#Syria Civilians stay put despite 'pause' in Syria Ghouta bloodshed #AFP Photo @MohammedEyad2: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 March 2018

ليلاً نهاراً تواصل قوات النظام السوري والطائرات الحربية السورية والروسية قصفها على الغوطة الشرقية المحاصرة .. Flames following a reported rocket attack are seen on the horizon in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern #Ghouta on February 28, 2018. Ph : Mohammed Eyad / @AFPphoto: image via Mohammed Eyad @MohammedEyad2, 1 March 2018

كما كل ليلة . A picture taken on February 28, 2018 shows flames erupting in the horizon following a reported rocket attack in al-Shaffuniyah, in the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. #AFP / Ammar Suleiman: image via Ammer Sulaiman @AmmarSulaiman91, 1 March 2018

#Syria West ups heat on Damascus as Ghouta civilians await aid Photo @amer_almohibany: image via AFP Photo @AFPphoto, 2 March 2018

البحث عن الناجين - دوما Picture of searching for survivors will be published in @TIME magazine next week @SyriaCivilDef: image via Mohamed Badra @badramamet, 1 March 2018

"We got to the point where we’d pay $8 for rotting bread. I’d tear off the green spots and dip the bread in oil. When I ran out of oil, I’d dip it in water." Important, devastating perspective from Syrians as the war enters Year 8.: image via Andrew Katz @katz, 1 March 2018

No me queda muy claro a qué lugar tienen que volver los refugiados. Ghouta, Siria. @badramamet: image via Miguel A. Rodriguez @Marodriguez1971, 2 March 2018

It's hard to forget these days Thanks @BassamKhabieh for the pictures: image via Abdulmonam Eassa @abdfree2, 2 March 2018

Même dans les sous-sols de la Ghouta en Syrie, la mort rattrape les civils #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @afpfr, 28 February 2018

The body of a civilian who was killed during reported regime bombardment in the besieged eastern Ghouta enclave: photo by Abdulmonam Eassa/AFP, 2 March 2018

Eastern Ghouta death toll casts doubt on Russia’s truce plans: Questions asked about sincerity of regime ally as 100 more killed since UN call for ceasefire: Kareem Shaheen, The Guardian, 2 March 2018

More than 100 people have been killed in the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta since the UN security council unanimously called for a month-long ceasefire, rescue workers said.

The death toll of 103 since Saturday highlighted the paralysis of an international community that had demanded the ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid. The continuing violence also raised further doubts over the sincerity of Russia, the Syrian regime’s main patron, which had ordered daily five-hour truces and the opening of “humanitarian corridors” for fleeing civilians.

“The regime is lying to us and lying to the whole world, that Russia and the regime are these humanitarians who care about civilians and that people don’t die,” said a local journalist in eastern Ghouta. “In a very short period they killed more than 500 people and wounded more than 4,000, so they shouldn’t pretend all of a sudden to be humanitarians.”

In some of the worst bombardment campaigns of the war in Syria, hundreds of people have been killed in eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held enclave that is home to about 400,000 people that borders the capital of Damascus.

Calls for an end to the violence have largely fallen on deaf ears, despite a UN security council resolution demanding a ceasefire “without delay.”.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, replaced the resolution with his own plan for a five-hour daily truce, which residents say reduced the airstrikes on the area between 9am and 2pm, though shelling usually continued. The plan also called for the creation of a humanitarian corridor in Wafideen, an area north of eastern Ghouta.

Britain called for a debate on Friday at the UN human rights council to discuss the situation, but western powers have little leverage over Russia and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and have achieved little beyond strongly worded statements.

The US president, Donald Trump, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, jointly called for the ceasefire to be implemented on Friday.

Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East director for Unicef, said: “The UN security council resolution – unanimously adopted nearly a week ago – created an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of children to finally get respite from the brutal and unabated violence they have been living through.

“But as the days went by, these hopes turned into illusions, the windows shut abruptly in our faces. Because, for children in Syria, nothing has changed, nothing.”

Moscow said it had opened the humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave, but residents said the violence had not abated enough for them to contemplate such a possibility.

They also said few civilians trusted the Syrian government not to detain them if they did leave, and resented the idea of forcible displacement from their homes. They also feared the region would be destroyed by regime troops and their communities shattered by displacement.

“The talk of humanitarian corridors is not realistic because until this moment there is heavy bombing, and all the people are still sitting underground,” said one doctor in the enclave. “There needs to be a ceasefire, people need to know about it, there needs to be more than one corridor. People don’t even have the money to pay for gas to take a car to the one in Wafideen.”

He added: “People are also scared. The regime cannot be trusted … People are scared of revenge killings. They are also attached to their land, homes, shops. We haven’t been displaced, but we have seen those who have been displaced, and they are unhappy, their communities have been destroyed.”

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, condemned the violence and said residents remained trapped by the violence.

He said the perpetrators would be held to account.

“Once again, I must emphasise that what we are seeing, in eastern Ghouta and elsewhere in Syria, are likely war crimes, and potentially crimes against humanity,” he said.

“Civilians are being pounded into submission or death. The perpetrators of these crimes must know they are being identified; that dossiers are being built up with a view to their prosecution; and that they will be held accountable for what they have done.”

Syrie: un Pakistanais de 73 ans et son épouse, premiers civils évacués de la #GhoutaOrientale @afpfr #Syrie: image via Jean-Marc Mojon, 1 March 2018

Aleppo again? The fighting in East Ghouta looks like a rerun of the battle for East Aleppo in 2016—didn't anyone learn anything from that tragic episode?: image via Aron Lund @aronlund, 2 March 2018

"The Ghouta will fall..."

The Ghouta will fall as Aleppo

fell, slowly, then

at the end suddenly, with

great cruelty and much

suffering, and the rain will

come down in strong

bursts, for periods of time,
with stinging winds

and sharp cold air

all through the old

dark house. The giant presiding

sequoia sempervirens

bends its heavy drooping

boughs to the flood,

everything soaked and

dripping, and down

on the Ave, traffic
unceasing, blind, mad

and without relief,

driven by the two

great needs, the need

to get, and the need

to spend, everybody

hurrying to a perdition

perceived as a way

of life.

Aftermath of an air strike in eastern Ghouta, February 2018.: image via Youtube/ Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, 2 March 2018

Aftermath of an air strike in eastern Ghouta, February 2018.: image via Youtube/ Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, 2 March 2018

Death without blood of a child who was killed by poison gas in the shelling of the town of Shafuniya: image via hasan mohamed @hasanmohammed89, 27 February 2016

A Lebanese plays a videogame created by #Hezbollah called "Holy Defence", a simulation game that puts the player in re-enacted battles fought by Hezbollah fighters against "apostates" in #Syria, in a southern suburb of Beirut on February 27, 2018. Photo by @JOSEPHEID1 / @AFPphoto: image v1a Amir Makar @makar, 27 February 2018

Pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and #Russia's s President Vladimir Putin plastered on walls in Eastern Ghouta, security checkpoints.: photo by Rudaw English @RudawEnglish, 1 March 2018

People wearing motorcycle helmets are hit with firecrackers during the Beehive Firecrackers festival in Taiwan Photo Tyrone Siu: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 1 March 2018

Hundreds of couples toting AR-15 rifles packed a Unification church in Pennsylvania to have their marriages blessed and their weapons celebrated as "rods of iron" that could have saved lives in a recent Florida school shooting Photo Eduardo Munoz: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 1 March 2018

A dog named "Sassi" sits next to a golden statue of a bathrobe-clad Harvey Weinstein, seated atop a couch on the sidewalk along Hollywood Blvd., in Los Angeles Thursday, March 1, 2018. The piece, titled "Casting Couch," is a collaborative effort between a Los Angeles street artist known as Plastic Jesus and Joshua "Ginger" Monroe, creator of the nude Donald Trump statue. Plastic Jesus said the piece was meant to shine a light on the entertainment industry's sexual misconduct crisis and the disgraced movie mogul's prominent role in it.: photo by Damian Dovarganes/AP, 1 March 2018

A dog in the civil security brigade jumps through a burning hoop today during exercises to mark World Civil Defense day outside Algiers. Photo Anis Belghoul: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 1 March 2018

Journalists watch as Russian President Vladimir Putin gives his annual state of the nation address in Manezh in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Putin set a slew of ambitious economic goals, vowing to boost living standards, improve health care and education and build modern infrastructure in a state-of-the-nation address.: photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP, 1 March 2018

As in life, no matter what you do to predict or control a sign's duration, there will always be a random element too. Same with photos - every once in awhile one will really stand out. Hwy 99 #Sacramento #Resist #TheResistance #TraitorTrump #MuellerTime #FreewayBlogger #Treason: image via Patrick Randall @Patrick Randall, 27 February 2018

Thats NOT Snow in Downtown Sacramento it's 40 solid min of HAIL! #Hail #Sacramento #Downtown: image via Cisco's Market @wadhapal, 26 February 2018

The One That Got Away [Wilkinsburg, Pa]: photo by David Grim, 11 February 2018

DSCF2655-1 | Lebanon, Pennsylvania: photo by cedrus`, 27 December 2016

DSCF4973 | Terrebonne, Louisiana: photo by cedrus`, 23 February 2017

DSCF9075c2 | Byblos, Lebanon: photo by cedrus`, 15 October 2017

Dhaka, Bangladesh: photo by Alison Adcock, 12 February 2018

Dhaka, Bangladesh: photo by Alison Adcock, 16 February 2018

Kashmiris peel the bark off wicker sticks on the outskirts of Srinagar, the largest city in the Kashmir Valley. The sticks are used to make traditional fire pots for warmth.: photo by Farooq Khan/European Pressphoto Agency, 22 December 2015

Kashmiris peel the bark off wicker sticks on the outskirts of Srinagar, India, the largest city in the Kashmir Valley. The sticks are used to make traditional fire pots for warmth.: photo by Farooq Khan/European Pressphoto Agency, 22 December 2015

Joseph Ceravolo: A Piece of Glass

Staring on the ground
for one reason
except looking into a piece of glass
in the winter among the leaves.
Now you know the grassy field
is clocked for winter
while in the rooms of a house
shadows of trees, as lives
inhabit autumn and blossoms.

On the top branch of a wiry tree
a bird sits and looks
against the sky,
but is really some distance
from the great look in your eyes
that tenders pity, irony
innocence and love. Why go on looking
when the sparse groups walking
on the island desert

where groups of cormorants and ibises
make their last nest
within the survival key.
The light flashes on the giant thermometer
timed to infinity.
Ah, if the infinite particles
would be your touch.
But, from a piece of glass
shines the soul
on the veins of an arm
that tears away
my eyes from you
as the night tears away
from the sun.

......Without a sound a plane

......follows a bird

......in the rapturous distance

......next to my eyes,

......to the dark raising of the earth,

......as the disappearance

......of darkness and light

......deepens the agony of sparks

......of that look in your eyes.

Joseph Ceravolo (1934-1988): A Piece of Glass, 23 December 1984, from Collected Poems (2013)

Afghan children watch as laborers produce sugar cane juice in a factory in Jalalabad: photo by Mohammad Anwar Danishyar/Associated Press, 21 December 2015

Afghan children watch as laborers produce sugar cane juice in a factory in Jalalabad: photo by Mohammad Anwar Danishyar/Associated Press, 21 December 2015

Untitled: photo by Job Jetwichan Chaowadee, 10 February 2018

TOM CLARK

Friday, 2 March 2018

"The Ghouta will fall..." | rods of iron (murican nutjob) / ring of fire | Joseph Ceravolo: A Piece of Glass

Eastern Ghouta death toll casts doubt on Russia’s truce plans: Questions asked about sincerity of regime ally as 100 more killed since UN call for ceasefire: Kareem Shaheen, The Guardian, 2 March 2018

2 comments: