Stepping Up

 At last weekend's protest in London, two people on the other coach from Bristol were arrested. I had talked to one of them on a previous march. Their arrests were possibly the result of textbook police provocation. Police jump into the crowd to arrest some with a placard that they consider to be potentially antisemitic. Passions are inflamed in the crowd and more people are arrested for "assaulting an emergency worker". The guy I know who was arrested was an Indian man in his 50s who supports Extinction Rebellion. The last person you would expect to be a troublemaker. I also realized how easy it is to get caught in the police's dragnet. If the police rushes someone next to you, you can get up in the melee. I saw someone get arrested earlier that day and while I consider myself to be cool-headed I could feel the anger rising inside me. To be sure, even shielding someone vulnerable could count as assaulting a police. Enough to get you detained and give an immigrant like me a good fright, even if they don't end up pressing charges. 

As a result of the arrest, my friend and I had to step up as coach stewards as our original stewards stayed back in London to assist the arrestees. WE were then asked if we would like to play a role in organizing actions. We both agreed readily. I have a lot going on in my life at the moment, but I figured directing some energy away from fretting about Gaza and fretting about the job hunt cold only eb a good thing. 

Rafah

The past few days have not been great, as I have been oscillating between feeling distressed by the Israeli onslaught on Rafah, and feeling stressed about my job hunt. Rafah is the Southern edge of the Gaza strip, where most Gazans have evacuated to. To the East is Israel, to the South is Egypt, to the West is possibly the Gazans least hostile neighbour, the Mediterranean sea. It feels like  a moment of reckoning--either the genocide has to stop, or it will be escalate to such an extent that even Israel's most ardent apologists won't be able to defend it. The numbers are at protests are down significantly from the November peak. We protest for a number of reasons, but a big reason is so that we can sleep better at night. And, I guess some people are managing to sleep okay without turning up to protest. I don't mean to sound bitter, and I prefer to be around sympathetic people compared to those who are indifferent to Gaza. More intelligent people than me have written about how this feels like the point of no return. If the world cannot prevent a genocide that is being livestreamed, then what hope do we have for collective action against climate change or fascism? However, it okay to feel despair from time to time, but not okay to wallow in it. Hope is what makes us human. The ability to imagine a better world even in the depths of despair, the ability to see setbacks as learning moments. I am not alone in believing that the progressive energy that events in Gaza have unleashed cannot be put back into the bottle. People who have found their voice in this cataclysmic event will continue to use it even after the Gaza genocide ends, and even after Palestine is free, from the River to the Sea. 

Elbit 7

 My heart sank today when I read that a jury had found the Elbit 7 guilty in an unanimous decision. Elbit 7 are & members of Palestine Action, which believes in taking direct action to stop the Israeli arms trade. This involves everything from chaining themselves to roads to block factory entrances to breaking into factories to cause damage. In hindsight, it was possibly naive to expect that a group of jurors would see their actions as anything other than vandalism. And, of course, no one takes direct action unless they are prepared to be arrested, tried and possibly convicted. But, they were found guilty of burglary and criminal damage and apparently in the past environmental groups have successfully evaded prosecution by arguing that the organisations  they targeted would have consented to their actions (the law is a funny animal). But I have increasingly come to believe that direct action is the most effective way to bring about political change, even if I am unprepared to take direct action myself. Marches and demos are good, but operate in the space delineated by the establishment to express dissent. And, the establishment has a tremendous stomach to ignore dissent. Marches and protests do not push against the walls of the establishment in the way that direct action (and boycotts) do. The actions of activists have resulted in many suppliers and clients severing connections with Elbit because they cannot be bothered to deal with the faff. The boycotts will come because fascism is like a genie that cannot be put back into a bottle. Israel will ensure that it becomes an international outcast. And, direct actions will also increase. Even if I am not yet prepared to take direct action, their actionists can and do serve as an inspiration to keep turning up at protests, however, performative and futile they feel. 

Courage or Prejudice?

 An employment tribunal ruled today in favour of a university professor who was dismissed on grounds of antisemitism.  I follow the said professor on Twitter and know people who know him. And, i can't make up my mind about him. He uses words and language that I would definitely not use, even though I agree with what him on many points. He says that Jews are over-represented in positions of influence, and are not systematically discriminated against in the ways Muslims are, although he does acknowledge that anti-semitic hate crimes do occur. Many people would find these reasonable positions, even if they would never express these opinions themselves out of fear of being labelled as anti-semites. Yes, after his dismissal, the professor has made statements that teeter on the boundary of anti-semitism. At the same time, the standards for establishing antim-semitism and Islamophobia are very different. Blatant Islamophobia in the mainstream press seldom invites sanction, while one has to walk on tenterhooks if criticizing Israel. So, I can't make up mind on this professor. Is he problematic or does he simply have the courage to call a spade a spade? Is the reason some people in the Palestine solidarity movement find his comments discomfitting that they lack his moral clarity and courage? 

Everything Is As it Should Be

My youtube yoga guru Adrienne has a penchant for delivering disarmingly simple yet profound quotes. At the start of the pandemic, I pinned some of them on the wall above my desk to bolster me. I have written about them here. But, one quote of hers that I have always recoiled from is 'Everything is as it should be". She says it in here cozy Winter yoga video, which is one of my favourite practices that I do only during autumn/winter. Everything is obviously not as it should be, and never is. If one were to pick the present moment, the war in Gaza, the rise of fascism, climate catastrophe are just a few examples. But, today, as I came across the quote during practice it landed differently. I felt like the quote was targeted at my inner world where everything is always as it should be. Why is that the case? Because the mind is either in one or two states. Either it is calm, or it is aware that its not calm. There are several ways to deal with the latter state. Take action, talk oneself out of the funk  or do nothing or wait for the storm to blow over. Tacked on to this maxim is the acknowledgement that the world works in mysterious ways and that sometimes blessings can, at first glance, seem like curses. I don't know how much sense I am making but these are my initial thoughts on the subject and may need to be fleshed out further. 

Tummy Upset before UK Return

 I meant to title this post 'Tummy Travails" but of course that title was taken. Its 1:30 am but my upset tummy is keeping me from sleeping. Tomorrow, or rather today, is going to be a long day as I fly back to the UK, but tell that to my stomach. I always have tummy troubles when I visit India, and this time was no different. One night of excess early in my trip turned an unsettled stomach into an upset stomach, and my constitution hasn't been the same since. My stomach had take a lurch for the worse in identical circumstances last year, but as I told my Mother, sometimes you have to make the same mistake twice to learn your lesson. Suffice to say, I am not going near pot for a long time. Maybe it is a question of quantity rather than the substance, but I am not interested in ascertaining which one it is. My upset tummy was a big theme of last year's trip to India, so I went back to my posts from that period to see what I had written, and whether there were any pearls of wisdom I could pick up to see me through the next 24 hours. I am no insomniac but I have enough experience of sleep problems to know that sleepless night=horrible next day. No such luck. That period was towards the end of my lean blogging phase. So, I suppose I will be blogging a lot over the next few days. Blogging forces me to lift my chin up, because nobody wants to read a mopey blog. And, when you write about something you are forced to put some distance between yourself and what you are writing about to see it clearly. And, that distance can be quite useful in difficult situations because you stop identifying with the situation so closely, even if for a brief interval. 

Debate on Politics

I mentioned to a family friend that I had participated in the Palestine protests, which triggered a lengthy debate about political action. This blog is not about politics so I will spare you the details, but I was a bit offended by his initial remark, and also disappointed at my inability to hold my own in the ensuing debate. As a result, I said some things that were not downright rude but showed bad form. And, now I am feeling uneasy about the whole exchange. I am not convinced by his arguments, which are similar to some other loved ones', but I am not able to articulate my position well. I am not going to deny that my ego has been bruised, but I feel like there is more to it that even if I can't put my finger on 'that'. Maybe I should just sleep on it.