(Part 1)

Nazis backing Nazis. What a shock.

I’m reading the Wikipedia article on elephant cognition and this story about an elephant family really got me. I actually read it years ago but I forgot how poignant it is. It’s a story recounted by Cynthia Moss, an ethologist specializing in elephants:

“Two members of the family were shot by poachers, who were subsequently chased off by the remaining elephants. Although one of the elephants died, the other, named Tina, remained standing, but with knees beginning to give way. Two family members, Trista and Teresia (Tina’s mother), walked to both sides of Tina and leaned in to hold her up. Eventually, Tina grew so weak, she fell to the ground and died. However, Trista and Teresia did not give up but continually tried to lift her. They managed to get Tina into a sitting position, but her body was lifeless and fell to the ground again. As the other elephant family members became more intensely involved in the aid, they tried to put grass into Tina’s mouth. Teresia then put her tusks beneath Tina’s head and front quarters and proceeded to lift her. As she did so, her right tusk broke completely off, right up to the lip and nerve cavity. The elephants gave up trying to lift Tina but did not leave her; instead, they began to bury her in a shallow grave and throw leaves over her body. They stood over Tina for the night and then began to leave in the morning. The last to leave was Teresia.”

The article also explains that elephants are also highly altruistic:

“Elephants are thought to be highly altruistic animals that even aid other species, including humans, in distress. In India, an elephant was helping locals lift logs by following a truck and placing the logs in pre-dug holes upon instruction from the mahout (elephant trainer). At a certain hole, the elephant refused to lower the log. The mahout came to investigate the hold-up and noticed a dog sleeping in the hole. The elephant only lowered the log when the dog was gone. When an elephant is hurt, other elephants (even if they are unrelated) aid them.

Cynthia Moss has often seen elephants going out of their way to avoid hurting or killing a human, even when it was difficult for them (such as having to walk backwards to avoid a person). Joyce Poole documented an encounter told to her by Colin Francombe on Kuki Gallman’s Laikipia Ranch. A ranch herder was out on his own with camels when he came across a family of elephants. The matriarch charged at him and knocked him over with her trunk, breaking one of his legs. In the evening, when he did not return, a search party was sent in a truck to find him. When the party discovered him, he was being guarded by an elephant. The animal charged the truck, so they shot over her and scared her away. The herdsman later told them that when he could not stand up, the elephant used her trunk to lift him under the shade of a tree. She guarded him for the day and would gently touch him with her trunk.”

I just… I love elephants you guys 🥺 The fact that they’re exploited and killed to the point of being endangered breaks my heart.

here. take it. it doesn't take more than two seconds to help.

it’s just me and my barely charged phone against the world

Farha (2021) is a movie about the Palestinian Nakba that’s just been put on Netflix, it’s a portrayal of the violence experienced by Palestinians during Israel’s creation from the perspective of a 14 year old girl - to my knowledge, this is the first film about the story of the Nakba on Netflix. (If you don’t know the history of the Nakba - this post can explain it quickly)

The movie is being received with a lot of praise from Palestinians online, however, the movie is currently being review bombed by zionists and condemned by the Israeli press and there have been threats towards showing of the film by Israel’s finance minister, this is the IMDb review page as of posting this:

If you would like to help support this film and Palestinian history being portrayed, please leave a positive review, and if you have Netflix, watch the film. The story of the Nakba has one that has long been silenced and it’s so rare to see it even acknowledged in media, my family survived it, many others didn’t, what they all experienced was real, and it’s about time there has been recognition of it.

dropping everything and moving to the countryside

a genre;

Markets of Assam by Imdad Barbhuyan