articles
- My little boy turned 1 year old, so I had my first experience of doing a child’s birthday party.
- Had holidays in Llandudno and Christchurch, Dorset.
- Became an uncle for the first time. The family is growing, and everyone is full of joy.
- Finally bought a new house after months of living with my parents for logistical reasons.
- Began learning web development via the Odin Project.
- Made a good friend at work, and reconnected with some old friends.
- Participated in the teacher strikes this year.
- Published several cryptic crosswords on mycrossword.co.uk. My crossword setting and solving improved a lot over the year. I ran a crossword club at school.
- Survived an OFSTED inspection (outcome: “Good”)
- Started this blog 🎉.
- My progress in learning web dev slowed once the new school year started — many factors involved here, including workload, parenthood, living situation
- Started lifting weights in August. Things started to fall off a bit in December due to a spike in workload (many end-of-term exams to mark). However, I’m still keen to go; I’ll pick the habit back up next week
- Stress levels have been very high throughout the year, primarily due to work, but of course also to do with staying with parents, moving house, and so on.
- Latter part of the year have had a big focus on family and marriage. Our living situation, together with my workload and stress levels, have been challenging for us all.
- Got ill quite a bit in the first half of the year, but haven’t had a sick day since school started in September.
- Keep making progress in learning web development
- Keep going to the gym
- Keep focusing on the family
Finished reading: The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine 📚
Finished reading: The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine by Michael Scott-Baumann 📚
After the events of October 7th, I decided it was time to fix my ignorance of the basic history of the conflict between Israel and Palestine by picking up the Shortest History of Israel and Palestine. It is not the first time I’ve tried to understand this situation, but I bounced off other, denser books I tried. The Shortest History is clear and accessible. It focuses on key events and outcomes, not on details like blow-by-blow accounts of battles.
Here is how it has left me feeling.
I do not see how any impartial judge could look at the foundation of Israel and not regard it as a crime. The UN Partition Plan of 1947 was a crime, and the ensuing 1947 and 1948 conflicts that established Israel’s statehood was a catastrophic crime that created 700,000 Arab refugees. Virtually all Gazans are descendents of those refugees.
Since the foundation of Israel, the Palestinian Arabs have been a people without rights. Since 1967, they have been a people without rights living under the occupation of a hostile colonial power, in Gaza and the West Bank. That power has continued to illegally appropriate land, and harass and humiliate the Palestinian population ever since.
These are the base facts of the situation. There have been atrocities on both sides. Palestinian resistance has often been violent. Israel’s land grabs and responses to violence have also been violent (and much more powerfully so). But these atrocities have not altered the base facts: a people without rights living under the occupation of a hostile colonial power.
Israel’s human rights abuses are aided and abetted by the United States and its allies, including the UK. US and British politicians have given their full support for Israel’s campaign since October 7th, despite clear evidence of crimes on a massive scale. Biden and some others may have begun to voice euphemistic misgivings about the mass slaughter currently occurring in Gaza. But this is much too little, too late. The scale and brutality of Israel’s response was predicted by many of us from the start; the willingness of our politicians to turn a blind eye for this long lays bare a damning lack of concern for Arab lives, not to mention international law and human rights.
And now we must wait in horror as Israel begins it’s assault on Rafah, and wonder if any Western leader will finally take action.
I do not just wish for peace, I wish for justice. The return of land seized since 1967, and reparations for all the infrastructure and homes destroyed, and lives lost, during this brutal 45-year occupation.
The only hope for any of this is massive international pressure, including material pressure through sanctions, and particularly from the US and its allies. I do not hold my breath.
2023 in review
A brief overview of my year
Main events
Patterns and themes
Favourites
Didn’t have time for much culture this year, but the best book I read was Neuromancer.
Looking ahead
Happy new year 🥳