Growing up
My father’s poems
Ran through my veins
Like blood
A necessary life ingredient
A rhythm that kept my heart pumping
Growing up
My mother’s cooking
Warmed my soul
Her spices
Penetrated every fibre of my being
My Palestinian identity
Shaped
By food and poetry
By a feast of will and hope
By an assortment of words
Carefully arranged
On our kitchen table
And succulent flavors
That lingered in our heart
But of late
My father’s poems
Seem to come out broken
Fatigue crept into the mind
Of a man who waited for too long
Of late
The aroma of my mother’s spices
No longer lingers in the air
A sense of aging
A touch of despair
Like many of their generation
Time is running out
And they are still trapped
In the physical distance
Too far away from home
Strangers to the ground
On which they tread
I look beneath my feet
I too stand
In a vast land
Of aspirations not fulfilled
Dreams not accomplished
Desires relentless
Unforgotten
Sometimes
I am confronted
By the deplorable display of inhumanity
That has forced millions away from home
And kept them from returning
I hold on to my identity
I write poetry
And pray its rhythm
Will keep my children’s hearts pumping
I bring out the spices
And carefully measure my cumin
My cardamom
My sumac and cinnamon
I want to fill the air
With a defiant aroma
That will nourish my children’s soul
And remind them where we come from
I write and I cook laboriously
with resolve
I create a Palestinian feast
Of delicious verses
for all the parents
who have waited for too long
I write and I cook
I hope my pen doesn’t dry out
And my spices linger
For a while longer
Until I satisfy my hunger
For justice
I tell my children we must be patient
My generation has yielded revolutions
But revolutions take generations to yield
So let me teach you how to write and cook
How to live and hope
For a future
Where Palestinians will no longer wait
For freedom
Justice
And their simple right to return home!
by Samah Sabawi
[published with permission]
Samah is a Palestinian writer, playwright and Public Relations expert with years of experience both as an activist for human rights as well as a political analyst. She is a Policy Advisor at Al-Shabaka. Presently living in Australia, Samah awaits the end of Israel’s denial of her right to return to Palestine.
Photos of Palestinian food and spices courtesy of Palestine Food [published with permission].
“We have said it loud and clear: We will not co-exist with you in your world of inequality. If you want to co-exist with us, you are welcome to join us in our struggle for freedom, because right now, this is the only place where we exist!”
The NEC motion, noting the “overwhelming” international position on the illegality of Israeli settlements, states that “by collaborating with Ahava, King’s itself has become complicit with violations of international law”.’
Shame on Australia, and shame on Julia Gillard : ‘The report, Disability Expectations: Investing in a better life, a stronger Australia, found that 45 per cent of people with a disability in Australia live in or near poverty, the worst out of OECD countries, where the average is 22 per cent.’
Blessed with a mother who was an astronomer, I was introduced to the marvellous concept of infinity when very young. ‘Somewhere, there’s someone just like you saying everything you say up to this point in your life, but their next word will be different’, she imagined, and I imagined along with her, determined to trick those mischievous doppelgangers by choosing a random next word. The illusion of self is such that one can escape those paradoxes. Possessed of an eidetic memory and feyness inherited from my scottish grandmothers, I could relate with exactitude future events to an extent which alarmed my scientist parents.
Whilst immersed in a mosaic of Douglas Hofstader and Martin Gardner’s fascinating games in Scientific American, fractals and the mathematical art of Escher, I loved to contemplate the impossible, which felt imminently possible through acts of creation – music, poetry, literature, art and maths – and existential dreams. I longed to discover how inexplicable events occurring to me could be explained through the existence of parallel universes, where future events somehow leaked through to me. Altered states seemed mundane – where was the explanation for my very real experiences?
When brane theory emerged, I was ecstatic – here at last might be an answer to the peculiar prophecies which infest my existence. For the next challenge is how to vacate to another, better universe, where human rights and the environment are respected, where capitalism is regarded as a wrong turn and imperialism, exploitation and racism are regarded with the contempt they deserve and have been eradicated. Does one have to displace a gestalt me to do it? or can I rescue all my associated ‘selves’? If all universes are infinitely close to each other, the jump to my/our preferred destination might be infinitely close.
Here’s the poem I wrote for my mother.
The Physicist’s Dream
Elusive electron, quantum leap,
For I have only six hours to sleep,
Be improbable as quick as you can -
To the outer shell and back again.
Let’s fly on a fabulous photon trip,
To the edge of this universe we’ll joyfully slip,
On a heady black hole chase
Through the spires of hyper-space.
Tachyon, tachon, take me away
On a cosmic caravanserai,
And if we leave before the dawn,
We’ll be home by yesterday’s morn.
Strangely, the press release announcing the survey made no mention of appraising the existence of anti-Hispanic sentiment in the Jewish community. But 54% of American Jews surveyed reported that they support new anti-immigration laws passed in the U.S. state of Arizona, which are widely considered to be anti-Hispanic in nature.
A struggle is being waged in Israeli society over commitment to human dignity – whether it should be to the dignity of every person or to the dignity of Jews alone. In this struggle, it is imperative to stand with those who protect human dignity as a universal value.
Bolt’s articles, Merkel suggested, could lead to genocide. Possibly Merkel didn’t mean genocide in the accurate sense of the term but in the more contemporary sense in which its original connotation of mass murder has been replaced with other, more postmodern forms such as cultural destruction, which has debauched the proper, devastating meaning of the word. But Merkel’s Holocaust reference seemed to suggest he was pretty directly linking Bolt to mass murder.
After an extended back and forth, Bolt conceded his articles had caused offense to Behrendt: ”If you want me to concede that these articles would offend Ms Behrendt, then I will concede that.” …
.
The court also heard Bolt’s postmodern take on the idea of race, despite his suggestions in one article that the successful light-skinned Aborgines had chafed with “racial reality”.
“I have problems with the notion of race in that I don’t know that there’s much beyond a human race. I just think it’s a very fluid concept, it means different things to different people,” the Herald Sun associate editor opined.
“The notion of race is difficult and I find it uncomfortable; race was one this drop of blood thing and quadroons and octoroons and all these things that I’ve been accused of saying.” He said he found the concept of race “yuck”.
…
According to Bolt, “the central concern” of the four articles at the centre of the case was not a denigration of his subjects but a broader issue with “the stressing of race in terms of identity but also of positions of a kind that tends to stress what divides us rather than what unites us as human beings”. ”They hold positions on the public platform or race-based positions, so there are consequences to that … [and that] makes it more a matter of the public interest,” he said.
The Herald Sun scribe would prefer some self-identified Aborigines focus more on their commonalities with others. In one of the articles, Bolt said sartist Bindi Cole has a “distressingly white face”.
88. The delegation took the opportunity to announce a number of new commitments from the Australian Government, including funding for the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Asia Pacific Forum, the establishment of a full-time Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, a commitment to tabling in Parliament concluding observations from treaty bodies and UPR recommendations, and instituting a systematic process for review of Australia’s reservations to human rights treaties.
In the ABC religion and ethics section, Slavoj Zizek speaks about the fictitious two state solution, annunciating that which many of us already know: ‘If there is a lesson to be learned from the protracted negotiations, it is that the greatest obstacle to peace is what is offered as the realistic solution – the creation of two separate states.’
Zizek goes on to say:
Although neither side wants it (Israel would probably prefer the areas of the West Bank that it is ready to cede to become a part of Jordan, while the Palestinians consider the land that has fallen to Israel since 1967 to be theirs), the establishment of two states is somehow accepted as the only feasible solution, a position backed up by the embarrassing leak of Palestinian negotiation documents in January.
What both sides exclude as an impossible dream is the simplest and most obvious solution: a bi-national secular state, comprising all of Israel plus the occupied territories and Gaza. Many will dismiss this as a utopian dream, disqualified by the history of hatred and violence.
Zizek seems oblivious to Nutanyahoo’s plans to assimilate parts of the West Bank adjacent to Jordan in the fertile Jordan Valley for Israeli military purposes.
He might be cheered though by the latest statistics from an AWRAD Poll in August, 2010 surveying Palestinians across the Occupied Territories, where it was found ‘as much as 53 percent are willing to support, accept or consider the idea of one-joint state in which Israelis and Palestinians are equal citizens between the Jordanian River and the sea. In contrast, 47 percent find this unacceptable.’ It is the collaborator PA which clings to the false western colonialist plan for two states.
Zizek is on the mark with his conclusions:
But far from being a utopia, the bi-national state is already a reality: Israel and the West Bank are one state. The entire territory is under the de facto control of one sovereign power – Israel – and divided by internal borders. So let’s abolish the apartheid that exists and transform this land into a secular, democratic state.
My twitter notes from Ali Abunimah’s address today at McGill University, Montreal:
Boycotting, divestments & sanctions #BDS against Israel are not an ends in themselves, they are a means to legitimate Palestinian goals
End occupation, end all forms of discrimination against Palestinians, and end the racist exclusion of Palestinian refugees V @avinunu LIVE
When considering criticism of BDS academic boycott, Ali Abunimah draws attention to the awful destruction of schools by Israel in #Gaza
Israel went back again just 2 days ago and bombed Gaza University – so why are people critical of BDS silent on Israeli ‘academic boycott’?
‘It is the duty of civil society to respond to the Palestinian BDS appeal and act, especially when govts are complicit’ @avinunu LIVE
?’#BDS is an ethical, moral, justifiable means to bring pressure on Israel to change ‘ @avinunu Ali Abunimah LIVE
‘Israel has reached a crisis in the type of stories it can tell to cover up its crimes of apartheid’ @avinunu LIVE
The peace process has been an alibi, an excuse, for inaction, something for the gutless to hold onto’ @avinunu LIVE
Govts all worked to forestall, to prevent justice coming from the Goldstone Report, with the excuse being the ‘peace process’ @avinunu LIVE
“The ‘peace process’ is an utter hoax, has reached a dead end, what’s exposed more & more are realities of colonialism, apartheid & racism ”
Israel is 1 of the 4 most negatively viewed countries in the world, there’ve been significant increases in views from Americans @avinunu LIVE
Israel says this is cos of anti-semitism, but even Israeli diplomats quitting – ‘can no longer support Israeli foreign policy’ @avinunu LIVE
(diplomat made actual reference to this anti-semitism cover used by israel hasbarists)
Great historic change can happen and it can happen suddenly, people are still powerful, that when people decide they have had enough, nothing can stop them’ @avinunu LIVE
Billions of aid have gone to the west bank into building a repressive police pseudo state exactly of the kind people are rising up against in Tunisia and Egypt @avinunu LIVE
The IDF recognises that in the event of a popular uprising it will not be able to rely on the PA police state to repress it, and is searching for more collaborators – and that is a dead end – israel really has nowhere left to go @avinunu LIVE
Winning means bringing an end to apartheid, an end to colonial rule, giving everyone in Palestine/Israel a decent life, restitution and justice, refugees’ rights @avinunu LIVE
Jewish National Fund is primary means for land theft by zionists – JNF is one of the key institutions enforcing apartheid by denying Palestinians access to their land, locking it up for jews only @avinunu LIVE
Since the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, Muslims have been involved in 45 domestic terrorist plots. Meanwhile, non-Muslims have been involved in 80 terrorist plots.
In fact, right-wing extremist and white supremacist attacks plots alone outnumber plots by Muslims, with both groups being involved in 63 terror plots, 18 more plots than Muslim Americans have been involved in.
Economists as extremists
of irrational faith,
acolytes of daily newsprint
parsing icons of inflation and recession
with fringe benefits
doctrines of gain through pain,
while wealth breeds wealth by stealth.
Keynes, Smith and Friedman -
Thatcher, Keating, Reagan,
the pedantic pantheons
and sacrifice of certainty.
Economists as pampered disciples,
their J curved recursive credos of trade and ego
hardening malleable hearts to stone,
resounding hollow in
less speculative souls.
I’d like to turn the tables in the temple,
and for every new presumption,
make them reimburse the poor.
Jinjirrie 1992
To our sisters on #IWD2011 – equal rights : stand with the oppressed not the oppressor : end imperialism : capitalism is not woman-friendly
Ms Gillard will become the first foreign dignitary to address the new US congress and only the fourth Australian prime minister to ever do so.
Her speech is expected to commemorate 60 years of the ANZUS alliance.
The other big moment will be a meeting with Mr Obama, where the exit strategy for the Afghan war and the global economic recovery will be likely topics.
But Ms Gillard has already indicated she will steer clear of difficult territory, including Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
She will also discuss global security during talks with other senior administration figures, including secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the CIA director.
The global economy will dominate discussions with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the head of the World Bank.
There will also be dinner with former Labor leader and now US ambassador Kim Beazley, lunch with News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch and talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Steve Weizman, AFP: Without going into details Minister, did you in your talks with the Prime Minister raise your concerns about settlements.
Mr Rudd: I don’t go into those details, because my relationship with the Israeli Government is longstanding, with the Prime Minister it’s longstanding in various positions he and I have held over a long period of time. Therefore I leave those deliberations to themselves.
Of course, the wider question of settlements is a continuing issue in the international debate, as are the broader questions concerning the final status issues which I referred to before.
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is pushing for the arms embargo slapped on China after the Tiananmen Square massacre to be scrapped on the grounds that relations with Beijing need to be nurtured for strategic reasons. Proving that she suffers from the same lack of scruples as other top players in New Labour, she is more concerned with drumming up business for the arms industry than in China’s oppression of Uighurs in Xinjiang or Buddhists in Tibet. Proving, too, that mollycoddling the arms industry transcends party lines in British politics, David Cameron toured the Persian Gulf last month with a few of his country’s leading arms traders. Critics of the trade are “completely at odds with reality”, the prime minister thundered.
It is right that a fresh ban on weapons sales to Libya has now been introduced. But we know that such bans can be lifted on the flimsiest of pretexts.
Sniffing bums in football scrums
Look out boys, here we come!
I’ll motherfuck your fatherfuck
‘cos cock is proud and cunt’s uncool,
meatpies, kangaroos and cars
any excuse to stick it up their arse.
No shit, cut the crap
have another anal fetish. No way I’m gay
bull to the planet female
beat shit out of’em if they complain.
Loves every minute of it,
greatest creature on earth,
bleeds for a week and doesn’t die.
Don’t put shit on me
blow it out your arse
Kiss it.
2. FISHING TRIP REPLAYS
Check the rods, I’ll grab the coldies
don’t want to be up shit creek
without ‘em for the game.
Ah, the crowd’s gettin’ fair up ‘em.
They’re sniffing bums in the scrum again.
Violent? ram it up yer Khyber,
you sound like an old woman.
What are yer?
Even the missus loves it,
loves every minute, dipshit,
shit for brains most of the time.
Beat the crap out of ‘er if she complains.
Don’t lay that shit on me, arselicker,
blow it out yer old dirt track racing.
A little touch up now and then
reminds ‘em not to shit in their own nests.
Violent? pass us another tube, mate.
Get one into ya, shove it up ya.
Don’t yer love this shit.
Incredible.
Wait till half time.
Yer ain’t seen fuck-all yet.
3. POOL-ROOM RAPE AT THE BELLA MARIA PUB
Who’ll be first to commit another unoriginal sin?
Whip it in, whip it out and wipe it on the curtain.
Could hardly wait till after the game (Canterbury won)
to spread ‘er legs in the back bar
with the boys from Woop Woop.
Not on the pool table, it’ll spoil the roll.
She’ll be right, mate, she’s pissed
and askin’ for it, faceless.
Get a bloody move on, start the engine.
There’s life in’er yet, I’ll run my hormones
all over ‘er.
Aussie foreplay, are you awake?
Last one out, turn off the light.
Not as good as the stripper
at the annual dinner last night,
but she’ll be right, mate, she’ll be right.
Sometimes I use this blog to remind myself later of people who add to the weft and weave to transform for a moment my wretched, mundane existence into a dance of possibilities and wishes. Suheir is possessed by the muse – when she performs it is the whole woman, the laughing medusa of Helene Cixous, the frightening yet irresistible gypsy who leads us to prophecy with a toss of the head – it is up to us if we wish to grasp the destiny she offers.
Hammad’s poem ‘The Refugees’ has poignancy at present in Australia, where the inglorious prime monstress Julie Gillard is esconsced to wage a battle royale in the August election. Gillard is dog-whistling – calling the noxious Australian xenophobes who need so little encouragement. Both parties are craven in this regard, yet there’s something particularly obscene about a party which is supposed to have at least some respect for human rights pandering to racist human refuse.
Growing up
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