By Antony Loewenstein, Author Of The Palestine Laboratory (2023)

sometimes i want to reach through the screen and shake sabo by the shoulders because. god. there's just so much going on with him.

he's first introduced through the veil of luffy's memories- here he's just another feral jungle kid, sticking it out with ace and luffy, the 'nicer' brother in young luffy's eyes. and then boom. you find out he's a runaway noble trying to escape his abusive, neglectful family- and this changes nothing. they get to become sworn brothers, but just as quickly as this is resolved, his asshole of a dad takes the three of them hostage. and what does sabo do? he gives up the little sliver of freedom he'd fought for, is willing to become miserable and lonely again if it means ace and luffy are spared. and then he comes home to find that in his absence, his parents have already found a replacement! great!

and he doesn't even get to address how fucked up that is, because stelly runs his mouth and now sabo's too busy trying to figure out how to stop his brothers and their home from getting burnt to the ground. he never gets to give them a proper goodbye- he exhausts himself trying to reach them, but he can't because. you know. he's ten. so where does this leave sabo? ten years old, with nowhere to go- he sets out to sea to try and start over, and for the crime of wanting to escape a terrible life, he's punished with an explosion to the face. he loses his memories, his brothers lose him- and so the cycle continues.

then the army saves him, takes him in; he's essentially a child soldier, with how prodigious of a fighter he is from the get-go. but hey, he thinks he's finally found his footing, even if his past's a blur to him- then it all comes flooding back. in the worst way possible. he sees his brother's corpse and he remembers, but it doesn't matter, does it? he's too late, ace is gone, and sabo's lost ten years of a life he could have shared with his brothers. we don't even know how (if, even) he recovers from this- except for a single passing statement from koala, asking him if he's 'had that dream again' because he'd been crying in his sleep. this is never brought up or addressed again. great!plus, we never do find out if getting blown up at the ripe old age of ten could have left any lasting fire-related trauma; and if it does, what does that mean for sabo, who's pretty much made of it, now?

both of these questions are answered at once- sabo treats the fire as if it's ace. it's ace's legacy he's carrying on, and it's ace he seeks freedom for. he copes by making sure ace lives on in his flames, and how can he ever hate the fire living in him if that fire is all he has left of the brother he never got to see again?

i just have to wonder about him, because he's got so many Issues that just. don't ever get addressed? every time we see him deal with his grief (episode of sabo, his own retelling of events in dressrosa) we never really discover anything about him. i wonder how it felt to finally remember the childhood that eluded him, just to find out he was an unwanted, replacable child. how he feels, living with the knowledge that he could have done something to save ace, that he'd failed to remember the two people he loved the most? i wonder just how terribly that guilt must weigh down on him- because where luffy's already begun to heal, sabo still sees ace in everything he does. his title of flame emperor is a direct callback to ace's final attack in his fight against blackbeard. he talks to his goddamn fire like his brother is still in front of him, which is sweet and heartbreaking and, considering his backlog of unaddressed trauma... incredibly unhealthy. i know these will probably be left unresolved for the sake of moving the story forward- but god, sabo, are you okay?

The war in Sudan has reached its 10th month. The war has been met with a global indifference or there has been no desire to act from many world leaders.

8 million people have fled their homes and millions of Sudanese people have emergency food insecurity, with 5 million people on the brink of famine. even the neighbouring country Chad has had to declare a food insecurity emergency due to the mass amount of Sudanese people that have fled to Chad. (By no fault of their own of course)

Faced with a media blackout which is over a week at this point we need to continue to amplify the voices and plight of the Sudanese people.

#freesudan till it’s backwards 🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩🇸🇩

Women in the Congo mines

the Guardian

Rise of the ‘mother boss’: how female miners are taking control in DRC

Half of the workers in the Congolese artisanal pits are women, and for years they have faced inequality and sexual harassment. Now a grassro

Congo Strong

Congo Strong

We are a coalition of diverse groups that employ direct action to bring class consciousness to the climate movement and force political and

hi. go buy esims for gaza. go preorder a kufiya from hirbawi. buy insulin for palestinian diabetics who need that help. if you live in the states use this to email your reps (this takes maybe 5 seconds to do). check out this massive list of resources where you can educate yourself in a meaningful and actionable way even if you don't have the financial means right now. from the river to the sea palestine will be free. 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

this is your thanksgiving reminder that the chinook tribe is still fighting for federal recognition, which means they are unable to access programs and resources. please take some time today to sign their petition and donate if you’re able to. and if you live in washington or oregon please write to your elected officials.

today marks day 111 of the genocide in gaza.

and i need you all to keep in mind just how dire the situation in gaza is right now. and to keep talking about it. now is not the time to turn away.

today i want to talk about khalil again. yesterday, khalil posted about how his aunt passed away and they went to the graveyard to bury her, only to find thousands of tents in the cemetery. the people living as refugees in rafah have been so jam packed that they’ve started sheltering at the cemetery.

in a heartbreaking sentence, khalil says “they are living in the cemetery, waiting for their time to be buried”. can you imagine the situation one has to be in to say something like that?

not only do the gazans not have a safe place to live, they are also starving and suffering from diseases and lack of medication. in fact, that’s the cause of khalil’s aunt’s death—bad food and no medicine.

the people of gaza barely have food to eat. the children have to clean dirt and insects off animal feed before milling it to make food. medicine isn’t coming into the gaza strip. there are pharmacies all around but none can help because they do not have the means to. why?

because israel consistently denies shipments of vital aid. in fact, according to the UN, israel recently added insulin pens for children to the list of prohibited items that are not allowed into gaza. this list also includes other medicines for chronic illnesses are also not allowed [here is the full press conference for anyone who’s interested].

this claim is also backed by the report journalist motaz azaiza was making as he was evacuating gaza of a plethora of aid trucks waiting at the border to enter gaza. and for the little bit of aid that is available to gazans? yesterday the israeli military opened fire at starving citizens who were queueing to get aid in northern gaza.

there are too many heartbreaking stories coming out of gaza; there is at least one per person, in a population of 2.2M people. i urge you to not turn away from hearing their stories and facing the reality of the crimes being committed against them by israeli occupation forces.

whatever anyone else might say, whatever the verdict of tomorrow’s hearing may be… i want you to remember that what’s happening in gaza is nothing short of a genocide—a collective total of 33,360 deaths, and 64,150 injured. don’t let them just be numbers. these are people.

people who are not just being killed in cold blood, but are also being starved. they are being tortured physically and psychologically. they are being subjected to illnesses with no treatment given. they are being subjected to eating things like grass, immature food, expired food. read the euro med monitor report for the full picture of the destruction happening in gaza at the hands of the israeli occupation forces.

this is a genocide. this is one of, if not the deadliest of war crimes we’ve seen in the 21st century.

i am so heartbroken i barely have the energy to type today. please call for an end to all of this, for a permanent ceasefire. and subsequently an end to the israeli occupation.

we cannot leave the palestinians to fend for themselves and continue being oppressed directly or indirectly by their oppressors and colonisers. this occupation must end. palestine must be freed in its entirety.

من المية للمية

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

please especially send donations to help supply aid and food to gazans. especially to the organisations working within gaza. it’s not like there isn’t any food at all. gaza is not a barren land. the food is just inaccessible and very expensive and unaffordable for most gazans (if you follow journalist muhammad smiry, you’ll see he posts a lot about the atrocious prices of food in gaza). so your donations help people purchase food in bulk within gaza and supply to the civilians.

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For all your dnd purposes

This is a simple introduction to how Israel rules Palestine 🇵🇸