Category: English

Ruling of the International Court of Justice in a case of South Africa against Israel

editor’s note: temporary verdict-instructions of the International Court of Justice in Hague have been issued. It is important to remember that it is not a verdict on the main charge brought against Israel by South Africa. It is a set of temporary orders of actions and precautions that Israel must undertake until a final verdict is issued. These actions are meant to safeguard the civilian population of Gaza against many risks and dangers to their life, safety, and health.

The Court also notes why it has the right to hear and judge in this case, finding beyond reasonable doubt that it does and it is within its scope of jurisdiction.

The entire text of the Court proceedings and findings has been copied directly from the website of the International Court of Justice1

It is a very long document. But since many political and social activists, politicians and observers offer their opinions on it – it would be advisable to read it for oneself, and to understand what it really says and orders Israel to do and why. I have omitted the very long pages of the entire document and copied only the last parts containing the full judgment for temporary measures.

Text below:

45. The Palestinians appear to constitute a distinct “national, ethnical, racial or religious group”, and hence a protected group within the meaning of Article II of the Genocide Convention. The Court observes that, according to United Nations sources, the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip comprises over 2 million people. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip form a substantial part of the protected group. 46. The Court notes that the military operation being conducted by Israel following the attack of 7 October 2023 has resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries, as well as the massive destruction of homes, the forcible displacement of the vast majority of the population, and extensive damage to civilian infrastructure. While figures relating to the Gaza Strip cannot be independently verified, recent information indicates that 25,700 Palestinians have been killed, over 63,000 injuries have been reported, over 360,000 housing units have been destroyed or partially damaged and approximately 1.7 million persons have been internally displaced (see United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel reported impact, Day 109 (24 Jan. 2024)).

47. The Court takes note, in this regard, of the statement made by the United Nations UnderSecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr Martin Griffiths, on 5 January 2024: “Gaza has become a place of death and despair. . . . Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment. Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety. A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner. For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out. Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence — while the world watches on.” (OCHA, “UN relief chief: The war in Gaza must end”, Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, 5 Jan. 2024.)

48. Following a mission to North Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that, as of 21 December 2023: “An unprecedented 93% of the population in Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger, with insufficient food and high levels of malnutrition. At least 1 in 4 households are facing ‘catastrophic conditions’: experiencing an extreme lack of food and starvation and having resorted to selling off their possessions and other extreme measures to afford a simple meal. Starvation, destitution and death are evident.” (WHO, “Lethal combination of hunger and disease to lead to more deaths in Gaza”, 21 Dec. 2023; see also World Food Programme, “Gaza on the brink as one in four people face extreme hunger”, 20 Dec. 2023.)

49. The Court further notes the statement issued by the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Mr Philippe Lazzarini, on 13 January 2024: “It’s been 100 days since the devastating war started, killing and displacing people in Gaza, following the horrific attacks that Hamas and other groups carried out against people in Israel. It’s been 100 days of ordeal and anxiety for hostages and their families.  In the past 100 days, sustained bombardment across the Gaza Strip caused the mass displacement of a population that is in a state of flux constantly uprooted and forced to leave overnight, only to move to places which are just as unsafe. This has been the largest displacement of the Palestinian people since 1948. This war affected more than 2 million people the entire population of Gaza. Many will carry lifelong scars, both physical and psychological. The vast majority, including children, are deeply traumatized. Overcrowded and unsanitary UNRWA shelters have now become ‘home’ to more than 1.4 million people. They lack everything, from food to hygiene to privacy. People live in inhumane conditions, where diseases are spreading, including among children. They live through the unlivable, with the clock ticking fast towards famine. The plight of children in Gaza is especially heartbreaking. An entire generation of children is traumatized and will take years to heal. Thousands have been killed, maimed, and orphaned. Hundreds of thousands are deprived of education. Their future is in jeopardy, with far-reaching and long-lasting consequences.” (UNRWA, “The Gaza Strip: 100 days of death, destruction and displacement”, Statement by Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, 13 Jan. 2024.)

50. The UNRWA Commissioner-General also stated that the crisis in Gaza is “compounded by dehumanizing language” (UNRWA, “The Gaza Strip: 100 days of death, destruction and displacement”, Statement by Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, 13 Jan. 2024).

51. In this regard, the Court has taken note of a number of statements made by senior Israeli officials. It calls attention, in particular, to the following examples. 52. On 9 October 2023, Mr Yoav Gallant, Defence Minister of Israel, announced that he had ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza City and that there would be “no electricity, no food, no fuel” and that “everything [was] closed”. On the following day, Minister Gallant stated, speaking to Israeli troops on the Gaza border: “I have released all restraints . . . You saw what we are fighting against. We are fighting human animals. This is the ISIS of Gaza. This is what we are fighting against . . . Gaza won’t return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week, it will take weeks or even months, we will reach all places.” On 12 October 2023, Mr Isaac Herzog, President of Israel, stated, referring to Gaza: “We are working, operating militarily according to rules of international law. Unequivocally. It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It is absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’état. But we are at war. We are at war. We are at war. We are defending our homes. We are protecting our homes. That’s the truth. And when a nation protects its home, it fights. And we will fight until we’ll break their backbone.” On 13 October 2023, Mr Israel Katz, then Minister of Energy and Infrastructure of Israel, stated on X (formerly Twitter): “We will fight the terrorist organization Hamas and destroy it. All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.”

53. The Court also takes note of a press release of 16 November 2023, issued by 37 Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and members of Working Groups part of the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in which they voiced alarm over “discernibly genocidal and dehumanising rhetoric coming from senior Israeli government officials”. In addition, on 27 October 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination observed that it was “highly concerned about the sharp increase in racist hate speech and dehumanization directed at Palestinians since 7 October”.

54. In the Court’s view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible. This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the Convention.

78. The Court considers that, with regard to the situation described above, Israel must, in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention, in particular: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. The Court recalls that these acts fall within the scope of Article II of the Convention when they are committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part a group as such (see paragraph 44 above). The Court further considers that Israel must ensure with immediate effect that its military forces do not commit any of the above-described acts.

79. The Court is also of the view that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.

80. The Court further considers that Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

81. Israel must also take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Genocide Convention against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.

82. Regarding the provisional measure requested by South Africa that Israel must submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to its Order, the Court recalls that it has the power, reflected in Article 78 of the Rules of Court, to request the parties to provide information on any matter connected with the implementation of any provisional measures it has indicated. In view of the specific provisional measures it has decided to indicate, the Court considers that Israel must submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order within one month, as from the date of this Order. The report so provided shall then be communicated to South Africa, which shall be given the opportunity to submit to the Court its comments thereon.

83. The Court recalls that its Orders on provisional measures under Article 41 of the Statute have binding effect and thus create international legal obligations for any party to whom the provisional measures are addressed (Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v. Russian Federation), Provisional Measures, Order of 16 March 2022, I.C.J. Reports 2022 (I), p. 230, para. 84).

86.

1) For these reasons, THE COURT, Indicates the following provisional measures: (1) By fifteen votes to two,

The State of Israel shall, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention, in particular: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; IN FAVOUR: President Donoghue; Vice-President Gevorgian; Judges Tomka, Abraham, Bennouna, Yusuf, Xue, Bhandari, Robinson, Salam, Iwasawa, Nolte, Charlesworth, Brant; Judge ad hoc Moseneke; AGAINST: Judge Sebutinde; Judge ad hoc Barak;

(2) By fifteen votes to two, The State of Israel shall ensure with immediate effect that its military does not commit any acts described in point 1 above; IN FAVOUR: President Donoghue; Vice-President Gevorgian; Judges Tomka, Abraham, Bennouna, Yusuf, Xue, Bhandari, Robinson, Salam, Iwasawa, Nolte, Charlesworth, Brant; Judge ad hoc Moseneke; AGAINST: Judge Sebutinde; Judge ad hoc Barak;

(3) By sixteen votes to one, The State of Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip; IN FAVOUR: President Donoghue; Vice-President Gevorgian; Judges Tomka, Abraham, Bennouna, Yusuf, Xue, Bhandari, Robinson, Salam, Iwasawa, Nolte, Charlesworth, Brant; Judges ad hoc Barak, Moseneke; AGAINST: Judge Sebutinde;

(4) By sixteen votes to one, The State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip; IN FAVOUR: President Donoghue; Vice-President Gevorgian; Judges Tomka, Abraham, Bennouna, Yusuf, Xue, Bhandari, Robinson, Salam, Iwasawa, Nolte, Charlesworth, Brant; Judges ad hoc Barak, Moseneke; AGAINST: Judge Sebutinde; –

(5) By fifteen votes to two, The State of Israel shall take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip; IN FAVOUR: President Donoghue; Vice-President Gevorgian; Judges Tomka, Abraham, Bennouna, Yusuf, Xue, Bhandari, Robinson, Salam, Iwasawa, Nolte, Charlesworth, Brant; Judge ad hoc Moseneke; AGAINST: Judge Sebutinde; Judge ad hoc Barak;

(6) By fifteen votes to two, The State of Israel shall submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect to this Order within one month as from the date of this Order. IN FAVOUR: President Donoghue; Vice-President Gevorgian; Judges Tomka, Abraham, Bennouna, Yusuf, Xue, Bhandari, Robinson, Salam, Iwasawa, Nolte, Charlesworth, Brant; Judge ad hoc Moseneke; AGAINST: Judge Sebutinde; Judge ad hoc Barak.

Done in English and in French, the English text being authoritative, at the Peace Palace, The Hague, this twenty-sixth day of January, two thousand and twenty-four, in three copies, one of which will be placed in the archives of the Court and the others transmitted to the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the State of Israel, respectively. (Signed) Joan E. DONOGHUE, President.

  1. https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf ↩︎

Skiing in Nova Scotia

Bogumil Pacak-Gamalski

Have not skied since I left Vancouver. But my last season was probably a year before that. In a dramatic way. Drama and I seem to go in pairs, LOL. My skis and boots were – to say it politely – a bit out of style and advanced in age. Last time I wanted them to be professionally sharpened they said there is not much more steel to sharpen. So I did it myself. The boots needed replacement, too. But didn’t change them. My last skiing was on Mount Seymour overlooking the entire Greater Vancouver. Just the views were spectacular: the entire Indian Arm fiord, Burrard Inlet, Burnaby, Fraser River, Surrey, Vancouver, and the Salish Sea. Breathtaking. That day was foggy, though. Some lifts were closed due to poor visibility. I suppose, because of that the parking lot was almost empty. But the lift going to the peak with the wonderful Black Diamond (advanced) trail downhill was open. I was the only one ‘in the line’ to the lift! I knew the vistas by heart anyway, so I was happy. Went down once and ran quickly for another ride after they warned me that they would shut it down soon due to the poor visibility. Right from the top of the lift, I took a slightly different route, more steep but under the lifts – that way I could just follow the lift and not get lost in the vast terrain covered with fog. Smart. But the trail was narrow and bumpy. After hitting one of the moguls … I went down and one of my skis went the other way, not far though. Once I retrieved it, strangely the boot would not fit into the bindings. What the …, I thought, and pushed it stronger… that is when the boot actually disintegrated, and fell apart in two separate pieces, LOL. A ski boot is not something you can tie or put together, no Jose, LOL. When I finally got back to the lift base with just one boot, the other foot in socks only – the operators couldn’t believe my story. They told me that were starting to worry and were just going to send a patrol to look for me, LOL.  That was my last skiing … seven years ago.

I never bothered to buy new equipment in Nova Scotia – it is a gorgeous province for hiking and swimming. But skiing – really?  There are two ski hills/resorts. And they are – hills. Not mountains. Went to one once during the summer, near Windsor. And decided not to spend a lot of money on new equipment to use on these  … ‘elevated terrain’ resorts. I am not any sort of expert skier, high achiever and show off. But c’mon – for the past almost 50 years I have skied in the high Polish Tatra Mountains (on Kasprowy Wierch resort, 2000 m elevation), and later in the high Rocky Mountains (Banff, Sunshine Valley, Lake Louise, 2600 m elevation) almost all other smaller resorts in BC, and of course Olympic Whistler Resort.  Out of all of them (that would include wonderful and definitely overpriced Whistler) the Lake Louise Ski Resort and Sunshine Village in Banff National Park are without any doubt the best. It is just ski paradise there.

Yet, yesterday I felt so down with the neither winter nor fall weather in Halifax recently. Look at the map for the other resort in Nova Scotia – Wentworth. I know this northern part of our province because of my regular drives to Pictou. These hills there are actually mountains, not high mountains by any stretch of the imagination but mountains nonetheless. Checked the prices of tickets for afternoon/evening skiing and voila – I could buy a senior pass! Sixty-five bucks – with full equipment rental. The same pleasure would cost me over three hundred dollars in Whistler! That is insanity.

I bought my tickets online and off I went today. And what a wonderful drive past Truro. Just before the New Brunswick border, take Highway#o4. Very scenic this time of the year, with snow-covered forests and hills to the north. Probably beautiful during late summer and autumn. Traffic was less than light and I could enjoy the scenery. To my surprise, the ski area was not bad at all. No comparison between BC and Alberta – but it was actually a ski area not bad at all. I really enjoyed it. Had to be careful because the snow really was not coming there, either. Yes, a bit – but not nearly enough for skiing. Therefore all trails use mechanical snow-making which is very different and produces a fine texture and depth coverage.  Watch out for plentiful icy spots. But you definitely can ski. Also, it was the first time I used the new type of short skies (no one uses the old long ones anymore, LOL). Mind you, in my time the measure of skis was simple: stand straight, raise your arm straight u,p and make sure the ski tips reach your palm. When the attendant asked me if I wanted shorter or longer skis, I naturally said: longer. And she gave me a pair, I looked at them and said: but longer in adult sizes, not a child. She looked at me and replied: they are the longer adult ski. I almost laugh. It is actually easier to make turns in the short ski but still felt funny. Old habits die slow I guess, and welcome to the XXI century, LOL.    The Black Diamond trails were closed due to the lack of snow, but the advanced ones were very nice, and fast if you wanted. Couldn’t bring myself to use the Easy ones. I had to have some pride, for Heaven’s sake!  Skiing in these child-length skis was bad enough for this old dinosaur.

It was a good day. I will probably do it again, maybe when some good natural snow will finally come in good quantity. It truly makes a difference for skiing. If someone asks me again if you can ski in Nova Scotia, I can finally say: yes. I wouldn’t drive for this experience from Boston or Montreal, but if you happen to visit here in wintertime – yes, you definitely can.

The seed of grief is love

Bogumił Pacak-Gamalski

I have watched two movies recently. Very different and very powerful on a very personal level. Stirring emotions, and memories. The Spanish “Society of the Snow” produced by Netflix and directed by J. A. Bayona, and the Canadian production of “Good Grief” directed, produced, and written by Dan Levy. Dan Levy also played the main character, Marc.

The “Society of the snow” – let me take you on a journey in time. At the time of the catastrophe, I was 14 years old. A year later a book by British writer Clay Blair “Survive” appeared. A well-known Polish writer or essayist wrote in a Polish literary weekly “Literatura” a piece about it. It might have been Jerzy Andrzejewski, an excellent writer whose weekly column I have always read – but truly I can’t recall now. Yet the story and especially the dilemma of cannibalism versus survival made me write a short piece about it. By that, I was fifteen and of course, as any fifteen-year-old ‘writer’ had a lot to say about the issues of life and death. I sent it off to the editorial desk of Jerzy Putrament, a Polish writer, who was the editor-in-chief of the weekly ‘Literatura”, a major literary and art publication. And he published it. As it was my second publication in a major Polish magazine (the first one was in “Perspektywy”) it cemented my ‘fame and prestige’ among my teachers in my school, but not as much among my classmates, LOL.

I don’t recall if I have read the book by Clay Blair. Not sure if it was translated into Polish. Most likely I never did. But I have seen years later the first movie about it based on that novel. And I wasn’t impressed. Yet the Spanish “Society of the Snow” impressed me very much. The screen-writers (Bayona, Vilaplana, and Marques), the director, and the actors were superb in their austerity of dramatization. Everything was left to the minimum: air, food, movement, and words. Years later, while visiting Mendoza in Patagonia (the ill-fated plane took off from Mendoza on its last tragic leg of the flight to Chile), I took a special bus tour to the Andes and was able to do some hiking at the base of Aconcagua (almost 7000 meters, one of the titans of the world). The outmost desolation of that place there is amazing and overpowering. As far as you can see is a frozen horizon of white peaks and valleys. Can’t imagine surviving there with hardly any provisions for longer than a few days. I felt that the movie captured that feeling very well.

“Good Grief” by Dan Levy. Who doesn’t remember and didn’t love that sweet, funny, and almost useless in practical skills young gay guy in the now iconic CBC series “Schitt’s Creek”, with his father, great Canadian actor Eugene Levy, and fantastic Catherine O’Hara? But Dan Levy playing a grief-strickened, middle-age man in serious drama, tragedy actually? Can he carry it? He did.

I shouldn’t have watch it. But I did. I had to. As I watched his grief, as I travelled with him in his yearly journey of that grief of losing the love of his life – I went through mine. Every silent moment. Every object in his and mine apartment, photographs, furniture. At times I didn’t know if it was Dan Levy or me on that screen. If it was a movie or my memories of last year. No, I didn’t go to Paris and there was no surprise in finding ‘the other lover’. But these are just details, unimportant almost didaskalia of the drama. The differences between the lives of me and John and that of Mark and Luke are just a different shade of the same colour.

As I watched that movie sitting on my (on our) sofa I felt John taking my hand into his and squeezing it gently. I heard him saying I’m sorry, and I wanted to grab his hand, to cover it with kisses. But I didn’t, I knew the hand, his voice would dissipate into the air. So I just sat quietly, didn’t even turn my head, and continued watching the movie. With him undisturbed sitting next to me. As he always did. It felt good. Sad but good. The next morning I went for a drive to a little town called Fall River. I took him there in 2019 to a little Provincial Park, with a forest, by a long, wonderful lake. This time it was wintertime, windy and cold. The gate to the park was closed for the season. I left my car and walked the long trail on foot. The sky was splendid with clouds and sun in crispy air. It was my trip ‘to Paris’. Thank you, Dan Levy, for letting me submerge myself in that grief again.  Grief is hard, is sad. But it also is beautiful, because the seed of grief is love.

After

I couldn’t sleep.   

Didn’t know how to

console You.

How to tell You –

it’s all right, Babycake.

I have survived.

No, it wasn’t Your

fault.

You tried,

You tried so hard.



Do I lie, when I say:

‘it’s all right’?

Yes, I do.

It was

so fucking hard.

I knew it would be

if and when,

but had no clue 

how hard it is.

Didn’t know 

that grief

could be like 

hot lead 

slowly injected 

into your veins.

Like the disappearing

bubbles of air

you have tried 

to squeeze into your lungs

nailed to the heavy

cross of impossibility.

As I watched with terror.

So what was

really the weight

of my grief

compared to that?

How do you compare

the pain of life

to pain of death?

How do you?

What’s the balance ratio

of life in grief

in one hand,

and no life

in the other?

Does a man know?

Does God?

Midnight walk on My Rocks, with a camera

Bogumił Pacak-Gamalski

During winter it is a bit tricky and not always a pleasureable to go for a midnight stroll. The rocks are very slippery and the water below them – not very inviting, LOL. But it is also so peaceful, so empty from any distractions. And the play of night lights in the water – just a magic in itself. Here is some of the magic captured by the lense.

The same panorama captured a day or two earlier in an early evening. Like two different worlds.

Thy Kingdom comes,o Love

Bogumił Pacak-Gamalski

January in 2024. First time this year I have come to see your ‘home in Pictou’s cemetery, at Stella Maris.

I know you are not there –it is just a place, just a stone with your name on it. Like the stone tablets of Sumerians, and Acadians, like the stone tablet given to Moses a few thousand years later. These letters, and symbols left on them by the Old Ones are not alive anymore. No ancient gods lay claim to them, not from Ur, not from Babylon, not from Sinai. What’s left in these letters are hidden stories of love, of passion.

Under these letters, under your stone is a small container with some ashes. Gray powder in a box, nothing else. But I can’t stop coming here where I can submerge myself in my despair, wallow in my grief. Here it doesn’t bother anyone. The dead ones are dead. Silent. Sometimes a black bird looks at me from a tree branch and says something in its characteristic low and screechy voice.

It sounds like a song of the Underworld. A poem of decayed generations. Only the bird, the guardian of the cemetery knows that ancient language.

There are no other visitors here, especially this time of the year. Unless it is a funeral. Another wooden box full of bones, or smaller one with ashes, goes to the ground.

Old wooden cross with a white figure of Jesus of Joseph and Mary, who attested to prophesies of Isaiah of Kingdom coming. That cross, darkened by weather and age is strong. He does not attest to anything anymore. He is profoundly sad. Painfully sad. Sorrow emanates from his eyes and from that terrible tool of his death. Still asking: Why? Why did you lead me to this terrible, painful death, o father? What did I do to deserve such cruel punishment? Why did you forsake me, condemn me to this brutal death?

I want to talk to him, help him to quell his anguish. He was still a very young man, and did not understand. I want to tell him – don’t cry anymore. To tell him if he truly found love in Mary Magdalen or any other lovers he pursued, if he was loved and loved – it never died. Not on that cross, nor in this cemetery. That his father, his false friend Judas – they could not stop that Love, they could not erase it. It soared like an eagle, like an Angel through the Cosmos. That love, young man – if you truly were loved and loved – sang songs of Love. Eternal.

The wintery Sun came over the desolate, little cemetery. It flickered in the mud holes of the walkways, it caressed and made bright little plastic flowery arrangements on some gravestones.  Looked at your grave with my inscription: forever in my heart and smiled, too. That’s just for some passerby, maybe long after any memory of both of us would linger in anyone’s life. So he or she would have known that you were loved. And would recognize that love does conquer death. Nothing else. But She does.

Of course, you are not there, under the stone. You are in my heart, with me. All the time, everywhere. Just on that cemetery, on any cemetery, there is a special stillness of air that allows you to have these talks, these thoughts. That’s why I keep coming here. When I was very young I used to visit some special coffee shops in Warsaw, where I would write my poems on white, square, and very small paper tissues.  Now, when I am much older, I like to come to this cemetery or visit my special wild beaches I have conquered in your name and have these talks with you, and still write poems. I like it.

Before I left, went and looked at that man outstretched on this horrible cross.  I thought he wasn’t as sad as before. I hope. I hope that he got it, he understood it. That death is just that – all matter decays and dies with time. But love survives, and overcomes.  The Kingdom came through love.

Pictou

Actors, directors, writers and the public. Spectacle of the past and the future:  2023 versus 2024 – the English version

Bogumił Pacak-Gamalski

In ancient Greece, there was a special, feared temple in Delphi, where the women serving as the foretellers of tomorrow and fate would tell you what yours would look like. Pythia was seldom very clear in her oracles. I will try my best to be less confusing and complicated. Also, unlike a proper Pythia, I am not a user and therefore I am not high, as I write the story, LOL.  

But before we get to 2024, let’s look back to 2023. Normally, talking about history would seem to be very safe. Nothing could be more wrong than that wisdom. History, my dear reader is only objective about plain facts. You can say safely only one sentence: i.e. the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. Anything else would be your opinion of the battle, not facts.

So maybe it is better to ‘use’ and be high and talk about the future. At least no one can say with a conviction that you are wrong or even a liar.

But I will try nonetheless to say a few things that I hope will be reasonable, seasoned, and not too emotional.

2023 in Canada

Eighth year of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. From happiness and joyful youth of hope at the beginning (that was very much needed at that time) to Covid years, social upheaval (Truck convoys, occupations of Ottawa, and border crossings), and polarization of the entire Canadian society. Not many could have survived it. He did. But badly damaged. I also think that he has become tired and not as enthusiastic about bringing a sunny future to Canadians. I doubt very much if he will be able to beat his father’s record of longest-serving PM in modern Canadian history.

2023 was a series of setbacks for our Government. On the domestic scene and international scene. Most of them were probably beyond anyone’s ability to solve or remedy. But in politics, excuses are seldom granted for those in power.

In the last two years, prices of everything just skyrocketed. And so did interest rates. But food and shelter become the biggest scare of all. That certainly was not a Canadian phenomenon – similar things happened everywhere in the developed world.  In Germany, France, Poland, in the USA. Originally a lot of it stemmed from the COVID years and total breakage in world transport of goods across continents and oceans. But once that was established  – the habits of raking huge profits became entrenched in the pockets of the oligarchs of domestic and world food distributions. Owners of supermarkets, car sales, oil and energy, landlords of apartments both big ones and individual ones. Almost overnight rents went up ten, twenty, and fifty percent higher. The high prices of home ownership were already habitually high putting us all at constant risk of collapse and financial crisis of the banking system (remember what happened in the US many years ago?). But it used to be in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Suddenly it happened in Halifax, St. John, and Fredericton – for no economic reason whatsoever since none of the Maritime Provinces experienced even a semblance of any economic boom – to the contrary.  I guess greed is a part of human nature. Not a nice one – but it is.

Eventually, wages went up, too. Not nearly enough – but surely. All of it made the fight against inflation even more difficult – but the Bank of Canada stayed its course and no serious inflation ever occurred. It wasn’t popular – but necessary. That is the difference between politicians and high-ranking Officers of the Crown (like national banks presidents). Politicians are at the mercy of voters; appointed Officers are at the mercy of only their terms, thus often doing what is right and not what is safer for them.

The result? 2023 was very expensive for ordinary Canadians. And definitely more expensive for ordinary citizens of most countries in the world. Regardless if the governments were rightist, leftist, or centrist.

I strongly believe that we managed as well as we could thanks to the unusual partnership between Jagmeet Singh of NDP and Justin Trudeau of Liberals. It wasn’t a coalition by any means (probably smart for Singh) but a careful partnership. But when you have a minority government your position as an ally is stronger. It was also an astute choice for Singh as he built his profile and popularity among voters.

Therefore my first choice in politicians of 2023 in Canada goes to him – Jagmeet Singh. Second to Justin Trudeau –  if for anything than for surviving. It was a very bad time for all politicians. Last by any margin of error – but most popular in recent polls, Pierre Poilievre. I understand that when people are angry and scared they run toward the one who is even angrier and scarier. But really? Is that what you want? The most fanatical, the one lacking on any cohesive policy for the massive challenges awaiting us in 2024? God have mercy. It is so easy to criticize existing policies and governments in times of global crisis. But to offer workable and logical, economically sound alternatives – not so much. Certainly, in the case of Poilievre, they are not forthcoming.  The few that he sort of mentioned are just absurd. They have no economic or social value. On the contrary – I think that it would create a much harsher situation for most of us  (very few very rich ones would absolutely gain a lot from it) in 2024.

Canada’s worst ‘enemy’ in 2023 in order of dangers:

  1. Huge forest fires and floods as a result of climate change – stretching from ocean to ocean to ocean. There was no escape. Ecological catastrophe and financial disaster for Provincial and Federal governments.
  2. War in Ukraine. On many fronts most difficult and terribly expensive in recent Canadian history. Our support for Ukraine extended well beyond our ability. And, of course, at the worst possible time. It is one way to be generous during ‘good times’ and a different thing to be generous in ‘bad times’.  Paying for armaments, munition, training, fulfilling obligations to NATO, and sending Canadian regiment to Estonia is very expensive, too. At a time when our Forces need very badly a large amount of budget in Canada to fix years of not doing enough. By all recent federal governments, Liberal and Conservative. Yet – we did not choose that war. The war is not only in Ukraine, somewhere very far away. The war is at the borders of NATO countries to whom we have an obligation. We either support the Ukrainian army, which is much smaller than that of the Russian aggressor – or we might end up doing the fighting ourselves if Russians overcome their defenses and attack NATO country or countries.  Remember a lesson from the 2 world War – if Europe (France and England) and the USA attacked Hitler when he invaded with almost all his armies Poland, maybe the war would not lasted almost six years but only a year or two. And maybe millions of people would have survived it. Just saying. Sometimes – sadly – starting a war against an evil aggressor makes the war shorter and less bloody. Now the ‘hitler’s name is Putin.  (Don’t forget that Stalin’s Russia was Hitler’s ally and invaded Poland from the East two weeks after Hitler started his invasion. If not that Hitler two years later changed his mind and attacked Russia – Stalin would have stayed by Germany’s side)
  3. The global crisis of economies, raising poverty and hunger.

Challenges in 2024

  1. This time the one that is unavoidable. One that dwarfs every other challenge. Climate change. One that can’t be stopped because we are not able to stop or reverse cosmic forces, forces of the Universe. Earth is not a world in itself. It is part of our solar system, our galaxy, and part of the Cosmos known and unknown.  Earth is a ‘living’ thing. Never stopped being one. Constantly changing its form, shape, and look. Just in a different time frame than our human perception. But from time to time it speeds up. It has been done many times before. Usually with very disastrous effects for the life forms, that exist in such times. Then life comes back, some species survive, and some new ones emerge. But one life form became so powerful in the last million or so years that affected that normal, cosmic timeframe. People. We. We can’t stop that change. But we shouldn’t speed it up, as we do.  This time it is not freezing in glaciers, not gigantic volcano eruptions followed by hundreds of years of darkness and acid monsoons. This time it is simply warming. 2003 was already the warmest in kept records. According to geological archeologists, it reached the level last seen 100,000 years ago. That will affect the entire planet, all humankind. It couldn’t care less about any states, borders, or nations. By acting accordingly, wise, and understanding the truly existential nature of that change we might have a chance to adapt, to survive, maybe even flourish later.  But we must. We. Everyone. Governments and international organizations can’t do that for us this time. We must elect only politicians, who are very serious about it, who accept that challenge as the most important one, who follow the plan and do not change it come every election. We can’t say: it must be China most; India most, Brazil first; Europe, Africa, and on and on. No. It must be Canada’s first in Canada. Yes, nations should develop and plan globally. But we can’t afford the time when all agree. We must do now, here. And it will cost money. Will cost us. Les if we start now, more if we start five years from now. By us, I mean us individually, not just some government in some town called Ottawa. Traditional oil-driven or coal-driven energy should be more expensive. And you can’t expect that all the costs will be covered by the government. If the government covers the full cost it means it will cut other services. You know that arithmetic very well. The National Bank doesn’t really just print money. If we fail that test and we will speed up the warming process everything else stops having any sense. Millions of people will die of starvation, hundreds of millions will become poor and desolate, and immigration will just overcome any national borders and border walls. It will be chaos on many fronts. Forest fires and floods? You have not seen anything, yet. Some nation-states are already disappearing in front of our own eyes. I mean – they are truly sinking out of the map.
  2. Two wars that must be stopped by any means. I mean any. Russia must be punished so harshly by all allied states (Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and any other true ally that we have) that would cripple their economy. That will stop the war much faster than any rockets or tanks sent to Ukraine (but we must continue to support Ukraine in the meantime before the sanctions are formed and executed). That is possible and is in our best interest. Current sanctions are just a patchwork of here and there and this and that. We can’t wait for the majority of the world to agree to that. It might never come. We must use our own strict ‘club’ of Western Powers of democratic states and do it fully, comprehensibly, and at once. It is possible and it is doable. We must demand it from our governments.

 Israel – the massacre of Palestinians must stop. No ceasefire, no ‘more careful killings’. This is insanity and it serves no one. Except for one person – the disgusting malfeasant and populist Netanyahu. Now a war criminal.  United States is acting in an abhorrent way aiding in the massacre of people, who already suffered unspeakable theft of land, opportunities, and basic dignity. I do understand that Israel is a linchpin of US policy in the Middle East. But it is all based on old times of rivalry between East (communism and USSR) and West.   But regardless of that anachronistic policy – it is in the best long-time interest of Israel to have peace with Palestinians. It is the only solution to lasting peace there. What happened in December with the atrocious Hamas attack – happened. It has been dealt with. It cannot justify the unspeakable horror of what is happening in the ruins of Gaza City and all other cities and towns in the Gaza Strip. It is abhorrent.  Our, Canadian government can’t be part of it. There is no room to be ‘a little pregnant’ in this conflict. Children and women are dying in hundreds daily, hospitals are bombed as they tend to the wounded and dying, and starvation is happening now.  No medicine, no fresh water, no fuel, no food. The trickle that is coming (never sure if it is coming, and aid trucks have been already bombed, too) is only a fraction of what is needed. It is truly insanity and I can’t understand that some of us are even trying to discuss it politely that maybe this or maybe that, that it is all very complicated. No. It is not complicated at all. It kills innocent people. In thousands. People, who were already suffering. Including suffering from Hamas hands. During the history (a very short one after all) of Israel, it gathered a lot of support. People knew and remembered what was Holocaust, what were pogroms. That Jews deserve their own state. Safe state. And now a lot of it evaporates in thin air. A normal person just watches with astonishment and disbelief. For the sake of not only Palestinians (but mostly for them because they are being massacred) but also the secured and respected Israel – stop it. Kick Netanyahu to the garbage bin of history and restore peace. Both nations deserve it.

  • Last but not least – India. The largest democracy in the world. But is it? The USA wants it to be a counterbalance to China’s ambitions in Asia. I don’t trust this guy at all. Arrogant, populist, and ethno-religious chauvinist. I think that he is the worst that could have happened to this amazing subcontinent with thousands of years of history. How can you have a democracy if the leader is an authoritarian trumpist? Ask me, a Canadian Pole who observed from Canada for the last 10 years the democratically elected government of populists, religious fanatics, and idiots in Poland. They lost power in massive elections and popular protests in October last year. Now is January. It is absurd what is happening now in Poland. The party that lost occupies buildings in Warsaw, occupies the Public TV (equivalent to CBC in Canada), and daily emits anti-government programs. There is legal chaos as part of the Judiciary was chosen by the former chauvinistic government and wants to stop the new government from any normal governance. Democracy is not a panacea for everything. It works only if everyone respects the same rules. Not only the rules it likes.

OK, it looks like the morning is lurking in my window. Time to go to bed.  Enough for today. Good night and sleep well. Hope you can after reading this, LOL.

Camera, poetry, and Yule in Halifax – with John

Bogumil Pacak-Gamalski

Yule is an old Solitice holiday in Norse and Anglo-Saxon tradition. I was going to visit my husband burial place today. But been there a short time ago. Dont really like going there, especially this time of the year, when it is wet, gray, desolate and sad. Entire summer and autumn I spent almost entirely on wild beaches, secluded spots, where I could be just with him. Talked to him, built forts of stones and sticks to our love and passion. wrote poems to him. And I said today – no more cemeteries. You are here with me, and we are going to do some damage at night time in Halifax. And we went and did.

Yule in Halifax

Do  you still notice the odd things

and the normal things, expected?

Did you hear the song of the waves

yesterday – when it came to our feet,

caressing, enveloping them in a soft

foamy embrace like a kiss?

Do you still follow me on these walks,

my walks of our talks, our love and pain?

Forlorn shores of foreign land that

separated us. But it failed, it failed, I say.

I scream – it failed!

The land on the edge of Canada,

precipitously looking at the abyss

of cold North Atlantic waters.

But we walked on these edges

holding hands, touching limbs and lips.

I still pull you, like a fisherman dragging his net

from the bottom of a cold ocean,

and I bring you to my boat and we sail.

We sail, I say.

I scream – we sail!

With the wind in our lungs,

hope in our hearts,

and memory locked forever:

at the sea, in the forest,

on mountaintops and in deep valleys.

Come with me to the narrow streets

of this old town of sailors and soldiers.

Let’s go at night and celebrate Yule.

Celebrate the way we never did

while we were alive!

(Halifax, Dec.26.2023; by B. Pacak-Gamalski)

Christmas Day and the gods of the sky: Sun and Moon. And Poseidon, of course.

Christmas Day and the gods of the sky: Sun and Moon. And Poseidon, of course.

Bogumil Pacak-Gamalski

Noc dobra nie była. Dusiła, tańczyła na łóżku, tarmosiła pościel, skrobała pazurami długich stop po podłodze.  Telefon zza oceanu o jedenastej rano zbudził z majaków, potem drugi, stamtąd też, ucieszył. A za oknem piękne słońce nowego, bożenarodzeniowego dnia.

Dwie więc wycieczki zrobiłem – pierwszą do Dartmouth,  do parku Dillman koło Alderney –  a później drugą jazdę na plażę ulubioną koło Lawrencetown – Conrad Beach. W pewnym momencie z nad oceanu świeciła oślepiająco złota grzywa konia z rydwanu Heliosa, a z drugiej, od strony moczar słonowodnych, okrągła, wielka twarz Księżyca w pełni. Czy noc czy dzień do diaska? – pomyślałem i uśmiałem się. A nadbiegająca prędko fala zalała mi buty i zmoczyła skarpety. Chcąc – nie chcąc miałem kąpiel. Nóg tylko co prawda, ale kąpiel jednak. A niżej widoki rannego, bożenarodzinowego Halifaksu i Dartmouth.

The night between Christmas Eve and Christmas was bad. As bad as I suspected it was going to be. Sleepless, despite staying up very late, watching TV, listening to music.  Something was moving the covers on my bed, something was scratching the floor, scratching the walls with a long, yellowish toenail. I must have dose off in the morning when an 11 am call woke me up. A happy, good call from the other side of the ocean. With dear voices of very special and dear people.  I got up refreshed. The sun was bright outside and I took my camera and went to Dillman Park near Alderney in Dartmouth. Went back home to grab a light breakfast, grab my camera again, and drove to Eastern Shore to my favored Conrad Beach. John liked it, too. It was a gorgeous day there. From the ocean side a huge, flaming head of the Sun-god, opposite the Sun, rising above the marches on clear blue sky, full Moon appeared majestically. Looking with my camera at the two gods of the Sky I did not pay attention to my feet and a quick wave covered my shoes and ankles. Well – it was a beach, it was sunny so I had at a least partial bath. And liked it.

Symphony of colours, baroque music, and chat with you.

Bogumil Pacak-Gamalski

Today was going to be a nice day. I know, you almost suspect that the next sentence would read: but it wasn’t.  To a certain degree, you are right: it wasn’t a nice day – it was a splendid day.

The next seven days they say it will be very rainy and extremely windy, stormy. Local floods and power outages are expected. But I must go to Pictou and spend some time with you there. It was going to be, after all, our home. Maybe not the epitome of my dreams – but I know it would make you very happy to be next to your brothers, home by home. And my dear, silly Boy – it isn’t Paris, Warsaw, or Barcelona, not even my dear Vilnius or Prague, where I would be happy. I would be happy working on our last home where you would be happy.

I know, in the end, the Fates had other plans, plans that destroyed ours.   But you end up there, in Pictou. With your Mom, your Dad, and now with your older brother, too. It became your home before it had a chance to become mine. Therefore, as Christmas is approaching, I had to go before the storms to be with you.

All the way to Pictou from Halifax, I listened to the best of the best of baroque music. I have said many times that I have very mixed feelings about that epoch in music. I know – Haydn, Bach, Vivaldi, and early Mozart. But, at times it just makes me cringe. It often feels like a tight corset that makes your chest scream for air and freedom.  Then again, at times – nothing soothes you better than old, familiar fugue, like an old shirt or warm morning robe.  Today was one of these days for baroque.  Predictable, well composed, elegant.

Little did I know what you had in plans for me on my way back. A symphony of colours, shades, and hues in the sky I could not imagine possible.

Just one note of my experiences with sunsets: mind you almost my entire life, the adult part anyway, I have spent on the shores of oceans or in the valleys and peaks of big mountains. And many, many years of sailings on ships; I have been to most Polynesian islands and their beaches. In a word – I know a thing or two about sunsets.  Yet, nothing prepared me for the gift you made me today on my way back to Halifax.

And you must know of that special part of Highway #1 from New Glasgow to Truro. It is just like someone was planning a road to be a panoramic exhibition. Almost every season. Particularly beautiful during the glory of Autumn, with the dark hues of evergreens mixed with flames of red, yellow, and gold of other trees. At times it is almost dangerous to drive there as you try to concentrate on the highways and not as much on the panoramas.  Today – you thanked me for our visit and chat with the sky. It was just breathtaking.

There is also something to say about the spookiness of old, local cemeteries that with certain lithing make you feel like watching some old Poltergeist movies. Just saying.