Newsletter January 2024

Responsibility is mine and yours

Jan 31, 2024

small painting while watching TV of the beach we went last month. To

“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard”. Arundhati Roy.

Here we are! Day 115 plus? Witness a 24/7 live genocide of 2 million Palestinian people, more than 30,000 thousand killed, out of which 10,000 are children. Plus more people who are now going to starve, freeze, dehydrate as the Empire will continue to look away and call this shit show ‘Self- defense’.

I have felt gaslight, shocked, disappointed, angry, disheartened. But the thing is that I am sitting and watching this genocide from the comfort of my house. I can put my phone away, I can go outside for a walk, I can eat something to feel better, I can watch TV while cuddling my cat. What incredible luck!

Doodling in my sketch book. Like I said what luck!

So I realized that I need to decide who the heck am I? A Bystander who feels bad and guilty for a few minutes then moves back to my own comforts? or an ally?

To be an ally I need to really commit to the idea that whatever I am doing has to be postponed. It can wait. My life, my dreams and desires are not any more important than these people. I am not special and neither is anyone else living in the west.

We were complicit in the past but we could say, we did not know! We did not believe the Palestinians! We did not educate ourselves! We believed the western media and our governments. But now you and I know! After 115 plus days there is no excuse!

Maybe my disappointment with American leadership, Western Governments, Muslim Governments, White people, Liberal feminists, etc.(the list is growing) was because I was hoping deep down that they would do the right thing for me so I could stay comfortable/ preoccupied. Business as usual!

After 115 plus days I am realizing things will never change if I go back to my life. What we are witnessing is not freaking normal! We should stop whatever the heck we are doing and do everything to stop this. This should break us! This should change us! Our art, writings, conversations and daily routine should reflect this, not the same latte pictures.

Whatever you are doing, whatever I am doing it is still not enough. All of us need to make more noise, Call our reps, Protest more, Consume Consciously, Educate ourselves. Let’s not stop talking about Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

The responsibility is on me and you, always has been!

Things that help me and maybe will help you: