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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by wanderingmeomeo@slrpnk.net to c/landback@slrpnk.net

With permission from @Five@slrpnk.net, this post is created to post several fundraisers for Palestinians who are currently living in havoc-wreaken Gaza. I really hope that you can share the words, spread the messages and donate what you can for the struggling families and individuals in the territory. All the pictures included in the pose were taken directly from the corresponding gofundme pages. I added descriptions of the images for visually impaired people, but my descriptions are, in a large part, purely speculations.

I've gotten most of my information from the FB page Free Watermelon NOW. They're constantly updating the fundraisers they know, as well as the situations of Gazan people they're able to contact. You could follow them to receive updates. The page is Vietnamese, so you might need a translation tools.

Feel free to contribute to the post by commenting fundraising projects for Palestinians that you know, or you can just post them independently. Share some love, spread the messages, donate, and always remember:

MUTUAL AID IS SOLIDARITY.

Fundraiser for Abdul Karim and his family. They need money to fund the evacuation from Gaza strip and build a new life in safety and peace. The situation is getting really desperate for his family, as the war will continue to claim more people in his family if they could not receive the much needed financial aid to seek refuge in Egypt.

His fundraiser is advancing very slowly and in desperate need of more donations. Please go to the gofundme page, read his story, and share some love!

Update: His cousin, Bassam, had been captured and tortured by the IDF back in the Novemeber of last year. He was released but couldn't reunite with his family in North Gaza, as he was forced to go South. Bassam is currently taking refuge in Karim's house, while his wife and children are facing severe starvation during the ongoing famine in the north. He doesn't have a gofundme so Karim will receive donation on his behalf.

You could read more of Bassam story on this FB post by Free Watermelon NOW. The page's admin has been contacting Karim and posted Bassam's story back in July.

The picture of Abdul Karim posing in front of yellow-ish walls.

The picture of Abdul Karim posing in front of yellow-ish walls.

His two children His two children

His two children

A picture of a group of people, presumably his family, walking in the refugee camp.

A picture of a group of people, presumably his family, walking in the refugee camp.

Fundraiser for Kholoud's family.

She's a 30-year-old divorced widow sharing a family with 2 young children, Salem and Sara. They became homeless after their house was bombed in an airstrike.

Kholoud holds a Bachelor's degree in Primary Education, so she remains hopeful about providing her children a safe and healthy environment to grow up in, despite devastating condition they're enduring in Gaza

More details on the fund's distribution, go to her gofundme page

The image of Kholoud's two children

The image of Kholoud's two children

An image of her two children next to a QR code to the link of her gofundme.

An image of her two children next to a QR code to the link of her gofundme.

Fundraiser for Yazan

Yazan is a 16 years old Palestinian boy from Khuza'a, a southern Gazan town, and his family of 7. As the eldest son he carries the responsibility of fundraising for his family of seven. They were displaced multiple times during the course of last several months due to relentless bombing campaign of Israel.

The money will be used to fund their evacuation from Gaza strip. For more details please go to his gofundme page, and spread some love.

The fund is sponsored by Michelle Boukousohn,a community organizer based in New York city.

And follow his instagram page for more updates or just send him words of support: https://www.instagram.com/yazan_.gaza. He is a kind boy with resilient hope for a better future for himself and his sisters.

Yazan standing next to a moving vehicles with lots of stuffs on it.

Yazan standing next to a moving vehicles with lots of stuffs on it.

Yazan amidst fellow displaced peoples' tents in Rafah

Yazan amidst fellow displaced peoples' tents in Rafah

Yazan helping rebuild his family's temporary shelter, after evacuating to Al Mawasi from Rafah

Yazan helping rebuild his family's temporary shelter, after evacuating to Al Mawasi from Rafah

Yazan's difficult living circumstances due to displacement

Yazan standing against the background of a setting/rising sun on a settlement camp

Fundraiser for Hozifa

Hofiza is 18 years old, 25 people that he knows, including his childhood love, his uncles and their families, were matyred in the midst of the ongoing genocide. He and his family of five want to use the fund raised to cover the cost of crossing border and setting up a new life in Cairo, Egypt, before going to Turkey. You could see more details about how the fund is allocated by going to his gofundme.

Two guys, one of them is presumably Hofiza himself, cheerfully point at the wall with a piece of graffiti with the slogan "From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free", his name and his friend's (?) name, written on it, along with a Palestinian flag.

Two guys, one of them is presumably Hofiza himself, cheerfully point at the wall with a piece of graffiti with the slogan "From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free", his name and his friend's (?) name, written on it, along with a Palestinian flag and two slices of watermelon

Images of devastated buildings Images of devastated buildings A photo collages with images of devastated building, selfies of people, and food.

A photo collages with images of devastated building, selfies of people, and food. Presumably images showing his current diet, cookie(?) and boiling beans(?)

Presumably images showing his current diet, cookie(?) and boiling beans(?)

Fundraising for Muhammad Al-Shaer's family.

Aside from Muhammad Al-Shaer and his sister, the lives of entire family were claimed by the war in Gaza.

His leg is injured by the war, leading to him being unable to provide for his sister and daughter, Eileen and Dima. They are in a very vulnerable situation, in which access to food, drink, and safety is not readily available. Please share some love if you can, as he'd written "Every donation, no matter the size, is a beacon of hope in this dark hour".

You can read his story on the gofundme page.

A wide picture consisting of three smaller ones. The picture on the right depicting a house in ruin, with the caption: "My old house, where I was bombed by the occupation", the picture in the middle is the Muhammad Al-Shaer picture, with the caption "My brothers were killed I was injured", the last one is the picture of his younger sister, with the caption "My younger sister Eileen (10).

A wide picture consisting of three smaller ones. The picture on the right depicting a house in ruin, with the caption: "My old house, where I was bombed by the occupation", the picture in the middle is the Muhammad Al-Shaer picture, with the caption "My brothers were killed I was injured", the last one is the picture of his younger sister, with the caption "My younger sister Eileen (10).

His leg, covered in a cast

His leg, covered in a cast

An image of him lying in a hospital bed.

An image of him lying in a hospital bed.

[-] wanderingmeomeo@slrpnk.net 3 points 9 months ago

Eh, they don't care precisely because they believe they have the privilege to shield themselves, and their descendants from environmental catastrophe. Luxurious fallout bulkers are built right now to do just that: protect themselves and their children from iminent threats, be it mob riots or tsunami or nuclear fallout. They don't give a shit about the rest of us, and why would they? What do they have to gain from caring about us, it's just not in their interest to do that when they could afford to survive through this and we don't. They've already won the logic of the free market in a bloodthirsty, capital-centric world then surely they earned their superiority, and their place as the true, deserving heirs of the Earth reborn. Looking through their eyes, it's just natural selection.

[-] wanderingmeomeo@slrpnk.net 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm not really sure, or, well, at least AI in what people tend to associate with nowadays. I think a solarpunk future is a future where degrowth is a main ethos for the development of the society. AI, as it currently exists, relies on global scale exploitation of not just artists, writers, but also people in the Global South living in abject conditions and are forced to accept mentally and physically damaging jobs to help "AI" to exist in the first place. Using AI, as far as I know, also comes with huge environmental costs simply because of how energy intensive it is to run and train its huge dataset. So the existence of stuffs like ChatGPT or Midjourney is a no go, unless "human ingenuity" could do something like being so cost effective energy wise that technology like that would require way less energy to run, or somehow the colonization of the universe would happen, but for the latter to happen will neccesarily require the kind of economy that centers growth above all else like capitalism.

Imo, Solarpunk technology should be local and open source and easily understandable for communities and individual to use, the factor of being environmentally friendly is also very significant and I don't think AI infrustructure would guarantee to fullfill those requirements.

That's the reason I would never understand the obsession with nuclear power or AI techinology of some solarpunk enthusiasts. These are all infrastrcutures that requires a degree of centralization of human and resouces, which drastically constrasts what solarpunk should be about. A solarpunk future is not fully automated luxury communism, but a low tech communism that still guarantees the well being of all. Low tech does not exist simply because of accessiblity, but also the capital E Environment.

Furthermore, the basic issue of human creativity being ripped off is also a thing that should be addressed. I don't belive in intellectual property, but we shouldn't need IP to protect arists from exploitation without consents. A solarpunk world is a world that respect human autonomy, so if an artist do not consent for their works to be used in training AI, their wish will be respectfully followed through. As an artist in art communities, I don't think that many people are fond of submitting their works to an AI so that others could code a drawing, so the dataset required for AI would not be enough, thus render AI useless. That's just creatives though, maybe scientists and researchers would hold different views? If that's the case, circle back to the question of energy intensity inherent in AI technology.

That's just AI in a very specific sense though, I don't know what constitute an AI. If AIs are just machines that can beat human at chess, or to predict patterns of local weather, or regulate irrugation system for farming, or organize documents, then sure, there's no reason why it should not exist in a solarpunk future. But the existence of such machinery should be put under scrutiny. If an AI could not be operated without significant environment impact, it has to go. Impressive techonology is not just codes, it's also very real, very material hardware that possess impressive processing power, and with it, impressive amount of energy, resources, and human power.

To address your AI specificly: I think your AI is HUGE, and I'm not confident about its place in a solarpunk world. Your AI would exist in some versions of communism, but solarpunk? I don"t think so.

[-] wanderingmeomeo@slrpnk.net 4 points 11 months ago

Here in Vietnam we're losing winter very quickly, it's getting warmer and shorter every year. Winter is the only time in Vietnam when weather is mildly comfortable compared to the rest of the year so losing it sucks so hard.

wanderingmeomeo

joined 1 year ago