... Go westward for smelts...

Hello 👋, I'm Bahaa from Gaza, Palestine. I hope this message reaches you. I'm reaching out to you at a time when my family and I are facing death at every moment. I'm sending this message as I find myself without options in the face of bombing, destruction, and hunger, asking for your compassion and support for me and my family.

We are facing an indescribable ordeal, and my situation is unbearable. I've lost everything and am struggling to keep my family alive. Every day, I see my little child crying from hunger, and this makes me feel completely helpless and overwhelmed. My heart is piercing with grief. My pregnant wife needs medication we can't afford, while my health is deteriorating. I suffered from cancer years ago, and it was removed above my left eye, and I miraculously survived.

We have no food or basic necessities, and every day is a struggle for survival. Every contribution—no matter how small—could mean life. I never imagined I'd have to ask for such help. I'm a distinguished and educated electronics engineer who has always provided for my family, but I lost my job and everything I own.

I see my family suffering before my eyes, and hope is all I cling to. Please, if you can help or know someone who can, I would be eternally grateful.

May God reward you for your kindness.

Sincerely, Bahaa from Gaza

Every single dollar counts!!

I do have a gift though.

Quite a few people asked me for a copy of The Roots Grow Riotous when I took it down, and for various reasons I hadn’t been able to reply about it (one of which being that I was silly and didn’t download a copy for myself before privating it, and couldn’t figure it out afterwards).

Anyway, If anyone still wants a PDF of the story, this link will be active for 3 days:

https://we.tl/t-GiWycy1bf14F2iB6

I forgot to say in the original post but I also got asked a few times if I minded people sharing their copies, and the answer is definitely no! I do not mind at all lol. I am also very friendly and am always happy to talk or receive DMs.

If your doctor makes multiple documents confirming that you suffer from alopecia because of stress and the medicine you have to take for your epilepsy and that wearing a bonnet or something is recommended for your mental health as you’re not ready to go out bald in high school as a teenage girl, instead of admitting they are wrong the school will accuse the doctor of lying and report him to the Ordre des Médecins (equivalent of the General Medical council). Your doctor will find himself asking you for a document stating that you are not Muslim in order to defend himself and prove that no he wasn’t colluding with you so you could wear a substitute for hijab.

Source

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In France if you are a North African nurse at a public hospital and wear a fabric surgical cap they will try to make you remove it because apparently it’s a hidden hijab. They will accuse you of going against secularism and when you’ll argue that they are discriminating you by assuming you’re Muslim for a surgical cap on your head they will change their angle and claim that you should wear nothing on your hair because you wear the same surgical cap in multiple bedroom which is unhygienic apparently (which is a bullshit argument cause you wear the same scrub/uniform in different bedrooms as well). They will go as far as claiming that disposable scrub caps (you know the thin papery ones?) are not okay to wear in a hospital even if you change it regularly. And then they will fire you for a lack of hygiene because you wear a surgical cap.

Source

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All of that will be done in the name of secularism and women’s right despite having nothing do with either quite the opposite.

The rule for loose shorts for men has been a thing for decades and it’s because some men wear them outside as well and because men would use actual shorts as swimsuits.

As for the rules not being about banning Muslim women from swimming I don’t know your age but I’m old enough to remember when going to a public swimming pool with a hijab on to keep an eye on your kids and without getting in the water was okay. I’m old enough to remember when wearing a short and T-shirt over your swimsuit at the border of the water when you weren’t swimming was perfectly okay as well. I remember when swimsuits with skirts or shorts attached to them were allowed.

All the extra rules you mentioned started being put in place AFTER the “burkini” ban when they realized that the majority of Muslim women who were going in public swimming pools were not hijabi but still liked to be more modest and wear swimming skirts or shorts and stuff like that.

The only reason my mother can't find a stable job is because of her hijab.

The only reason she can't accompany my little brother during his school visits to the park or the museum is because of her hijab.

The only reason she can't even be part of the Pupils Parents Council at my school is because of her hijab.

1000 days, catastrophe and displacement and oppression and hunger and whirlpools of pain and fear from rockets and fire belts and demolitions and shells.. and loss.

people in the comments will be like "okay but we could at least get rid of ticks and mosquitos because those spread disease."

we actually CANNOT get rid of ticks and mosquitos. not only do we plain lack the technology to lead a pointed extermination effort against them specifically without taking a score of other species down with them, but if we developed that technology and did eradicate mosquitos and ticks, it would be the catalyst of utter ecological collapse the likes of which i think people are not quite comprehending.

the problem is not the existence of bugs. the problem is that our current global systems ensure that specific Peoples in specific places are disproportionately impacted by zoonoses (illness spread between animals and humans).

those same populations also disproportionately lack access to preventative tools & PPE (down to things many of us take for granted so simply as effective bug spray), and crucially access to medical treatment.

the goal should not be an eradicating effort against bugs which would quite literally collapse entire ecosystems, but equitable access to healthcare, investment in medical research to improve preventative and acute treatment for zoonoses, and the destruction of systems which are currently rapidly increasing the threat of zoonoses worldwide (climate change!)

i am not defending the existence of bugs because i think they're cute and because i don't care about the devastating suffering zoonoses cause millions and millions of people.

Two Chinese Communist guerrillas south of Yangtze River, 1949.

Please increase your contribution to The Sameer Project.

tech news today is that Mullvad VPN has gone mask-off about being the major funding source for the Swedish Orebro party, who are racist nationalists. unfortunately all discussion of this is occurring on fucking Mastodon instances i can barely load

if you are a mullvad customer (as i am) and want to get out, here is guidance from this guy

This has been happening all month with little to no international media attention. Here are a few organizations you can check out for resources or to support:

ActionAid India

SEEDS India

GlobalGiving

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-impeded-firefighting-near-christian-west-bank-village-2026-06-10/

Father Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Taybeh, said settlers had shot firearms and surrounded people trying to take a water tanker to the site to fight ​the fire.