kai's writing sh*t again

and i need you all to keep in mind just how dire the situation in gaza is right now. and to keep talking about it. now is not the time to turn away.

today i want to talk about khalil again. yesterday, khalil posted about how his aunt passed away and they went to the graveyard to bury her, only to find thousands of tents in the cemetery. the people living as refugees in rafah have been so jam packed that they’ve started sheltering at the cemetery.

in a heartbreaking sentence, khalil says “they are living in the cemetery, waiting for their time to be buried”. can you imagine the situation one has to be in to say something like that?

not only do the gazans not have a safe place to live, they are also starving and suffering from diseases and lack of medication. in fact, that’s the cause of khalil’s aunt’s death—bad food and no medicine.

the people of gaza barely have food to eat. the children have to clean dirt and insects off animal feed before milling it to make food. medicine isn’t coming into the gaza strip. there are pharmacies all around but none can help because they do not have the means to. why?

because israel consistently denies shipments of vital aid. in fact, according to the UN, israel recently added insulin pens for children to the list of prohibited items that are not allowed into gaza. this list also includes other medicines for chronic illnesses are also not allowed [here is the full press conference for anyone who’s interested].

this claim is also backed by the report journalist motaz azaiza was making as he was evacuating gaza of a plethora of aid trucks waiting at the border to enter gaza. and for the little bit of aid that is available to gazans? yesterday the israeli military opened fire at starving citizens who were queueing to get aid in northern gaza.

there are too many heartbreaking stories coming out of gaza; there is at least one per person, in a population of 2.2M people. i urge you to not turn away from hearing their stories and facing the reality of the crimes being committed against them by israeli occupation forces.

whatever anyone else might say, whatever the verdict of tomorrow’s hearing may be… i want you to remember that what’s happening in gaza is nothing short of a genocide—a collective total of 33,360 deaths (incl people missing under rubble), and 64,150 injured. don’t let them just be numbers. these are people.

people who are not just being killed in cold blood, but are also being starved. they are being tortured physically and psychologically. they are being subjected to illnesses with no treatment given. they are being subjected to eating things like grass, immature food, expired food. read the euro med monitor report for the full picture of the destruction happening in gaza at the hands of the israeli occupation forces.

this is a genocide. this is one of, if not the deadliest of war crimes we’ve seen in the 21st century.

i am so heartbroken i barely have the energy to type today. please call for an end to all of this, for a permanent ceasefire. and subsequently an end to the israeli occupation.

we cannot leave the palestinians to fend for themselves and continue being oppressed directly or indirectly by their oppressors and colonisers. this occupation must end. palestine must be freed in its entirety.

من المية للمية

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

I apparently gained a bit of control of the canon because said writer really loved the art and decided what I drew/draw is canon.

2. Writer put said artwork into the document of his story right below the scene, so now it's IN the story where people who read the story will see it (with a link to me)

3. He sent the artwork to all his friends and people he knows because he was so excited

Wholesome interaction and I watched him do all that in real time, good stuff. However...there are two more consequences I was notified of today...nearly a full week after I gave the artwork.

Seeing the artwork caused his friends to become interested in reading and hearing about his story, which means more people are reading what he's writing and giving him critique on the story (which he actively asks for).

Apparently, upon seeing the art, his writer friends got a sudden second wind to pick back up writing they'd abandoned for a few months. Because, I quote, "seeing that someone enjoyed {his} writing enough to take the time to make art of it gave them the motivation that maybe THEY can write something that will inspire someone to also create something." I have accidentally caused a writing frenzy among his writer friends and my silly idea to make art for someone has had a butterfly effect for people who I don't even know.

Let me just say this once. I don't believe AI art is fanart. The way things are, it's theft. It doesn't count. The effort that fan artists put into their works cannot be equated in value with whatever an AI generates. The works with hours of applied skill and originality and love put into them are the works I want to praise on this blog.