some times when I like things I put them here

Р isnt P

“A coalition of organizations that work with marginalized communities in Lebanon such as migrant workers are raising funds to provide support and assistance (food, medical supplies, pads, diapers) to the various communities. Please share and donate.”

March 2026 update:

Campaign Story: Starting at 42,000 USD (raised in the last war), Voices of the Unseen begins again.... Following the devastating events of 1 March, 2026, and the subsequent heavy bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and South Lebanon in the early hours of 2 March, we are witnessing a terrifyingly familiar cycle of violence. At least 31 people have been martyred and 149 wounded in just the last few hours. Thousands more fleeing their homes under new evacuation orders. The recent escalation has pushed Lebanon back to the brink of a full scale war.

In 2024, we saw firsthand the systemic failure of the state. As bombs fell, the state offered no safety net for those most vulnerable:

Migrant Workers: Still trapped under the Kafala system a form of modern day slavery, many are being abandoned by employers fleeing the violence, left without papers or safe passage.

Syrian Refugees: Already displaced by over a decade of war, we are once again facing the trauma of being uprooted with nowhere left to run.

Palestinians: Facing an ongoing struggle for survival as the violence in Lebanon mirrors the aggression they have endured for 78 years.

Marginalised Lebanese: Families in the South, Bekaa, and Beirut are losing their livelihoods and homes, watching their society be torn apart once more.

Wambalo and other digital workers spent eight hours a day in front of a screen studying photos and videos, drawing boxes around objects and labeling them, teaching AI algorithms to recognize them. Human labelers tag cars and pedestrians to teach autonomous vehicles not to hit them. Humans circle abnormalities in CTs, MRIs and X-rays to teach AI to recognize diseases. Even as AI gets smarter, humans in the loop will always be needed because there will always be new devices and inventions that'll need labeling.

 Humans in the loop are found not only in Kenya, but also in India, the Philippines and Venezuela. They're often countries with low wages but large populations — well educated, but unemployed.

The pay for humans in the loop is $1.50-2 an hour.  "And that is gross, before tax," Wambalo said.  Wambalo, Nathan Nkunzimana and Fasica Berhane Gebrekidan were employed by SAMA, an American outsourcing company that hired for Meta and OpenAI. SAMA, based in the California Bay Area, employed over 3,000 workers in Kenya. Documents reviewed by 60 Minutes show OpenAI agreed to pay SAMA $12.50 an hour per worker, much more than the $2 the workers actually got, though SAMA says what it paid is a fair wage for the region.

It's destroying the environment. It's taking advantage of people who're desperate. It's traumatizing them for dollars an hour--if they're lucky and they aren't denied their pay for no reason. I think about this a lot, that these people were made to look at awful and disgusting and illegal things for the sake of training these stupid AI.

"I looked at people being slaughtered," Wambalo said. "People engaging in sexual activity with animals. People abusing children physically, sexually. People committing suicide." Berhane Gebrekidan thought she'd been hired for a translation job, but she said what she ended up doing was reviewing content featuring dismembered bodies and drone attack victims. 

[...]

SAMA says mental health counseling was provided by "fully-licensed professionals." Workers say it was woefully inadequate.

It's just absurd and disgusting and infuriating. Yes the good applications are worth humans working on. It's not a bad thing--if the people employed to do the work are compensated appropriately and cared for. But so many of the uses are just unnecessary.

They tried to kill us, but they did not succeed. And we owe so much thanks to the other oppressed peoples, in particular the Choctaw Nation and the Masai, who sent money and grain to us.

Let me repeat that. The Choctaw Nation who had just gone through the Trail of Tears sent us money to try save Irish lives. It’s led to an understanding between Irish people and Native American tribes, most recently when we donated to the Navajo and Hopi fundraisers for COVID-19 relief, because while it may be a different tribe, Irish people will never forget those who helped us and we’ll help back.

The entire population of the island is less than seven million people. We’re still a million less on this island than pre famine. And it’s not that long ago. My grandmother’s grandparents lived through it. We’ve told the stories, it literally changed the DNA of the country. We have a national fear of renting, because so many people were evicted. People joke about Irish people always offering loads of food, but it’s because there’s that cultural memory of not being able to.

What does the photo represent? What is being invoked in the original and in the Donelan piece?

I would say the idea of the original photo is that American soldiers have the willpower and belief in the institution of America to overcome great adversity—to face the horrors of war and choose to stand and fight to raise the flag anyway. It is used when Americans want to represent themselves as able to triumph against a brutal other. A photo that shares that message with an enemy that is read as more evil still shares that message.

I also think the specifics do matter. An American flag is being raised. Why? The land is now under American control. Land that was previously controlled by the Japanese empire, which as an empire did not derive its power justly, but land that America certainly did not have any greater right to control. Who was killed for the flag to be raised? 18,000 Japanese soldiers, some potentially from Iwo Jima itself. Did the American military generally treat the land and people they occupied well? No. Did this contribute to a long-term strategy of justice or even simply the end of the war? No. It was understood to be pointless violence at the time and lives on as a symbol of American dominance and honor. It was slaughter for the purpose of American imperialism. That is the background of the photo.

An equivalent photo for Americans defeating Nazis does not exist. If it did, what would it represent? Would it mean the willingness to lay down one's life for antifascism? Hypothetically potentially, but look at who today values and propagates US-Nazi war memorabilia and how they treat modern-day antifascist action and the descendants of Nazi ideology and practice. This hypothetical equivalent photo would likely still represent American military honor and be used to support military action that supports modern American imperialism, and likely would only invoke antifascism when it serves a greater purpose to American empire.

I do not believe an equivalent photo for Americans defeating Nazis would be appropriate to use here, either, in the context it would most likely exist in. I think it would likely invoke the idea that we as Americans are a uniquely strong, just people, and should use our gifts to create justice we all believe in. Americans are no more strong in body, will, or morals than any other people and largely have not created more justice than injustice. This is perhaps an understatement but I digress.