Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

On Why UKIP Terrify Me

I am terrified of UKIP.

I am terrified of the latest UK Voting Intention report which states that 32% of voters intend to vote for UKIP.

I am terrified that UKIP’s leader, Nigel Farage, feels “awkward” listening to foreign languages being spoken on public transport.

I am terrified that Farage intends to reform immigration to take into account “quality” as well as quantity. Because of course,…

It was 3:29pm. I was crossing the road, one foot before the other, head turning from right to left to check for danger, a quiet confidence emanating from my stride — confidence deriving from my status as a person who had previously never been hit while crossing the road — and then; impact. I didn’t see it coming. It came from the right, it spun me round, flattened…

The Fuzz and The Focus

Every so often, maybe only 3 or 4 times a year, I become aware of a somewhat strange feeling in my stomach – a kind of stirring, driving force which stems from several weeks or months of subconscious thought – the type of feeling which leads me back here, to my little dusty corner of the internet. You guessed it, it’s blogging time once more. September is always a weird month. After a few…

60 days have passed, and my days as a bourgeois, pretentious grain are behind me. Being Quinoa was in many ways an unintentional social experiment, bringing many, many varied reactions and responses which I felt must be recorded and shared with the wider world. After all, how often does such a situation arise? How many people can say that their identity was fused with a particular grain? I am…

(Mis)adventures of Communal Living // Karmiel Period

Shalom, chaverim! It is I, Charlotte Katan, of previous “Shnat? Shnat.” blogging glory. It has been roughly two months since I last had the rare urge to shout my thoughts into the WorldWideWeb (WWW if you will). Since that day, many things have happened. I shall now list those things in chronological order. We moved from Kibbutz Lotan to Karmiel in the North of Israel. This was just over 6 weeks…

I haven’t blogged for a long, long time. I don’t think anyone ever did read these but hey, maybe they do! And therefore to my most loyal fan, anonymous web user in China, this one’s for you. I currently live in the middle of the Negev desert, on Kibbutz Lotan. Specifically, in the Bustan neighbourhood, an eco-friendly campus which is pretty much entirely self sufficient. To give you an idea of…

So, I did that thing where I write words again. Some thoughts on recent events, clarity, life in general. Give it a read.

To me, life has recently felt a bit like making a marble cake. Let me explain. Over the last two weeks, we have seen truly unbelievable and incredible examples of the polar nature of humanity. We have seen dark and terrible events unfold in Paris and Nigeria. These events have stopped us, the selfless do-gooders and well-wishers, in our tracks, momentarily stunning and silencing the struggles we…

There are two methods of progression in this world; evolution or revolution.

Simply put, things either adapt or get overthrown. Life is therefore an endless cycle of starting afresh or attempting to fit in with the ever changing times.

There are thousands of examples of (r)evolution in the news and throughout history, but this post is going to address something much more specific to my existence.

“Oh, it’s just those feminists complaining again.”

“Shut up with that feminist rubbish.”

“Oh look, here come the angry feminists.”

All of these mocking, demoralising sentences have been said to me in the last year. Just take a second to think about which other words “feminist” could be replaced with in the context of these sentences.

“White supremacist”.

“Bitches”.

“Ungrateful-girls-who-think-the…

Wait, you people are here to listen to me?!

So, I’ve had an unconventional summer. As I am a generally lazy human and managed to forget to book a holiday away with friends, I’ve ended up doing some things that I wasn’t expecting to do, which were quite different to what a lot of my friends have been doing.

So, first up, I spent just under a week working in a primary state school in Gospel Oak. I’m thinking pretty seriously about becoming a…