vantavarmint

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reject the western gaze!

mutual aid means no hierarchy between givers and receivers

a new mutual aid org, Bridge of Solidarity, has been established in the gaza strip by 17 year old poet yazan mohammed in response to the exploitative practices conducted by some charities and encouraged by the existing charity-based model of fundraising for gaza. according to BoS: "the western attention economy and pity economy plays a large role in who lives or dies in gaza." essentially, people need to make themselves marketable in order to receive lifesaving aid; people who are not marketable die. yazan himself wrote about the damage this can do to one's self image, which you can read here.

after trying for a year to respect his own privacy, my friend siraj was also pressured into posting images of his son's emaciated body in order to gain sympathy from westerners.

we cannot keep forcing people to do this anymore.

here's a declaration of their values from bridge of solidarity's most recent post:

Our organization is against the Western gaze. We refuse to humiliate people. We refuse to force people to take photos. We refuse to force people to take photos with our flyer or logo. People will receive aid freely without being forced to pose. We will respect people's privacy completely. Our principles include autonomy, dignity, sovereignty, mutual respect, and mutual aid.

this org will prioritize giving aid to people without phones or social media, who do not speak english, and who do not have outside support or living parents. these are the people who are not palatable to westerners but who deserve to live with as much dignity as everyone else

as of five days ago, BoS are working on a water truck delivery

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once i beat the depression and the burnout and the anxiety and the loneliness and the exhaustion and the guilt and the awkwardness and the apathy and the low income and the chronic illness and the impatience and the vulnerability and the creative block and the capitalism and the cruelty THEN you'll see

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Anas’ last message to the world

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Crossdressing party goers in Gaza, Palestine (1960s) | ph: Kegham Djeghalian

This photo was found by Djeghalian's grandson in 2018, along with an entire collection documenting the rich culture and history of Gaza. Djeghalian survived the Armenian genocide as a toddler, fleeing to Syria, then Lebanon, before moving to Palestine, where he lived between Al-Quds and Jaffa. There he would meet his wife Zevart Nakashian, and go on to open the Kegham photography studio in Gaza.

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old but gold

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i made this and i dont know why i made this

original video!!!!

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the prince has begun practicing curtseying in the mirror. which could mean nothing.

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the p in pluey stands for psych major

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how much screen time do you have per day?

i never wanna think about that in my whole life

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some problems are so humiliating the only solution is to solve them yourself and then continue to never talk about it

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i say "my friend" a lot when addressing people and i think the initial reason was because its a good replacement for "dude" in sentences But also i just really like it because it makes me sound very whimsical and kind. It is up to you my friend. Thats a wonderful idea my friend.

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The entire Al Jazeera crew in Gaza City was assassinated, including its reporters and cameramen:

Reporter: Anas Al-Sharif

Reporter: Mohammed Qreiqah

Cameraman: Ibrahim Zaher

Cameraman: Mo’men Alwiyeh

Crew driver: Mohammed Noufal

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they're both canon to me