Blowing Kisses to Teta
My ‘teta’ (the word for grand-mother in Arabic) and I have a special bond. As a single mom, it wasn’t always easy for my mom to raise me and take care of me. But, she had help from my Teta Yvonne.
Teta’s always been there to fret over what I ate, when I ate and if I had eaten…she worried about if I ate well, if I ate good food.
Teta took care of me when I came home from school. Making sure I (well, you guessed it) ate delicious food and did my homework.
Teta’s a strong woman and stubborn a times.
Teta’s now bed-ridden, unable to walk, dependent on people to move her on a wheelchair. She is sick with cancer. As her cancer grows, her appetite shrinks. Now, it’s a fight for my mom and I (and my aunts) to make sure she eats — something, anything.
Now, it’s my turn to fret about what she eats as I try to spoon feed her soup. She swallows a spoonful and looks at me with disgust. She refuses to let the second spoonful of soup come anywhere near her lips.
“Kefaya” (enough in Arabic) she yells. “Mesh 3aiza” (I don’t want any) she insists.
“But Teta, its good for you, it will keep you strong,” I say as I try to bring one more soup-filled spoon to her lips.
She yells: “No, no, no, no!”
“Ma3lesh habibi” (it’s ok my darling in Arabic) I say as I put the spoon back down in the bowl and kiss her forehead.
I try to make Teta smile again.
I do this by playing a “blowing kisses” game.
I bunch my fingers together, kiss them a few times and blow them at her.
She catches the airborne kisses with her fingers and gently taps her fingers on her cheeks.
Then, she - in turn - bunches her fingers together, brings them to her lips and kisses them many times in a rapid succession and blows them away at me.
I catch the kisses and make them land softly on my cheeks.
We blow a few kisses back and forth.
Teta smiles.
That’s officially my new favor game and one I’m convinced is better medicine than any of the many pills she has to swallow.
Blessed are the mothers and grand-mothers who take care of us and who we also care for.
Such is the circle of life.
Who’s the cutest Teta in the world? :D
(via colleenclarkart)
Anarkia Boladona in Hunts Point, The Bronx. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hey…si tu te trimbales sur cette planète, pensant que tu peux agir comme bon te semble, sans égard aux sentiments des autres — eh bien, détrompes-toi! J’ai un guide et une solution super simple pour toi: ça s’appelle, réfléchir avant d’agir! Si tu penses que tu vas blesser quelqu’un avec la façon dont tu te comportes, tu devrais peut-être sérieusement te questionner à savoir (avant d’agir): est-ce que ce que je fais est correct? Si la réponse est oui. Tu n’as rien à te reprocher.
Si la réponse est non, alors je peux t’assurer que c’est une foutaise totale d’agir d’une façon qui est clairement insensée pour ensuite te foutre de la gueule d’un autre et lui dire: « Est-ce qu’on peut au moins s’en parler STP? », « Ça me tue de te voir ainsi! », « J’espère que t’es pas trop fâchée! », « Je veux te voir! On peut aller prendre un verre et causer? » Ça, mes ami(e)s, c’est ce que j’appelle le syndrome du « je ne pense qu’à moi, moi, moi/ je suis le nombril du monde! » Le syndrome du « soudainement, mes actions me pèsent sur la conscience. Pauvre de moi! » C’est narcissique. Un point, c’est tout.
J’en suis arrivée à la conclusion — après de longues années à endurer beaucoup de merde — que cette façon d’agir ne peut que susciter une seule réaction en moi : la nausée!
Et, c’est pour ainsi dire que si tu provoques la nausée en moi, t’es mieux t’écarter car dorénavant, tu subiras les vomissements.
NB
On International Women’s Day 2013, the theme was “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”. Recently, I conducted an interview with an inspiring young feminist initiative out of Egypt. The initiative is called HarrassMap.
HarassMap works on combating sexual street harassment. Sexual harrassment is a daily struggle for women (and even some men) in Egypt; from catcalls, to groping all the way to more extreme forms of sexual harassment like rape. But, four young women decided they had enough. Together, they co-founded HarassMap, an online reporting system that empowers victims to share an incident of harassment and map out where it happened. The information collected online is used by teams of volunteers who use facts and figures to talk to people in their neighborhoods and convince them that harassment needs to stop. More than just a mapping tool, HarassMap wants to end the social acceptability of sexual harassment and they have innovative and new ideas to reach that goal.
While harassment is a daily occurrence, over the past months, there has been a surge in gang rape and violence in and around Tahrir square. Women’s rights groups say these attacks have been organized by the regime to try to stop young women from claiming their rightful space to be at demonstrations and in the public sphere. But, the response from young egyptian women has been: “You will not stop us, you will not break us.This is our revolution, these are our streets.”
An interview with Rebecca Chiao, co-founder of HarassMap.
(via sexgenderbody)
On the Ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with @michaelchristopherbrown
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fighting between the government of President Joseph Kabila and M23 rebels has been raging on for the past few months, and the prospects of war hang heavy over the country.
American photographer Michael Christopher Brown (@michaelchristopherbrown) is in the heart of the DRC capturing the conflict. He lives in an apartment in the city of Goma and has had a variety of assignments in the country, all of which he’s captured solely on his mobile phone. This month, Newsweek International published six pages of Michael’s mobile photos documenting the M23 and the city of Goma. Michael’s affinity for mobile photography stems from its simplicity, speed and authenticity:
I primarily use a phone because it is easy, small and fun … I do not even feel like a photographer and this makes the process more interesting. There is no pressure, there is less control and there is the excitement of a new way to make pictures … Of course, equipment can be important, but what is more important is the way a photographer interacts with the people he is photographing … Depending on the situation, a phone is often not seen as a camera and that can be an advantage.
Michael shares his photos to Instagram because it gives him “the ability to reach large numbers of people instantaneously, to have a dialogue almost in real time, as it has shortened the time from when images are taken to when they reach the public.” To see more of Michael’s photos from the DRC, follow him on Instagram @michaelchristopherbrown and be sure to visit his web profile:
m.gebbie. lost.
Absolutely amazing!
Egypt’s Tahrir Square, November 27, 2012 via @Monasosh
Original link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151524579978294&set=a.379736183293.203343.32847763293&type=1&theater
