A Cloud in Trousers

Suffering: A Note

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:11:00 +0000

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they
understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a
window or just walking dully along.

-W.H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts

Edward Hopper: The Night Window (1928)

Jeff Halper at Internasjonalt Seminar

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:00:00 +0000

In the series Wise Men Talk About Israel/Palestine I am delighted to share with you another recording from another Internasjonalt Seminar in Tromsø last fall. The recording is of a lecture by Jeff Halper, Coordinator of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Professor of Anthropology and previously nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The heading of the lecture is "Is there hope for Palestine? Is there hope for Israel?"
Take some time to find out. Also, it's a quite good introduction to the conflict and its history. (And yes, it's in English)

You can also read a transcribed version of this recording, with illustrative maps, available (in pdf) here

Enough

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:44:00 +0000

By Mazen Kerbaj

Mapping the Occupation

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:25:00 +0000

40 years ago, on this very day, the brutal noise of the Six Day War faded. As the seventh day arose, it became clear that the peace Palestine woke up to was a reality no less brutal than the war itself: The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, and in addition the later returned Sinai and the Golan Heights. 40 years have passed, and the illegal occupation is still going strong, thanks to the goodwill of the Western world (who ironically claim to be the ambassadors of Democracy and Freedom).

It is hard - if not impossible - to imagine what life in occupied Palestine is like if you haven't seen it with your own eyes, haven't felt the humiliation at the check points, heard the sound of bombs and gunshots, experienced the horror of not knowing whether your children will return home alive at the end of the day. Hard also is it to keep track of the facts on the ground, which in everyday political discourse is cleverly left out, denied or hidden under a carpet of completely useless coexistence projects. Fortunately, the Guardian have created a map device that takes the infrastructure of the Israeli occupation to a visible and easily understandable level. Click on the following link and then the arrow left of the title "The West Bank - mapping an occupation":

The Guardian - Mapping an Occupation

Then, you can click on the buttons to the left to show the elements of the Matrix of Control one by one. Note especially the discrepancy between the Green Line (the armistice line from the war in 1948-49) and the route of the Wall ("Separation Barrier"). If the wall indeed was created to define the final borders of a future sovereign Palestinian state, then why on Earth are parts of the wall built deep into the Palestinian Territories and far from the Green Line? Then why does it separate Palestinians from Palestinians, instead of the alleged purpose of separating Palestinians from Israelis? And then what's up with the Israeli Only highways dividing the entire West Bank? And then what about the settlements, which were doubled in number during the Oslo "peace process"? See for yourself. There is no longer anything left of what could have been a Palestinian state in the future. What is left is a conglomerate of Palestinian bantustans completely controlled by Israel. People of the world should learn to see this, and start calling what they see by its only proper name: Apartheid.

For further facts, resources and excellent (!) maps of the occupation, see the webpages of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). I especially recommend the Map Centre in there. Don't say you didn't know!

40 years of Occupation, 18 000 demolished homes

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:21:00 +0000

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Israel's Occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, let me publish an ad from ICAHD concerning their new campaign to rebuild each and every Palestinian home demolished by Israel this last year:

THIS HAS TO STOP.

WE PLAN TO STOP IT.

For 40 years the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza has brought nothing but misery, death and destruction to Palestinians and Israelis. During that time Israel has demolished 18,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories – 95% of which had nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism or security.

40 YEARS AND 18,000 DEMOLISHED HOMES ARE ENOUGH!

On June 9-11, the 40th anniversary of Israel’s Occupation, we at the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) will join with grassroots organizations the world over to demand its immediate and total end. Only then will Israelis and Palestinians be able to move forward to the just peace both peoples crave.

On June 11th, ICAHD will launch a campaign to rebuild each and every Palestinian home demolished by Israel in the Occupied Territories during this 40th year of the Occupation – about 300 homes in total.

Support our campaign to end Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes. Tell your political representatives that only when the Palestinians are free will Israel enjoy peace and security. Tell them what former Secretary of State James Baker told the current Bush Administration: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict constitutes the “epicenter” of global instability.

Tell them that 40 years is enough!

THE ISRAELI COMMITTEE AGAINST HOUSE DEMOLITIONS (ICAHD)

Kåre Willoch på Internasjonalt Seminar

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:34:00 +0000

15.mars 2007 var Kåre Willoch i Tromsø og holdt en innledning om Palestina på Internasjonalt Seminar. Om du gikk glipp av denne enestående begivenheten, så fortvil ikke - her er hans foredrag på mp3!

Lydkvaliteten er dessverre litt dårlig, men opptaket er fullt hørbart på litt høyt volum.
Tusen takk til Kåre Willoch for tillatelse til å publisere foredraget på nett.

Confessions

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:11:00 +0000

"If I was an Arab leader I would never make [peace] with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country."
--First Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion

"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country."
-- David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.

"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...."
-- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000.

"I would have joined a terrorist organization."
-- Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha'aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
-- Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

"If they had done to us what we did to them in 1948, we would never forgive them, and that is why I do not believe in peace."
--Rafael Eitan, former minister and head of the far right party Tsomet

"I don't mind if after the job is done you put me in front of a Nuremberg Trial and then jail me for life. Hang me if you want, as a war criminal. What you don't understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it.
--Former Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, speaking to Amos Oz, editor of Davar, on Dec. 17, 1982

Way Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 11:42:00 +0000

I'm Walkin' on Sunshine, oh oh!

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:24:00 +0000

About Numbness and Action

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:08:00 +0000

My friend Scott just wrote a blog post about violence, the school shooting in Virginia, and the feeling of being stunned. Originally this was meant as a comment to his post, but then it turned into a blog entry instead:

It's so easy to become numb. There is a difficult balance between empathy and distance: if you're too empathetic your ability to help will drown in the misery of those who need you, and if you're too distanced it's hard to be involved enough to care. Often we end up in a paralyzing middle: we are left dazed, stunned, helpless, the misery is beyond our control, there's nothing we can do about it. And so we cry for a while, and then we go on with our lives believing that we are good people because at least our tears expressed our sympathy.

But this is of course, as the old proverb goes, the real danger: that evil happens because good people do nothing. Sympathy doesn't change the world and crying doesn't define our virtue. We need to escape numbness, and that does not mean escaping that which make us numb. We need to find that constructive, productive balance of just enough empathy to make us able to care and just enough distance to give us room to act.

And then we need to make a choice. No-one can save the whole world. We have to avoid taking in all of the world's misery at once. We have to acknowledge that it is there, and also remember that it has always been. The history of human cruelty didn't start with the Iraq war, or the six day war, or WW1. Cruelty is human. And so is morality. Morality is what gives shape to our integrity, it is what should guide us while we balance down the line trying to distribute the weight of empathy and distance evenly in our hearts. Morality is what make you say I object to this. The I refuse, the j'accuse, the thing that make you able to act and make a change. Do not be blinded and benumbed. Choose your focus, distance your empathy, and be assured that you can make a difference at that one point you want to fight for.

Said Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, commited citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Photos from Rashedie (2003)

Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:05:00 +0000

Some people have to manage without their salaries
because somebody else didn't like the way they voted
Some people have less than a dollar a day to live for
Some people think it's ok to spend 3,700 dollars on a drink.

I pray that I never, ever
forget the responsibility that comes with my good fortune:
to fight for those who are not as fortunate
and never to accept the habitual blindness of those who are.

Save Beit Arabiya!

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:59:00 +0000

Imagine you grew up. Imagine you got married and wanted to build a house. And so you worked hard and then after some years you were finally able to buy a piece of land. In order to build a house, however, of course you would need a building permit. So you applied for one, while your family waited patiently to have a place to live. But then you didn't get the permit, for kafkaesque reasons that nobody could really explain. So you applied again. And then again, and each time you got a different explanation why you would not be permitted to build a small house on your own small piece of land. The basic problem seemed to be that the land was allegedly zoned as "agricultural" according to an obscure law from 1942 - and ignoring the fact that it would be impossible to grow anything there anyway because of the bad quality of the soil.

And so three unsuccessful attempts to obtain a building permit (each with a fee of 5,000$), you were forced to build your house "illegally", although you as a human being had a fundamental right to shelter, money to build it and your own land to build it on. Now, imagine that you lived in your house with your wife and seven children for four years. Then, with no prior warning, one day you were having breakfast, your house was surrounded by soldiers and tanks and you got 10 minutes to get out of the house. You tried to object, but then the bulldozers just started to destroy your house. You could do nothing but watch it happen. Imagine the fear of your children. Imagine the helplessness. Imagine how you would feel. It's not just about a house. It's about a home. Your private life. Your safety, your very human worth.

Now imagine that you rebuilt the house again.
Then it happened all over again; soldiers, tanks, bulldozers, humiliation, fear, loss.
But you rebuilt, and people from all over the world came to help out.
It didn't last long though; this time you managed to sleep one single night in your home before it was demolished for a third time.
And after that you even had to go through a fourth demolition and a fifth rebuilding, upon which you realized that you would never be allowed to live in your house.

What would you do?

This is the true story of Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh, from the small village of Anata in the West Bank, just meters over the Jerusalem municipal boundary. After the fourth demolition they decided to dedicate their home as a peace center, a place where Palestinians, Israelis and internationals could meet in order to develop campaigns that would effectively end the Occupation, until that day when they could actually move in. It was named Beit Arabiya after the woman whose home it was.

Salim and Arabiya are not alone: Since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 12,000 Palestinian homes. Israel’s policy of house demolitions seeks to confine Palestinians to small enclaves, leaving most of the land free for Israeli settlement.

The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids an Occupying Power to extend its law and administration to an occupied territory, rendering the very process of granting or denying permits to Palestinians, not to mention Israel’s policy of house demolitions, patently illegal under international humanitarian law.

On February 7, 2007, a three judge panel of the Israeli Supreme Court heard the second appeal of Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh’s to have the 15-year demolition order on their home rescinded. They also petitioned the Court to instruct the authorities to issue them a building permit. A negative ruling is expected any day, and as soon as it is issued the Civil Administration, Israel’s military government over the Occupied Territories, can order the home demolished for the fifth time.

How much injustice can the world take?
How can the world allow these things to happen?
This is not happening in some far-away jungle outside the so-called civilized world, this is happening right in front of our eyes, in the Holy Land. Don't say we didn't know. Watch the video below, and if your heart is angered please read more on ICAHDs webpages for suggestions on what you can do.

The Reality of House Demolitions

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:57:00 +0000

Care about peace? Care about this. Hear Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh's story here.

Captured: Indifference

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:24:00 +0000

When I lived in Bangkok five years ago I used to take my camera for a walk when feeling lonely. I would wander around for hours, breathing in the infinitely polluted heat and noise of the City of Angels. There were times when I hated it, the beloved Krung Thep. But I soon learnt to see things differently: through the lens of my camera I discovered beauty in ugliness. Somehow it made me feel better. I still don't really understand why. This is from the Sala Daeng skytrain station, just a couple of blocks from my apartment.

Easter Interlude

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 18:14:00 +0000

1.
At that time there was neither non-existence nor existence; neither space nor the sky beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep?

2.
At that time there was neither death nor immortality. Nothing that distinguished night from day. The one breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond.

3.
In the beginning darkness was hidden by darkness. With no distinguishing sign, all this - water. All that came into being, covered with emptiness, the one arose through the power of heat.

4.
Desire came upon the one in the beginning; that was the first seed of mind. Poets seeking in their heart with wisdom saw it as it was: that it is bound by that which is not.

5.
Their cord was extended across. Was there below? Was there above? There were seed-placers; there were powers. There was impulse beneath; there was giving-forth above.

6.
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of the whole. Who then knows whence the whole?

7.
Whence this creation? Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not. The one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows—or perhaps he does not.

Rigveda 10.129, the Creation Hymn "Nasadiya"

(blind)

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 08:44:00 +0000

etterpå sitter jeg i en vinduskarm
og lurer på hvor jeg har
gjort av meg selv

trærne er nakne nå
og hustakene er bare hustak
under himmelen som bare er himmel
og meg
som er et annet sted

jeg ser etter tegn

det må finnes fotspor
bøyde strå
gjenglemte hansker
beretninger om hva som har hendt

jeg behøver en oppklaring

piler på grønne exit-skilt
lyden av en dør som slår igjen
en plutselig
frigjørende innsikt –

utsikten er like tydelig
som A’en i en stemmegaffel

og herfra ser jeg ingenting

© silje ryvold -2004

Edward Hopper, Morning Sun (1952)

Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:28:00 +0000

Plan: Write 10.000 pages (at least) on my thesis during Easter holidays
Place to implement plan: Beloved cabin (with moon, without world wide web)(cobweb in attic)
Accessories: Fireplace, red wine, big window, mountain skis + boyfriend.

Song on a Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:08:00 +0000

This is how it works:
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath
No, this is how it works:
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

From On the Radio by Regina Spektor, listen to this great song at Regina's Radio Player Thank you, Regina!

Picture Perfect Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 09:58:00 +0000

A room with a view
Oh the smell of coffee!
I see light
Vinduet 1/2007
Spring wind
Open window
Waves and coltsfeet,
let there be crayons!
I measure time by the season
Let somebody else panic
about hours lost
Hei ny dag, fint du kom
fint du kom

(American Movie)

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:03:00 +0000

What are you really doing here?
(smalltalk)
The truth is… I love you
We are getting married
(romantic music)
What the hell is taking so long?
I could never do that to someone I love
(sentimental melody)
It didn’t change the fact that I love you
You know this is just too sick
(fight)
Love IS pain
Let’s just get out of here
(car crash)
You are the most evil, manipulative…
(shouting)
You think I still want you after all that you’ve done to me?
(crying)
I don’t wanna get in there
(door slamming)
Oh, how sweet of you
(romantic singing)
Of course I will
(the end)

© shr-98

Edward Hopper, New York Movie (1939)

Morning in a City

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:49:00 +0000

by Edward Hopper

List

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 12:10:00 +0000

the smell of the first coltsfoot
ahhhh
rotting snow
earth
tulip sprouts
rubber boots
walking in puddles
shoveling snow
off veranda
freckles
sneakers on
dirt
road
green grass hiding
behind bus stop
lost mitten
seagull
sudden drizzle
oil on bicycle chain
wet pavement
melting march

Nostalgia

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:38:00 +0000

nostalgia |näˈstaljə; nə-| noun a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations : I was overcome with acute nostalgia for my days in college. • the evocation of these feelings or tendencies, esp. in commercialized form : an evening of TV nostalgia.

DERIVATIVES nostalgist |-jist| noun

ORIGIN late 18th cent.(in the sense [acute homesickness] ): modern Latin (translating German Heimweh ‘homesickness’ ), from Greek nostos ‘return home’ + algos ‘pain.’

Thesaurus
nostalgia, noun; a nostalgia for traditional values reminiscence, remembrance, recollection; wistfulness, regret, sentimentality; homesickness.

Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:56:00 +0000

It's raining today.
The First Rain.
Since ican'trememberwhen.
It makes me happy.
Welcome, rain!
I will enjoy you with a cup of hot tea.
Mmmm.... rain. My cup of tea.

Utsikt

noreply@blogger.com (Silje) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:43:00 +0000

og når jeg løfter blikket
ser jeg himmel

bak en vindusrute stripet av regn
ser jeg tid: skyer
som klaser av ting vi har glemt

et portrett av i morgen
tilværelsens gjennomsiktige rammer:

himmelen forandrer seg stadig
og i horisonten er alt hvitt

© shr-2004