Alvorada | Dawn

 

João Gilberto - Se é Tarde me Perdoa (IN MEMORIAM CARLINHOS LYRA)

Se é tarde me perdoa

Mas eu não sabia

Que você sabia

Que a vida é tão boa

ZIAD IN GAZA

 The host family serves lunch, lentil soup. I take a sip and realise it needs salt. I feel shy to ask for some knowing the current prices. Instead, my sister suggests that she slices in one of the lemons we have. It tastes better.

After eating, I receive a call from a friend of ours who lives abroad. She is crying so much, I can’t even tell who it is until after a couple of minutes. Many people have called her and sent her messages telling her that her sister was killed. She was trying to reach her family but couldn’t. After many calls, it turned out that the person who died was someone else with the same name.

She tells me how she has had to explain to many people abroad the importance of having strong communication. They wonder, are Gazans so vain that they care more about having a good internet connection than the safety of their families? She told them that communication means people can check on their loved ones, they can hear the news, they can know where to get food and other items. Communication is not about Facebook love posts or Instagram happy pictures, it is about survival.

I received a message. A friend of a friend said she is praying that this whole nightmare will end soon. She said how bad she feels for all the Gazan children, women and men who are going through these horrible days, and how she keeps thinking of us all the time. Even though I don’t know her, her message made me feel like someone had touched my heart with their hands. For a few seconds, I felt loved and cared for, and that was enough for the day.

 

Circuit des Yeux "Black Fly"

Nobody said it was easy
But it was so easy
To stand alone
The breeze in my hair
The wind in my hair
A black fly coming round the bend

Detalhes pela casa | Details round the house

 

Dores do mundo

 

 

 

O disparo vem à distância, não tem autoria, e as mortes que provoca não têm rosto. Os ainda vivos, em fuga, também não

Dorrit Harazim

 O vídeo dura menos de um minuto e meio. Quem a ele assiste torna-se, para sempre, condenado a ser testemunha do horror. Não há escapatória, impossível “desver”, inútil buscar racionalidade à cena. Ela ultrapassa qualquer régua moral, política ou religiosa. É, em essência, o retrato da guerra captada pelo fotojornalista de Gaza Motaz Azaiza. Há quase dois meses, Azaiza registra o que vê à sua volta, e posta o que viu nas redes sociais. Na semana passada, quando novo bombardeio israelense atingiu seu bairro e vizinhos, Azaiza estava a postos. É esse minuto e meio que precisa ficar registrado aqui. Não fazê-lo seria silenciar o horror.

No massacre do Hamas contra civis israelenses, em 7 de outubro, os momentos mais sórdidos da infâmia foram mano a mano, com o algoz terrorista inebriado pelo terror da vítima em suas mãos. Missão cumprida. No caso dos bombardeios punitivos de Israel, o disparo vem à distância, não tem autoria, e as mortes que provoca não têm rosto. Os ainda vivos, em fuga, também não. Missão em curso.

Psicólogos sociais esquadrinham pesquisas atestando quanto o ser humano procura encontrar alguma coerência, propósito ou significado à vida, ao ato e ao fato de viver. Neste fim de 2023, os tempos são de desnorteamento e dor — uma dor, ora individual, ora coletiva, que não usa máscara. De qualquer ângulo que se olhe, o que se vê é um vácuo — vácuo de compaixão, excesso de certezas vazias. Tomar conta deste mundo dá trabalho e exige paciência, já sabia Clarice Lispector. 

Em tempos assim, é um deleite inofensivo e terno frequentar o site The Red Hand Files, criado por Nick Cave cinco anos atrás. O extraordinário músico australiano, que frequentou os cantos mais escuros da alma humana, havia perdido dois filhos (o adolescente Arthur caiu de um precipício na Inglaterra, e Jethro, aos 31 anos, sofreu morte súbita). Cave conseguiu se reerguer abrindo um canal de comunicação direta com a vida, na pessoa de sua legião de fãs. Passou a responder, pessoalmente, à enxurrada de perguntas que lhe chegam por escrito — até o ano passado elas somavam mais de 50 mil. Suas respostas são singelas e profundas, nunca impensadas ou insinceras.

Uma alma inquieta chamada Raymond, de Dallas (Texas), queria saber se o cantor se considerava otimista. Recebeu a seguinte resposta:

— Esperança e otimismo podem ser forças diferentes, quase opostas. A esperança brota de um sofrer sentido. É a centelha desafiadora e dissidente que se recusa a ser extinta. O otimismo pode ser o negacionismo do tal sofrer, o medo de encarar a escuridão, a ausência de percepção, uma espécie de cegueira do real. Esperança é amadurecimento e desobediência. Otimismo pode ser temeroso e falso.

Outro seguidor, da Eslovênia, perguntou se a inteligência artificial seria capaz de criar o sublime (na canção ou em música). Cave primeiro citou o autor de “Sapiens”, Yuval Noah Harari, para quem a IA será capaz de criar músicas ainda melhores que os humanos, pois conseguirá mapear o estado d’alma de quem faz o pedido. Um algoritmo sob medida para satisfazer à necessidade emocional do cliente — se está sentindo alegria, tristeza, saudade, desejo.

— Só que músicas fazem bem mais que isso — esclareceu o cantor. — Uma canção excepcional nos inunda de assombro, e essa sensação deriva exclusivamente de nossos limites como seres humanos. Tem a ver com a audácia humana de ir além de nosso potencial.

Ou, como definiu Franz Kafka, música é o som da alma, a voz direta do mundo subjetivo.

Até mesmo à pergunta raiz das civilizações:

— Deus existe?

Ele respondeu de forma franca:

— Não tenho nenhuma evidência num sentido ou noutro, mas talvez essa não seja a pergunta correta. Para mim, a questão é “o que significa crer?”. Mesmo contra a vontade, acho impossível não crer ou, pelo menos, não se envolver com a busca por uma resposta, o que no fundo dá no mesmo. Minha vida está dominada pela noção de Deus, seja por sua presença ou ausência.

São muitas as dores do mundo, e neste período de festas judaico-cristãs parece até imperativo embalar-se em crenças. Só que elas de pouco ou nada adiantam quando o ser humano perde contato com a humanidade.

O GLOBO

 

 

ZIAD IN GAZA

 Two positive things happened today. The first was Ahmad telling us about how the residents of one area welcomed the people who fled with water and biscuits. Young men stood in the middle of the streets with smiles over their faces, sending a message to those who left and are scared that they are welcome. The other thing was seeing the children feeding our cats.

However, Ahmad shared another story that was sad. He told us about some trees that are very old in one of the areas – one time a man was imprisoned for cutting one of them. He said that, these days, the people cut those trees to find wood to cook and keep warm. Even though he understands why, a part of him feels sad because those trees were a symbol of the area.

I am not sure how many other symbols of Gaza are left. If we get back, will we be able to recognise the city?

 

A cidade por um fio

 

Operários recolocam par de óculos na estátua de Carlos Drummond de Andrade, que já foi furtado cinco vezes em dez meses, no Rio de Janeiro (RJ) - Rafael Andrade - 25.ago.2008/Folhapress

 

Muniz Sodré

A ironia dos estratos subalternos, ao modo de cupins, é a devoração do corpo funcional da cidade

 Semanas atrás, em plena luz do sol que cozinhava a cidade como panela de pressão, um homem dependurava-se na fiação elétrica da avenida de um bairro carioca. Nenhuma exibição atlética, mas tentativa de roubo. Insólita foi a hora, a prática é comum: neste ano, já se roubaram mais de mil quilômetros de fios. Do mesmo modo, sumiram centenas de toneladas de cabos subterrâneos, artefatos de bronze de estátuas e edifícios, luminárias e caixas de lixo, que, segundo consta, são cortadas e refeitas como pás de limpeza.

Para os mais afeitos a explicações estruturais, o que acorre à primeira vista é a desigualdade socioeconômica. Há bastante tempo, durante o comício das Diretas Já, chamou a atenção de um dos organizadores a presença de um homem de aparência humilde à frente dos assistentes. Puxou conversa e perguntou-lhe o que achava da manifestação. A resposta, inequívoca: ele estava interessado apenas no que poderia sobrar das madeiras do palanque.

Isso se explicaria por desigualdade de cidadania, mas fica aquém do fenômeno das depredações. De fato, na Cidade do México, uma das maiores metrópoles mundiais, onde igualdade não é apregoada como virtude, não se depreda nem se picha. Existe a hipótese de que o local se orgulha de seu patrimônio. Nada que se correlacione com a violência extrema dos cartéis nem com o tráfico humano. Mas os equipamentos urbanos parecem escapar.

Uma cidade pode ser apreendida no imaginário coletivo, ao modo do que foi na Antiguidade, como um corpo humano, com cabeça, tronco e membros. O sentimento gerado por analogias dessa ordem corresponde a pulsões variadas, inclusive à de fome, como já especulou Carl Jung. No limite da obtenção de recursos pelos desfavorecidos, a cidade se destrói, autodevorando-se.

Isso pode também corresponder aos efeitos de uma guerra civil molecular travada à revelia dos poderes constituídos. A metrópole carioca é laboratório de gestões brutalistas em territórios predados por formas novas de colonialismo interno. O corpo da urbe sofre, por um lado, de amputações espaciais por empresas vorazes. Por outro, de regimes ditatoriais nos enclaves controlados por facções criminosas. Enorme é o sofrimento moral, sobrevoado por abutres religiosos.

Na prática, para o cidadão que das Diretas Já aspirava só à madeira do palanque, a militarização não acabou, as armas dos tiranos apenas mudaram de mãos. E o capital intensificou a depredação, reservando às elites os experimentos de cidade inteligente. Em certos estados, o furor extrativista parece abstrato, menos no que deixa: lama, mortos, crateras. No Rio, é mesmo concreto o desamparo físico e moral. Mas a ironia objetiva dos estratos subalternos, ao modo de cupins demolidores, é a devoração do corpo funcional da cidade.

FOLHA

 

Maninha (Chico Buarque) – Áurea Martins e Chico Buarque

Mas não me deixe assim
Tão sozinha a me torturar
Que um dia ele vai embora
Maninha, pra nunca mais voltar

ZIAD IN GAZA

 On my way back, I meet a university professor I know. I admit that I was impressed he maintained a neat look despite the horrible times. I have noticed that people these days have no energy to even do the polite part of the talking like: “Hi, how are you?” They just start talking as if you had been together for an hour. He looks at me and points his finger towards what I assume is Egypt. “The minute this is over, I am leaving immediately. We call ourselves educators? What is left and who is left to educate? We are back 100 years, our main concern will be finding a roof over our heads, not education.”

I continue moving. I see another man I know. He and his wife and children left, while his parents, siblings and others decided to stay in Gaza City. “I feel extremely guilty for leaving them behind. I am here, ‘safer’, while they are witnessing all kinds of suffering. I don’t think I will forgive myself because I am the oldest brother and it was my responsibility to make sure all are safe

 

Djonga - JUNHO DE 94

Eu sou um problema, pra quem pensa que o rap é pra lóki
Pretos no topo, e eu falava sério
Nós somos zica
Deixa eu devolver o orgulho do gueto
E dar outro sentido pra frase: Tinha que ser preto
Vem pra cá

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry David comedy to end after 12 seasons | Curb Your Enthusiasm

 

 

"As Curb comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this ‘Larry David’ persona and become the person God intended me to be – the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate human being I was until I got derailed by portraying this malignant character,” David said on Thursday, confirming the final season.

“And so ‘Larry David,’ I bid you farewell. Your misanthropy will not be missed. And for those of you who would like to get in touch with me, you can reach me at Doctors Without Borders."

read more>

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry David comedy to end after 12 seasons | Curb Your Enthusiasm | The Guardian

Stateof the Cryosphere

 

Jeffrey St. Clair

+ A new report on the “state of the cryosphere” issued by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) predicts “catastrophic global damage” to the Earth’s frozen land and seas from sustained warming at 2C. The report concludes that the real “‘guardrail’ to prevent dangerous levels and rates of sea level rise is ‘not 2C or even 1.5C, but 1C above pre-industrial.’”

+ The report predicts that “if global average temperatures rise by two degrees, the Earth faces a sea-level rise of more than 12 meters, or 40 feet — and that’s the conservative estimate. The report states sea levels could rise up to 20 meters, or 65 feet.”

+ Kaitlin Naughten, British Antarctica Survey: “It looks like we’ve lost control of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. If we wanted to preserve it in its historical state, we would have needed action on climate change decades ago.”

+ Yet, according to the UN’s new report, emissions will be reduced by only 2% by 2030 which will result in 3°C (5.4°F) of warming. But even that isn’t guaranteed since the 2% reductions are based on pledged policies not current policies.

+ According to the latest data from the UNDP and the Climate Impact Lab, climate change’s influence on coastal flooding could increase 5 times over this century, subjecting more than 70 million people to expanding floodplains.

+ Last week, Brazil recorded its hottest-ever temperature – 44.8C (112.6F).

Paquetaenses

 

ZIAD IN GAZA

 

I go out to see if there is anything available. From time to time, I find something good. The other day, I found nuts, which was great. One time, Ahmad had his friends over, he offered them raisins because that is what was available that time. While walking, I find a few people gathered around a man making saj bread. I go there directly to have a spot at the top of the line. One of the men tells me I need to write my name. I laugh. I was like: “Yes, now we need to register to buy some saj bread.” He was not kidding! The seller had a notebook with him and wrote the names to maintain order. Even though I thought it was a great idea I was in shock.

Is that the stage we have reached?

My number is 43, that’s why there were not a lot of people gathered. Those who registered were sitting in the shade. I look around and see them sitting on the pavement. I also see a guy I worked with many years ago crouching there. I smile and go sit next to him.

Without any greetings, he looks at me and says: “Four children. I have four children. What was I thinking?! It is true that the last two were not planned, but who brings four children in a place like Gaza? I go all day long to bring saj, to find milk, to get a certain medicine, to fight over water. Nobody should have children in Gaza.”

I sat on the ground and everyone around started sharing their experience. All the people waiting were from Gaza City. One of them was an owner of a shop in the area considered the downtown. “I spent my whole life building my business and an excellent reputation. Now, I am not sure whether I will go back to a broken shop or to a destroyed one,” he says.

The man I know stands up to check what number the saj seller has reached. He leaves his wallet on the ground. When he comes back, I tell him that he should be careful not leaving his stuff. “As if it has a lot of money or anything valuable. Our lives have no value these days,” he says.

Once my turn comes and I take the saj bread, I turn to leave. The shop owner yells at me to “dust my pants” since they got dirty after sitting on the pavement. I was a little away, and maybe a little upset, so I answered loudly: “Look at us! Look at our clothes. Does it matter if our clothes are clean or dirty? I haven’t had a shower in a very long time; some sand over my pants will be an issue?!!” I continued walking, without dusting my pants, because I did not care.

A young boy clambers over concrete in Khan Younis. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

 

 

 

Bad News Blues; Lucinda Williams

Bad news on my TV screen
Bad news on the magazines
Bad news on the newspaper
Bad news on the elevator
Bad news on the street bad news in my car
Bad news under my feet bad news at the bar
All over my clothes under my head
On the radio in the laundromat
Hanging in the air laying on the ground
Walking up the stairs bad news all around

Alvorada | Dawn

 

ZIAD IN GAZA

 

Everything is expensive, except for the lives of Gazans. Two months ago, a pack of salt would have cost 25 cents; now it costs $5. In the small room with my sister, I hear Ahmad giving his father the daily prices update and what is available in the market and what is not. Ahmad’s father says: “It is better to go to the sea and extract some salt from there than buy salt from the market.”

Another “treasure” these days is blankets. With the vicious cold and onslaught of winter, people are desperate for anything to cover themselves and their children at night, especially those without shelter or those staying at the schools. The past four days, the prices doubled every day. A woman I know is staying at a house where the windows were broken by the bombing. They covered the halls with nylon and cardboard. “We have heavy blankets, but the cold is deadly,” she told me. “We did not have a minute of sleep.”

I meet friends and the mother tells me she is looking for instant yeast; it is used to make dough. They are staying in a house with about 50 people; and she is responsible for baking for all of them. She is old and sick, and when I ask why she is doing all the heavy work, she says that since people are hosting them, she has to do what it takes to show appreciation. Today, I find the instant yeast, small packets that used to sell for $1 each; now they cost $9. I call to see if they want me to buy one.

The host family serves lunch, lentil soup. I take a sip and realise it needs salt. I feel shy to ask for some knowing the current prices. Instead, my sister suggests that she slices in one of the lemons we have. It tastes better.

 

 

Jeff Buckley - Just Like a Woman (Bob Dylan)

Yoko Ono - Death of Samantha (feat. Porcupine Tree)

hen I'm on the phone, I thank god,
My voice sounds smooth and clear without a trace of tear.
When I'm at work, I thank god,
I still have that smile ma used to say lit her day.

But something inside me, something inside me died that day.

Luxury water

 

Jeffrey St Clair

+ The devastating drought in the Amazon region is now expected to last until mid-2024. Long stretches of the Amazon River, and its major tributaries, now have their channels exposed. At Manaus, the largest city in Amazonia, the water levels are the lowest since recorded keeping began 121 years ago. More than 150 dolphins died in a lake where water temperatures hit 39°C (2°C above human body temperature).

+ As drought grips much of the world and aquifers are being depleted, “luxury water” is becoming a thing among the rich.

Who Was Cleopatra’s Daughter?

 

 ~How did Cleopatra junior, the daughter of the most famous female enemy Rome ever had, become the wife of a Roman vassal king? How did she negotiate her relationship between the Egypt of her mother and the Rome of her father? And what were her political and cultural ambitions? How did you see yourself if your mother was Cleopatra?~

READ REVIEW BY MARY BEARD 

SILENCING SOLIDARITY

 

When 20 armed police officers stormed Yoav Haifawi’s home in Haifa, Israel, the veteran anti-Zionist activist was unsurprised. The 29 October raid was his second arrest in a week for protesting Israel’s war on Gaza. This time, police detained the 68-year-old and confiscated protest material, refusing him food and diabetes medication. Haifawi began to feel ill and was taken to hospital, where he spent two days handcuffed to the bed, legs bound, before being released without charge.

In 50 years of activism, Haifawi has been detained countless times. But amid Israel’s ruthless bombing of Gaza, he notes that political repression within the country that styles itself as the only ‘democracy’ in the Middle East has intensified.

Anti-war protests have been totally banned. Online solidarity with Gaza has led to arrests and loss of work. One Palestinian citizen of Israel was interrogated under counter-terror laws and put under house arrest for posting ‘my heart is with Gaza’, Haaretz reported. She’s one of over 170 people arrested during the first three weeks of the war, according to police, the majority over social media posts. Palestinian civilians – who make up a fifth of Israel’s population – are the worst affected by the crackdown. But Jewish Israelis have also been targeted. ‘They attack every small expression of dissent like never before,’ says Haifawi, who was born to Jewish parents but does not define himself as Israeli due to his political beliefs. ‘They want everyone to be quiet unless you support the genocide in Gaza.’

The repression is part of a global crackdown. Rights group European Legal Support Centre says it is handling ‘hundreds’ of incidents where Palestine solidarity has been repressed. Meanwhile pro-Israeli protests proceed unchallenged. ‘This shows the hypocrisy of European democracy,’ says the representative Alice Garcia. ‘As is often the case, Palestine is the exception.’ ■

 

Nina Simone - Blues for Mama

Get your nerves together, baby
And set the record straight
Set it straight
Let the whole round world know
It wasn't you that caused his bitter fate

Lula repete Mano Brown e diz que PT precisa voltar às bases

 

 

Bernardo Mello Franco

 Faltavam cinco dias para o segundo turno. Sob os Arcos da Lapa, Fernando Haddad fazia o último ato de campanha no Rio. O palanque estava repleto de artistas, de Chico Buarque a Caetano Veloso. Os discursos exaltavam o petista e prometiam uma virada nas urnas. Foi quando Mano Brown assumiu o microfone com cara de poucos amigos.

“Não gosto do clima de festa”, iniciou o rapper. “Não tá tendo motivo para comemorar”, prosseguiu. “Não estou pessimista, sou realista”, acrescentou.

A plateia ensaiou uma vaia, mas Brown continuou a cutucar a ferida. “Se a comunicação do pessoal daqui falhou, vai pagar o preço. Se não tá conseguindo falar a língua do povo, vai perder mesmo”, disse.

“Deixou de entender o povão, já era”, vaticinou o rapper. “Partido do povo tem que entender o que povo quer. Se não sabe, volta para a base e vai procurar saber”, finalizou.

O discurso deixou o ato com clima de velório. No domingo, as urnas deram razão a Brown. Jair Bolsonaro se elegeu presidente com mais de 10 milhões de votos de vantagem. Com Haddad derrotado e Lula preso, o PT vivia seu pior momento.

Passados cinco anos, o partido está de volta ao Planalto. Mas o clima não parece inspirar muito otimismo. Na noite de sexta, os petistas se reuniram para discutir as eleições municipais. Ao discursar, Lula fez eco às palavras de Brown em 2018.

“Este partido precisa voltar um pouco a ser como era no começo, para a gente reconquistar a credibilidade”, disse. “O dinheiro pesa, mas o trabalho de base não tem dinheiro que compre. E nós precisamos voltar a fazer trabalho de base”, cobrou.

O presidente fez uma rara autocrítica em público. Sugeriu que o PT se distanciou dos trabalhadores e se acomodou às facilidades do poder. “Hoje ninguém quer fazer campanha sem dinheiro”, lamentou. “Não podemos ter candidato querendo comprar apoio de líder de bairro. O apoio a gente conquista indo para o bairro, indo para a rua. Sempre foi assim. Por que está difícil?”, questionou.

Algumas respostas apareceram na própria fala de Lula. “A classe operária já não é mais a mesma. O emprego já não é mais o mesmo”, admitiu o presidente. Ele também citou a dificuldade de “chegar aos evangélicos”, que se mantêm fiéis a Bolsonaro. “Precisamos aprender a construir um discurso para falar com essa gente”, afirmou. A barreira é confirmada pelo Datafolha. Entre os católicos, a reprovação ao presidente é de 28%. Entre os evangélicos, salta para 38%.

Petistas reconhecem que este não é o único desafio para 2024. Pela primeira vez, a sigla não lançará candidato próprio em São Paulo. Na última tentativa, amargou um vexatório sexto lugar, com 8% dos votos. Em 2020, o partido registrou seu pior desempenho em eleições municipais desde a redemocratização. Não conseguiu vencer em nenhuma capital do país.

Na sexta, Lula fez mais perguntas aos companheiros: “Será que estamos falando aquilo que o povo quer ouvir de nós? Será que estamos tendo competência para convencer o povo das nossas verdades? Ou será que a gente tem que aprender com o povo como é que fala com ele?”. 

O GLOBO 

Falando com cachorro morto

AROEIRA  

 

 

BRUM 

 

 

 

NANDO  

 

 

ZIAD IN GAZA

 When you get into the shower, and you feel cold, appreciate that first drop of hot water over your body.

When you are about to eat a meal, look at the plates, give yourself time to let the beautiful smells of the food in, admire what you have, the variety of colours. And the taste.

When you are in your house, hug the walls. Yes, hug the walls. Be grateful to have a roof over your head.

Because, even though these details are minor, yet for many, they are a dream. Believe me, if you have a good meal, access to basic needs, and a normal mundane routine, you own the whole world.

 

 

 

Abel Ferreira - Rapaziada Do Brás

Garbage - No Horses

And there will be no apologies
And no more security
There will be no cops
Just men with guns
In their shiny black uniforms
And their big black boots
With their shiny black batons
And their sleek black cars
With their fingers on the trigger

Alvorada | Dawn

 

Cow Cow Boogie; Litt le Miss Higgins

Out on the plains down near Santa Fe
I met a cowboy ridin' the range one day
And as he jogged along I heard him singin'
The most peculiar cowboy song
It was a ditty, he learned in the city
Comma ti yi yi yeah
Comma ti yippity yi yeah

ZIAD IN GAZA

 Every morning, thousands of people are in the streets looking for what they need: food, medicine, blankets, heavy clothes. I saw a mother screaming at her young son in the middle of the street. It turned out that he got distracted and she had been looking for him for almost an hour.

“How would I find you if you got lost?” she screamed. Other women were calming her down.

These days we hear many stories about parents who lost their children, whether while fleeing or in public places. Most of the evacuating people are in these new areas for the first time, they may have passed by them before, or visited, but knowing the area is really difficult when most people have lost their ability to focus due to fear, stress or lack of sleep.

I remember talking to my friend who had a new baby girl months ago. “I know this will sound scary, but please, write on your daughter’s body all the identification information in marker, just in case,” I said. He was silent for a second, then he told me that he agreed with me.

I have witnessed several times the same situation, a group of boys go out to play with a ball, and the parents, usually fathers, would go out angry and tell them to get back inside.

“If a bombing happens now, what will happen to you?! Go inside, immediately.”

Not only parents are scared, but everyone is scared for their own safety. You go to buy medicine and you are not sure whether you will get back or not. You leave the place you are at and wonder whether it will get bombed or not.

 

The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God (IN MEMORIAM SHANE MACGOWAN)

f I should fall from grace with God
Where no doctor can relieve me
If I'm buried in the sod
But the angels won't receive me

Let me go, boys, let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud, where the rivers all run dry

'Objetivo de Israel é empurrar palestinos para o Egito', afirma relatora especial da ONU

 

 

"Observei três elementos básicos. O primeiro de todos foi definitivamente a matança, que tem sido maciça desde os primeiros dias. Também houve o endurecimento do bloqueio, o impedimento da entrada de água, remédios, alimentos e combustível em Gaza por mais de um mês. Por fim, a destruição da infraestrutura hospitalar, que não é acidental. Israel é uma potência militar forte, portanto, sabe muito bem o que está fazendo e ao destruir a infraestrutura médica, sabe que isso levará à morte. Mas é preciso observar que o genocídio não é um ato, é um processo, e começa com a desumanização do outro.  "

leia entrevista de Francesca Albanese
concedida a Thayz Guimarães

'Objetivo de Israel é empurrar palestinos para o Egito', afirma relatora especial da ONU - Blog do Marcos Dantas

ZIAD IN GAZA

My dream is simple. I want to sit in one of my favourite restaurants in Gaza City, admiring the beautiful blue sea. I would order chicken pasta with lots of appetisers and a salad (you know, to stay healthy). I will be in the company of my friends, we will talk about our mundane lives, complain about our work, and discuss our favourite TV shows. I will order hot chocolate, and get surprised, like every time, when I discover how many calories it contains. When my friends leave, I will pick up my book and continue reading. All I want is a quiet day in Gaza City.

 

O xadrez de Lula

 

 "Com Dino, Lula espera ter uma espé-
cie de líder do governo no Supremo. É o
que diz uma fonte palaciana. O ministro
possui envergadura política, ao contrário
de Zanin, o primeiro indicado presiden-
cial para a Corte. Pela visão progressista
e a proximidade com o presidente, Dino

tende a lhe ser fiel. A Corte é vista no Palá-
cio do Planalto como essencial para o fun-
cionamento e a estabilidade do governo.
O Congresso é direitista e dado ao estilo
faca no pescoço, por exemplo.

O presidente ficou mais à vontade pa-
ra escolher Dino para o STF ao indicar à
Procuradoria alguém apoiado por dois
poderosos togados supremos, Mendes
e Moraes. Gonet, teorizava, em junho, a
CartaCapital um subprocurador-geral
aposentado, seria uma escolha puramen-
te “pragmática” da parte de Lula. Indica-
ção que embute risco também. O procu-
rador-geral é o único autorizado a proces-
sar por crime comum o presidente e seus
ministros. A tranquilidade de Lula nos
próximos dois anos, o tempo de manda-
to do “xerife”, dependerá de Gonet e, por-
tanto, de Mendes e Moraes. Uma dupla
togada que, por outro lado, pode ter a in-
fluência reduzida por Dino no Supremo."

LEIA REPORTAGEM DE ANDRE BARROCAL 

 

 

 

Fact or fiction: Is Israel really rounding up ‘Hamas fighters’?

 

 

 

"But a closer look at this video reveals that it was staged. It makes no sense that the Israeli soldiers, upon discovering an armed fighter, would wait to strip and line up everyone, prepare to take a video and then order that person to surrender his weapon through a loudspeaker, calling him “habibi” (my dear in Arabic).

 

Media reports later revealed that the Israeli army had forcibly taken the Palestinian men and boys after separating them from their families in United Nations-run schools which serve as shelters for the displaced in northern Gaza. Some of the men have been identified as UN workers, aid workers and at least one journalist. The man who was made to hold the gun is believed to be a shopkeeper.

 

While the video stunt with the gun may be another desperate attempt by the Israeli army to cover up its crimes before Western audiences, the release of the images and footage showing the humiliation of Palestinian men and boys serves another purpose."

 

more on analysis by Marc Owen Jones´

Fact or fiction: Is Israel really rounding up ‘Hamas fighters’? | Gaza | Al Jazeera

Feminiciio Social & Curso para Policial Cascudo

AROEIRA

 

 

 

 

LEANDRO ASSIS 

MIGUEL PAIVA  

 

ZIAD IN GAZA

 Thousands of families are still fleeing towards our area. Every day I hear one horrible story after another. I hear about a man whose mother couldn’t walk far; they did their best to find a wheelchair for her but couldn’t. So they brought an office chair with wheels and he slowly pushed his mother for hours.

I see an old neighbour who is looking for food. “My parents lost their house, I lost my apartment, I lost my company. If we make it out alive, what will we go back to?”

I can’t believe my ears. This young guy was a risk-taker. When he couldn’t find a job, he decided not to give up and started his own company, using his technical and programming skills. He spent over two years trying to establish his company; finally he started, and was contacting everyone he knows to promote his work.

“Our main concern is water,” he says. “My father [who holds a PhD] is the toilet police. We are not allowed to flush the toilet every time. He ordered us to put big bottles in the cistern, so it does not fill with water, and only a little comes down when we flush.”

Will it make any difference if I write about the airstrikes and bombing? Is it worth it to write about the two very close to us, in streets that I, and hundreds of people, pass six times a day to buy our stuff? Shall I write about the constant feeling of fear for our lives and the ones we are responsible for? Should I talk about the helplessness and despair we are all going through? Does it matter?

I turn on some music, without wearing headphones. I don’t care if it is late. I hear a song I loved. It is weird how you listen to a song hundreds of times but never focus on the lyrics. For the first time, I listen to what the singer is saying:

It turned out there is a day! So why am I suffering … far in the darkness?
If only the light gets through the big walls … I belong to a special place
Will our rainy nights end? Will we see the light again?

 

 

 

Anjos do Inferno - 13 de ouro (Herivelto Martins e Marino Pinto)

Ela tem um treze de ouro
Pendurado no pescoço
Sexta feira só vai dormir
Depois das três da madrugada

George Santos Lost His Job. Here Are the Lies, Charges and Questions Left.

"Almost immediately after his election in November 2022, The New York Times began scrutinizing Mr. Santos’s background, discovering that he had misled, exaggerated to or lied to voters about much of his life, including his education; his career; his check fraud case in Brazil; his animal charity; being a landlord; the 2020 election results; and his ties to the Holocaust and Judaism, the Sept. 11 attacks and the Pulse nightclub shooting."

read the full report

By Michael Gold, Grace Ashford, Nicholas Fandos and Ed Shanahan

One of the biggest, and bloodiest, diplomatic blunders since World War I.

 

JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

Though it’s slipped out of the headlines since Israel’s barbaric campaign against Gaza, the Russian-Ukraine war is as bloody as ever, bloodier if the most recent casualty numbers are to be believed. The British military claims Russia has suffered more dead and wounded troops over the last six weeks than almost any other period of the war so far. According to the Ministry of Defense status report released on Monday: “Previously, the deadliest reported month for Russia was March 2023 with an average of 776 losses per day, at the height of Russia’s assault on Bakhmut…Throughout November 2023, Russian casualties, as reported by the Ukrainian General Staff, are running at a daily average of 931 per day.”

Meanwhile, last weekend Russia unleashed a 75-drone attack on targets in Kyiv, the largest since the invasion began almost two years ago. According to CNN: “The attack on Kyiv left 77 residential buildings and 120 establishments in the city center temporarily without power Saturday, before supply was restored later in the day.”

Though the war remains locked in what seems to be a perpetual stalemate, Russia’s ambitions don’t seem to have diminished, at least rhetorically. During his speech at the World Russian People’s Council, Vladimir Putin, battling growing discontent with the war at home, continued to call for the annexation of all Ukraine, declaring its citizens should be part of a single “Russian nation” and a wider “Russian world” including other non-East Slavic ethnicities in both Russia and the former territories of the Soviet Union and Russian Empire.

The Ukraine war is one of the first drone-on-drone conflicts, with Russia set to deploy a new drone boat  “equipped with grenade launchers and machine guns, and can potentially serve as an attacking [unmanned surface vessel], counter-Ukrainian USV drone, or an ISR or port defense platform” and Ukraine is allegedly now using remote-controlled ground robots to penetrate Russian combat lines.

Much of this senseless carnage can be laid at the feet of former British PM, Boris Johnson, according to Davyd Arakhamia, the parliamentary leader of Zelensky’s ”Servant of the People” Party, who led the Ukrainian delegation at peace talks with the Russians in Belarus and Türkiye in 2022, a few weeks into the war. In a recent interview, Arakhamia claims that: “[Russia] really hoped almost to the last moment that they would force us to sign such an agreement [not to join NATO] so that we would take neutrality. It was the most important thing for them. They were prepared to end the war if we agreed to, – as Finland once did, – neutrality, and committed that we would not join NATO. In fact, this was the key point. Everything else was simply rhetoric and political ‘seasoning’ about denazification, the Russian-speaking population and blah-blah-blah….When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kyiv and said that we would not sign anything with them at all, and let’s just fight.” If what Arakhamia says is accurate, Johnson pushed Ukraine to reject an agreement that would have left the country largely intact and saved hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives. It would go down as one of the biggest, and bloodiest, diplomatic blunders since World War I.

 

Alvorada | Dawn

 

Hafusa Abasi & Slim Ali & The Kikulacho Yahoo' Band - Sina Raha

VIEW FROM BRAZIL

 

 

LEONARDO SAKAMOTO 

Lakes become mud puddles, river courses look like dirt roads. Images of drought in northern Brazil’s Amazon, alongside floods in the southern states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, provide a glimpse of the country’s future with the worsening of climate change.

The Rio Negro (black river), which joins the Solimões to form the Amazon river, has been the lowest since hydrological measurements began in the region in 1902. Locals walk for kilometres in search of drinking water, entire crops have been lost, and passenger and cargo transport were interrupted as the river became shallower.

The lack of rainfall in the Amazon caused the Santo Antônio Hydroeletric Power Plant, on the Madeira River, to be shut down. It was built as a ‘run-of-river’ system – that is, it does not have a reservoir and depends on a strong river flow to operate. As a result, the power transmission line between Brazil’s North and the country’s populous Southeast regions had to be disconnected.

Some blame El Niño, the natural phenomenon of warming waters in the Pacific Ocean, causing drought in some parts and excessive rain in others. But climatologist Carlos Nobre, a leading Brazilian scientist and member of the UK’s Royal Society, has explained time and again that the Amazon’s climate is already changing. Stronger El Niños are happening as a result of climate change. Once rare Amazonian droughts are becoming frequent, accelerating the loss of forest itself and pushing the region to a point of no return in terms of degradation and desertification.

Agricultural practices are another factor. For several days in October and November 2023, Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, awoke shrouded in clouds of smoke which experts have blamed on fires illegally set to clear land for farming – despite the current Lula administration, with Marina Silva as its Minister of the Environment, at least striving to enforce the law.

Here in the city of São Paulo, we had the warmest winter ever recorded, as well as a fierce drought across the state – an important agribusiness hub. Much of the humidity that makes farming possible here comes from the Amazon. If the forest collapses, the environment of the fertile and populous South risks becoming similar to places on a similar latitude – Atacama in Chile, or the Namibian and Australian deserts.

Climate change is upon us worldwide but these extreme events must be used to mobilize people for change. Here in Brazil we need to re-discuss the future of the country’s oil industry. The government is advocating oil exploration at sea, in the coastal region of the state of Amapá near the mouth of the Amazon river, and there is pressure to grant licenses without due environmental diligence.
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In the coming decades we are likely to see millions of environmental refugees as a result of rising ocean levels and extreme weather events; large-scale famine due to reduction and desertification of fertile farmland, as well as the loss of fishing capacity; and an increase in the number of sick and malnourished people – in addition to conflicts and wars in search of water and land to plant crops.

We have little time left. The drought in the Amazon shows that we are hanging on the edge of the abyss. So, what will we do?

NEW INTERNATIONALIST

WEST BANK SETTLER RAMPAGE

  Following Israel’s invasion of Gaza, it’s open season in the West Bank too. Wadi al-Siq, a small Bedouin village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, now lies empty. Community leader Abdulrahman Kaabneh describes the violent assault that led to their 12 October 2023 expulsion as the culmination of repeated attacks since Israeli settlers built an illegal outpost nearby earlier that year.

A group of armed settlers and masked soldiers tied up the handful of men yet to flee the village, and beat them ‘without mercy’, Kaabneh says. The injured men were given an hour to leave or, the settlers warned, they’d be killed. With blood dripping from their faces, the Palestinians were forced to flee on foot, only allowed to take what they could carry.

With the world’s gaze fixed on Gaza, the forcible displacement of the Indigenous population in the West Bank has rapidly intensified. In the first three weeks of Israel’s ruthless assault, 13 Palestinian villages were emptied. Armed gangs of settlers have terrorized communities, pouring concrete into wells and forcing Palestinians to raise Israeli flags at gunpoint.

At the time of writing 173 Palestinians, including 43 children, had been killed in the West Bank – figures that would normally make headlines alone, were hundreds not dying daily in Gaza.

As Kaabneh highlights, this isn’t a new phenomenon. His people were already turned into refugees in 1948 when they were forced out of the Naqab desert by Zionist militia. Today, hundreds more villages in Area C, the parts of the West Bank under full Israeli military and civil control, are at risk of expulsion. Palestinians living in Area C are subjected to racist Israeli policies, making it impossible to defend and develop their land. At the same time neighbouring Jewish-only settlements, illegal under international law, expand and flourish, raising the spectre of formal annexation. ■

NEW INTERNATIONALIST 

 

 

O Analista de Bagé

EDGAR VASQUES

 

CEASING FIRE

 

"In any event, Israel cannot “destroy” or
“eliminate” Hamas anytime soon. With
international diplomatic support, however,
it might be able to disarm, suppress, and 

further delegitimatize the group. Doing so 

would require the committed help of

those powerful Arab states, such as Egypt
and Saudi Arabia, whose leaders fear and
despise the Islamist ideology that Hamas
espouses. Yet any engagement by those
countries in postwar reconstruction or negotiations
would almost certainly depend
on whether Palestinians have a clear path
to statehood. With good reason, Israelis
and Palestinians alike have lost faith
in the catchphrases of nineteen-nineties
diplomacy: the “two-state solution” and
“land for peace.”"

read analysis by STEVE COLL 

BOMBOLHO

CAU GOMEZ 

 

 

DALCIO MACHADO 

 

 

JORGE O MAU