ramblings

Below (save for the AP quote) was written by Serena, serene@riseup.net

RAFAH TERMINAL, Gaza Strip - It was a smooth debut Saturday for the first
Palestinian-run border crossing. Hundreds of travelers zipped through
passport control without having to submit to Israeli security checks,
savoring their new freedom after 38 years of military occupation.

(Written 27 November 2005 By Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press)

Reading the headline news on Rafah Crossing one would conclude that Palestinians are free to come and go as they please with minimal control by Israel over Gaza in general, nothing significantly impeding them from creating a prosperous economy, controlling their borders, air space and sea ports. The AP news wire with such titles as “Palestinians zip across border” and “Speedy passage from Gaza” conjure up images of anyone being able to leave Gaza as they please, with a snap of their fingers.

At the ceremony held at the crossing last Friday, Nov. 25th, Abbas stated “I think every Palestinian now has his passport ready in his pocket; let them come to cross at this terminal whenever they want,”. Despite the opening of the crossing and the majority of control being handed over to the PA, Egypt and the EU, stating that Rafah crossing is open for all to come and go freely is misleading.

Talking to people in Rafah I get the impression that the feeling on the street is not necessarily reflected in the statements of Abbas and other officials. “Sure I can cross” they tell me, “If I had a visa”. Men between the ages of 15-55 cannot cross without one. Or I hear “If I had a passport I could pass”. Men over the age of 55 must have this ID to legitimize their passage. Not only is the bureaucracy to obtain these documents astounding, taking anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months, but it costs more money then most people here can afford to fork over.

Abu K has been talking for weeks now about finally being able to visit his parents in Egypt, he has not seen them since the Intifada broke out. We have gone with him, visiting various governmental offices and a lawyer as he attempts to renew his ID card. This process is slow, weighted down with bureaucracy. It could take him up to 3 months before he gets approval. At the same time he has been hoping that his parents would be able to come visit him in Rafah with the opening of the crossing. He kept saying, “I will see my parents soon Insha’allah”. As the crossing officially opened he learned that his parents will have to obtain passports, beyond the ID they already hold. This process as well can take up to 3 months. His hopes of seeing them, like those of so many others rose with the hype of Rafah crossing opening. Time and time again the rhetoric does not materialize, the reality of everyday life does not change.

Another friend, Ahmed, has t-shirts of Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall that need to be mailed to the states. Mailing anything in and out of Gaza is extremely unreliable, exemplifying the occupation of Gaza in its current form. Ahmed is my age, 24, meaning he needs a visa issued by the PA before being able to cross in to Egypt. Again visas not only take months to process, particularly now as hundreds of people are applying for them, they are also extremely expensive, limiting access even more so to those who’s income is above average, or those who patiently save enough to buy their way through. Ahmed’s strategy is to send his father who is over 55, thus not needing a visa, merely a valid passport, to mail them from Egypt.

We attended the private ceremony of the opening of the crossing. Being that we are here in Rafah we decided to see if it was all that it was cracked up to be. As we drove toward the crossing the road was lined with Palestinian security guards, after all it was a ceremony for government officials, foreign dignitaries and politicians. When we arrived at the first gate there was no shortage of people crowded outside trying to enter. Those with press passes were allowed to pass through freely, as were the fancy cars carrying men in suits, businessmen, and politicians. We pushed our way through the crowd Rochelle and I and two Palestinian friends, Ahmed and Mahmoud. Standing in the midst of the crowd we waited not knowing what was happening. Mahmoud called to us and the next thing we knew security guards were ushering us through the gate. On the inside of the gate Palestinian police and military personnel dressed in blue fatigue swarmed the area. We began walking and were quickly escorted into a van with other journalists. Wondering how we made it in passed all the security I had the suspicion that being two white women carrying video equipment may have had something to do with it. Mahmoud later confirmed this was true. He told the security guards that he was escorting two journalists. This gave us a good laugh, but also clearly exemplified the power we hold as Americans here. Had Mahmoud and Ahmed attempted to come to the ceremony alone they would still be waiting outside the gate. Staring through the barbed wire fence while those who represent them pass by without a glance in the direction of the people they speak for.

Just entering this ceremony the division between the people and the politicians was starkly clear. Hearing Abbas tell the 1,500 guests “Now every one of you can submit your passport and cross freely with no limitations,” I thought, yeah, everyone here at the ceremony can do that, what about those watching from the other side of the barbed wire fence surrounding us, isolating the people from those representing them on the world stage.

I never held the illusion that the Palestinian Authority represented completely the will and voice of the Palestinian people, just as I know the American government does not represent the will and voice of the American people. What I witnessed there solidified in my mind the kind of lives politician lead, shuttled from one place to another, constantly surrounded by armed guards, isolated from society. It makes it difficult to see how they could ever fully know the peoples needs or understand their dreams and hopes for the future enough to implement changes that will benefit the people who know suffering they can only imagine.

I realize this is harsh. People may disagree but what I experienced at this media stunt, men in suits surrounded by international media, Palestinian and Egyptian politicians thanking Condoleezza Rice, thanking Israel. The Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman, and the European Union special envoy to the Middle East peace process, Mark Otte calling this a new era and Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) summing it all up as a historic day left me feeling empty. The hollowness of their words we have all heard before, watched it on TV. This was simply first time I heard it standing on a red carpet filming Abu Mazen while Palestinians who live on this border, who’s flesh and blood know the pain and fear of this military occupation are made to stand outside this ceremony and listen while others portray their life’s through political rhetoric. I believe equality and peace will not be borne out of this hierarchical power structure by which we live. Peace requires the creativity of us all to dream up a system of equality and sustainability, for the benefit of everyone, not simply a few.

I recognize the limited ability the PA has to make positive change. I understand the pressure from the US and Israel, the demands they make in return for any concessions to the PA. This is not a black and white situation, I am just beginning to understand the complexity of it all. Day by day I gain insight into the intricacies of internal Palestinian politics.

We spent Saturday interviewing adults and children asking them to talk about their lives under occupation, their thoughts on the disengagement, their hopes and dreams for the future, etc. They shared with us the pain and suffering they have experienced and still experience. As I sat, listening and watching I could see so clearly the trauma everyone here lives with. Their voices were strong but watching their eyes and their shaking hands I knew they were re-living experiences I could never understand and things they can never forget.

As I sit here thinking of all the dignitaries and politicians fenced off from the community around them, deciding the fate of millions of people, thinking about the stories I have heard of explosions in the night, the constant gunfire, refusing to leave ones home despite the danger of staying I can’t help but feel they are two different worlds. I can’t help but wonder if we, ordinary people, took our fate into our own hands, beyond the control of governments what we would create. Surely, having experienced the horrors of war, the pain life brings, we would come together and find someway more successful then all the peace processes, accords and summits held to “win the peace” as Bush so elegantly puts it. Being here, getting to know people, hearing their stories and sharing them with you all I feel a part of this process of change, this resistance, and knowing this is taking place all over the world I can still find faith in humanity despite the atrocities we are capable of committing.

Unlike dogs and electronic sensors currently in use, the wasps are disposable. They cost pennies and take minutes to train.

Wired News: Sting Operation Targets Terror

Woah.  This counts for one of them ideas that anyone coulda thunk of.  I think.

Google foots the bill for all calls - local and long-distance.

Google Click-to-Call

Holy shinoli!!!

How can this be abused?  How can they afford it?  Woah.

With an absurd system for color-coding dangers to Americans, the President, Vice President, and the highest officials in this land were able to paint the media a “high” incendiary orange and the Democrats an “elevated” bright yellow, functionally sidelining them. How stunningly in recent weeks the landscape has altered…

TomDispatch - Tomgram: An American Tipping Point?

Thank goodness Americans are finally waking up…

Hello world!

In the past couple weeks, I’ve witnessed two and a half particularly interesting things.

1) One was the anti-climatic detonation of what turned out to be a fake grenade found by a Palestinian farmer near the olive trees we were helping him harvest.

He showed us the grenade, which looked real enough to warrant concern. It had been partially buried with its pin removed, and two stones covering it. The farmer thought the grenade may be live, planted as a landmine of sorts.

We called the Israeli Defense Force, who sent a couple of armored jeeps out the next day. The soldiers placed a charge near the grenade with the intent of detonating the grenade via their remotely detonated charge. We hid behind one of the jeeps when the charge was detonated.

A quick BAM, and some smoke; it was over. The grenade had been a fake, they said.

I semi-jestfully apologized for “making them come out” though the grenade was fake. One of the soldiers basically said, “don’t worry; just doing our job.”

None of us had to sign any papers, make any statements, or anything. The soldiers packed up and left. We inspected the small hole and dug for remains of the grenade, then left as well.

It seems to me that this should be a big deal. There shouldn’t be a nonchalant attitude about a grenade being found in a field. They didn’t ask us any questions; they didn’t cordon off the area (except during their actual detonation); they didn’t hunt for clues; they just came out, DESTROYED A GRENADE, and left.

There is a video of the detonation at http://www.youtube.com/?v=xr3H_AlHPhU, and on my website with some pictures from the day at http://robnugen.com/cgi-local/journal.pl?type=all&date=2005/10/31#Today

2) The second interesting thing happened quite close to the hostel where I’m staying in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, it’s not unusual that we hear soundbombs used near Damascus Gate, which is visible from the hostel’s lounge window. Soundbombs are not “dangerous” per se, but the Israeli border police and soldiers use them to disperse crowds.

We heard a quick succession of perhaps 8 soundbombs, which sent several of us outside with video cameras to see what we could record.

I thought everything was over (I went out rather later than the others) when one last soundbomb was thrown. I can only imagine the soldier who threw it must have been in an adrenaline-filled state, and not thinking clearly. It landed quite near 4 or 5 young girls who had been walking up the road in a carefree way.

The video I took is here: http://www.youtube.com/?v=LVVGTnaNZns

Afterward, my friend David confronted someone who seemed to be in charge of the action, saying it was inappropriate to throw soundbombs so close to innocents. This man angrily replied that rocks had been thrown at an innocent Jewish man, and that we Political Activists were only showing one side of the story; why weren’t we videoing the Jew who had been hurt?

As I recorded David talking to the Jewish man (who had a bit of blood on his nose, not really visible in the video), the angry soldier yelled at me, but I didn’t respond.

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/?v=0vzUttSNzvU

3) The third thing happened yesterday. I saw it from afar, but couldn’t make myself go; it felt too dangerous. A Palestinian family’s house was being demolished for “security reasons,” according to the soldier who was asked. The family had been given 24 hours notice.

My friends Juliet and Ben went to see what has happening. Juliet had stones thrown at her by Palestinian kids when she was near the soldiers. The video Juliet took features the wife wailing-crying-screaming at her life being destroyed before her eyes. The Arab speakers here said she was blaming Ariel Sharon and others for her plight. Juliet didn’t record the husband screaming angrily at her, though people on the scene said he was yelling, “why couldn’t you come earlier? Why are you here now [that it's too late]? Why didn’t you stop this?”

Ben wrote

Last Monday I went on a tour of East Jerusalem with an Israeli
Jewish group called ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against Housing
Demolitions). On the way home our guide received a text alert on
his phone about a house demolition in the West Bank town of Anata
that was about to occur. We could see from the highway across the
valley two large excavators with hydraulic hammer attachments
surrounded by soldiers pushing back a crowd. We couldn’t tell
which building it was that was going to be demolished. Only three
of us were willing to go and witness this, so we were dropped off
up the highway at the entrance to the town and rushed to the site
where the demolition was already under way. There were 20-30
children on the road, some throwing stones at the soldiers
standing guard, a hundred Palestinians with soldiers blocking them
encircling the entire site, and just as many on rooftops. I split
up from the other two and headed to the uphill side of the
building to get a good perspective.* It was a three story
apartment building and it took about an hour for the machines to
knock the whole thing down.

The two excavators made a terrible noise as the two hydraulic
hammers slammed the concrete and sections of the floor suddenly
gave way. As it started to get dark I decided it would be a good
idea to get home, and as I walked back through the streets it
occurred to me that the three of us were the only internationals
I’d seen. It seems to me now that one advantage to the
authorities of not issuing warning of the demolition is that this
most likely prevents any international media from being there.
And there wasn’t.

I’m glad I didn’t go; it sounds really traumatizing.

4) After my last email, I got a few replies that asked some of the same questions.

*) I forgot to specify that a stone had hit me, not a rubber bullet.

*) I described Palestine as “a country basically surrounded by Israel.” A better description would be “Occupied Territories of Palestine,” as it’s not a country as such, and it’s not surrounded.

5) Over the past two days I have been practicing peace within myself via meditation, reading (_Life of Pi_), writing, and folding origami. I’ve been releasing the ingrained ideas that I need to be “doing something.”

6) However, yesterday, Ben, Dave and I went to the Dead Sea and had a fantastic time! We went to En Gedi Beach, which is free (except for transportation out there) if one brings food. We delighted in the incredible buoyancy and decided we could easily swim to Jordan. If we became tired on the way, we could simply rest, floating effortlessly with our heads well out of the water.

After our swim, we met a woman named Delphine from Switzerland and chatted with her while I let the water dry on my skin, leaving a layer of salt crystals on my shoulder and some in my beard. (I haven’t shaved since I left Japan on 6 October.) We decided to take a mud bath, and turned ourselves into mud versions of The Fantastic Four, or a dark hue of Blue Man Group. I debated letting Francois (my stuffed rabbit) get coated, but didn’t want to risk having him rot if I couldn’t wash all the mud out.

Several pictures from Dead Sea and a longer version of the story are here:
http://robnugen.com/cgi-local/journal.pl?type=all&date=2005/11/14

7) Just tonight, I went to Bethlehem with my friend Niveen!! We had some problems getting through the new checkpoint, a brand new facility that opened yesterday according to my friend Sarah who has been going to and from Bethlehem almost every day during her stay in Jerusalem.

Niveen was disallowed to drive through, causing her great consternation and a U-turn with no idea how we could get in. We jumped onto a servis (group taxi), hoping they could get through. Actually they could not, but dropped us off at the walk-in gate, outside a brand new facility that looks a lot like a modernized cattle-herding hanger. We were monitored by soldiers on ramparts, blocked by rotating gates (that were remotely locked after a few people went through), required to show our IDs to people behind thick (bullet proof?) glass, where Niveen (and all other Palestinians) will have their IDs entered into a computer.

There were several people in line, and one guy said he knew a shortcut, which turned out to be walking through the drive-through gate where we had been stopped before. I just walked through without acknowledging the guards until they used English and Niveen called my name. I still didn’t show them my ID but stood there “impatiently” waiting for Niveen who pleaded her case until finally we were waived through.

We walked through the massive gate in the wall (big enough for tour buses) and quickly found a servis to take us to Bethlehem University (where Niveen went to school). We saw some of her friends (and one of mine!) and then visited the Church of the Nativity, where I got a picture of Francois on the site where Jesus is said to have been born.

This was all great and fantastic and I was really happy to get this crown jewel of a Francois photo (though Sarah says I should have put him _in_ the hole) before I left for home.

On the way back through the checkpoint, I was astonished that all the passengers on tour buses had to get OUT of the tour bus, wait in the spanking new cattle herding facility, then get back ON the tour bus, for a grand total of moving about 100 yards in 30 minutes.

We waited in line, chatting with several other Americans who were on a tour, and marveled at the facility. It’s literally like going between countries, not between cities. I stood in line with Niveen, whereas passport holders could just show their passport and walk through a gate (so I don’t know what was taking so long at first). In a non-violent act against the facility, I tried to walk through the gate, found it locked, so I jumped over it.

“Hey!”

I turned around after a couple of “heys” and said, “what?” like “who are you to talk to me?”

The guy was like “where’s your passport?”

I looked him in the eyes. “It’s in my pocket.”

“Show me.”

“No way am I showing you my passport. My taxes *paid* for this facility (*)” I glared into his eyes until he grabbed my arm as if to show me who was boss.

I pulled away and was like, “alright, look,” and showed him my passport. He took it and I tried to snatch it back from him and then pulled his arm and he looked back at me like, “are you daring to challenge my authority?”

I backed off and he gave my passport to the guy behind the glass.

I said something like, “this is ridiculous; there’s no reason to make these people wait here; this is completely preposterous,” by which time my passport was checked and put back under the glass where the guy I had challenged motioned toward it with his head, ignoring everything I said.

This is definitely a situation after which I thought of several things I could have said better at the moment.

I am pretty sure I would not have done it had there *not* been about 50 American tourists there watching everything. I basically just wanted to make a scene and get across the point that the checkpoint makes people resentful.

Pictures are on this page, though not (yet) well labeled:
http://robnugen.com/cgi-local/journal.pl?type=all&date=2005/11/16

(*) strictly speaking I can’t prove this is true, but I know the US gives money to Israel.

8) I’ll be leaving this area on the 17th, and back in Japan the next day.

Love and Blessings to All!
- Rob

State of My Life Address

My first base.google.com thing……

I’ve renamed it robopress, but haven’t changed much else.

I’d like to use maps.google instead of yahoo; a scrolling zooming map is cooler than a static map any day. If I make any progress, I’ll give the code back to Ravi.

This is the first post I’ve written after installing Ravi’s GeoPress - Wordpress Plugin for tagging your posts with location. I have put my West Gray address below this entry, and labled it 1211WGray. Clicked Embed Map and Save this location.

Now clicking publish….

No embedded map.. I wonder if it’s a problem with the string I put in the address field. It was “1211 West Gray, Houston, Texas, 77019″ I’m going to change it to “77019″ and publish again.

Wow cool.. the map didn’t show up, but an email from Ravi showed up… I have forgotten to add a code in my entry.
Specifically, insert_yahoo_map in all upper-case as below:

Yesterday one of the Faisal residents showed me how to fold a simple rhombus out of a square piece of paper and then link several of these rhombi together to make various closed solids.

From my research, I have determined that it shouldn’t be too hard to put together a really big solid, but I am wondering how many rhombi are needed…

I gave the geometric solids to Gyosei, who provided the paper, and I don’t have pictures of them.

All of the geometric solids in my research are made of three sided pyramids. Each side of the pyramid is a regular right triangle, with the 90 degree angle at the top. At the apex of the pyramid, three 90 degree angles are formed by the edges.

The simplest one we could make is basically two three sided pyramids attached at their bases, for a six sided object made of right triangles. It requires 3 rhombi.

The next was a cube, which required 6 rhombi.

The next was a shape for which I don’t have a name. It required 12 rhombi.

The next required 30 rhombi.

What’s next?

3, 6, 12, 30, ?

Just found a new site called YouTube, which has just received funding, which means to me they could have a good thing going.

The front of the site looks so much like google and gmail’s front page that my brain thought it must be associated with google.

Sign up by clicking here and I’ll get a referral.

I’m quite impressed with the site. I just uploaded two videos; it made thumbnails, permalinks; gave me HTML code to embed videos on my pages… and it’s fast and free.

Soundbomb thrown near little girls

Confronting officer and Jewish victim

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