It's all in Self Defense People!

A "militant strong hold" as they would have you believe

I haven’t written about Gaza because I don’t think my words can do justice. How do you translate into words the feeling that you have when you see the limp bodies of children being rushed to emergency vehicles? Or when you see young boys digging through the rubble of a destroyed residential building, looking for survivors? Or when witnessing the sheer agony experienced by the mothers and fathers who lost their dear children?

How do you translate the anger that you feel when you hear UN Secretary General mention the “terrorist rocket attacks” before mentioning the “disproportionate” response by the Israelis?

What is happening in Gaza today is far from a Holocaust. The Holocaust happened under different circumstances, and different times. Gaza today is experiencing a Modern Holocaust. Where innocent civilians are being killed while the world watches in silence; where the UN justifies the action of an army under the banner of “self defense.” Self defense against whom? Palestinians who don’t even have clean drinking water?

To examine who truly needs self defense we need to only look at the numbers of the few days. The timeline is shown in a BBC article:

Saturday:

At least 52 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers killed

Friday:

Ashkelon activates warning system after rocket hits

Thursday:

Four Palestinian children and seven militants killed

Wednesday:

Six-month-old Palestinian boy and six militants killed

Israeli civilian killed in Sderot

The BBC article is now outdated. The latest numbers from Aljazeera show 102 deaths from the Palestinian side of them 39 children.

As I write this Israel continues to launch attacks against civilians in Gaza. Meanwhile the IOF is launching an assault on Hebron in the West Bank, fully knowing that the media is too busy covering its crimes in Gaza. The results of the attack on Hebron so far are the death of 13 year old girl, and the injuring of seventy.

I ask you take a moment to step back and examine what is happening, because I truly think we’re becoming desensitized to hearing of Palestinian deaths. No matter what side you’re on when you look back on what’s happening, the human in you should tell you one thing. What’s happening right now isn’t a political dilemma. It’s a Moral dilemma.

Damn You Winter!

Frozen lake in Waterloo Park

This winter just won’t end! I have witnessed many winters here, and compared with the rest, this one had more storms, more cold days, and the crappiest weather. We are being pounded by storm after storm, and could barely keep up with the snow fall. And when there isno snow, it is just freezing cold weather. I hate going to university and walking between buildings. I try to take short cuts, take indoor routes, but the walk from the parking lot to class is inevitable… and very long. My pants literally froze a few weeks ago as I walked from one point to another. Icicles develop in my nostrils on specially cold days (-25 and below), and I start experiencing a sharp piercing pain in my ears.

And then there are the car troubles. I detest having to sit in a freezing car for a few minutes while it warms up. Not to mention scraping the ice and the snow off of the windshield and windows, and breaking off ice buildup on the wipers. I was late for class the other day because my door refused to open. Ice formed between the door and the pillar, and I had to dump antifreeze to get the door to open. Of course the antifreeze container was frozen shut, and I had to dump hot water on it to get it to open.

Every morning I turn on the computer and visit the weather website. After seeing the disappointing temperatures, I look for hope in the 5 day forecast. Usually I see a 0 or a -5 coming up and I get excited. When the promised days come by and the temperature doesn’t reach the ‘high’ of -5, I look into the future again, and I see another -5 lurking in an upcoming day. Weeks pass and the trend continues, the -5 keeps getting pushed back, and I feel like a person lost in the desert chasing a mirage. But there is a bright side to winter. Without a harsh winter, spring has no meaning. The happiness that I experience during April and May, is almost worth all the turmoil of a Canadian winter. In the meanwhile though, I think I had enough!

My only hope now is the unavoidable fact that we’re slowly turning around the sun, and soon we will be facing the ever beautiful sun. Earth will have no excuse but to warm up and stop dumping snow and ice on our heads.