quelques choses no. 17
notes from unga sidelines & the usual (books, articles, pods, vibes)
we were still running around in September. I guess I’m just realizing that I’ll always be running around. I used to crave having a routine to stick to, and am now getting accustomed to adjusting said routine to all the running around that needs to happen. lol. the adults in the room are like, “welcome”.
(half-read) books—
The Guest, Emma Cline — it feels good to be flying through a book again. the narrator is hilarious, sincere, and absurd, and I cannot understand the decision-making, but i’m into it.
Martyr, Kaveh Akbar — patiently waited 8 weeks for this on the libby app and i’m 70 pages in. so far: no thoughts, just vibes, absolutely worth the wait. i’m sure I will have thoughts soon enough.
& some thoughts on finishing the books from last month—
Kairos, Jenny Erpenbeck — I was wrong, or perhaps in the wrong state of mind. wasn’t into it! a shame, really. maybe I’ll try again in a few months because it was noted by a friend whose book reccs I highly value.
The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler — honestly, could skip.
article excerpts—
‘It’s the only hope’: Inside the effort to help Gaza university students continue their studies
Beyond providing these students with hope and purpose in the face of a war that threatens their lives as well as their right to learn, Affouneh says their education is essential for the future. “Without education, peace will never be there anywhere in this world,” she said.
The educators helping to create opportunities for students in Gaza to study during the war are determined to continue to help. “It’s part of showing the resilience of Palestinian people and Palestinian universities,” said Habbard, who leads Academic Solidarity for Palestine.
“We won’t let them down, and we will make sure students can resume their studies,” she said. “We will be there until we are no longer needed.”
read after getting to bask these chefs-d'œuvre in real life
At the time, it was an extreme move to withdraw to sit beneath a big white parasol to depict, with no certainty of the outcome, a slice of water as a self-contained contemplative space. “The basic element of the motif is the mirror of water, whose appearance changes at every instant because of the way bits of the sky are reflected in it, giving it life and movement,” Monet explained to the journalist François Thiébault-Sisson. “The passing cloud, the fresh breeze … a rainstorm, the sudden fierce gust of wind, the fading or suddenly refulgent light … create changes in color and alter the surface of the water. It can be smooth, unruffled, and then, suddenly, there will be a ripple, a movement that breaks up into almost imperceptible wavelets or seems to crease the surface slowly, making it look like a wide piece of watered silk.”
To the Israeli Solder Who Murdered Aysenur Ezgi Eygi
Shooting unarmed people is not bravery. It is not courage. It is not even war. It is a crime. It is murder. You are a murderer. I am sure you were not ordered to kill Aysenur. You shot Aysenur in the head because you could, because you felt like it. Israel runs an open-air shooting gallery in Gaza and the West Bank. Total impunity. Murder as sport.
You will, one day, not be the killer you are now. You will exhaust yourself trying to ward off demons. You will desperately want to be human. You will want to love and be loved. Maybe you will make it. Being human again. But that will mean a life of contrition. It will mean making your crime public. It will mean begging, on your knees, for forgiveness. It will mean forgiving yourself. This is very hard. It will mean orientating every aspect of your life to nurturing life rather than extinguishing it. This will be your only hope for salvation. If you do not take it, you are damned.
The Exhilarating Brilliance of Maggie Smith
Her intelligence was demanding and exhilarating to those who worked with her: according to Derek Jacobi, Smith onstage thought “at the speed of lightning.”
Some context: the article challenges the East-West division in European nationhood, which portrays the West as civic and inclusive, and the East as ethnic and exclusionary. it argues that both regions have historically blended ethnic and civic elements in nation-building. the simplistic dichotomy overlooks the nuanced ways nationhood develops across Europe, driven by both cultural and political forces.
No nation has ever been purely civic or ethnic: all states are, to some degree, an ethnic community bound by shared cultural practices.
How to think about consciousness
Just as our history shows grave mistreatment of moral agents due to racial or sexist bias, we might now be in danger of grave mistreatment of moral agents due to mechanical bias.
vibes—
pods—
notes from the sidelines @ unga—
“My concern is, this 360 degree assault on life, it keeps getting compounded every single month. These incidents are not isolated, and every single one of them compounds in a way that’s really devastating — whether it’s the hunger, whether it’s the outbreak of polio, the communicable diseases… the lack of aid entry, these things all work together to devastate life in Gaza.” Dr. Thaer Ahmed, Emergency Medicine Physician, Navigating the Limits and Evolving Role of Humanitarian Aid, hosted by The New Humanitarian & Refugees International.
“I come at this work reframing the narrative of refugees as donors. They’ve been donors. They are philanthropists.” Nasra Ismail, Alight US Executive Director, From crisis to opportunity: Shaping pathways beyond humanitarian aid, hosted by Devex — through remittances, refugees and migrants sending money back home are some of the biggest donors to their home countries. There is a lot of economic power ($830B) in the way this money is distributed, and refugees and migrants should be lauded as contributors, rather than as victims.
“If you’re good with humanities (ethics), you’re good with your customers, you’re good with your people, and if you use your business to move humanity and the environment forward, that’s an enormous engine of the success of business.” Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani, How capitalism and humanitarianism can co-exist, hosted by Devex.