.

help journalist yousef escape gaza to treat his cancer

help mohamed evacuate gaza to get treatment for himself and his daughter

support palestinians: buy a keffiyeh from the last and only factory in palestine - hirbawi

secondary donations:

click to donate - arab.org

emergency relief for gaza - pious projects

palestine red crescent society

save palestine - islamic relief canada

send medical supplies to gaza - palestinian american medical association

help bring down israel's weapon trade - palaction

donate for the recovery of hisham awartani

one of the three palestinian students shot by a racist in vermont for wearing kufiyas and speaking arabic. hisham’s injuries have left him paralysed from below the chest.

How You Can Help Palestine

Petitions

ā€¼ļø urge icj to invite gazan journalists to testify

international cultural workers to strike from german cultural institutions for their complicity in oppressing palestinians and promoting genocide - strike germany

petition to investigate war crimes committed by israeli military

demand ceasefire - amnesty international

open call for immediate ceasefire

american government call for immediate ceasefire

american government to stop funding israeli military

ceasefire and increase humanitarian assistance - oxfam au

petition to get canva to address their pro-israel stance

invoke the genocide convention to call for ceasefire in gaza - world beyond war

suspend israel from international sports - diem25

UK to expel israeli ambassador - change.org

gaza healthcare workers for nobel peace prize - change.org

teachers around the world demand ceasefire - teachers for palestine

president whitten: reinstate samia halaby retrospective NOW - action network

demand the immediate release of mansour shouman

location specific petitions

gaza call for lasting ceasefire - oxfam (UK)

end israeli occupation - parliament uk (UK)

email your MP - medical aid for palestine (UK)

protect gaza civilians - islamic relief (UK)

stop fuelling genocide - action network (USA)

@ biden: call for ceasefire now - move on (USA)

ceasefirenow.com - jewishvoiceofpeace (USA)

call congress and demand a ceasefire - uscpr (USA - they provide a script of what you should say, so don't worry about it)

note: you can call everyday. they tally the number of calls per issue. so more calls = higher chance for them to take action. p.s. you mainly go to voicemail so don’t worry about phone call anxiety. fight through it just this once please.

no forced displacement! - action network

australia call on israel to stop attacking palestinians - apan (AUS)

immediate ceasefire and increase in humanitarian aid in gaza - actionaid (AUS)

email your MPs - stand with palestine (AUS)

ā€¼ļø australian senate to investigate australian citizens in the IDF for war crimes allegations - fpm (AUS)

ā€¼ļø arms embargo on israel - cjpme (CANADA)

sign to send letter to MP for ceasefire - nccm (CANADA)

ceasefire now! - ijv (CANADA)

call on your local mayor and council to demand ceasefire - LeadNow (CANADA)

cessez-le-feu et un couloir humanitaire - le mouvement (FRANCE)

Ʃcrivez aux dƩputƩ-es et sƩnateurs-trices - association france palestine solidaritƩ (FRANCE)

write to your dƩputƩ - assemblƩe nationale (FRANCE)

skydda civilbefolkningen i gaza! - mittskifte (SWEDEN)

singaporeans call for immediate ceasefire (SIN)

contact your elected reps and demand a ceasefire (GERMANY)

write to the EU demanding a ceasefire (EUROPE)

template of letters you can send (EU)

guide on how to contact your MPs in EU

p.s. if the template is outdated, just use it as a guide and add a few sentences here and there that reflect the current situation. i can’t find any recent templates so :/ at least this is something

multiple actions you can take to help palestine - plant een olifbloom (NETHERLANDS)

includes: links for donations, emails to MP, emails to media, links to petitions and demonstrations

den haag, maak nú werk van vrede in israël/Palestina - the right forum (NETHERLANDS)

māori call for palestine - ourActionStation (NZ)

deem israeli actions as war crimes - NZ parliament/pāremata aotearoa (NZ)

basta ao genocĆ­dio em Gaza! - awaaz (BRAZIL)

globo e grande mĆ­dia, parem de desumanizar civis palestinos - the intercept (BRAZIL)

How You Can Help Palestine

Campaigns

ā€¼ļø justice for palestine

reach out to countries to back up south africa’s invoke genocide convention at the ICJ

ā€¼ļø international criminal court

submit evidences of israeli war crimes

friends of al-aqsa

ā„ UK-specific

urge your MP to speak up for palestine

hands off al-aqsa

stop administrative detention

petition for UK to stop arming israel

ā„ International

boycott puma — email them to end their partnership with israel

boycott coca-cola

islamic relief canada

urge your MP to rally for ceasefire

decolonise palestine

poster campaign to raise awareness on the war crimes being committed against palestinians

text/call campaign for people living in USA

text RESIST @ 50409 to send a letter to your representatives to pass HR3103–a bill that prohibits tax dollars from going to israel

download 5Calls app to contact members of your congress | (more info)

fax campaign for people in the USA

go on this website to send 5 free faxes per day

here’s a link to a pre-written fax copy you can download to send (the first link on the linktree)

here’s a video that explains how to fax your senator (it’s very easy and all you need is a valid email address)

ā€¼ļø BDS movement

get involved in boycotting companies associated with israel

palestine diaspora network

global strike guide - join the global strike!

How You Can Help Palestine

please let me know if you have any more links. i will add them in. and please reblog the original post!!

How You Can Help Palestine

UPCOMING PROTESTS

PALESTINIAN LITERATURE READING LIST

PALESTINIAN BUSINESSES


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1 year ago

Genocide experts warn that India is about to genocide the Shompen people

Who are the Shompen?

The Shompen are an indigenous culture that lives in the Great Nicobar Island, which is nowadays owned by India. The Shompen and their ancestors are believed to have been living in this island for around 10,000 years. Like other tribes in the nearby islands, the Shompen are isolated from the rest of the world, as they chose to be left alone, with the exception of a few members who occasionally take part in exchanges with foreigners and go on quarantine before returning to their tribe. There are between 100 and 400 Shompen people, who are hunter-gatherers and nomadic agricultors and rely on their island's rainforest for survival.

Map of the Indian Ocean, showing the location of Great Nicobar Island. It's located in the South-East of the Bay of Bengal, near Malaysia.

Why is there risk of genocide?

India has announced a huge construction mega-project that will completely change the Great Nicobar Island to turn it into "the Hong Kong of India".

Nowadays, the island has 8,500 inhabitants, and over 95% of its surface is made up of national parks, protected forests and tribal reserve areas. Much of the island is covered by the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, described by UNESCO as covering ā€œunique and threatened tropical evergreen forest ecosystems. It is home to very rich ecosystems, including 650 species of angiosperms, ferns, gymnosperms, and bryophytes, among others. In terms of fauna, there are over 1800 species, some of which are endemic to this area. It has one of the best-preserved tropical rain forests in the world.ā€

The Indian project aims to destroy this natural environment to create an international shipping terminal with the capacity to handle 14.2 million TEUs (unit of cargo capacity), an international airport that will handle a peak hour traffic of 4,000 passengers and that will be used as a joint civilian-military airport under the control of the Indian Navy, a gas and solar power plant, a military base, an industrial park, and townships aimed at bringing in tourism, including commercial, industrial and residential zones as well as other tourism-related activities.

This project means the destruction of the island's pristine rainforests, as it involves cutting down over 852,000 trees and endangers the local fauna such as leatherback turtles, saltwater crocodiles, Nicobar crab-eating macaque and migratory birds. The erosion resulting from deforestation will be huge in this highly-seismic area. Experts also warn about the effects that this project will have on local flora and fauna as a result of pollution from the terminal project, coastal surface runoff, ballasts from ships, physical collisions with ships, coastal construction, oil spills, etc.

The indigenous people are not only affected because their environment and food source will be destroyed. On top of this, the demographic change will be a catastrophe for them. After the creation of this project, the Great Nicobar Island -which now has 8,500 inhabitants- will receive a population of 650,000 settlers. Remember that the Shompen and Nicobarese people who live on this island are isolated, which means they do not have an immune system that can resist outsider illnesses. Academics believe they could die of disease if they come in contact with outsiders (think of the arrival of Europeans to the Americas after Christopher Columbus and the way that common European illnesses were lethal for indigenous Americans with no immunization against them).

And on top of all of this, the project might destroy the environment and the indigenous people just to turn out to be useless and sooner or later be abandoned. The naturalist Uday Mondal explains that ā€œafter all the destruction, the financial viability of the project remains questionable as all the construction material will have to be shipped to this remote island and it will have to compete with already well-established ports.ā€ However, this project is important to India because they want to use the island as a military and commercial post to stop China's expansion in the region, since the Nicobar islands are located on one of the world's busiest sea routes.

Last year, 70 former government officials and ambassadors wrote to the Indian president saying the project would ā€œvirtually destroy the unique ecology of this island and the habitat of vulnerable tribal groupsā€. India's response has been to say that the indigenous tribes will be relocated "if needed", but that doesn't solve the problem. As a spokesperson for human rights group Survival International said: ā€œThe Shompen are nomadic and have clearly defined territories. Four of their semi-permanent settlements are set to be directly devastated by the project, along with their southern hunting and foraging territories. The Shompen will undoubtedly try to move away from the area destroyed, but there will be little space for them to go. To avoid a genocide, this deadly mega-project must be scrapped.ā€

On 7 February 2024, 39 scholars from 13 countries published an open letter to the Indian president warning that ā€œIf the project goes ahead, even in a limited form, we believe it will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.ā€

How to help

The NGO Survival International has launched this campaign:

The Shompen face obliteration: they urgently need your support
Survival International
Take action for the Shompen now! The Shompen are one of the most isolated tribes on Earth. They live on Great Nicobar island in India, and

From this site, you just need to add your name and email and you will send an email to India's Tribal Affairs Minister and to the companies currently vying to build the first stage of the project.

Share it with your friends and acquittances and on social media.

Sources:

India’s plan for untouched Nicobar isles will be ā€˜death sentence’ for isolated tribe, 7 Feb 2024. The Guardian.

ā€˜It will destroy them’: Indian mega-development could cause ā€˜genocide’ and ā€˜ecocide’, says charity, 8 Feb 2024. Geographical.

Genocide experts call on India's government to scrap the Great Nicobar mega-project, Feb 2024. Survival International.

The container terminal that could sink the Great Nicobar Island, 20 July 2022. Mongabay.

[Maps] Environmental path cleared for Great Nicobar mega project, 10 Oct 2022. Mongabay.


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1 year ago

The scenes coming out of Rafah are nothing short of horrific.

This is Israel relishing in its impunity. Israel knows that no matter the level of atrocities it commits, it will never be challenged or held accountable by those in power.

Your role still matters though. Keep advocating for Palestine, amplify Palestinian voices, find a protest near you - whatever you do, make your stance known.


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1 year ago

EMERGENCY PROTESTS FOR RAFAH

CANADA Feb 12 Montreal - 5 PM Ottawa - 4:30 PM Toronto - 5:30 PM Feb 13 Montreal - 5:30 PM UNITED STATES Feb 12 Austin - 5 PM Cleveland - 5:30 PM Los Angeles - 3 PM New York - 4 PM Seattle - 6 PM Washington DC - 6:30 PM

Feb 13 Atlanta - 7 PM Houston - 4 PM Philadelphia - 5:30 PM San Francisco - 5:30 PM

I'm sure more will be announced in the next few hours, please add any you see!!


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1 year ago
It Is More Important Than Ever To Keep Sharing, Showing Up For Protests, And Sending Emails To Your Representatives.

It is more important than ever to keep sharing, showing up for protests, and sending emails to your representatives.

Keep talking about Palestine until the siege on Gaza ends, until the occupation ends, and until Palestinians are free.


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1 year ago
Israel's Cruel Ban on Insulin Pens for Gaza Children Condemned by UN
Mashriq Vibe
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine, Jamie McGoldrick, has slammed Israel for adding insulin pens for children to the list of proh

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine, Jamie McGoldrick, has slammed Israel for adding insulin pens for children to the list of prohibited items that are not allowed into the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip. McGoldrick said that this is a violation of international humanitarian law and a serious threat to the lives of thousands of diabetic children in Gaza.

...

...Israel has been imposing a strict blockade on Gaza since 2007, severely restricting the movement of people and goods in and out of the coastal enclave. Israel claims that the blockade is necessary to prevent weapons and materials that could be used for military purposes from reaching Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. But human rights groups and international organizations have denounced the blockade as a form of collective punishment that violates the basic rights and dignity of the two million Palestinians living in Gaza.

According to McGoldrick, Israel has also banned many other items that are essential for humanitarian relief and development, such as pumps, generators, spare parts, pipes, solar panels, and some medical equipment. He said that these restrictions have hampered the efforts of the UN and its partners to provide displaced people with basic services such as food, medical support, shelter, water, and sanitation.

Another source:

UN: Israel bans insulin pens for Gaza children
The Palestinian Information Center
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine, Jamie McGoldrick, has affirmed that Israel added insulin pens for children to the list of pro

As not enough people are saying: this is a disability and chronic illness rights issue. Where are all of you who advocate for those things here in the US? Why don't you speak up?


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1 year ago

according to yousef (@/ph_youseeff on instagram) there are about 60K patients with chronic diseases in gaza who have not received treatment for more than 100 days. yousef himself is a cancer patient who had started treatment a month before the genocide started. his recovery chances was estimated at 95%. now he says he’s not sure if he’ll even survive let alone think about his recovery chances.

imagine that… but with 60K people. all suffering from chronic illnesses and unable to get treatment due to the constant bombardments and artillery shootings, the blocking of aid from entering the gaza strip, and the defunding of organisations that provide aid and support to civilians in gaza.

i cannot stress enough how important it is to speak up.

1 year ago
Image Description:

Image description:

A screenshot of an instagram post by salamsudduf which is also a screencap and repost by the instagram account palestinepromise. Text is as follows:

ā€œEveryone in Gaza is disabled.

It’s not just the wounded, cancer patients, & women in childbirth. It’s the children with braces that can’t be adjusted. It’s contact wearers with no saline. It’s air strike-shattered glasses with no optometrist. It’s asthma sufferers lacking nebulizers & inhalers. It’s diabetics grappling for insulin & glucose monitors. It’s people with chronic illnesses who need regular treatment. It’s woman with endometriosis & even debilitating period cramps. It’s the deaf yearning for hearing aids. It’s people navigating their mental health with no support.ā€

1 year ago
From The Guardian.

From the guardian.

The sheer scale of destruction in Gaza right now.

1 year ago

So obviously furries exist but the Tories and the British media trying to whip up a culture war frenzy about ā€œKids in schools identifying as catsā€ runs into one major problem…

Kids fucking love to wind adults up, especially those in positions of perceived authority.

So Obviously Furries Exist But The Tories And The British Media Trying To Whip Up A Culture War Frenzy

Imagine sitting in class, knowing if you say something funny that it could end up on national news because your head teacher is a frothing culture war bigot.

Imagine all the other kids going along with it and backing them up.

1 year ago

Don't forget it's still free Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Yemen, West Papua, Tigray, Haiti, Burma/Myanmar, Uyghurs, Syria, Kashmir, Cameroon, Armenia and Kurdistan.

Regardless of who you are or where you come from, if you do not feel outrage, anguish, and grief for these innocent lives lost, something is amiss, and you must consider why you lack the drive to take action.

Their fight should be considered our fight, as it is one for human rights.

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