Today dawned bright and sunny, but with plenty of grey cloud around as well, and strong winds still blowing. I got up and ran down the seafront along the intricate crisscrossing boardwalks they have here in Figueirs da Foz. The rollers are quite impressive. I would post pictures but the wifi here in the hotel is unreliable, weak and rather annoying. So photos might have to wait until I return home.
We seem to be getting off lightly with this Storm Ciarán though. Five people have died in Tuscany, they have floods in a place near Florence. Schools have closed and trains have been cancelled kn various parts of Europe.
A truck driver was killed by a falling tree in northern France, and more than 1.2 million people lost their electricity supply, including about half the population of Brittany.
A 70-year-old man died in Le Havre after falling off his balcony in an accident police described as linked to Storm Ciarán’s record-breaking winds. I wondered if he was leaning out of his balcony to take a picture, rather as I have held my phone out of our hotel window to take pictures of the breakers hitting the lighthouse. In a number of places people have been killed by falling trees, including a 46-year-old woman from Bavaria who was on a family holiday with her husband and two children who was killed by a falling tree while out hiking near Rammelsberg in the Harz mountains. Perhaps the moral of the story to,avoid hiking in the mountains in a storm.
Kier Starmer seems to be facing a storm of a different kind as some of his MPs and some Labour Councils demand he changes his stance on the Israel-Palestine question. They want him to support the appeal for a ceasefire. I find it hard to understand why some people, seemingly including Starmer, prefer the idea of a “pause”. Oh, I can see that they want to allow humanitarian aid in but surely the idea that after that all the shooting and killing can resume looks like another form of madness to me. “Pause” the fighting, send in aid and then start killing again!! Why not go the whole hog and have a proper ceasefire and insist that ALL parties concerned TALK TO EACH OTHER?
Here is something I found by Hadar Morag, an Israeli film maker.,
"Quando mia nonna arrivò qui, dopo l’Olocausto, la Jewish Agency le promise una casa. Non aveva niente, tutta la sua famiglia era stata sterminata. È rimasta in attesa per lungo tempo in una tenda, in una situazione estremamente precaria. La portarono quindi ad Ajami, a Jaffa, in una stupenda casa sulla spiaggia. Vide che sul tavolo c’erano ancora i piatti degli arabi che ci abitavano e che erano stati cacciati via. Allora lei tornò all’agenzia e disse: riportatemi nella tenda, non farò mai a qualcun altro ciò che è stato fatto a me. Questa è la mia eredità, ma non tutti hanno fatto quella scelta. Come possiamo essere diventati ciò che avversavamo? Questa è la grande domanda".
Hadar Morag, regista israeliana
I’m not sure why I have it in Italian. Here’s a loose translation:
“When my grandmother arrived here, after the Holocaust, the Jewish Agency promised her a house. She had nothing, all her family had been exterminated. She stayed waiting for a long time in a tent, in a very precarious situation. Then they took her to Ajami, in Jaffa, to a beautiful house by the beach. She saw that on the table there were still the plates of the Arabs who had lived there and who had been evicted. So she returned to the agency and said: take me back to the tent. I will never do to someone else what was done to me. That is my heritage but not everyone made the same choice. How can we have become what we see facing us today? That is the big question. “
Then we have the Met Police saying they don’t have the forces to “control” the protests in London - peaceful protests with Jewish participants as well as non-Jewish protestors! I read this: “Susan Hall, a Conservative assembly member who was previously accused of dogwhistle politics when she claimed that Jewish people were “frightened” of the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said Jewish people in London were “scared stiff” by the protests. “I do tell you, in the real world, they are scared stiff at the moment,” she said.”
Apparently there has been an increase in hate crimes both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim but then likes of Susan Hall stirring things up won’t help matters. Fear is contagious!
And from the Manchester Evening News yesterday came this piece of nonsense:
“Marks and Spencer have apologised for 'any unintentional hurt caused' by a now-deleted Instagram post shared as part of their Christmas campaign.
The high street chain earlier shared a picture of a set of party hats that had been thrown into a burning fireplace. However, it sparked a backlash as some social media users pointed out the hats were the colours of the Palestinian flag and branded it 'insensitive' and 'tone deaf.'”
The image came from an advert recorded in AUGUST!
Be careful what colour clothing you wear. Your political views and opinions my be judged accordingly!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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