farmdoc's blog post number 682

Apartheid. It’s an Afrikaans word (from apart apart + -heid –hood) dating from 1947, and defined as a former policy of segregation and discrimination against non-Europeans in South Africa. Now it’s being extrapolated to Israel. Welcome to Israeli Apartheid Week [IAW]. But hold your horses: Israel’s Arab citizens have full rights including full voting rights. Thirteen Arabs sit in the current 120-member Knesset. But factual evidence of non-apartheid in Israel doesn’t stop the lunatic fringe continuing their bleeding heart support of totalitarian theocracies. If these myopic halfwits were genuinely concerned about apartheid, they need look no further than their darling Palestinian Authority [PA] and Hamas. Are there Jews living in Gaza? (That’s a rhetorical question, folks.) The PA’s called Jewish West Bank settlements an obstacle to peace. To them Jews shouldn’t be citizens of a possible future Arab West Bank state. Well if that’s not apartheid, I hop to hell on a toothpick. This is the sixth IAW. Starting in Canada, it’s metastasised like the evil malignant cancer it is. It’s university-based. The responsible (pun intended) student morons should go to more classes – because IAW (N.B. Week) spans two weeks (from 1-14 March). And the prize-winning poster (above left) gives its dates as 1-7 March. Recently Ontario’s legislature condemned it. Unanimously. A legislator said ‘If you're going to label Israel as Apartheid, then you are also... attacking Canadian values…The use of the phrase IAW is about as close to hate speech as one can get without being arrested, and I’m not certain it doesn't actually cross over that line’. Yes sir.

farmdoc's blog post number 614

Today’s ‘List Friday’. As 2009 draws to a close, as well as a multiplicity of end of year lists, end of decade lists are popping up – though there’s debate whether the current decade ends on 31.12.09 or 31.12.10. Whichever it is, lately there’s been no shortage of lists for me to choose from. After little searching though much soul-searching, I’ve decided this last Farmdoc’s Blog list for 2009 will be photographic. This link is to the Age’s slideshow of what it calls ‘The best photos of 2009’. It’s unclear to me how ‘best’ is defined in this context. I’ve haven’t bothered to count the number of images in this series, but I’d guess 100. Of these, five or so are of Palestinian Arabs. Destitute and downtrodden in their victimhood. As is usual for them. They of course know what they need to do to be victims no more. To fulfil their national aspirations. But they don’t do it. So victims they’ll continue to be. Maybe they’ll bear this in mind at their election next year. Or maybe they won’t. Anyway back to ‘The best photos of 2009’. Some of them have important content. And some are photographically outstanding. Like the one I’ve chosen for this post, which is my favourite. Which is yours?