Nablus, Palestine 3.11.10

Google in Arabic - now that's interesting! Well I arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday and managed to get in, despite being taken to one side for ten minutes to explain what I was doing there and why I had no hotel reservation. Thanks to the information given out by Project Hope, I had nothing 'incriminating' on me, but they were suspicious nevertheless, and are apparently even more aggressive when you leave if you cannot account for your actions:I can see I'm going to have to make up an incredible itinerary, even though I must be the only visitor to Jerusalem who isn't interested in visiting the sights.

Took a shuttle bus to Ramallah, from Damascus Gate, in the arabic side of the Old City. We drove for quite a awhile through the outskirts of Jerusalem, and I'm quite surprised to see how shabby it is:money from rich expats is not making it back to the city, and all quarters seem dusty, dry and worn-out.

Lots of crumbling buildings and patches of rubble, which I presume is evidence of various military activities over the years. Military checkpoints and the 8m-high wall mean you don't treat this uneasy peace with nonchalance, but all the locals appear to be trying to achieve some sort of 'normalcy'.

Changed bus in Ramallah, after receiving some wonderful hospitality from a mobile phone shop who took pity on an old woman who doesn't know how to use mobile phones and their networks.....a strong coffee and charged up phone later, and I was escorted to the bus station and helped to get on to the right one, as my mastery of the arabic alphabet matches my knowledge of hebrew: zero.

Anyway now happily showered, rested and pleased to be part of the team: I was met by the Director and shown the offices, people and given a briefing of Project Hope's objectives. I'll be part of an 18-strong International team, including French and German teachers, who will give lessons to students who come to the building from Nablus University, from the Hospital, High Schools etc. PH has been in operation since 2003, and has a wonderful building, donated by the owner, and is a locally-run organisation. We will be leaving the building to give lessons to women and children in the schools and refugee camps around Nablus. The lessons are free for students, who are asked for 50 shekels if they want to receive a certificate at the end of the course.

That's all for today, as there is a birthday party this evening for the German girl, whose birthday is today. The weather has been hot - mid-twenties today, and Hakim told me that this summer the temperature stayed consistently in the high 30's, reaching 45 a few times:this is evident from the vegetation, it looks very thirsty. The locals tell me that all of the food in the well-stocked markets comes from Israel, as in the West Bank they cannot produce enough for more than one month's supply. In the ten-day Eid holiday that is coming up, I've volunteered to help pick olives, and agriculture is something I'm going to try to find out about, as it is such an important sector of the economy - nowhere more than here.

Saturday 30th October 2010

We are witnessing the biggest consolidation of wealth and power ever seen in the history of the human race.

Thought of the day...from London

....we cannot consume our way out of resource depletion.

Two more things:

OK, a quickie this time:

first, here is a fantastic essay which I came across recently: a must-read for anyone who is beginning to suspect we're not being told the whole truth about what is really going on:

https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/88/chris-hedges.html

second, all excitement here at Le G as I've just been accepted onto a project in Palestine, as English Teacher for six weeks. Here's the website, more info to follow:

http://projecthope.ps/

third, a bit of humour about the current global fiat currency fractional-reserve banking system:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSUJIlQ5EiE

that's all folks!

Susan

Third time lucky

Day 3!!

OK, let's get serious about this blog: as you can see, two false starts over the years, as I continue the eternal internal debate as to whether or not to share my thoughts.....

....finally I'm convinced that my thoughts are worth putting down, even if no-one ever reads them. That's fine, it's probably cathartic anyway. So here goes, in at the deep end.

I thought I'd start by listing my favourite blogs, which I probably look at once a day, and from where I get a lot of my information. I gave up reading the MSM (main-stream media) years ago, as there is very little of value therein. IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion!) good investigative journalism went onto the web years ago, whilst the MSM indulged in cutting and pasting from places like AP, Reuters, etc, and a general blandness (or worse, but more of that later) descended.

I like to think we still have our critical thinking heads on here at Le G, so before further ado I'd like to list some great websites which should get any reader up to speed on where we are right now: it is my opinion that in these blogs you will find the truth which is missing from the MSM.

In no particular order:

http://maxkeiser.com/
http://tarpley.net/world-crisis-radio/
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
http://www.energybulletin.net/
http://www.theoildrum.com/
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/

Well, OK, that will do for starters, and I'm not going to try to re-cap all of the information contained in these blogs. I'm just going to dive right in:

The ONLY sentence worth considering at the moment, when contemplating the future of mankind is:

'is what I'm doing sustainable?'

If the answer is 'no', and my guess is about 90% of what we're doing is unsustainable, then the best thing we can do to safeguard the future is to STOP WHAT WE'RE DOING!! Now how about that for radical: can you imagine the vast majority of human activity just stopping, instead of speeding up, as is happening at the moment? Wouldn't that be a relief, as everything suddenly grinds to a halt, and quietness descends. Imagine being able to hear a bird tweet, to have the time to watch the wind in the trees, to be able to saviour your cup of freshly-ground-organic-fairly-traded coffee in quiet contemplation...

Yeah, well, soya beans might fly, and it ain't gonna happen, but the problem with the predictable unwillingness of people to stop what they're doing, is that unfortunately the planet will have devised its own way of making just that scenario happen, whether we like it or not. As George Carlin (RIP) said once: the planet can shake us off like a bad case of fleas! Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw&feature=player_embedded

Hope you enjoyed that! Maybe I'll leave it there and carry on tomorrow,

Susan

DAY 2

It's now mid-June 2009, six months since my first entry, and a whole lot of water under the bridge since then! But hopefully now that my friend has once again helped me, and the world hasn't come to and end in the meantime, I'll be able to share my thoughts on this new blog.

day one

DAY ONE, Tuesday 30th December 2008 - a friend's xmas present to me: helping me to set up this blog! Typical of me to join the 21st century, just as it is all imploding around me. The end of the world is nigh, but at least I now have a blog.