#tekoa

This guy's previous series of videos annoyed me, but I watched this one just the same. A few thoughts:

He doesn't think to analyze why Palestinians in Hebron (the part not occupied by settlements) view a Palestinian state as de facto existing, and Palestinians in the part of Hebron that is occupied, or in Tekoa, or in Bethlehem view Palestine as not being a de facto state? I would think that would be an interesting point of analysis

One of the people he interviews makes very clear that his idea of a "Free Palestine" is not the multiethnic secular democracy or the standard two state solution that the Guardian's Western audience presumably believe are the best solutions to the conflict, but one in which Israel does not exist and Israelis have been ethnically cleansed, and he just...doesn't follow up on that at all

Just in general a depiction of Israeli security measures as being designed to crush the spirit of Palestinians, and not because the Israeli military views them as necessary to prevent very real threats of violence against settlers or against Israel (and now this video has me defending the settler enterprise, which to be clear I do not support, I just think "they put up walls and checkpoints because they're meanies" is a stupidly disingenuous position that essentially every Western journalistic visit to the West Bank does)

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!🙌🩷

Some of you (who follow me on IG) may know I visited Loro Parque one week ago. You’ll get the actual good images later, because they’re still in my “real” camera (these were taken with my phone). I filmed a lot more than I took photos, though.

It was to the day two weeks after Kohana’s passing, and even though I’ve never been there before, I have followed these whales for over eight years now, and I could still scarcely believe Skyla and Ula were gone, and now Kohana was, as well.

We took the first bus from the south, meaning we got to the park almost two hours after it opened, and ran in as the first whale show was halfway done. Keto and Tekoa were in the show, and so the first thing I saw was Morgan in the back pool. I was so moved by finally seeing her for real, I can’t tell you. The whole experience felt surreal.

The last time I saw killer whales up close was in 2000, when I was a kid and much more interested in dolphins. (Funny thing - that summer in Florida, I also nearly died of boredom when parrots flew overhead at some show. Now, I went to Tenerife explicitly to see killer whales and parrots! XD ) That of course means Tekoa was in his mom’s belly when I visited Orlando, so I’ve “almost” met him before. :p

The day before LP, we had pondered going whale watching, and spoke to a nice British woman down by the beach. She was very enthusiastic about their business, but at the mention of the name “Sea Shepherd” (directly affiliated with them) my own enthusiasm deflated and I left with a “maybe we’ll stop by later”.

Sea Shepherd absolutely does some good things (at least in regards to the vaquita), and it’s not that giving some money to them indirectly is the worst thing (and I appreciate that the whale watching company tried to be as ethical as possible, turning off the engines and letting the whales come to you), but I read on their website and no, sorry, I will not pay to spend two hours being lectured about “the Cove” (didn’t even say “dolphin hunt in Japan”, it seriously said “the Cove”), the Faroe Islands, and how “awful” “captivity” is.

(Sea Shepherd did also go out with an official “warning” or threat a few years ago to every person in the world who visits dolphinariums. They are lunatics.)

There were other whale watching companies but they charged more and the day was getting late and hot, so we ended up not going (had not planned whale watching anyway, but we had a day with nothing to do).

Back to the wednesday at Loro Parque, when we got in for the second show, we were among the first, and sat just above the slideout, as you can see. Before it started, Keto and Morgan were chilling in the show pool and vocalizing, and Keto spyhopped (backwards) by the slideout a lot, apparently trying to get a look at people.

Tekoa is really big and looks like the perfect mix between Tilikum and Kanduke, but Adán is still a little peanut, although with a taller dorsal fin (let’s just say grandpa didn’t look like that at nearly 12).

OCtober2020 Day 14! Tekoa!