Before the scheduled landing at Philadelphia, the crew got an indication that the landing gear was not down and did a flyover to confirm that the nose wheels had not deployed, airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica said.
Sweet!
Archive for the ‘travel’ Category
wheels? who needs ‘em?
Monday, November 17th, 2008The struggle against the Wall in the eyes of Palestinian children
Monday, March 17th, 2008Save Jerusalem from the Apartheid Wall and Ethnic cleansing
In an attempt to disrupt this unity among Palestinians on both sides of the Armistice Line, the Wall has been built right down the middle of the village, separating families and neighbors, shopkeepers and customers from their markets, people from their work, and children from their schools. 216 shops and houses have been demolished close to where the Wall has been built. 600 out of the previously existing 1,200 shops had to close.
From Suzy xx in Palestine
Friday, March 7th, 2008This was actually sent to me a long time ago, but I’m just now getting it posted
Hi All, it’s been a while I know! Partly my lack of emails is because i’m not very good at keeping in touch (as pointed out very clearly by my sister last week!) and partly because I didn’t think I had that much to report. I’m settled here now and my life has it’s routine just like it did in the UK. That’s what I thought until I had an instant-messenger conversation with a friend a couple of nights ago:
Me: “Everything’s good here, very quiet really, except for the birds, spring is definitely here!”
Neil: “I read things were bad in Hebron, have you been back recently?”
Me “Oh yes, i was there last week and couldn’t leave cos the army invaded and sealed off the checkpoint. The settlers had driven a JCB into the Old city- they want to expand their colony and were trying to knock down some Palestinian owned shops. Oh, and Beit Jala was raided early yesterday morning- I slept through it! And another raid into Bethlehem, I swear I’m bad luck, everytime I go to do my shopping the army seem to follow me! Not so quiet then I guess…”After only 5 months this has all become a bit normal for me. If I don’t see it happening with my own eyes i hear of it on the radio or TV- everyday- Hebron, Tubas, Nablus, Jenin, a village, a refugee camp raided, one teenager dead, one child shot but still alive, several with rubber bullet injuries, an elderly woman collapsed from tear gas inhalation. A couple of days ago Al Walajah was raided just as my friend Ahamd was leaving his home. They had come to arrest a 17 year old boy. The only reason Ahmad told me was because it was part of a funny story about the bad day he’d had- it started with the army raiding his village and making him late for school, then at school he got into trouble for being late from the headmaster, he was kept back after school but couldn’t call to tell his brother as his phone had no credit….etc etc. An army helicopter and harrassment from fully armed soldiers was just an incinental part of his story.
This isn’t accidental, this normalisation of daily violence and injustice, it’s a survival strategy. When I’d been here for about three months I went through a period when i couldn’t sleep. Whenever i tried my mind would begin to wander and i’d strart thinking and getting upset about things I’d seen and heard that day: my friend Wael worrying about money, playing with the four lovely children that he’s so worried about finding the money to feed, remembering going through the Bethlehem checkpoint and having to explain in bad arabic how it all worked to a bewildered woman visiting her family for the first time if 5 years or remebering that i’d noticed that the construction of the aparthied wall was creeping ever closer to Walajeh or thinking about a report on Al Jazeera that quoted Condaliza Rice saying that sanctions on Palestine wouldn’t lifted until Hamas recognised Israels right to exist and another report that said that the number of illegal Israeli colonies had increased again during 2006 and…….
It was driving me crazy, and this isn’t even my country…
I told a friend about this and asked how he coped with it day in day out. He said that he’d stopped himself thinking about it. If he saw a soldier beating a friend at a checkpoint he’d cry about it there and then, and then push all feelings and memories of it aside and lock them away. If he didn’t, he’d go mad. He advised me to stop watching Al Jazeera just before I go to bed.
So this is what i’ve done. Most nights I manage to fall asleep, if i feel my mind wandering i gather up those memories and put them aside. I have wild and crazy dreams and wonder what this is doing to my mental health, but at least i am sleeping.And all of this after just 5 months. Just imagine what it must be like if this was your country, your entire life, past present and foreseeable future….
Two weeks in Bethlehem (a city smaller than Leeds):
Bethlehem city raided three times.
Aida Camp raided twice
Al Walajah village raided one
Al Khader village raided once
Al Souwara village raided once
Beit Jala raided twice
16 taken to unknown locations by the Israeli army.www.palestinecampaign.org
www.bigcampaign.org.uk
www.enoughoccupation.orgSx
P.S. It was 23ºC here yesterday, spring in Palestine is beautiful!
Brief thoughts on Virtual Prison, I mean Fence
Saturday, March 1st, 2008‘Virtual Fence’ Along Border To Be Delayed – washingtonpost.com
Boeing has already been paid $20.6 million for the pilot project, and in December, the DHS gave the firm another $65 million to replace the software with military-style, battle management software.
This, for some reason, seems shocking to me. Okay, so this is for a virtual fence 28 miles long. The $20.6 million price works out to almost $140 / foot.
The price paid to Boeing to fix their own mistake I assume can be amortized out along the rest of the 100 miles estimated to be completed by 2011, or, three years late. But let’s just further grant that it can be amortized along the entire 2000 miles, so the software costs $6 / foot. Hmm; that’s not so bad.
So let’s just hope Boeing finishes the rest of the project on (the new delayed) schedule, and on (the new increased) butdget, and generally gets everything right.
BWHAHAhaahahahahaa!!! What am I saying???
Read the latest News: virtual fence us.mexico.
AND, let me be the first to point out: If it works, THIS IS ALSO A VIRTUAL PRISON for US Americans. Get out while you can.
chomp!
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Hammerhead Shark Diving by Shark Diver
To insure[sic] the best results we will be “chumming” the water with fish and fish parts. Consequently, there will be food in the water while divers are in the water. To insure your safety, we will usually have one or two crewmembers in the water as safety. Please be aware that these are NOT “cage” dives, they are open water experiences.
I wonder if they’ll be leaving this quote on their site… I wonder if they’ll still chum the water… I hope they’ll stay in business!
Powered by ScribeFire.
some guy lying on the sidewalk
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
Not sure the story here, but as I was walking to lunch, I saw this guy on the main street of Dogenzaka. I thought he was on the phone, but as I walked by, he didn’t seem conscious enough to talk.
Rob, Francois, Hello Kitty
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
Rob, Francois, and Kittie.
Ami took this picture in Nihon O-dori station
Reality strikes my day off…
Friday, January 5th, 2007
I think I’m losing it…seriously…i think I’m forgetting the meaning of words like “peace” and “ceasefire” and “routine”. Today I had a day off and went to meet a friend of mine from Bethlehem who has recently started a new job with UNESCO in Ramallah. We met for a long lunch and then went shopping in Ramallah’s busy town centre. Then the army arrived. Bulldozers first, shunting parked cars out of the way, some into shop fronts. Close behind were the armoured jeeps. No announcements: tear-gas, then sound grenades, then live fire. A helicopter above, backing up he ground troops with overhead fire. We were caught so unaware that I have to admit we both panicked and fled with other shoppers, young and old into the nearest store. We flinched and held hands with every gunshot and explosion from the other side of the metal shutters. .
Of course, we needn’t have worried. This was just a “routine arrest operation”. So tell me, am I losing it? Have I been here too long? What exactly is routine about four dead people and twenty seriously injured? Routine to me was mothers and children, on holiday from school, going about their business, buying food and clothes, meeting friends for lunch….right?
Today in Palestine: Ramallah raided, Bethlehem raided, Tubas raided, two villages close to Bethlehem raided, four dead, 35 injured, 9 arrested, so far. But Israel wants only peace and to protect itself from terrorists. A new colony approved in the West Bank to house the illegal Israeli “settlers” removed from the Gaza strip; 55,000 new Israeli houses to be built on land stolen from the village I volunteer in, the village that now has an unemployment rate of around 75%….peace?
Like I say, i really think i’m losing it, I hear the words Israel speaks but my eyes won’t let me believe them…anyone any advice for a confused girl?
Life in Walajah
Friday, December 15th, 2006Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since my last mass email and I’ve had a couple of
those “are you still alive” emails that I love as they prove to me
that you all miss me (ie they’re good for my ego!) and make me laugh!
I have to say that I’ve started writing this email a few times, but
every time I’ve given up as the words seemed a little empty. The past
few weeks in my new home have been, typically, both great and heart
breaking. I’m now working in the village Walajah that i emailed you
all about a few weeks ago. It’s great to be part of such a small,
close community, and as such I’m having to walk up all of the steep
hills around here to work off all of the food I’m being fed at every
opportunity! It can be so quiet and peaceful here, that it’s easy to
forget about the “situation” (as everyone here calls it!), and think
that i’m living in some pretty Mediterranean town (which I am).
However, and there’s always a however, in the past week and a half
there’s been three incursions by the army.
The first was to demolish a building and a house. After much arguing,
a local lawyer prevented the home demolition, but the outbuilding was
destroyed.
The second was in the early hours.The army came and forced a family
out of their home with tear gas and sound grenades. They then forced
the father of the family to strip to his underwear in the freezing
cold and lay on the ground before arresting him. His crime? He works
for an orphanage in Bethlehem that is supported by the social services
part of Hamas. He is still detained. His teenage daughter who I’ve
been helping with her english homework was too upset to attend an exam
last week.
The third is the one that always gets me. Two days ago the home of
Monder Hamad was demolished for the second time this year, to make way
for “the wall” deemed illegal by the International court. So this is
my problem: witnessing this was one of the most traumatic points of my
life, and this isn’t my house, my village or even my country. How can
i scrape together the words to describe how heart breaking it is to
watch such a personal injustice occur? A family torn apart by well
armed teenagers with all of the power, friends and family kept away
unable to offer comfort. A few of us able to help the family empty
their lives out onto the street before…. Even as I write it now it
seems empty. The soldier’s reply to the desperate question: “where
shall we live?”….”We gave you a tent last time.”
So do me a favour, think about how this would make you feel, spare us
a thought over the holidays, and next time you hear about Hamas
refusing to recognise Israels right to exist bear in mind the
continuous humiliations and tragedies inflicted on every Palestinian:
man, woman and child.
Suzy xx
Rochelle in Oaxaca
Sunday, August 13th, 2006Hello all…
So things in Oaxaca are intensifying and fast.
Last week there was a 2000+ womens’ march of the Popular Assembly of the
State of Oaxaca (APPO). A quick recap, this is the organization that
formed after the June 14th police repression of the striking teachers
union SNTE Section 22. APPO is made up of the teachers as well as a huge
variety of social organizations who support the teachers. Since APPO’s
formation the main goal has been to force the resignation of the
right-wing corrupt governor of Oaxaca State, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. The main
method being used to acheive this is to use nonviolent tactics to stop the
state government from functioning. The state Government House, the State
Congress and the Oaxaca Superior Tribunal of Justice, the Department of
Finances, the General Attorney’s office, the penal tribunals, and other
facilities have all been blockaded.
So back to the women, after marching for five miles they nonviolently took
over the state tv station and have controlled it ever since. It took them
a few hours to get it up and running but since then they have been playing
the footage of the June 14th repression, the march of 400,000 teachers and
growing number of supporters 2 weeks later, and other indymedia style
documentaries of class struggles going on throughout Mexico. They even
played a documentay on the oppression faced by the Palestinians. The
media here is controlled by the wealthy and those in power, like in the
states, so these things had never made it on to television. The televison
station also has two affilited radio stations which the women now control
as well.
The movement has truly been growing, the largest mass movement I have ever
witnessed. It is spreading throughout the whole state of Oaxaca. 40
municipalities and towns around the state have made changes to those in
power, 20 municipal town halls are currently occupied. Nineteen
municipalities have joined APPO and have sent people here to Oaxaca city
to further the struggle. APPO has set up road blockades through out the
state and have taken over 6o public buses and 18 government cars.
Last week it was clear that APPO was acheiving its goals. The movement
was growing and its voice was loud and clear through the women on the
television and radio stations and the university radio station. Then on
the night of August 6th, although denied by President Vicente Fox, 300
officers of the Federal Preventive Police arrived in the city. On the
8th, 30 police men dressed in civilian clothing tried to disperse one of
the blockades in front of an occupied public building with tear gas and
gunfire. One woman was shot in the leg. Then the repression began to
show up all over the city in a series of events which I will list below to
keep it short…
August 7th
Two men start a bus on fire outside the university radio station as a
distraction, they then proceed to throw acid on the transmitter. Radio
Universidad is shutdown.
A NGO leader is disappeared.
A university professor is shot dead in his car.
August 8th
A leading indigenous rights advocate and active in APPO, who is wheelchair
bound from past police torture, is picked up by masked men in an unmarked
car and disappeared with two men who were with him.
Two men enter the state newspaper, Noticias, which has been sympathetic to
the struggle and shoot into the air.
August 10th
The government of Oaxaca announced arrest warrants for 50 leaders of APPO,
including many NGO leaders and leaders within the teachers union Section
22. According to the Secretary of Public Security, this is to “guarantee
the safety” of the state.
Also yesterday, a march was called by APPO against this repression and for
the release of those who have been disappeared. At least 20,000 people
marched through the streets. From the sidelines of the march shots were
fired killing one man, the husband of a teacher. The house that the shots
came from was rented by the police and a federal police badge was found
inside. Today APPO held a huge procession for the man who was killed
during the march into the center square, thousands attended the funeral
and chants that the struggle will continue were repeated for hours.
I believe the movement in Oaxaca has become a strong and diverse class
struggle against the corrupted officials and business-people who have been
in power in Oaxaca for decades. The state of Oaxaca is 70 percent
indigenous and has a long history of resistance and struggle. Those in
power have begun a dirty war against the movement and I fear for these
brave people who continue to take a strong stand against extreme injustice
and corruption even as they see their fellow compañer@s fall.
The photos I took at yesterday’s march can be seen at
http://www.flickr.com/photos
And I encourage any of you that are able to make a call or write to
Vicente Fox and others to demand an end to this repression and respect for
human rights in the state of Oaxaca. Contact info to follow…
with love,
Rochelle
Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Teléfono: (55) 52777455
Fax: (55) 52772376
radio@presidencia.gob.mx
presidencia@gob.mx
vicentefox@presidencia.gob.mx
Carlos M. Abascal Carranza
Secretario de Gobernación, México, D.F.
Fax: (00 52) 5 55 546 5350,
(00 52) 5 55 546 7388
segob@rtn.net.mx
Jesús Enrique Jackson Ramírez
Presidente de la Mesa Directiva
del Senado de la República
Teléfono 53.45.30.00 Ext: 3165, 3274
Fax 53.45.30.00 Ext3164
ejackson@senado.gob.mx
technorati tags:Oaxaca
Blogged with Flock