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Show But Tell # 3

Because picture has nothing to do with words
or does it?

Nagorny Karabakh

100, 000 Armenians who always lived there, and that was well over 50% of folks who lived there , had to flee their homes and leave their land for good in the matter of days.

Because the land where they were born happened to be an enclave inside another state, Azerbaidjan, and if you are a state and you have an enclave of folks living inside of your borders who call themselves a different tribe and want to govern themselves, you, the state, got to strip them off their "differentness" and make them same folks as your other "proper" folks, right? Right! And having a piece of land that used to be a funny odd enclave to your other true land is just so necessary, right? Right! Because you need this land, right? Right! Why do you exactly need it? Are you running out of spare unused land? Well, no, the last time I visited, which was way back when, I noticed never-ending expanse of unpopulated mountains and things, I had a sense you are good for land, but obviously, I misread the situation and you are really really struggling space-wise. I understand.

Israel / Palestine

Everybody (almost) heard the name of Gaza. I did too. I knew it is not the happiest place on Earth but I , as I just discovered, didn't know quite why it is not entirely happy. Sure, they seem to live restrained in some ways by the surrounding state of Israel and they would rather live happy and unrestrained and they struggle with basic essentials of life but that was as far as my "knowledge" of their circumstance stretched ...

Prompted by the news of the horrific violence that erupted in Israel, when Palestinian folks fired a bunch (big bunch it was too, the scale of impact compared to 9-11) of missiles on the civilian population of Israel and kidnapped a bunch of Israeli folks and Israel in response pledged to annihilate the bastards, which I am inclined to believe is going to happen, with a bunch of civilian Palestinians being taken out as collaterals, so the big bunch of people have died and will die.

Because the leaders of each respective territory are incapable of saying
"Listen, this bunch of land you got which borders with our bunch, we actually don't need it, we have enough already as it is, and even if we did need it it is just so much better you have it so folks who live there can live a happy life, now let's go have a beer or something".

Next stop Taiwan.

It is coming.

And tell me please, why the fuck the huge China with its the huge land mass a lot of which is unused, needs a tiny (in comparison) speck of land populated by folks who want to live their separate happy lives? This would be like Russia with its 99% of the immense landmass in total wilderness, unused, uncultivated, would want to add yet more land to its already unmanageable wasteland of a map. That would be crazy, right?

and back to Gaza , as I just belatedly, to my shame, learned
" since 2006 has been under a full Israeli-led land, sea and air blockade. This prevents people and goods from freely entering or leaving the territory, leading to the territory being often called an "open-air prison".
2 mil people living there. Population of Auckland.

and yes art is often (most of the time?) wrong or useless or both as a real life commentator,
and going to art for answers about real life dramas is a reckless endeavour but in this case I choose to go along with it
I always felt these guys have a finely tuned gut feeling, and this is one of the most powerful art statements on matters of real life I know

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaBVTtt53FA

Taken on: October 7, 2023

Sets appears in: • Show But Tell • 2023

Camera: Canon EOS 70D, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, 79mm, ISO 12800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 70D
Lens:	EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length:	79mm
ISO:	12800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Shutter speed priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Partial
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 12.3 (Windows)
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