Tuesday 26 December 2023

Bombardment, hunger & genocide for the children of Gaza & Sudan this Christmas

Tried & failed to publish articles about the genocidal campaigns in Sudan & Gaza recently. Will keep trying. Silence & apathy in the face of humanitarian and human rights violations is not an option. 

This from Banksy๐Ÿ’”๐Ÿ˜ข




 

Saturday 23 December 2023

Nollaig shona gach duine, Feliz navidad, eid milad saeid,ุนูŠุฏ ู…ูŠู„ุงุฏ ุณุนูŠุฏ joyeux Noel....

Spread joy not diseases this festive season๐ŸŽ…๐ŸŽ„

Lit a candle tonight for a loved one lost this year. Strength & virtual hugs to others isolated in grief. You're not alone๐Ÿ’œ







Baking mince pies with my real life angel is one of the highlights of Christmas every year๐Ÿ’“
They look scrummy but I won't lie, they'd break your teeth๐Ÿ˜ฌ











Happy Winter Solstice (belated)

 Hauntingly beautiful Wales๐Ÿ’“













Tuesday 19 December 2023

We cannot handwash our way out of an airborne pandemic. Pretending otherwise is futile, and cruel

Excerpts from my article in today's article in Indo๐Ÿ‘‡

Read full article here: https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/tess-finch-lees-covid-and-other-respiratory-illnesses-are-surging-and-its-a-nightmare-for-hospitals/a2120593308.html.

Germany’s health minister, Professor Lauterbach, warned that the increased incidence throughout Europe of cardiovascular disease in 25-50 year olds is associated with covid infections. “It’s not a cold” he said. “Colds don’t cause autoimmune disease or brain damage/inflammation, potentially increasing the risk of major long term neurogenerative diseases”. Long-covid, he warned, “is a debilitating disease, for which there’s no cure, the burden increases with every wave”. He’s advising working from home, boosters, testing and avoiding indoor Christmas parties.

I'm invariably over word count so not everything makes the cut. Such as this full para๐Ÿ‘‡

Meanwhile, our Chief Medical Officer, Professor Smyth, has re-launched her Hello Again World Campaign, nudging our elderly to socialise indoors, unmasked, unventilated in the midst of an airborne pandemic. Novavax and antivirals are being withheld. Hospitalisations doubled four weeks after Smyth’s last campaign ahead of Paddy’s day. It’s the greatest public health heist since Camels got doctors to endorse cigarettes with the slogan, “smoke your anxiety away”, except worse: It’s sponsored by Ireland’s CMO.

SARS-CoV-2 is a vascular disease that can damage blood vessels, potentially causing cardiovascular disease, strokes, neuropsychiatric disorders, organ damage etc, which may present months later. Reinfections increase these risks and that of developing long-covid. It’s often asymptomatic. Everyone is vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 – the clinically vulnerable disproportionately so. SARS-CoV-2, RSV and other airborne diseases can be prevented with snug ffp2/3 masks, testing, isolating when sick, ventilation and HEPA filtration. Boosters help reduce severity.

These last 2 paras pushed word count but is available exclusively here for my lovely blog readers!๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿ’ž๐Ÿ˜Ž

Our government and CMO have abdicated public health to individuals whilst withholding data and information necessary to assess risk. Jess’ mother pleaded with medics to mask, they refused. Children did not consent to being harmed by those entrusted to heal them.

With warnings of healthcare collapse over Christmas, health minister, Stephen Donnelly’s failure to reinstate masks and clean the air in hospitals now, will lead to countless preventable disease, disability and death: for staff and patients. We cannot handwash our way out of an airborne pandemic. Pretending otherwise is futile, and cruel.

Saturday 16 December 2023

Ceasefire now: Keep learning & speaking about Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. Evil thrives when good people do nothing

Confused about how we got here? I recommend this compassionate, empathetic interview with holocaust survivor, Dr. Gabor Matรฉ, and his daughter, Hannah. ๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿ’”





Monday 13 November 2023

Lowlights of life in lockdown hell

Autumn has been a veritable foraging fest. All those hours spent making crab apple jelly, foraging with friends for mushrooms, sorrel & berries to cook up lakeside with freshly caught trout. To think we could have spent that time perusing the bog-off baskets in Aldi & being happy by eating a happy meal on plastic seats with all the other happy meal noshing happy people instead.  Our kids will never get those lost indoor childhood moments to the sound track of muzak & kerching on loop - back ๐Ÿ™ƒ





Getting ready for bonfire/firepit evening in Sussex๐Ÿ”ฅ



 

Starry night around the campfire with lovely humans. Rock star๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ’“





What's the matter with these kids? Out & about in all weather & never sick. Getting on for 4 years & no colds, flu, RSV, Strep A, diabetes, hepatitis...& funnily enough - no SARS-Cov-2. Constant sickness is yet another pandemic childhood experience our kids are missing out on  Robbed trolley days in A&E. With more than 70% of household SARS2 transmission reportedly starting with children, sending them unmasked into overcrowded, unventilated schools with unfiltered, level 3 biohazard laden air is the best way to keep that sickness/new onset chronic illness level up. Recent study shows that SARS2 infection increases risk of RSV in kids by 32-47%. Not "immunity debt"๐Ÿ™ˆ๐Ÿ™‰๐Ÿ™Š







Making a bow & arrow in forest school




Teen Park art๐Ÿ˜Ž




Homemade rhubarb & black current crumble made from home grown produce from a lovely friend๐Ÿ’–


Fishing, foraging & forest bathing in splendorous Wales with fabulous folk (agony obvs)๐ŸŒณ๐ŸŽฃ๐Ÿ„








Mother nature's sculpture just sitting on the forest floor ready to delight 







SARS-CoV-2 is airborne. It hangs in the air like smoke, except it's invisible. Don't breathe in contaminated air exhaled by others. Mask up. Crack open windows & clean indoor air with HEPA filters, in the same way we filter dirty water.




Wednesday 8 November 2023

Geneva Convention: In situations of genocide, silence = complicity. Babies & children in Gaza being starved & bombed to death by Israel. For the love of God, speak up

Don't be silenced by the deliberate campaign to smear people calling out Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza as, antisemitic.   

Israeli-British Oxford University Professor, Avi Shlaim, speaking at

on October 30th 2023: "Anti-Semitism is a very ugly thing and can never be justified. Most of the anti-Zionist statements that I've come across are reasonable, evidence-based and legitimate. The problem is, Israel and it's friends conflate the two, so to claim that any criticism of Israel and it's policies are ant-Semitic." "The Secretary General of the UN made a very humane statement about the need for ceasefire and to protect civilians. And the Israeli representative immediately accusing him of anti-Semitic"

Please click on the link & watch/listen to his powerful speech - then make a stand against genocide๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿ™

https://twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1721256932348973480

Wednesday 18 October 2023

Not in our name: Ireland denounces Israel's genocidal attacks on Gaza

 “We have no food,.. I am traumatised and trapped. I need your help”. The words of a 13 year old Palestinian girl begging the international community for help. “I am a child like any other…I am not trash, I am human”.

This week, a hospital in Gaza was bombed, killing hundreds of people, including children. Perhaps it's a coincidence that, four days ago, Israel openly admitted intent to bomb hospitals in Gaza The WHO condemned that as “a death sentence for the sick and injured” Channel 4 correspondent Alex Thomson’s analysis of the evidence so far shows the Israeli account to be contradictory, producing an alleged Hamas recording that experts say is fake. He reminds viewers of the Israeli government’s history of denying culpability only to be found culpable. He invoked the killing of Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh as an example, which I wrote about at the time.

Israel has also said it is planning a “ground invasion". Yet yesterday, the United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned Hamas' attack on Israel while calling for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza. The UK abstained. Decades of exceptionalism and impunity has emboldened Israel’s rogue despotic acts.

Livestream footage from Gaza shows children's bodies laid out - mangled - on white sheets, stored in ice cream vans because the morgues are full. Israeli forces have reportedly killed 1,030 children in Gaza in recent days and images of mass graves are emerging.

We are bearing witness, in real time, to war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel against innocent Palestinian civilians, half of whom are children. Israel has cut off food, water, fuel, humanitarian aid and medical supplies, issued evacuation orders then bombed civilians fleeing through the "safe route". When this happened in Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen denounced it as constituting war crimes. Not only did she not condemn Israeli actions, she unilaterally condoned them.

President Michael D Higgins criticised Von der Leyen’s intervention as “thoughtless and reckless”, stating that she did not speak for Ireland. On Israel, he said: It’s one thing, when we look at historic breaches of international law, that is incredibly bad, but to actually announce in advance that you’re going to break international law…It reduces it to tatters”.

Violence and murder of any civilians anywhere is abhorrent. My heart goes out to the traumatised and grieving families in Palestine and Israel. To break the cycle of violence, we must acknowledge the root cause.

For the past 75 years, Israel has forced thousands of Palestinians off their land, occupying and illegally creating settlements for Israeli settlers. Entire Palestinian communities have been displaced, their homes and livelihoods destroyed, their movements restricted, as is access to water and natural resources. They are relentlessly persecuted, oppressed and attacked by occupying Israeli forces.

In 2021, Human Rights Watch described Israel’s policies against Palestinians as crimes against humanity, persecution and apartheid. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem and Amnesty International also describe Israel as an apartheid state perpetrating human rights abuses against Palestinians. 

Amnesty International has provided evidence that Israel has deployed white phosphorous in Gaza. These acts and the collective punishment of civilians are in contravention of international law, cheered on by Joe Biden and other Western leaders, as millions worldwide protest their government’s’ complicity in war crimes. Leo Varadkar is one of few exceptions, showing principled leadership by condemning Israel’s actions.

UN human rights expert, Francesca Albanese warns, “Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war...Again, in the name of self-defence, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing”.

Israel’s propaganda machine is going all out, manufacturing consent for ethnic cleansing. Actively using dehumanising language describing Palestinians as “animals”. Propagating un-substantiated reports of Hamas beheading babies, which were repeated by international media outlets. The CNN journalist who reported this as fact, fuelling hatred and revenge, later admitted that the Israeli government could not confirm the claim and that she was “misled”.

Inciting racial hatred fuels atrocities in Gaza and beyond. On Monday, a 6 year old Palestinian-American boy was fatally stabbed, and his mother seriously injured by a man, in what has been reported as an anti-Muslim hate crime, prompted by Gaza coverage.

Claiming that civilian targets are legitimate because Palestinians voted for Hamas is codswallop. Palestinians haven’t had elections for 17 years meaning half the population weren’t eligible to vote. Noteworthy: The same justification was invoked by Osama bin Laden for targeting American civilians.

Israeli attempts to draw comparisons with Bloody Sunday backfired when the Bloody Sunday committee said it was “Outrageous to have the memory of our innocent dead sullied by the apartheid forces of the Israeli State”. 

Four days after Hamas brutally attacked Kibbutz Be’eri, a 19 year old Israeli survivor, made a video plea to the world. She did not want revenge. She showed empathy with civilians in Gaza saying: “ For people to go through what I went through and not have anyone to extract them. It cannot be. It cannot be”. Adding, “I blame Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu] 100% for this”, by failing to find a political solution. She asked the world to reflect on our values and to demand a just peace.

The World Health Organisation warns there’s less than 24 hours’ worth of supplies left in Gaza, hospitals have only hours of fuel and a UN agency says people are forced to drink sea water. We need to demand an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid access and a just peace respecting international law.

If a traumatised Israeli teenager is capable of recognising that a 13 year Palestinian girl begging for her life is human and deserves protection, why can’t Western leaders? We must never accept that some human lives are deemed more worthy of saving than others. Under the Geneva Convention, silence is complicity. The children of Gaza are relying on us to be their voice. Speak up. Time is running out.

People Before Profit TD, Paul Murphy, expressing the views of Irish citizens๐Ÿ‘‡




Saturday 7 October 2023

Parents: Your children's health & wellbeing hangs on whether you listen to the men in charge or the women who know what's going on.

 “Sick of your kids being sick? Clean air in schools may be the answer” Outstanding article from two brilliant science experts, advocates & communicators ๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿ’ฅ

These women (authors Julia Corey & Orla Hegarty) know what's going on. Top tips for parents & teachers: Covid is airborne. No infection is benign. Solution: Clean the air & mask up (ffp2/3) or keep playing Russian roulette with your own & your children's health๐Ÿ‘‡

https://twitter.com/brownecfm/status/1710629246119399799?fbclid=IwAR3HctXwfqJiItm0P8-nftvVjpqC2NT2H02qHsQdYSq-0ZUWe8BoK1t5D3E

Friday 6 October 2023

To protect yourself from SARS-CoV-2 induced heart attacks this Autumn: Wear a hat

 Agitated octogenarian: Why are you wearing that?

Me: I know it's a bit mangy but my great great great granny knitted this hat 2,453 years ago out of twigs fashioned from a Rowanberry tree, steam dried over a skillet of boiled coddle, so out it comes every autumn!

Notably less agitated Octogenarian: Ha ha... no the mask. Looks like you're geared up for a bioweapon apocalypse

Me: -




The lovely man went on to tell me how terrified he used to be about catching covid. Masked everywhere until he got infected by a healthcare professional. Told me it was mild. Six months later he had a heart attack: "Much worse than covid" says he. Doesn't bother masking anymore.

Just dropping this heartbreaking thread here that marked world heart day. Huge thanks to VicMidnightSun for this incredibly useful resource๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿ˜‡

Spoiler: "Compared to uninfected people, this group was around 40% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and five times more likely to die during the 18 months afterwards."๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿ’”