a massive explosion just rocked the capital city of lebanon, beirut. footage of the explosion has been captured, and it is horrific and terrifying. dozens and maybe even hundreds of people have been injured and the reports have confirmed at least 10 people dead. reports are still coming in.
hospitals are overwhelmed. the lebanese red cross has sent out an urgent message in need of blood donations of all blood types. open transfusion centers to help aid in this disaster are currently
tripoli
jouneih
antelias
spears
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saida
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if you have loved ones in lebanon or you are aware of someone who has loved ones in lebanon, i strongly urge you to reach out to them as soon as possible. if you don’t have loved ones in lebanon, i hope you at least spread the word to help others and keep beirut in your thoughts today.
this all started just barely two hours ago, and the reports are still coming in with updates. keep an eye on the news, if you can. stay safe.
the country of lebanon and it’s people have been struggling intensely recently due to political unrest, famine, covid-19, and an economic crisis. please read this twitter thread by a lebanese user for more information and how to help, along with this carrd
additionally,a carrd has been made concerning the beirut explosion and it consists of information on emergency relief, access to breaking news about the catastrophe, and, especially, information on blood donations.
multiple lebanese twitter users have urged against monetary donations as they will have a far far smaller impact than intended. what they are asking for is blood donations and raised voices, along with the sharing of these resources on current events in lebanon.
please keep your heart, mind, eyes, and ears open to lebanon, the city of beirut, and its people right now.
click here for live updates on the beirut explosion from the guardian. thank you @goblinlibrary for the link. there are now reports of over 30 people dead and 3000 people injured.
Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore. book accuracy is important! I know Albus has a little beard at the time, but I suck at drawing beard so…
Where/when does it say that Albus had long hair when he was young? I was trying to find it!
@princesserica84 I believe it describes both Albus and Aberforth having the same shoulder length haircut in a picture when Harry is reading “The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore” in DH
“It’s as if after the first part of my life, at age 28, they drew a line under me and tallied it. I had too much personality for one person and not quite enough for two. In Fitzgerald there’s a man who was waiting for events to fill him up – I was waiting for them to drain out of me. There’s a line of Jerry Garcia’s about heroin: ‘It cuts away care.’ I cared very much, and I wanted apathetic indifference. I’m jammed full of my reaction to wherever I am and my need to convey it, to a degree that is unsettling. That is what propels me, and it’s constant; whether it’s positive or negative, it’s extreme.” – Carrie Fisher
Yemen is facing the worlds largest hunger crisis and the world is too quiet.
And it’s the children that pay the highest price. An estimated 85,000 children have lost their lives to extreme starvation alone. Every 10 minutes, a child under 5 dies of preventable causes in Yemen. When choosing what charities or goals you want to support during the last few days of Ramadan, I urge you to keep the children of Yemen in mind. And if you’re not celebrating Ramadan, or are not religious.. you’re still human.
These are a few of charities that I know of that you can donate to:
Remember, it’s the smallest donations that build up or even just rebloging/sharing would help. May Allah smile upon us all, and relieve the children of this world of their heartache.
The entire population of Yemen is expected to die by the end of this year.
If Yemen was 100 people:
80 need aid to survive
60 have nothing to eat
58 have no access to clean water
52 have no access to health care, however since Covid-19 their healthcare system has effectively collapsed
But Yemen is not 100 people
It’s 30.5 million humans
Guys this is a whole country that’s about to be EXTICT. Let’s not fail them
all cop shows are propoganda, but most cop shows are made for 18-49 white men who’re scared of face masks
b99′s target demographic, however, is young, queer and racially diverse. b99′s target demo is all the people who’re the most vulnerable to police brutality. b99′s target demo is all the folks who absolutely should never be lead to believe the way to view the cops is the way you view jake fuckin peralta.
b99 had a bisexual Latina cop laugh and say she suggests police brutality, later showing interest and excitement over the exact sound weapon we’re now seeing used in retaliation to protests (side note: when i saw that episode, i thought that weapon was made up because it seemed so sci-fi villain-ish).
they have their whole host of cop characters, including the straight-laced official types, regularly treat their job like a game.
yes they had an episode about racial profiling. but what was that episode telling us? that at the end of the day, there are good cops within the system actively fighting corruption and winning. i recently saw someone in exact words say “b99 taught me that not all cops are bad.” that’s copaganda. even if you believe in your heart that some cops are good, they are still people with weapons designed to kill whose job centers on apprehending anyone they deem a trouble-maker, and they are. not. your. friends.
b99 wants you to believe that diversity within the system creates fair treatment, right? that a gay Black captain and a crew of racially and sexually diverse cops are the Good Guys.
in real life, the Seattle chief of police is a Black woman who is AT BEST allowing the people in her command to terrorize their city, and at worst actively commanding it. the tear-gassing in seattle? the little girl who got pepper-sprayed? that happened under the leadership and command of a Black woman. because cops are cops first. the job itself demands that they abandon their communities and their humanity. we joke about being [x thing] first and human second a lot, right? well, cops really are.
b99 talked about the prison industry, right? they talked about guard brutality, retaliation, in-prison violence, right? but think about the fact that within that plotline, the cops were the only characters who we were told didn’t belong there. how cinnamon roll jake peralta, a Good Cop Who Didn’t Belong in Prison, was interacting exclusively with people like a gang leader and an unrepentant cannibal.
b99 is deeply insidious cop propaganda. and i’ve watched it and i’ve enjoyed it! and i don’t believe the creators set out to make copaganda. i think they were trying to do a lighthearted riff on your standard procedural, and they cast a diverse group of actors, and they tried to write socially conscious scripts, and they slowly snowballed their way into copaganda while we were all distracted by andy samberg getting hotter.
i’m not at all saying don’t watch cop shows, if that’s your thing, i guess. hell, i’ve enjoyed more than one of them in my life. but please think critically about their messaging and choose to reject what does not align with your values. think critically about your values, and what influences them. and for the love of god, stop responding to people’s angry, grieving cries over Black people being systematically murdered by cops by defending your favorite fictional cop. real people are dead.
Black lives matter more than fake cops. that’s all.
(Image description: a more color more pride flag with the words “queer black lives matter” and a trans POC pride flag with the words “trans black lives matter”)
