in memory of Jane Goodall who had strong ties to Taiwan, the country of my birth
in breezy sunshine
the spark between a chimp
and Jane Goodall
this fading still bright October day
I recall "ooh, ooh..." and laughter
FYI: During her 18th/last visit to Taiwan on June 8, 2025, Jane Goodall gave a speech (a YouTube video clip inserted in the middle of the article), both heartwarming and inspirational, in which she praised 30 years of conservation progress in Taiwan (FYI: she first visited Taiwan in 1996; The Jane Goodall Institute Taiwan was established in 1998) and encouraged young people to Inspire Hope through Action (in response to the Convicted Felon's Climate Denial policies) .
And you can watch National Geographic's documentary, Jane Goodall: The Hope, for free.
I care about the future, I care about animals, I care about trees, I care about children... And I’m obstinate and I won’t give in.
-- Jane Goodall
And it might be interesting to do a thematic reading of my tanka set below, which was inspired by the caged chimp Vanilla's story:
Freedom Isn't Free
in morning breeze
it takes the chimp minutes
to step outside
of its decades-old cage ...
this sky with no metal bars
gazing for hours
up at this endless blue
the freed chimp
at the edge of the refuge
now the center of its world
FYI: Vanilla, a 28-year-old chimpanzee, experienced the open sky for the first time when she was moved to the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida. After spending her life in a New York research lab and a California refuge, Vanilla was released onto a three-acre island.
Added:
deep and deeper
into the sunset glow ...
a red leaf drifting
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXXIII: "never again, October 7"
Never Again
October 7, never Again ...
from smoky ruins
scream after scream rolling
louder and higher
FYI: This tanka could be read as a sequel to the following:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXXII: "high holy days"
High Holy Days
Yom Teruah
pillars of smoke and fire link
Heaven and Gaza
Yom Kippur fasting ...
fifty miles away, a baby
skin loose on his bones
Gazan skies, tinged red ...
clutching his bible the rabbi
lost in thought
And Haaretz, Opinion, Oct. 4 2025: Inside the Minds of Young Israelis Mocking Gaza's Suffering on TikTok
These videos are popping up across social media like mushroom after the ruin. Evil has made itself at home here
For example,
A juicy hamburger in her hands, her face wearing a look of concern, she begins: "I'm really hungry, so I ordered myself a burger. And then I remembered that in Gaza there are so many people and Mahmoud animals [a play on the Hebrew phrase for pets] who have nothing to eat, and suddenly I felt, like, really bad." Pause. She takes a big, greedy bite. Her eyes meet the audience – she's performing.
She continues: "Wow, okay, that's over. So tasty. A golden burger at Aley Zahav. Listen, there is definitely nothing like this in Gaza. But I found a solution for them, and I totally believe that… [she smirks] they really are hungry, because they never stop nagging us [literally, eating our heads.]Anyway, what they need to do is have all the innocents eat the ones who aren't. Bon appétit." Another bite of the burger.
...These are the kinds of videos now popping up on social media like mushrooms after the ruin. Young Israelis, "politically engaged," some from the settlements, not all, sharp-tongued, creative (that is, destructive), confident, good performers – above all they make fun of Gaza's hunger; of the gaunt children, the humanitarian disaster, the Israeli disgrace. It entertains them. Fodder for satire, stand-up, likes – and the path to becoming "influencers." Easy money.
What's striking is that they don't argue with the harsh claims... They simply don't care. On the contrary, they're pleased. Their empathy mechanism has shrunk, confined only to their own tribe. The "other" does not exist as a person – at least not a person like them. As far as they're concerned, let them starve, waste away, die. Maybe that's even better, more material for the next show.
Freud claimed that jokes serve as a way to express unconscious wishes. Like the slip of the tongue or the dream, the joke seeks to release inner tensions, those locked inside the psyche and forbidden to surface...
I turn to Freud here only because the alternative is too hard to bear. The alternative is that life here has been corrupted to the core. That the extreme suffering of a small child in Gaza has become raw material for the exquisite delight of a young Israeli woman. That evil has made itself at home, the devil alive in the details that walk our streets.
FYI: The following is a direct quote:
Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.
-- Sigmund Freud
Added:
in the gathering dark
one candle kindles another:
peace vigil
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