Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Poetic Musings: Dead Child's Stare Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XXVI: "aid airdrops"

                     aid
out of reach            air            ops
                                       dr 

and a dead child’s stare


Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: This concrete haiku is divided into two parts (as indicated by "and" in the last line): one about the Palestinians struggling for Survival and the other about a dead child without closing his/her eyes. And the spilt between "dr" and "ops" is used to show the disintegration of this most expensive and dangerous aid delivery method. The concrete formatting works to heighten the message:

Each airdrop from each plane stirs anxiety and chaos, and it's unpredictable and devastating for anyone who is hungry and in need. 


FYI: CBC News, March 18: Gaza aid drops: risky and inefficient where aerial shots are used to this ineffective aid delivery. And The Guardian, March 8: Five killed and 10 injured in Gaza aid airdrop when parachute fails to open: Package ‘fell down like a rocket’ on roof of house near al-Shati refugee camp where people were waiting.


Haaretz, March 20: Israel at War, Day 166

In Rafah, where more food arrives, relative to northern Gaza, the proportion of malnourished children had risen from 5 percent to 10 percent by the end of February, while those with severe wasting increased from 1 percent to 4 percent 


EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels, March 18

In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people... This is unacceptable. Starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israel is provoking famine.


Haaretz, March 24: UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said that Israeli Authorities informed the UN that they will no longer approve any UNRWA food convoys to the north of Gaza, adding that this was done "to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine."


Axios, April 2: "Unforgivable": José Andrés' World Central Kitchen/NGO says 7 aid workers killed in Gaza strike

This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war," World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore said in a statement early Tuesday morning.

"The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon," José Andrés said.

Haaretz, April 2: Israeli Army Sources: Gaza Aid Workers Killed Because 'IDF Officers on the Ground Do What They Want'
The IDF and defense ministry claimed that the aid workers' killing resulted from poor coordination. Israeli army sources later refuted their claims, saying the incident has 'no connection to coordination' and was caused by the fact that 'every commander sets the rules for himself'

And Reuters, April 3: Chef Jose Andres says Israel targeted his aid workers 'systematically, car by car'

Celebrity chef Jose Andres told Reuters in an emotional interview on Wednesday that an Israeli attack that killed seven of his food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them "systematically, car by car."

This it seems is a war against humanity itself. And you can never win that war. Because humanity eventually will always prevail

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