thanks!  time for a trip of Office Depot I suppose!

And Palestine.

So, if you are of a nervous type, or just here for the next print release and nothing else (nothing wrong with that) please DO NOT click on this link, some of the photographs are beyond horrendous and will affect you. This thread is about Syrian crisis though.

Everything is relative I know, I spent a part of my day today worrying about something in my life, with hindsight it means absolutely nothing and in comparison with some of the suffering people have to bear is not worth a thought.

www.facebook.com/WmnAlwaqMaaQtaL?fref=nf

Pictures tell a story, but wish I could read the text

Was just watching this again.

I (like I imagine quite a few others on here) have been exposed to so many shocking and horrific images these past few weeks, be it Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, or flight MH17. I feel disturbingly numb to these images now. Almost like they're unreal. Beyond a movie or a work of fiction.

The loss or injury of any life causes an immeasurable impact on family, friends and those around them. Like ripples in a pond. Take a life, and you're harming more than just the individual. You're harming countless others. I cannot even begin to imagine the long lasting and far reaching damage the deaths, no, the murders from just this past year will have caused and will continue to cause. There will be scars, physical, mental, political for a long time to come.

Hate often breeds hate, and when I see images of people carrying the partial remains of someone that they loved and knew as real people, I don't know how they are supposed be ..........human.. anymore.

This is off topic of Syria, but this past week, I've found myself looking up at planes. In a way I never have before. When you look at what humans have done, considering we're apes, we've done some s**tty things, but we also do great things. We made planes! They're amazing. Look at what they do. I cannot even begin to fathom how lucky we are as a species to be able to make such things.

Then someone made something that could destroy it. In an instant. And then they made lots of them. Then companies sold them to people around the world so they could destroy more planes if they should feel the need.

How do we allow companies, governments to make such weapons? To sell, such weapons. And these weapons don't just vanish. Many of the weapons that are being used in conflicts around the globe, are 20 years old or more. Leftover from previous wars and revolutions.

Humans can do amazing things, but this f**king tribal ape thing that's in is will drag us down to the darkest place if we allow it to. I don't have any solutions or answers, even for myself, but maybe if we can do good things, even the tiniest of things, that must be worth something.

"All" I've seen are images of conflict and death. To be in that, to live that, and to be expected to live beyond that as a decent human being, with hope? I can't imagine. Yes, it's all relative. Many of us won the life lottery just by virtue of our place of birth. We might not be able to move mountains right now, but at least let's know that the mountains are there. And do our best to perhaps move them tomorrow. Do nice things. Help people. Care for people. Hurt when others hurt, don't look away.

If we can be good, do nice things, then I hope that those acts, even small acts, can have an immeasurably positive affect on others, perhaps bringing hope, help or alleviating suffering. Do something to undermine those that would cause evil and harm to others. Be good.

Sorry for the long post.

Edit: Oh, and we're allowed to like art. And to buy toys and to collect things. We're lucky in that way.

seriously, dont clik on that link. its fucking horrendous. fucking hell.

Terrible.
Do you have a link to the petition?

I got a sticker up outside grey area coffee shop - Amsterdam





Another above a che Guevara bar on the beach - zandvoort

That one of them funny cafe's over there fella?

8,432 signatures calling on the UN to ban the trade in Syrian history - will you add your name?

Sign now to stop antiquities being turned into guns: thesyriacampaign.org/save-history

From Martha Cooper's Instagram:

"Barefoot Syrian mother & child refugees. Photo taken and pasted by @merveberkman on a wall where many immigrants usually sit. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have made their way to Istanbul but the Turkish government is beginning to apply sanctions. The image draws attention to their plight. As the artist, Merve, observes, "An image is sometimes more powerful than the actual thing." #streetart #istanbul"

My name is Hussam Badawe and I work for the White Helmets in Idlib. I work saving my people from destruction when barrel bombs hit us. I'm from Saraqeb, and here we are facing violent attacks since more than 40 days, the Assad forces are using everything they have, the White Helmets haven't rested for weeks, and no one cares.

I can only ease the suffering of my people -- I need your help to end it. My friends in UK tell me Italy is trying to block an EU embargo on the sale of aviation fuel to the Assad regime -- fuel that is used to power the helicopters that drop the barrel bombs on our kids, families and people. If the Italian government allows the aviation fuel to go to the Assad forces it will be helping kill our people.

I am writing to you to ask to contact the Italian Foreign Minister and ask her to support the embargo. I can’t do much from here -- but you can: thesyriacampaign.org/en/actions/italy-no-fuel-for-killing

Every day we deal with dead bodies and human remains, with injuries, with people blown apart, the situation for us is dire. We're tired of dealing with body parts and corpses. Please take a minute to help us, to help Syria.

In peace,

Hussam

Anna from The Syria Campaign here ---

Last night we heard that the UK introduced further proposals for EU sanctions to block the sale of aviation fuel to the Syrian regime. This fuel is not used for civilian or humanitarian purposes -- it’s used to fuel helicopters that drop barrel bombs on civilians. The number of barrel bombs dropped has doubled in the last six months, with some towns hit more than fifty times a day.

I find it hard to believe that Italy is blocking this but it's true. I don’t exactly know why, but Italy has a track record of blocking embargoes on Syria for economic reasons. [1] [2]

As you read this, the EU Foreign Affairs Council are working on agreeing this UK proposal. We got insider info that they will be working on this through the weekend right up to the last minute of the vote at 11am on Monday. So we’ve got less than 48 hours to change Italy’s position.

We need to change the mind of Federica Mogherini, Italy's Foreign Minister -- she's already under fire for close ties to Putin, a key Assad ally, because of oil interests. Mogherini thought she could halt this deal behind closed doors -- but we're stopping that. 48,000 of us are receiving this email -- together we can help support Hassam's call and reverse Mogherini's position. Time is tight but we can really do this.

thesyriacampaign.org/en/actions/italy-no-fuel-for-killing

If we succeed we will stop more aviation fuel getting to the Assad regime. That means less helicopters in the skies, which means less bombs on the ground. As Assad's attacks intensify Syrians need us more than ever.
thesyriacampaign.org/en/actions/italy-no-fuel-for-killing

With hope,
Hussam + Anna

[1] Italy seeks to delay EU oil embargo on Syria (Financial Times)
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4248317c-d326-11e0-9ba8-00144feab49a.html#axzz3GOOv7WDL

[2] Italy defends bid to delay EU oil ban on Syria (EU Observer)
euobserver.com/foreign/113473

The Syria Campaign

We did it!

Big thank you to the 3,655 people who sent an email to the Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini.

In just one day we shifted Italy’s position and now Europe has agreed to ban the sale of aviation fuel to Syria. The same fuel used to drop rusty barrel bombs on schools, hospitals and homes by the regime. It’s an epic win, and it happened in record time. This is proof that this works -- please please we need you on future campaigns.

So how did we manage to turn Europe’s fourth richest country in a day? Well here’s what happened:

Last Thursday we got an email from a friend with diplomatic contacts inside the European negotiations, saying that Italy was blocking this key proposal to ban aviation fuel as part of the Syrian sanctions

We called contacts in Brussels and they spoke to other diplomatic sources who confirmed that Italy was indeed blocking the ban

We knew that these negotiations would be continuing through the weekend and that the buck stopped with the Italian Foreign Minister - Federica Mogherini - a rising star in Europe who would not want to be associated with a policy backing the killing of civilians

After scrambling an email together to the 48,132 people on The Syria Campaign email list, thousands of you emailed Mogherini and contacted her on Twitter asking her to drop opposition to the ban

Bloomberg[1] and European Voice[2] (the biggest EU weekly) picked up the story -- adding to the pressure

Within three hours Ms Mogherini had responded on Twitter saying “I’ve checked and stopped a technical input” - her way of saying the decision was made below her and she’s overruled it. But we still weren’t sure she was talking about the aviation fuel. We knew Italy supported the wider sanctions, but this was about the fuel behind the bombs. We asked Ms Mogherini for clarity but she didn’t give it. So the campaign kept on rolling….

As it grew, larger names started picking it up and Mia Farrow tweeted to her half-a-million followers:

By this time the emails and tweets were really flooding into Mogherini’s inbox and she snapped a little bit:

We then got confirmation from our diplomatic contacts that “the member state who once had problems is now ready to move forward”. Bloomberg confirmed the Italian change and a few moments ago we heard that the European meeting agreed the ban. [3]

Victory took 26 hours from start to finish. Astonishing.

A Brussels insider confirmed to us on email that “your campaign has had a big impact” and one of the journalists commented to us saying “interesting what a bit of publicity can do”.

So huge thank you again for making that a successful couple of days. Making it harder to refuel these helicopters and planes that are terrorising ordinary Syrians far from the front lines is a great achievement. But there is so much more that needs to be done to stop the violence from all sides, so let’s keep going.

Thanks for being a part of it,

Anna

PS please spread the good news on Facebook - here’s a post you can share:
www.facebook.com/TheSyriaCampaign/photos/a.608812989210718.1073741828.607756062649744/730711707020845/?type=1

[1] EU Sanctions on Oil May Target Oil, Weapons Suppliers (Bloomberg)
www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-17/eu-sanctions-on-syria-may-target-oil-weapons-suppliers.html

[2] Italy blocks sanctions on Syria (European Voice)
www.europeanvoice.com/article/italy-blocks-sanctions-on-syria/

[3] www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/145204.pdf

The Syria Campaign is building an open, global movement working for a peaceful future for Syria. We are people from all over the world who are coming together to tackle what the UN has described as “the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our time".