Minirosebush

Thierry Mugler Fall, 1996

Help a Palestinian family of 10 after GFM deleted all their funds !!! - VETTED

@iyadsobhegaza 's fundraiser has been stagnating for a while now. They lost a total of 11k when GFM deleted their previous fundraiser with no warning. They haven't even reached 2% of their goal yet.

Iyad and his wife are both elderly and they need to evacuate with their 8 children. Iyad suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, and often his blood pressure rises without any medication to help him. Food and clean water are also hard to come by, and they have been displaced many times over. They need this money both to evacuate and for accessing essentials like tents, food, and medicine. Iyad's health is deteriorating, they are in pain, exhausted, and need to get out ASAP.

As of 11th August 2024, no donations have been made for the past 2 days. Please donate and share:

paypal.com

help-me-to-evacuate-from-the-genocide

Help Eman Abushaban reach their goal by donating or sharing with your friends.

His previous GFM had been verified by nabulsi and it is no. 173 on the Google doc of Vetted Gaza Fundraisers organised by nabulsi and el-shab-hussein. We are currently waiting for the link to get updated on there. You can see Iyad's announcement of the switch to PP here. You can also read my previous post for this campaign here.

Iyad has been on tumblr for a while now and has had to switch accounts 3 times. As of writing this post, his current account @iyadsobhegaza has been shadowbanned. I urge you to follow it to follow his updates.

I cannot reiterate the urgency of their evacuation enough. This fundraiser has been stagnating for a month now and time is passing that they may not get back. They have to run from raids and bombs constantly and have been displaced more times than I can count. Please donate.

I want more people to know that while the Palestine Olympic team consists of only 8 athletes, at least 69 Palestinian Olympic athletes have been killed since October 2023. This includes athletes who were going to compete in these games and retired athletes such as Majed Abu Maraheel, the first Palestinian Olympian, who died of kidney failure in a refugee camp product of lack of medical treatment.

Remember them during these games.

Excerpts from an interview with Assata Shakur in Cuba in 1997:

Sociologist Christian Parenti: How did you arrive in Cuba?

Assata Shakur: Well, I couldn’t, you know, just write a letter and say, “Dear Fidel, I’d like to come to your country.” So I had to hoof it–come and wait for the Cubans to respond. Luckily, they had some idea who I was, they’d seen some of the briefs and U.N. petitions from when I was a political prisoner. So they were somewhat familiar with my case and they gave me the status of being a political refugee. That means I am here in exile as a political person.

Parenti: How did you feel when you got here?

Shakur: I was really overwhelmed. Even though I considered myself a socialist, I had these insane, silly notions about Cuba. I mean, I grew up in the 1950s when little kids were hiding under their desks, because “the communists were coming.” So even though I was very supportive of the revolution, I expected everyone to go around in green fatigues looking like Fidel, speaking in a very stereotypical way, “the revolution must continue, Companero. Let us triumph, Comrade.” When I got here people were just people, doing what they had where I came from. It’s a country with a strong sense of community. Unlike the U.S., folks aren’t so isolated. People are really into other people. Also, I didn’t know there were all these black people here and that there was this whole Afro-Cuban culture. My image of Cuba was Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. I hadn’t heard of Antonio Maceo (a hero of the Cuban war of independence) and other Africans who had played a role in Cuban history.The lack of brand names and consumerism also really hit me. You go into a store and there would be a bag of “rice.” It undermined what I had taken for granted in the absurd zone where people are like, “Hey, I only eat uncle so and so’s brand of rice.”

Parenti: So, how were you greeted by the Cuban state?

Shakur: They’ve treated me very well. It was different from what I expected; I thought they might be pushy. But they were more interested in what I wanted to do, in my projects. I told them that the most important things were to unite with my daughter and to write a book. They said, “What do you need to do that?” They were also interested in my vision of the struggle of African people in the United States. I was so impressed by that. Because I grew up–so to speak–in the movement dealing with white leftists who were very bossy and wanted to tell us what to do and thought they knew everything. The Cuban attitude was one of solidarity with respect. It was a profound lesson in cooperation.

Parenti: Did they introduce you to people or guide you around for a while?

Shakur: They gave me a dictionary, an apartment, took me to some historical places, and then I was pretty much on my own. My daughter came down, after prolonged harassment and being denied a passport, and she became my number one priority. We discovered Cuban schools together, we did the sixth grade together, explored parks, and the beach.

Parenti: She was taken from you at birth, right?

Shakur: Yeah. It’s not like Cuba where you get to breast feed in prison and where they work closely with the family. Some mothers in the U.S. never get to see their newborns. I was with my daughter for a week before they sent me back to prison. That was one of the most difficult periods of my life, that separation. It’s only been recently that I’ve been able to talk about it. I had to just block it out, otherwise I think I might have gone insane. In 1979, when I escaped, she was only five years old.

Parenti: You came to Cuba how soon after?

Shakur: Five years later, in 1984.

Parenti: You’ve talked about adjusting to Cuba, but could you talk a bit about adjusting to exile.

Shakur: Well, for me exile means separation from people I love. I didn’t, and don’t miss the U.S., per se. But black culture, black life in the U.S., that African American flavor, I definitely miss. The language, the movements, the style, I get nostalgic about that. Adjusting to exile is coming to grips with the fact that you may never go back to where you come from. The way I dealt with that, psychologically, was thinking about slavery. You know, a slave had to come to grips with the fact that “I may never see Africa again.” Then a maroon, a runaway slave, has to–even in the act of freedom–adjust to the fact that being free or struggling for freedom means, “I’ll be separated from people I love.” So I drew on that and people like Harriet Tubman and all those people who got away from slavery. Because, that’s what prison looked like. It looked like slavery. It felt like slavery. It was black people and people of color in chains. And the way I got there was slavery. If you stand up and say “I don’t go for the status quo.” Then “we got something for you, it’s a whip, a chain, a cell.” Even in being free it was like, “I am free but now what?” There was a lot to get used to. Living in a society committed to social justice, a Third World country with a lot of problems. It took a while to understand all that Cubans are up against and fully appreciate all they are trying to do.

Parenti: Did the Africanness of Cuba help, did that provide solace?

Shakur: The first thing that was comforting was the politics. It was such a relief. You know, in the States you feel overwhelmed by the negative messages that you get and you feel weird, like you’re the only one seeing all this pain and inequality. People are saying, “Forget about that, just try to get rich, dog eat dog, get your own, buy, spend, consume.” So living here was an affirmation of myself, it was like “Okay, there are lots of people who get outraged at injustice.” The African culture I discovered later. At first I was learning the politics, about socialism–what it feels like to live in a country where everything is owned by the people, where health care and medicine are free. Then I started to learn about the Afro-Cuban religions, the Santaria, Palo Monte, the Abakua. I wanted to understand the ceremonies and the philosophy. I really came to grips with how much we–black people in the U.S.–were robbed of. Here, they still know rituals preserved from slavery times. It was like finding another piece of myself. I had to find an African name. I’m still looking for pieces of that Africa I was torn from. I’ve found it here in all aspects of the culture. There is a tendency to reduce the Africanness of Cuba to the Santaria. But it’s in the literature, the language, the politics.

Parenti: When the USSR collapsed, did you worry about a counter-revolution in Cuba, and by extension, your own safety?

Shakur: Of course, I would have to have been nuts not to worry. People would come down here from the States and say, “How long do you think the revolution has–two months, three months? Do you think the revolution will survive? You better get out of here.” It was rough. Cubans were complaining every day, which is totally sane. I mean, who wouldn’t? The food situation was really bad, much worse than now, no transportation, eight-hour blackouts. We would sit in the dark and wonder, “How much can people take?” I’ve been to prison and lived in the States, so I can take damn near anything. I felt I could survive whatever–anything except U.S. imperialism coming in and taking control. That’s the one thing I couldn’t survive. Luckily, a lot of Cubans felt the same way. It took a lot for people to pull through, waiting hours for the bus before work. It wasn’t easy. But this isn’t a superficial, imposed revolution. This is one of those gut revolutions. One of those blood, sweat and tears revolutions. This is one of those revolutions where people are like, “We ain’t going back onto the plantation, period. We don’t care if you’re Uncle Sam, we don’t care about your guided missiles, about your filthy, dirty CIA maneuvers. We’re this island of 11 million people and we’re gonna live the way we want and if you don’t like it, go take a ride.” Of course, not everyone feels like that, but enough do.

Parenti: What about race and racism in Cuba?

Shakur: That’s a big question. The revolution has only been around thirty-something years. It would be fantasy to believe that the Cubans could have completely gotten rid of racism in that short a time. Socialism is not a magic wand: wave it and everything changes.

Parenti: Can you be more specific about the successes and failures along these lines?

Shakur: I can’t think of any area of the country that is segregated. Another example, the Third Congress of the Cuban Communist Party was focused on making party leadership reflect the actual number of people of color and women in the country. Unfortunately by the time the Fourth Congress rolled around the whole focus had to be on the survival of the revolution. When the Soviet Union and the socialist camp collapsed, Cuba lost something like 8.5% of its income. It’s a process, but I honestly think that there’s room for a lot of changes throughout the culture. Some people still talk about “good hair” and “bad hair.” Some people think light skin is good, that if you marry a light person you’re advancing the race. There are a lot of contradictions in people’s consciousness. There still needs to be de-eurocentrizing in the schools, though Cuba is further along with that than most places in the world, In fairness, I think that race relations in Cuba are twenty times better than they are in the States, and I believe the revolution is committed to eliminating racism completely. I also feel that tine special period has changed conditions in Cuba. It’s brought in lots of white tourists, many of whom are racists and expect to be waited on subserviently. Another thing is the joint venture corporations which bring their racist ideas and racist corporate practices, for example not hiring enough blacks. Ali of that means the revolution has to be more vigilant than ever in identifying and dealing with racism.

Parenti: A charge one hears, even on the left, is that institutional racism still exists in Cuba. Is that true? Does one find racist patterns in allocation o/housing, work, or the functions of criminal justice?

Shakur: No. I don’t think institutional racism, as such, exists in Cuba. But at the same time, people have their personal prejudices. Obviously these people, with these personal prejudices, must work somewhere, and must have some influence on the institutions they work in. But I think it’s superficial to say racism is institutionalized in Cuba. I believe that there needs to be a constant campaign to educate people, sensitize people, and analyze racism. The fight against racism always has two levels; the level of politics and policy but also the level tof individual consciousness. One of the things that influences ideas about race in Cuba is that the revolution happened in 1959, when the world had a very limited understanding of what racism was. During the 1960s, the world saw the black power movement, which I, for one, very much benefited from. You know “black is beautiful,” exploring African art, literature, and culture. That process didn’t really happen in Cubar. Over the years, the revolution accomplished so much that most people thought that meant the end of racism. For example, I’d say that more than 90% of black people with college degrees were able to do so because of the revolution. They were in a different historical place. The emphasis, for very good reasons, was on black-white unity and the survival of the revolution. So it’s only now that people in the universities are looking into the politics of identity.

Parenti: Are you still a revolutionary?

Shakur: I am still a revolutionary, because I believe that in the United States there needs to be a complete and profound change in the system of so-called democracy. It’s really a “dollarocracy.” Which millionaire is going to get elected? Can you imagine if you went to a restaurant and the only thing on the menu was dried turd or dead fungus. That’s not appetizing. I feel the same way about the political spectrum in the U.S. What exists now has got to go. All of it: how wealth is distributed, how the environment is treated. If you let these crazy politicians keep ruling, the planet will be destroyed.

Parenti: In the 1960s, organizations you worked with advocated armed self-defense. How do you think social change can best be achieved in the States today?

Shakur: I still believe in self-defense and self-determination for Africans and other oppressed people in America. I believe in peace, but I think it’s totally immoral to brutalize and oppress people, to commit genocide against people, and then tell them they don’t have the right to free themselves in whatever way they deem necessary. But right now the most important thing is consciousness raising. Making social change and social justice means people have to be more conscious across the board, inside and outside the movement, not only around race, but around class, sexism, the ecology, whatever. The methods of 1917, standing on a comer with leaflets, standing next to someone saying “Workers of the world unite” won’t work. We need to use alternative means of communication. The old ways of attaining consciousness aren’t going to work. The little Leninist study groups won’t do it. We need to use video, audio, the Internet. We also need to work on the basics of rebuilding community. How are you going to organized or liberate your community if you don’t have one? I live in Cuba, right? We get U.S. movies here, and I am sick of the monsters; it’s the tyranny of the monsters. Every other movie is fear and monsters. They’ve even got monster babies. People are expected to live in this world of alienation and tear. I hear that in the States people are even afraid to make eye contact in the streets. No social change can happen if people are that isolated. So we need to rebuild a sense of community and that means knocking on doors and reconnecting.

elder millennial coming out of hiatus for my friends in gaza 🙈 tbh intimidating to resurrect my past time activity, help me out please💕

all of the families listed here are verified by butterfly effect project🦋

narmeen redwan 🩺 + siblings + parents + niece / ig: narmeen_redwan2024 / 23 / would have been a nurse by now in an alternate universe / 🦋 322 / €2018 out of €50000

dina (narmeen's sister) & raed radwan 🩺 + 4 children / ig: dinaradwan2024, raedabuyamen / dina was unrwa english teacher to 5th grade students & raed was a nurse at a hospital in north gaza / four children are Lana (11), Yamen (10), Kareem (8), and Hammood (1.5) / 🦋 321 / €2112 out of €40000

hussam s. abu ishaiba 🩺 + parents + siblings / ig: hussam_s._abu_ishaiba / should have moved on to his last year in medical school, but he is volunteering at al aqsa hospital / 🦋 324 / £8545 out of £21000

mohammed ahmed + parents + wife + four children / ig: mohammedahmad6234 / his youngest was born during the genocide and her whole life has been full of destruction 💔 / 🦋 324 / €6745 out of €40000

shaima + her husband / ig: shim_aa2002 / they got married shortly before the war and only realized she was pregnant when she had a miscarriage likely due to stress of displacement / 🦋 131 / $30 out of $10000

fady (raed's brother) radwan for his family / 7 adults and 28 children / fady and read have 7 siblings, fady is raising funds for his family from spain / 🦋 323 / €40 out of €80000

"Here are your tortured poets. All from Mahmoud Darwish to Dr. Refat Alareer to Khaled Juma, these are tortured poets. Tortured by longing for a home they can never return to, tortured by the world they were born to for BEING BORN. Palestine, home to the tortured poets department." [@/folkoftheshelf on X. April 20th, 2024.]

💔‼️These may be my last words💔‼️

The genocide has been going on for a year, my little girl Alma was born, sat, stood, walked and got her teeth while the war was raging fiercely, my baby did not enjoy a life like other children, she miraculously escaped death after we lost 11 members of the family, what sin did my little girl commit to live this genocide in an inhumane environment with sand, insects and pollutants,

I address your humanity, 💔❤️‍🩹🙏🙏

please donate to save the lives of my two little girls.🙏🇵🇸🍉

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Eslam Save Her Family, organized by Victoria Beauchamp

My name is Victoria, from the greater Chicagoland area, and I am starting this fundraise… Victoria Beauchamp needs your support for Help Esl

@ibtisams @appsa @schoolhater @fancysmudges @Dykesbat @Brutalikahoa @determinate-negation @brokenbackmountain @just-browsing1222-deactivated20 @mothblossoms @aleciosun @fluoresensitive @khizuo @lesbiandardevil @transmutationisms @schoolhater @timogsilangan @appsa @buttercuparry @sayruq @malcriada @palestinegenocide @sar-soor @akajustmerry @annoyingloudmicrowavecultist @feluka @tortiefrancis @flower-tea-fairies @tsaricides @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @visenyasdragon @belleandsaintsebastian @ear-motif @kordeliiius @brutaliakhoa @raelyn-dreams @troythecatfish @theropoda @tamarrud @4ft10tvlandfangirl @queerstudiesnatural @northgazaupdates2 @skatezophrenic @awetistic-things @camgirlpanopticon @baby-girl-aaron-dessner @nabulsi @sygol @junglejim4322 @heritageposts @chososhairbuns @palistani @dlxxv-vetted-donations @illuminated-runas @imjustheretotrytohelp

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Abood From the War, organized by Andy S

Hello, my name is Andy. I live in Ohio, but I am organizing this fundraiser for Abood and his wife who … Andy S needs your support for Help

Abood @abood-gaza2 and his pregnant wife NEED you to save them. Proof they are vetted here. It costs ~$8000 to evacuate to Egypt and that number is increasing all the time due to sick people trying to capitalise on misfortune and chaos.

"I studied accounting, graduated with a high average, and worked in a chain of clothing stores that my father owned. But due to the unjust aggression, all our shops were destroyed, and we lost our source of livelihood and work completely. I was displaced from my home more than 10 times, each time trying to find a safe place, but there really is no safety here. Here we live death, fear, and loss at every moment. We love life and we always have ambitions and dreams that we hope to achieve and we are determined to achieve them as well."

Please help this beautiful family who are currently living in tents and facing a harsh and dangerous winter coming up evacuate as soon as they can for the sake of their unborn son as well as their own sakes, and read their story. They're 1/4 of a way to their goal. Get them closer, every little bit counts.

today's vetted fundraisers. i know i there are lots of these floating around, but please keep sharing and donating if you can, even if it's a small amount. if we disengage, we dash these families' hopes for a better future

july 7th:

Eyad Sami, his wife Amal Mahmoud, and their four children (CHF6,180/CHF20,000) - @eyadeyadsblog, verified by @/90-ghost

The AlBalawi family of ten, including several children (multiple are sick) and two chronically ill members who need treatment (€8,186/€50,000) - @aboooodsblog, @albalawii, @bisanalbalawi, verified by @/90-ghost

Mohammed Hijazi and his elderly parents, one of whom is severely injured and needs surgery to restore his ability to walk (€1,728/€20,000) - @savemohammedfamily, verified by @/90-ghost

Ashraf Alanqar, his wife Widad Issa, and their little son Bakr (€3,934/€30,000) - @ashrafanqer, verified by @/90-ghost

Yousef (a toddler who needs lifesaving treatment for a blood disease) and his parents (€2,117/€25,000) - @dima96yousef, verified by @/90-ghost

Youssef Hilles's wife and five children, including his young son whom he's never gotten to meet in person (€3,446/€23,000) - @zeinyousef, #206 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

Basel Ayyad and his family of eight, including his sick daughter who is losing her sight without treatment (CHF2,612/CHF60,000) - @basel-1995, #214 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Ramez Hilles and his family of ten, including several children (€853/€37,000) - @ramezderar, verified by @/90-ghost

Ghada Afifi (needs surgery for a heart condition) and her family ($1,720/$50,000) - @lifeasme24 on tiktok, verified by @/lieahsblog (reach out for more details)

Wafaa Alnhal's family of 15, including four children and a newborn (they've already lost multiple family members, including Wafaa's young niece) (€26,148/€50,000) - @wafs-posts, #171 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

The Al Zaeem family of seven, including four children and their severely ill grandfather ($19,011 CAD/$50,000 CAD) - @yosofzaeem, @malkzaeem, verified by @/nabulsi

Widow Safaa Abubaker and her two little children (€868/€15,000) - @safaamo, verified by @/ibtisams

Ahmed Baalousha, his wife Islam, their three children (one a newborn, he suffers especially from malnutrition), and Ahmed's parents and sister (€14,769/€50,000) - @5735765, #234 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

Muhammad Al-Habil, his wife, their three young children, and Muhammad's chronically ill parents (€8,850/€50,000) - @mohammedfamily11, verified by @/el-shab-hussein

Helping Siraj Abudayeh, his wife, and their three children to rebuild their beloved home ($4,081 CAD/$82,000 CAD) - @siraj2024, #219 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Evacuating Firas Muhaisen's family of six (including three children) and paying he and his sister's medical school fees (needed by next month) ($1,939 CAD/$82,000 CAD) - @firasmuhaisenn, @nisreenameen, @hashem-fromgaza, verified by @/90-ghost

Nael Khalid and family (unknown amount) - @islamgazaaccount2, verified by @/90-ghost

Fiancés Noor and Alaa (both have lost multiple family members already) (€2,823/€25,000) - @nouralaagaza, verified by @/ibtisams

Helping Mahmoud Abu Hamam and his family rebuild their house and their lives ($790/$25,000) - @ma7moudgaza2, #149 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

not yet vetted:

Amjad Al-Shaltawi's family of 11, including several children and his wife Suha, who's lost her whole family (€658/€97,000) - @amjadshiltawu

Helping Hamed and his family to rebuild their home and livelihood (€643/€70,000) - @hamedkara

any contribution you can make is infinitely valuable, regardless of the size of your following or the amount you can give. let's keep working together to support families like these suffering violence and displacement. your help can save lives.

This youth from Palestine here, was called after finding his friend's house got bombed. They asked him to call his friend in order to determine his exact location so they can start digging.

Remember that in gaza there are no resources to dig people up from underneath the rubble, so civilians from the neighborhood have to use their own hands and be very careful because of the bodies underneath. I can't even imagine the trauma he's experiencing, his shaking voice and hands. I would never bear witnessing my best friend in such conditions and having to call them bc I'm not even sure they're alive.

How would anyone heal from this? And yet all are we asking for is just a ceasefire. This genocide should stop.