The invention of the civilian as a “nonpartisan,” “neutral” figure has exacerbated the depoliticization of the Palestinian cause. To be deemed a civilian necessitates that we exist in a mythological dimension where we are without perspective. Our cause, as imagined in this mythology, is no longer understood as a liberation struggle but as a “humanitarian crisis,” where revolutionaries are not part and parcel of our nation, motivated by political aspirations and dreams of emancipation. Instead, they are interpreted as rogue actors senselessly wreaking havoc to the dismay of helpless bystanders–the disinterested women and children, the impartial paramedics and journalists. In such ahistorical readings, which obfuscate the power imbalance between the occupier and the occupied, the militant is evacuated outside the conteext that gave rise to him or here in the first place; the newscaster is expected to present the killing of her siblings as if she were an unbiased observer; and the nurse whose patient is a beloved coworker maimed by an airstrike is expected to maintain “professionalism,” to not seek revenge on the drone operatir. In this dimension, the fida'i reemerges as “a figure that closely resembles the Zionist soldier, capable of committing ‘war crimes’ against 'civilians’ in the heart of 'Tel Aviv.’” This, as Orouba Othman writes, “obscures the fact that the armed militant is a victim who first inherits from his ancestors the conditions of dispossession, expulsion and mutilation, and later transforms these abstractions into the motive force of decolonization.”
The Most Photographed Stone East of the Mississippi
Very near the Soudan Underground State Park administered by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is what some people call “the most photographed outcrop in the state.” This is a pavement outcrop of folded banded iron formation. The outcrop consists of metallic hematite, red jasper and white chert. These originally horizontal layers have been folded multiple times. In some areas, the jasper and chert have fractures filled with milky quartz.
Can I… a starving orphan… who is homeless… alone and unloved… perhaps trouble you for one small fish from that bucket? Please? -pathetic cough and helpless look-
prolific illustrators Leo & Diane Dillon with their son, Lee, in 1976. The Dillons primarily drew surrealistic & fantasy-themed art (see examples) for numerous book covers, magazines, album covers, and children’s books. Leo Dillon was the first African-American winner of the Caldecott Medal for illustrators.
No diaper duty here– Eiffinger’s tree frog tadpoles don’t even poop! Because they spend the first part of their lives in small pools of water that collect in tree stumps and bamboo hollows, the accumulation of waste– and particularly the ammonia excreted in feces– could prove to be extremely harmful to their health. So instead, the tadpoles store the ammonia in their intestines, and only defecate once they’ve undergone metamorphosis and left their childhood pools.
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(Image: A trio of Eiffinger’s tree frog tadpoles (Kurixalus eiffingeri) by Bun Ito)
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