I am undone without you.

That means that you are assigned to a stereotypical RPG role inside our new fantasy world. Spin this wheel to find out what you are now doing for a living.

the gaza fundraisers are scams. like: at best, they're scams exploiting your well-meaning sentiments for money. as worst - for some of the ones i've investigated (and i remind you, internet safety is my day job, so i know what i'm talking about) - they're exploiting the images of children affiliated to child pornography. yes, trust me, i'm sure.

aside from the source images, i will additionally point out that they are systematically set up by third parties on behalf of someone else. strangely, if you google the names of these third parties, they never exist (and, really, who has no internet footprint, these days?). if these were real activists/relations to people on the ground, you would find: facebook profiles, profile pages on NGO websites, twitter accounts - literally any signs of life. but of course, because they're not real people, they don't exist. (these are not even elaborate scammers, ffs.)

lastly, i will add that they're all saying they're "verified" but if you click the links, it's either just verified by another tumblr post saying "yeah, i'm from gaza and i know them" (no shit sherlock), or because they're "verified" on gofundme. now, i'm not going to go into massive details on this because it's boring but just know that generally speaking, internet "verification" typically simply means the creator of the fundraiser has provided a real passport (often stolen on the dark web) or a real bank account that match. it doesn't mean the story is true.

it is actually very very very unlikely that gofundme would ever truly verify the story behind one of their fundraiser because this would automatically prevent them from availing of platform immunity. in broad terms, platform immunity means that as long as they only host the content that is on their platform without interfering with it, they can't be held responsible/liable for said content. any attempt at genuine verification would mean interfering with the content and being treated as its publisher, and the end of their platform immunity. trust me, they don't want that to happen and be liable for any fundraiser published there.

i know the idea of donating to individual "real" people is appealing because you feel like your money is actually going somewhere useful. you don't want to be paying for the red cross's functioning costs - i get it. but you know what comes with the red cross, MSF, save the children, and all actual reputable organisations? public scrutiny. like, simply put: their fucking books are audited. we know where the money goes. and i'd rather pay the salary of a staff member of an organisation that is actually doing something, albeit all its flaws, than donating to ... child-exploitative scammers.

so: let's put it in simple terms.

the war in gaza is a genocide.

Shahed Muhammad- a 21 year old student, a daughter, an elder sister who made herself sick in trying to raise funds for her siblings to evacuate. Please help her evacuate too

Siraj Abudayeh- a journalist in Gaza, who took 10 years of pain to build his house only for it to be bombed.please help him rebuild, it is his right and his resistance

Shaima and Muhammad- brother and sister of Wafaa, the siblings who helped Wafaa at her most vulnerable. Please help Wafaa help them in getting their children evacuate at least

Kate Baer, from And Yet: Poems; “40”

Walnut was born in a species-recovery breeding program in the 1980′s.  The program had crane chicks hand-raised by human volunteers, and at that time they did not fully understand the measures necessary make sure that the chicks do not imprint on humans and retain their identity as cranes.  

As a result, her keepers believe, Walnut does not recognize other cranes as members of her own species.  

It has not been proven that Walnut killed her previous suitors; however, there is a persistent rumor in the white-naped-crane-conservation community that she did.  

Because this species is highly endangered, and the gene pool of the captive population is small, it’s pretty important for the survival of her species that Walnut A) mate, and B) not kill a bunch of other cranes.  

The actual name of the keeper is Chris Crowe.

They both arrived at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2004.   

Walnut immediately began paying special attention to Chris--and ignoring the eligible male crane in a nearby enclosure.  

Walnut initiated their courtship, performing the opening moves of a mating dance.  

Chris realized that if he reciprocated the mating dance, it might be possible to artificially inseminate Walnut with her participation and consent.  (The process normally involves restraining the bird.)  

It worked!  

Chris and Walnut have had five children, who were raised by other crane couples at the facility--sometimes the biological dad and his mate--both because it’s unclear whether Walnut would accept the chicks as her own, and because Chris is not equipped to be a Crane Dad.  

However, the Institute provides her with artificial eggs to sit on, and Chris takes his turn looking after them.  (This would not work with real eggs because he can’t sit on them properly, but Walnut seems to feel that he is on the job if he just stands over them.)

she has not been PROVEN to have killed her exes, but there is a PERSISTENT RUMOR (really officers she's simply DEVASTATED, she sobs, wearing a new feather boa unfortunately resembling her most recent deceased husband)

His name is Chris CROWE. (Mrs. Walnut Crane-Crowe?)

the mental images of a whole human man learning and performing the crane mating dance, and "sitting" on artificial eggs so she thinks he's performing his duties as a husband and father (and apparently OBJECTS if he does not?)

"chris, buddy, you gotta marry the possibly-murderous crane lady for the GOOD OF THE SPECIES." (alternately: "chris, my man! good news! we found you a very interested lady! She's 36, she's very spirited and independent, she holds a very important and rare status in her society! ...Is there a downside? WELL...")