Category Archives: Fail!

Noa: Open letter to the wind

If we refuse to recognize each other’s rights and embrace our obligations, if we continue to each cling to his own narrative with contempt and disregard for that of the other, if we again and again choose swords over words, if we sanctify land and not the lives of our children, we shall soon be forced to truly seek a colony on the moon, for our land will be so drenched in blood and so cluttered with tomb stones there will be nothing left for the living.

I wrote these words, and sang them together with my friend Mira Awad. They stand truer than ever today:

“when I cry I cry for both of us,

My pain has no name.

When I cry, I cry to the merciless sky and say:

There must be another way”

Noa, july 22, 2014

via Noa: Open letter to the wind.

Eat Drink Better – Some things you really don’t want to know – plastic beads in toothpaste ands up in fish!

Over the years, microbeads have replaced traditional, biodegradable alternatives such as ground nut shells, and salt crystals.

The microbeads used in personal care products are mainly made of polyethylene (PE), but can be also be made of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and nylon. Where products are washed down the drain after use, microbeads flow through sewer systems around the world before making their way into rivers and canals and ultimately, straight into the seas and oceans, where they contribute to the plastic soup.

via Eat Drink Better | Healthy recipes, good food: sustainable eats for a healthy lifestyle!.

LI Residents Struck With “Disabling” Mosquito-Borne Disease: Gothamist

As if West Nile panic isn’t enough of a reason to crop dust your apartment, health officials on Long Island have diagnosed three cases of yet another mosquito-borne disease: Chikungunya virus. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says this baby boasts “severe and disabling” symptoms like fever and joint pain.

Three patients at the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset have come down with the tropical disease after traveling in the Caribbean.

via LI Residents Struck With “Disabling” Mosquito-Borne Disease: Gothamist.

Gaza girls flee shells in Shujaiyeh, killed in place deemed safer | Maan News Agency

A Palestinian couple from Shajaiyeh decided to leave their home several days ago and bring their family to central Gaza City, thinking it would be a safer place.

However, four sisters from the family were killed when their grandparents’ home where they were taking refuge was hit by Israeli artillery shells.

“They fled the shelling in Shujaiyeh neighborhood, to their grandfather’s house in Thalathini, but shells followed them there,” the bereaved father said.

“My daughters were playing on the roof of their grandfather’s house when I was telling my wife on the phone that we should go back home,” father Yasser al-Qassas said.

The call ended all of a sudden, he said. “When I redialed there was no answer.”

“I telephoned one of my wife’s brothers and he didn’t answer either. A cousin of mine then answered my call to say that my daughters had been killed.”

via Gaza girls flee shells in Shujaiyeh, killed in place deemed safer | Maan News Agency.

Dozens more killed in Israel’s Gaza operation – Daily News Egypt

Over a dozen Palestinians were killed overnight and early Tuesday as warplanes and artillery continued targeting homes in Gaza on the fifteenth day of Israel’s offensive, Gaza residents confirmed.

The latest series of Israeli attacks brought the Palestinian death toll to over 600, according to Palestinian health officials, with over 3,500 Palestinians injured.

“Since starting our ground operation in Gaza, we have struck 1,388 terror sites and killed 183 terrorists,” an IDF spokesperson said on his Twitter account.

via Dozens more killed in Israel’s Gaza operation – Daily News Egypt.

Israel soldier ‘kidnapped’ by Hamas is dead: army | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

The Israeli army Tuesday confirmed that a soldier who Hamas militants claimed they had kidnapped is dead and his body remains unaccounted for.

The army named the soldier, whose body is still missing, as Oron Shaul, two days after Hamas said they had kidnapped an Israeli soldier of the same name.

A spokeswoman said Israeli pathologists had identified 12 out of 13 soldiers killed in Gaza over the weekend but that 21-year-old Shaul’s body was still unaccounted for.

Publication of the name suggested Hamas was likely to be holding the soldier’s remains, although it was not clear if the entire body or only part of it was missing.

Israeli dog tags carry a soldier’s name and his army number, and are designed to be broken in two, with half worn around the neck and the other half inserted into his boot to allow for identification in the event of death.

Shaul was part of a group of seven troops from the elite Golani unit who died in an attack on an armored vehicle in Gaza.

via Israel soldier ‘kidnapped’ by Hamas is dead: army | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

Half of mainland consumers no longer trust Western fast-food companies after scandal | South China Morning Post

Exactly half of all the Chinese consumers who took part in an online poll today say they no longer trust Western fast-food companies following the new scandal surrounding rotten meat.

The survey, carried out by Sina Shanghai, had attracted more than 1,800 respondents by 2.45pm today.

In a second Sina survey started yesterday, featuring 25,000 respondents up to 2.45pm today, 77 per cent believed the restaurant brands affected had been aware of Husi’s faulty practices, while 69 per cent said they would no longer dine at the restaurants run by the Western companies.

via Half of mainland consumers no longer trust Western fast-food companies after scandal | South China Morning Post.

West Africa Ebola outbreak total tops 1,000 | CIDRAP

As 67 new Ebola virus disease (EVD) illnesses in Sierra Leone and Liberia pushed the outbreak total to 1,048 cases, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned about the risk of virus transmission from wildlife, especially fruit bats.

Along with new infections, 19 more deaths were reported in Sierra Leone and Liberia, raising the fatality count to 632, according to a Jul 19 update from the World Health Organization (WHO) that covers new cases reported from Jul 15 to Jul 17.

via West Africa Ebola outbreak total tops 1,000 | CIDRAP.

Ancient Christian population of Mosul flees Islamic State | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

The ancient Christian community of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had all but fled by Saturday, ending a presence stretching back nearly two millennia after radical Islamists set them a midday deadline to submit to Islamic rule or leave.

The ultimatum by the Islamic State drove out the few hundred Christians who had stayed on when the group’s hardline Sunni Muslim fighters overran Mosul a month ago, threatening Christians and the diverse city’s other religious communities.

This week the Islamic State gave any remaining Christians a final choice to make by Saturday noon: convert to Islam, pay a religious tax, or face the sword.

A Catholic bishop from Mosul told Reuters that 150 Christian families had left in recent days and church leaders had advised the few families who wanted to negotiate with militants that they should also flee for their own safety.

The Christians described their flight as a historic loss.

“We have lived in this city and we have had a civilisation for thousands of years – and suddenly some strangers came and expelled us from our homes,” said a woman in her 60s who fled on Friday for Hamdaniya, a mainly Christian town controlled by Kurdish security forces to the southeast of Mosul.

via Ancient Christian population of Mosul flees Islamic State | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Three Women in Kabul

It is very painful when I have to pay the rent on our house and the markets are too expensive. I have six children and I am the leader of my family. My husband is ill and has had two operations.

My wish during Ramadan is that God save our people from illness, sadness, and poverty.

We Don’t Have Food to Eat

via Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Three Women in Kabul.