Lmst

Akshay boosted:

Wie helpt mee kinderen van een AZC een leuk uitje te bezorgen?

Akshay boosted:

"Je leert mensen dat wie een hand uitsteekt naar een vluchteling, automatisch tegen Nederland is. Je conditioneert dat als zij iets krijgen, al is het maar een dagje Efteling, dat betekent dat wij iets verliezen. Je creëert een samenleving waarin vriendelijkheid verdacht is, waarin geven altijd bedreigend voelt, waarin wantrouwen de norm wordt. "
#COA #Faber #PVV #VVD #BBB #NSC
#Fryslan #asiel
https://www.bnnvara.nl/joop/artikelen/gefeliciteerd-marjolein-faber-het-uitje-van-jonge-vluchtelingen-is-gecanceld

Akshay boosted:

As we sit here tonight, we mark day 58 of a complete food and aid blockade of the Gaza strip, and day 51 of a complete electricity blockade. This is the longest block on aid into Gaza in history. Starvation as a weapon of war is not precise. It disproportionately affects innocent people. Yesterday and today, the International Court of Justice began hearing arguments concerning Israel’s legal humanitarian obligations to Gaza’s civilians. This is welcome, but it is also important to say that we don’t need the nuances of international law to understand that starving a population of two million people is ethically indefensible, outrageous, and genocidal.
(And this is to say nothing of the renewed and intensive fighting in Gaza which has thus far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and the thousands more Israelis and Palestinians who have been killed across this land since October 7, 2023.)

Last week I was reading about the contemporaneous Polish attitudes toward the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis during and following the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to mark its 82nd anniversary. While attitudes among the Gentile Poles ranged from devastated to overjoyed at the burning and destruction of the ghetto and the vast majority of its residents, a common opinion reported in the diaries and newspaper reports of the time was simply some degree of annoyance, apathy, or passing sympathy. Bluma Altmed, a Polish Jew disguised as a Gentile, recalls a woman who expressed annoyance at the disruption to her sleep that such destruction caused. Janina Bauman, the Jewish Polish journalist, noted that
“Upon hearing of children being burnt alive, people would say: ‘That’s in the ghetto’ which sounded as if it was far, far away. People said: ‘That’s in the ghetto,’ and the calm was restored. But that was on…streets, mere several dozen metres away.”

Finally, Aleksandra Sołowiejczyk-Guter (another Jew hiding outside of the ghetto walls) noted that “a number of articles devoted to the Ghetto Uprising appeared in the Polish underground press (both government and left-wing).” “Emotion and sympathy, however, were only manifested on paper” and in private conversation.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past two years - as I’m sure many of you have - trying to understand and grapple with the continued normalization of genocidal rhetoric and fantasies of ethnic cleansing in this land. And it is easy for people like us, people who would come to an event like this, to point our fingers in shock and moral condemnation. But I hope that we also take the time, reflecting on this evening as whatever happens continues to unfold in the coming days, weeks, and months, to ask ourselves what can we do? How can we speak and act courageously against the unfathomable horror we are seeing? How can we not be like those Sołowiejczyk-Guter describes: Sympathetic in private but unable or unwilling to act and speak publicly, as two million people are starving just kilometers away from us in a man-made disaster.

Tonight we are gathered to share our grief and to mourn together the continued senseless violence. The importance of coming together in these moments in shared heartache cannot be overstated. But I also hope that all of us here tonight will wake up tomorrow and ask: What can I do to prevent more heartache in the future? How can I stop this genocide from continuing? How can I help to contribute to a just and equitable peace for all of us, from the river to the sea?

We hope you find the ceremony meaningful, and thank you very much for coming.

2/2

Akshay boosted:

Just saw the first instance of what is likely a Russian bot on the fediverse, spamming anti-Ukrainian disinformation on completely unrelated threads.

Report sent to all relevant servers, let's hope the fediverse can resist this sort of thing.

Akshay boosted:

"This is a war crime" commented Greta Thunberg,
one of the activists from 21 countries waiting to go on board the Freedom Flotilla at Malta where one of its ships, "The Conscience", instead was attacked 00:23.
Greta was going to board the Swedish "Ship to Gaza".

Greta told Aftonbladet, one of the two major evening papers in Sweden (translated):
─────
We have been here on Malta about a week to begin the journey to Gaza with humanitarian aid. We were going to try to fulfill our promise to the Palestinians to do all in our power to try to break the total blockade on aid to Gaza.
[...]
There is rather much chaos here right now. Ship to Gaza and Freedom Flotilla have been trying to send 35 boats to break Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza. Previously Israel stopped almost every boat, so we suspect either Israel or allies are behind this attack.
[...]
The boat cannot currently travel because then it will sink, due to the hole in the hull caused by the attacks.
[...]
All human rights activists here will continue to try to fulfill the promise we made to the Palestinians to do everything we can to hold war criminals accountable and end our governments' complicity in genocide.
─────

Pic 1+2: attacked ship's hull after the attack.
Pic 3: Greta on Malta with Jeanette Escanilla from Ship to Gaza Sweden

Akshay boosted:

You want to know what #climate scientists got wrong about #climatechange?
We were too cautious. It's happening faster than we anticipated and the impacts are going to be worse.

Climate Change, heat and human health:

A study hands out smartwatches to vulnerable people in India and other countries to monitor heat stress.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/05/01/this-indian-city-is-using-smartwatches-to-track-the-impact-of-increasingly-deadly-extreme-

#Climate #ClimateCrisis #Poverty #Heat #Heatwaves #Tech #Smartwatch #India #Science #ClimateScience

“A ban on fossil fuel adverts in The Hague has been upheld by a Dutch court, in an “historic ruling” that campaigners hope will embolden other cities to take action.”

https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/04/28/landmark-ruling-should-encourage-more-cities-to-ban-fossil-fuel-ads-campaigners-urge

#Climate #FossilFuels #Law #Advertising #Netherlands #Nederland #Activism

Solar panels to be fitted on all new-build homes in England by 2027

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/01/solar-panels-fitted-all-new-build-homes-england-by-2027

#Climate #ClimateSolutions #UK #England #Europe #Energy #Renewables #Solar

Seriously, the throat-tearing vampires in Sinners are way better than the murderous, misogynistic theocracy depicted in Seed of the Sacred Fig! Remmick made good points

Movie recommendations: The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, by Mohammad Rasoulof

Filmed in secret in Iran, forcing the director and some crew to flee the country.

Long and demanding but worth it.

It follows an escalating conflict within a family during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

Part documentary-like slices of life, part terrifying psychological thriller

#Movies #Film #Cinema #Iran #Feminism #Misogyny #Patriarchy
#MohammadRasoulof #TheSeedOfTheSacredFig

Akshay boosted:

Biomass - ESA's Forest Mission – Mapping Biomass From Space - Overview Video
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #biomass #satellite #remotesensing #earthobservation #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #vegetation #forest #radar #canopy #tomography #imaging #geomorphometry #forests #carbon #carbonaccounting #climatescience #management #planning #ecosystems #ESA

Akshay boosted:

@Akshay The Tonlé Sap is totally at risk with rising seas and the salination ingress. It accounts for "60% of the country's population's protein intake" which is currently 17.8m.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonl%C3%A9_Sap

Trump’s trail of destruction through the USA’s global climate efforts, summarised

https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/04/29/trumps-first-100-days-us-walks-away-from-global-climate-action/

#Climate #USPol #Trump #UN

A “floating” fishing community in Cambodia faces new challenges due to climate change.

Sending their kids to school becomes more difficult, even physically.

An NGO explains how they’re investing to make sure these kids can go to school.

https://www.dw.com/en/cambodias-floating-schools-face-brunt-of-climate-crisis/video-72389723

#Climate #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAdaptation #Cambodia #Education #School #Poverty #Fishing

Akshay boosted:

The Trump administration is the first in US history to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act outside a context of a declared war.

Congress should repeal the act, which, as recent enforced disappearances of Venezuelans show, is too dangerous to keep on the books.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/01/us-repeal-alien-enemies-act

What do we know about the blackout in Spain and Portugal?

Very little it seems: very good overview by CarbonBrief.

One suspect are “complex inter-area oscillations”, in case you thought this was a simple story, like politicians who discern the truthiness of theirs

https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-we-do-and-do-not-know-about-the-blackout-in-spain-and-portugal/

#Spain #Portugal #Energy #Electricity #Renewables #Nuclear #FossilFuel #Grid #España #Apagon #BlackOut #Apagao #Climate

Akshay boosted:

What gives me hope? When clean energy alleviates poverty, leaders speak up for justice, and people realize they’re not alone in caring about climate.

Good news: Pakistan installed 22 GW of solar in 2023—more than Canada ever has, and more than the UK added in the past five years.

Not-so-good news: The world lost Pope Francis last week. He was a fearless advocate for climate justice, continually reminding us that climate change is a moral issue that hits the most vulnerable first and worst.

What you can do: Two new studies show most people care about climate change—but they don't talk about it, because they think others don’t. When we speak up, we empower action!