WHO???????? | Filosofa’s Word

While I might agree that it is time for some younger blood, now is NOT the time.  Now is the time for stability and maturity and President Joe Biden brings both of those to the job in spades.  It is far too late in the process to attempt to put another, largely unknown Democrat on the 2024 ballot.  But 2028 is but four years away, so perhaps it’s time to do two things:  1) throw all the weight and support of the Democratic Party and Independents who still value democracy behind its candidate, President Joe Biden, for the 2024 election, and 2) start having the debate to decide who would make the best candidate for 2028, focus on two or no more than three, and begin promoting them.  There are many I can see on the horizon who might make excellent candidates in four years, but they will need name recognition, they will need their positive accomplishments and laudable traits to be known far and wide.  This doesn’t happen in a month, or even a year, but is a process that takes time…

Source: WHO???????? | Filosofa’s Word

Battle of survival and expression in Jerusalem’s Armenian Community · Global Voices

In July 2021, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem discreetly signed a real estate contract, ceding 25 percent of their quarter for 99 years to an Australian–Israeli settler investor. This action has thrust the Armenian community into crisis, as they now face the imminent threat of losing a significant portion of their quarter.

While the community temporarily suspended proceedings upon the discovery of this arrangement in May 2023, bulldozers, accompanied by armed Israeli settlers, have already initiated the excavation of the parking lot surrounding the Monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The Armenian ethnolinguistic minority has been present in the Holy Land since the fourth century, with a history that includes aiding survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide. After the 1948 war, the Armenian population in Jerusalem has dwindled to fewer than 2000 residents today, the majority of whom live within the Armenian Quarter.

Source: Battle of survival and expression in Jerusalem’s Armenian Community · Global Voices

The shadowed moon – Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

A poem in Vietnamese by Bùi Thị Đà
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Shadowed moon
Oh so moon
Yellow moon
Laughing moon
Knowing moon
In full moon

The flawed love
Desperate
Despaired soul
Lonely oh
Despaired heart
Far apart

Seasons passed
How many
Of me me
Me alone
With the moon
Half then round

Message sound
In the wind
Vast incense
Across whence
Distant lands
Find this love

Fill this void
Discern O
The echo
Call of birds
Back to roost
Come home so

August 2023

Source: The shadowed moon – Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm