Swedish Greta Thunberg and her friends suffered a terrible setback just as they were about to once again set off to be turned back from Gaza. The gods of the winds, it seems, stirred up a strong gale over the Mediterranean, forcing the brave adventurers to return to their port of departure.
Thunberg and her companions have nevertheless decided to continue their journey once the wind dies down, setting sail for the much-suffering Gaza. Their intention there is to break the illegal blockade of Gaza and deliver essential aid to its civilians.
It remains to be seen how Greta’s brave warriors will fare: will they succeed in forcing Israel to do what neither Hamas nor Iran has achieved through violence, and what not even the UN itself managed through diplomacy? What is certain, in any case, is that today’s storm and their eventual arrival will provide them with very welcome publicity, which will surely flatter their egos.
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One of the participants on this expedition is Renaz Ebrahimi, a Finnish public figure. Her most successful performance to date took place during a Finnish TV broadcast (at 13:57), where she acted with Oscar-worthy rage after astronomer and science writer Esko Valtaoja unfortunately said: “For example, now this notorious N-word. It’s quite a different matter if it’s used by some member of parliament who talks – pardon me – about jumping little neekeri men, than if it’s Pippi Longstocking’s father, who happens to be the neekeri king.”
By way of background for my international readers: as recently as the 1990s, the Finnish word neekeri simply meant a dark-skinned person, without carrying the same connotation as the American word nigger. Of course, today that association has been forcibly imported from America, but even now, the older generation often uses the term without any negative intent.
So, it remains to be seen whether Renaz Ebrahimi will succeed in gaining as much publicity from her trip to Gaza as she did after the TV broadcast I linked above. What is already certain, however, is that she, Greta, and the other brave travelers will be diverted away from the coast of Gaza—most likely to an Israeli port, as happened on the previous occasion.
Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Greta Thunberg in Search of a Greater Thrill
Eco-Fascist Blackmail: Threats of Sabotage Loom Over the World Ski Championships
Impact of Diversity in Films
