"We teach life, Sir!" • Rafeef Ziadah

Palestinian peace activist Rafeef Ziadah will be in Newcastle upon Tyne on the afternoon of Friday, 8th March 2013.

See here for details of the event.

And watch one of Rafeef's powerful, moving performances:

Urgent Action for Hana Shalabi, Palestinian hunger striker

Amnesty International Urgent Action Update – Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Further information on UA: 71/12 Index: MDE 15/013/2012 Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories, Date: 13 March 2012
Amnesty International calls for URGENT ACTION as Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Hana Shalabi’s detention order has been reduced to four months, but an Israeli military judge has yet to rule on her appeal. She has been on hunger strike since her arrest over three weeks ago. Her health is deteriorating.
Following a judicial review on 29 February 2012, a military judge decided on 4 March to reduce Hana Shalabi’s six-month administrative detention order by two months. Her detention order now ends on 16 June 2012 but could be renewed. She remains on hunger strike, which she initially began to protest against ill-treatment during her arrest on 16 February 2012 and then continued in protest at her detention without charge or trial. On 23 February, she was ordered to spend a week in solitary confinement as punishment for her hunger strike, but after four days was put in a cell with other detainees where she remains.
Her lawyers appealed the four-month order and a hearing was held at the Military Court of Appeals on 7 March 2012. However, the military judge postponed a decision after the military prosecution objected to the request for her release, citing “secret evidence” justifying Hana Shalabi’s detention, which they refused to reveal for “security reasons”, making it impossible for her to effectively exercise her right to mount a legal challenge.
A doctor from Physicians for Human Rights – Israel visited Hana Shalabi on 8 and 12 March 2012. The doctor reported that she is growing weaker by the day, that her muscles have begun to atrophy and that she is suffering from spells of dizziness and loss of consciousness.
Hana Shalabi has not been allowed family visits since she was arrested. Her father was prevented from attending the military court hearing on 7 March, and was thus unable to see her.
Please write immediately, before 20 April 2012, in English or your own language [remember, polite and calm is more effective, and you may wish to incorporate extra information given below]:
• Calling on the Israeli authorities to release Hana Shalabi and other Palestinians held in administrative detention immediately, unless they are promptly charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and brought to trial in full conformity with international fair trial standards;
• Urging them to allow Hana Shalabi regular access to her lawyers, family and independent medical care, and to ensure she is treated humanely at all times and not punished in any way for her hunger strike, such as by being placed in solitary confinement.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 20 APRIL 2012 TO:
• Military Judge Advocate General
Brigadier General Danny Efroni
6 David Elazar Street
Hakirya, Tel Aviv,
Israel
Fax: +972 3 569 4526
Email: avimn@idf.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Judge Advocate General
• Commander of the IDF – West Bank
Major-General Nitzan Alon
GOC Central Command
Military Post 01149
Battalion 877
Israel Defense Forces,
Israel
Fax: +972 2 530 5724
Salutation: Dear Major-General
• And copies to:
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence
Ehud Barak
Ministry of Defence
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909,
Israel
Fax: +972 3 69 16940
+972 3 691 7915
Salutation: Dear Minister
• Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
Please check with amnesty international if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 71/12.
Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/013/2012/en

*****

Additional Information on URGENT ACTION (UA 71/12):
Palestinian hunger striker’s health declines
Hana Shalabi is from the village of Burqin, near Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank. According to her family, she had plans to study nursing at al-Rawda College in Nablus before she was arrested on 16 February 2012. She was taken to Salem detention centre for interrogation and transferred the next day to HaSharon detention centre in northern Israel. On 23 February 2012, she was given an administrative detention order, signed by a military commander, stating that she would be detained for six months. A military judge who reviewed the order reduced it to four months on 4 March. According to her lawyer, the Israeli military authorities allege that Hana Shalabi is involved in activities that pose a security threat to Israel.
Hana Shalabi was previously arrested by the Israeli authorities on 14 September 2009 and spent 25 months in administrative detention without charge or trial. In a response to Urgent Action letters from activists, the Israeli Embassy in the UK wrote that Hana Shalabi received an administrative detention order on 29 September 2009 “based upon intelligence information regarding her involvement in dangerous activities including planning to commit a terrorist suicide attack”. She was released on 18 October 2011, a few days before the order was due to expire, in the Israeli-Hamas prisoner swap which saw the phased release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. She has never been charged with any offence.
Hana Shalabi went on hunger strike to protest at being detained without charge the day she was arrested. According to her lawyer, Hana Shalabi says that she began the hunger strike to protest at being strip-searched by male Israeli soldiers after her arrest.
According to her lawyer, Hana Shalabi was kept in solitary confinement from 23 until 27 February as punishment for her hunger strike. Hana Shalabi’s lawyer filed a request to the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to transfer her to the Ramleh prison hospital where she could receive medical treatment.
Under the system of administrative detention, detainees’ rights, as guaranteed by Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Israel is a state party, including their rights to be informed promptly and fully of the reasons for their detention, to be presumed innocent, to examine and have examined the witnesses against them, and to be tried in public, are consistently flouted. The evidence against the detainee is heard by a military judge in secret, without either the defendant or their lawyer being given access to the evidence or able to challenge it, whether at the first judicial review of the administrative detention order, at the Military Court of Appeals if an appeal is filed, or at the Supreme Court of Israel if an appeal for a hearing is filed there. Furthermore, no prisoner or detainee should be forced to undergo a body search conducted by members of the opposite sex , which constitutes a violation of the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to privacy and is also in breach of international standards relating to the rights of detainees and prisoners, including the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders.
Amnesty International has long called on the Israeli authorities to end the practice of administrative detention. Administrative detainees held on account of their non-violent political opinions or activities should be released immediately and unconditionally; others should be released or charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and promptly tried according to international standards.
According to the IPS, there were 309 Palestinian administrative detainees as of 31 January 2012, though the number may have increased since. There are currently 24 Palestinian Legislative Council members in administrative detention. One man has been held in administrative detention for five years.

Amnesty International, International Secretariat
Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom

Scottish Friends of Palestine – Press Release

Hiya again
Today I'd like to share this with you – it's been sitting in my in-box for a few days, and some of the info is no longer current, but the general picture deserves looking at – and action needs to be taken NOW!
Visit www.easi-piesi.org to find out what you can do.


Scottish Friends of Palestine – News Release

… what is it, exactly, that occupies our attentions?
What are the stories we embrace?
And what are the stories we ignore?
And why?
We could, of course, add: And what are the consequences?

Can you really get a more newsworthy story than the following?

85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, was refused permission to enter the ghetto where 1.5 million fellow human beings are under siege, suffering a slow genocide - with a minimal amounts of food and material essential for life allowed into the razor wire enclosure. Hedy has undertaken a fast in protest.

In company with many other peaceful, non-violent demonstrators, she is now barricaded in this capital city’s main square. At least one has been assaulted by the local police...

Meanwhile, many more concerned citizens of the world have gathered in the capital, denied permission to enter the ghetto. A convoy of dozens of vehicles, including ambulances, loaded with humanitarian supplies - medical and educational - is also denied entry, with government bureaucracy playing an apparent role. A bureaucracy which unsuccessfully masks the political decisions of the government.

Implant this scenario in Tehran, Baghdad, Kabul or virtually any other capital city in the world and headlines would be guaranteed, the news wires would be buzzing.

In reality, the above is taking place - in Tahrir Square, Cairo, on the first anniversary of the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the subsequent criminal carnage which the Goldstone report is now trying to address. The Gaza Freedom Marchers are now in Egypt, Hedy Epstein has undertaken a fast, the Viva Palestina convoy is denied entry - with the Egyptian government keeping them at bay.

This microcosm of international concern over the actions of the state of Israel which, in cooperation with the Obama administration and the Mubarak regime, is frantically trying to have the misery and the inhumanity of its deeds in Gaza consigned to the margins, is taking its place in history.

And, largely, the UK media is content to ignore it.

Scottish Friends of Palestine condemns the actions of all major players, the United States, Israel and Egypt, in refusing to allow peaceful, solidarity activists entry into the occupied Gaza Strip. We express our outrage at the continuing refusal of the Israel and Egypt to recognise the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza [according to UNCTAD, in the Gaza Strip 80% are impoverished, 43% unemployed, 75% lack food security] and allow constuction material, educational material, medical supplies and food - all the basic necessities of life in appropriate quantities into the Gaza Strip,

The consequences of such actions are only too apparent.

It was on the 3 November 1956 that Israeli troops lined lined up, and shot, over 250 male residents of Khan Younis. On this day nine year old Abed El-Aziz El-Rantisi learned of the cold blooded execution of his uncle by the state of Israel. On this day, in the words of the assassinated Hamas leader, Abed El-Aziz El-Rantisi, "They planted hatred in our hearts".

Today there are over one and a half million victims of the Israeli state policy and practice of slow genocide - all with the potential for having hatred planted in their hearts. And prime minister Gordon Brown appeals for help in thwarting tomorrow’s "extremists"?? Ignoring the obvious and ignoring the school of thought that one day the world will yearn for the relatively peaceful days of the Taliban and al Qaeda. In the absence of a sense of history, and a willingness to learn from history, today it is Pakistan, Afghanistan with Iran and Somalia in the cross-hairs. Tomorrow . . . .?

www.vivapalestina.org/home.htm

Scottish Friends of Palestine is keenly aware that there are also consequences closer to home, more current and more pressing. With the media and the international community largely indulging the state of Israel, it appears that the Scottish Government now feels safe to do business with this pariah state. The Scottish Development International (SDI) is planning a ‘Trade Mission’ to Israel from the 10th to the 15th January. This appalling decision - to trade with a country which has brutally military occupied the land of others for over 40 years, which has placed one and a half million under a military and economic siege for nearly 3 years, whose politicians now avoid visiting the UK for fear of arrest under charges of complicity over war crimes and crimes against humanity - is a shameful decision which brings disgrace to Scotland.

Scottish Friends of Palestine urges the Scottish Government to reconsider, and rescind, this planned visit by the SDI.

Scottish Friends of Palestine is a firm advocate of the total boycott of all Israeli institutions, academic and cultural bodies and Israeli products - until such times as the Israeli state ceases to boycott the rights of the Palestinian people, and international law as it pertains to the Palestinian people.

Visit www.easi-piesi.org to find out what you can do.

Hugh Humphries
Sec
Scottish Friends of Palestine
(0141 637 8046)

Scottish Friends of Palestine was formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent attacks on the Palestinian refugee communities. It is an independent organisation with no political or religious affiliations. SFoP supports the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty and the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. These rights have all been acknowledged by the United Nations.
SFoP campaigns for immediate and unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all territories illegally occupied, including East Jerusalem. We work for educational, social and cultural links between the Scottish and Palestinian peoples.

End of Press Release

Jerusalem artists go underground

Jerusalem artists go underground
BBC Website Report 3/11/09 BBC Arabic Service Reporter Ahmad Budeiri
Page last updated at 09:58 GMT, Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Jerusalem has played host to a two-day arts festival with a difference as part of Palestinian attempts to celebrate the city's year of being Capital of Arab Culture. The BBC Arabic Service correspondent in the city, Ahmad Budeiri, joined the audience.

A group of about 100 specially invited guests gathered at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate for the evening's programme to begin.

The area is heavily guarded by Israeli security forces, lying on a crucial junction between the city's Arab and Jewish areas. But though the police have already intervened to prevent several Capital of Arab Culture events this year, on this occasion they did not, or could not.

First we were divided up into several sub-groups and then led into the winding alleyways of the Old City.

I feel we have gone back in time, singing here rather than in a modern theatre or concert hall Vocalist Omar Abu Nejmeh

My party arrived at an old stone house with a small courtyard, where three musicians were waiting to entertain us with a mixture of traditional Palestinian songs and some 20th Century classics from the popular Arab repertoire.

The al-Quds (Jerusalem) Underground Project was under way.

"We have tried to perform at public venues in Jerusalem, but the Israeli authorities always denied permission," said drummer Ahmad Hdeib.

But he added they would never stop trying to "send our voice to the world" from the Old City.

Vocalist Omar Abu Nejmeh admitted it was not an easy choice to become a Palestinian artist living in Jerusalem, but this unique occasion was one of its compensations.

"I feel we have gone back in time, singing in such an old house, rather than a modern theatre or concert hall," he said.

The reason for these precautions is that many events marking the Arab League and Unesco-backed City of Arab Culture year are sponsored by the Palestinian Authority, and anything involving the PA in Jerusalem is banned by the Israeli authorities. The east of the city has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

Most of the 2009 events have taken place outside the city, in nearby Ramallah or other Palestinian towns in the West Bank.

But there was little objection the Israeli authorities could raise to these performances, in six venues that were all private houses or businesses, arranged without PA involvement and mainly advertised by word of mouth.

Beneath the surface

But the Jerusalem Underground Festival is nevertheless a response to Israel's suppression of Capital of Arab Culture events, with venues kept secret from the police in case they disrupted the shows.

The surface is politics, history and religion, but under that there are people and reality Merlijn Twaalfhoven

With some of Old Jerusalem's alleyways not having amenities like streetlights, sometimes the audiences was led around in near total darkness with only the screens of their mobile phones lighting the way.

The project was the idea of Dutch composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven who worked for several months to arrange it.

"The idea is to look beneath the surface of Jerusalem since the surface is politics, history and religion, but under that there are people and reality, and we seek the truth about their lives and their daily routine," he said.After the first concert, our group was taken to another house to watch a short play about discord in family life.

The play had been scheduled to be staged at East Jerusalem's only theatre, but one of the actors told me after his performance that Israel's Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch was working to close the theatre down for carrying out "illegal activities".Further stops took us to a traditional bakery and someone's house that had been turned into a lending library, a much-needed resource because Palestinians do not have a municipal library of their own in Jerusalem.

****

For the original article, please go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8338316.stm

A trip to the Gaza Strip -- Israeli punters watch the war

Good mornig

If you wanted to know the dangers to which Israeli citizens are exposed in the Gaza Strip, this may be the video to view – and you may be less surprised that peace in the Middle East seems farther away than ever.

To say Shalom and Salaam and Paz and Friede and Peace strikes me as almost cynical. Especially when I hear the young woman say, "Those over there all have to be radically erased out; the whole town must be wiped out. […] Yes, I am a tiny little bit fascist."
Makes me feel really sick…

Thank you, R.G., for this illuminating link.

PS: I know that not all Israeli are like the people shown in this clip. I know that there are Israeli who are doing everything they can, often at great risk to themselves, to improve the inhumane conditions of Palestinians in Jerusalem, in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank in general.

A mixed bag of things: blogs, Palestine/Gaza, Xmas letters

Hello again

My lovely downstairs neighbours surpassed themselves this past night: at two am, three or four of them came home in a huge commotion, with people probably very drunk, shouting and their dog barking. It sounded like someone was either attacking someone else or being attacked, and the furniture taking a beating in the process. Being ripped out of a deep sleep like that and having to hear their fighting actually made me feel sick to the stomach.
About half an hour later, the police were seen taking two of the miscreants away. However, the pair came back another hour later, rousing the dog that barked again. And so it has gone, with noise disturbing the quiet of this very quiet place every hour or so. I do love my neighbours -- almost to death! ;)

So, rather than tossing and turning, I have been awake and catching up on this and that. One thing was re-reading at leisure all the lovely Xmas circular letters I received over the past month or so. Some of them are true gems, with sophisticated layout and beautiful illustrations. Each one of them contains gems of information, news sad and happy – of dearly loved relatives dying; but also of others making miraculous recoveries after serious illnesses; of weddings; scholarly, professional and publishing successes; and of new babies coming into families; of fantastic holidays undertaken and enjoyed -- it's fascinating and enriching to be allowed those glimpses of dear but distant friends' lives. Thank you, each and everyone: Althea in Basel, Pam & Peter in "Washers" (aka Washington, DC), Philippa, Heidi and Sue in Switzerland, Susan in Surrey, Ros & David in The Netherlands. And thank you, everyone else who sent me messages and greetings. There was quite a laundry line of colourful cards in my hallway. Lovely! And this time I really mean it! :)

On a much more sombre note, one of my friends here has a great blog. Quite apart from some truly spectacular photographs, a post from just a few days ago caught my attention and I would like to quote from it here:
"Israel claims to be waging war against Hamas. Strange, I see pictures of civilians dying in great numbers. I teach small children and it always pains me to see small children maimed, killed and distressed. Today it was reported that the death toll has reached 1000. I know that Israel wants to stop the rocket attacks but there is no justification for this atrocity they are committing. There is no proportionality here.
When will Israel learn [...]?"

Back in 2003, millions took to the streets protesting against the illegal war on Iraq. It's been disheartening to realise that the powers-that-were took absolutely no heed of the people in those colourful protest rallies and vigils. I know many people who have been refusing to buy products "made/produced in Israel" -- I try to avoid them myself. Not buying the products from that country was one of several strategies that helped end the Apartheid regime in South Africa...

And to those out there who smile condescendingly at people like me, I can only say this: just because the vigils and one-person boycotts have seemed to have no effect doesn't mean they were pointless. We need to keep supporting those who are wrongly done by and ostracize those who commit obscenities even though we know that it may not appear to make a difference. From my work with and for amnesty international I know that at least 30% of all the letters written to demand the release of a political prisoner make a big difference in that person's life, even if they may not get the person out of custody straight away.
Yesterday's Oban Times (15 Jan 09, p. 4) carries an article about Andrew Muncie, 34, from Spean Bridge, embarking on a medical supply ship bound for the Gaza Strip from Larnaca, Cyprus, on a voyage organised by the Free Gaza Movement.
Sadly, according to the Free Gaza Movement blogsite, the "Spirit of Humanity", "carrying five tons of supplies and 21 passengers, including three surgeons" (not 30, as the Oban Times claims), was threatened by the Israeli Defense Forces (that's another "newspeak" kind of term blurring the fact that those forces are as much about attacking other countries as defending their own), so the ship has gone back to Cyprus. What a waste!

The people in Gaza lack the most essential supplies. According to the Oxfam site, "As fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas militias has intensified over the last two weeks, the impact on civilians is appalling, with innocent women, men and children being killed and injured. For people living in Gaza, four out of five of whom were already largely dependent on food aid, this comes on top of 19 months of blockade. They now have little or no access to clean water, food or power. Medical and sanitation systems are also on the verge of collapse."

Aerial photographs shown on TV recently revealed the stark reality of mostly parched earth in Gaza surrounded by mostly lush green fields on Israeli territory. I wonder why that is...

Even though the "Spirit of Humanity" has been turned back, people like Andrew Muncie deserve our wholehearted support. Israel has been violating international law and committing crimes against humanity for years now. High time the Israeli government was taken to account!
(And no: I'm not being anti-Semitic, nor do I defend Hamas' often reprehensible actions. But they were elected to power in what was a fairly "clean", democratic process. When you have nothing left to lose, why not toss everything in the balance?)

Time to be grateful -- Happy New Year!

Hello again

As the old year draws to a close, I have much reason to be grateful: for some wonderful old and new friends, both here in Oban and all over the world; for pretty good health; for clients who have stayed with me, some of them for almost decades now; for a warm, comfortable home; for lots and lots more -- so many reasons to feel truly privileged in a world full of misery, conflict, doom and gloom.

My heart goes out to everyone suffering in Palestine, Gaza, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tibet, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, in Congo, Zimbabwe -- almost wherever we look, there is conflict, strife, all-out war, most of it absolutely illegal, unjustified and fanned by vested interests, mostly based in the West, mostly, I'd say, due to greed and power-mongering. And our pamered lifestyles -- let's not forget that!

Our pampered lifestyles also drive a largely silent, even more frightening catastrophe: our planet will survive, nature will survive, but the human race is fast racing towards its own destruction. Still, there are people -- politicians especially -- who prefer to bury their heads in the sand, denying what is visible to anyone willing to look: CO2 levels and average temperatures are soaring; the polar ice caps are melting; deserts are ever expanding; water is becoming scarcer and scarcer.

Happy New Year to you all, anyway!
Or, in the words of the inimitable Mafalda, a lovely cartoon character of Argentinan origin:

"Les deseamos a todas las buenas personas que conocemos que el próximo año tengan toda la fuerza y den lo mejor de sí mismos sin importarles que les recompensen sus esfuerzos para trabajar por un mundo mejor, en el que la paz sea posible, con justicia y equidad y en el que sobrevivan las utopías aunque parezcan (y sean) imposibles."
In my own translation:
"We wish all the good people we know that in the New Year you may have all the strength to give your best, regardless of whether your efforts may be rewarded, to work towards a better world in which Peace may be possible, with justice and fairness; a world in which utopias may survive although they may seem (and be) impossible."

(from a PowerPoint presentation received in Dec. 2008 with the following credits: Imágenes ©Kino. Desconozco autor del texto. Realización Power Point: ©LnYamuni)

Issues dear to my heart: the environment -- the War in Lebanon/Gaza/Israel -wildlife of sorts in Bern -- ...

Update of October 5, 2006: Things seem to slowly begin to happen. For some concerted calls to action and talks and getting a move on, this is probably the best site:
http://www.crisisgroup.org


(originally posted on August 12, 2006)
Hello again

Despite a unanimous UN Security Council resolution for immediate ceasefire the war rages on in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Israel. By day 30 of this senseless war, 1120 innocent Lebanese and Israelis had been killed,*) thousands more injured and dying, most of them without any hope for proper medical assistance. What mad wastefulness! Such hatred being sown; ten years of reconstruction work smashed to smithereens in just a few days -- it's barbaric, yet the world just seems to be looking on. We'll see whether this latest resolution has any effect -- from where I am sitting, Israel still seems hell-bent on destroying everything within its reach in Lebanon.

*) source: http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org/index.php?id=1

On August 10, 2006, a plot was uncovered to blow several passenger planes up in the skies above the Atlantic ocean, or perhaps above US cities. The west is harvesting the fruit of hatred that has been growing since 1948. If the U.S. and Israel had been looking for ways to look really bad to the rest of the world, their advisors would have told them to do what they have been doing the past thirty days!



While all this has been going on I've been trying to keep my head above water by focusing on some curious creatures who decided to share my living space for a while.

Here's the latest addition to the 'family' -- a beautiful dark-brown moth (about 2.5 cm long) I first saw a few days ago. I think it's a female because of the absence of the brush-like antennae used by the males to detect a hint of pheromone across the most amazing distances. I gave her plenty of opportunities to leave but she stayed until early yesterday, hiding from the light just below the ceiling on the thin curtain in my study. I was sorry to find her gone the day that I was getting the room ready for a visitor from Sweden.

A Geometer Moth (Geometridae)? Length in all approx. 2-2.5 cm

Three years ago early in October, after a record-breaking summer here in Bern, I was amazed to find the kind of huge moth (wings about 5-6 cm long) clinging to the peace flag on my balcony that I had seen the previous September on the sun-warmed walls of houses on the Ligurian coast of Italy:

Just like last year, a big sunflower blossomed and ripened on my balcony ...
... and now the nifty little coal tits are at it, pecking out the seeds. Sometimes, two or three of them congregate, hanging upside down as they cling to the small drying leaves around the big seedplate. They'll dig out a seed and flit off to a place where they can hold it between their claws to keep it in place while they peck open the husk. If that's not an intelligent way of getting at food, I don't know what is.

Here's a picture taken from a CD-ROM -- the 'Atlas der Schweiz' -- a treasure trove on the fauna and flora of Switzerland:

I'm not the only one to be interested in the environment, thank goodness! Greenpeace are doing a great job and I applaud their imaginative campaigns. [dead link removed on 15 Mar 2010]

Because the war in the Middle East still preys on my mind, and because this is the least I can do right now, here come a couple of links to websites and blogs that have lately caught my attention:

My paper today carried an article about blogs being written all over Lebanon, some by candlelight and on battery-driven computers. Lots of very well-written entries at http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/

Currently Blog of Note on Blogspot -- not the world's most fantastic writer, nor is it very clear who the writer is, but of great interest nonetheless -- Reading While Falling, One American's blog from Beirut at http://readingwhilefalling.blogspot.com/

And YOU can sign a ceasefire petition and/or donate money at
http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org/index.php?id=1

Thank you! and may Peace be with you!