Gabriel Ash on Assad

I just stumbled on this little gem by my friend Gabriel Ash on Louis Proyect's marxmail thingy:

The immediate problem is indeed Assad. But that is the tip of the iceberg. Assad has been a stellar prince. He has fully grasped the potential of the current historical moment, the fortuna that opens possibilities for virtù, and acted on that understanding singlemindedly. Bombing one's own country to the stone age and expelling the majority of the people is a very high risk strategy, and few tyrants have survived it. But Assad has grasped where the world is today. He has correctly understood that defeating the threat of expanding democracy, everywhere, but especially in the Middle East, is not only the point of unity of all the world's powers, but even the dominant intellectual and cultural mood, and if he positions himself at that very point, he will be untouchable. He understood that none of his adversaries, not Turkey, nor the US, nor Israel, would risk his downfall if it meant an opening for popular empowerment. And the more he murders, the more he destroys, the more impossible it is it remove him without conceding the revolt. Syria is the 21st century Paris Commune. It is a flash of lightning that illuminates a furious global counter-revolution. Even hundreds of thousands of refugees are unlikely to change that. the EU would much rather build new concentration camps for them than risk inadvertently helping a popular victory against tyranny. About the left, the less one says the better.
Gabriel Ash

Support Refugees from Syria

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Below is a request from our friends at the Palestinian Youth Movement and Middle East Children's Alliance to contribute to a fundraising campaign in support of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. We urge you to support this effort as generously as you are able. 

While Israel, the United States, and its other regional allies such as Saudia Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf States, are happy to see the destruction of the “Arab Spring” wherever it may have blossomed, we remain in solidarity with all struggles for human emancipation. The range of forces and interests arrayed against these struggles has been on display in abundance throughout the “Arab Spring,” and nowhere more than in Syria. 

As a network, we hold varying positions on the Syrian conflict, and have different analyses of which forces are most to blame for the immense devastation. However, as people dedicated to human liberation, we all recognize the immensity of the human catastrophe which has been the result of the Syrian conflict.

Join PYM and MECA to Support Refugees from Syria Today View this email in your browser Urgent Action Needed: Support displaced children and families from Syria in the refugee camps of Lebanon   Dear Friends and Community Members, The situation in Syria has become one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history. The United Nations is now calling for $4.2 billion in relief for the people of Syria and those who have been displaced over the three years of violence that continues to devastate the country. The facts below highlight the urgency of the situation and our collective need to act and support our brothers and sisters in the region. More than 7 million people in Syria have left their homes Over 136,000 people have been killed More than 2.4 million people have fled the country, seeking refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq and North Africa More than 900,000 Syrian refugees are displaced in Lebanon More than 50,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria have sought refuge in Lebanon Children comprise over half the refugee population in Lebanon  The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) - Bay Area chapter and MECA are calling for urgent action from everyone to help end this most recent nakba, catastrophe.   Coming from a community who has struggled for more than sixty-five years against continuous displacement, PYM - Bay Area stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Syria, and we call upon our local community to join us in supporting our communities in the homeland in combatting the detrimental effects of forced displacement. In partnership with the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), PYM - Bay Area is launching an online donation drive to help raise funds for education projects and community support for children from Syria in Lebanon’s refugee camps.  The drive will culminate in a cultural event on March 22nd to gather as a community and raise as much money as possible for refugees from Syria. We hope to coordinate our efforts with as many individuals, organizations, and others who would like to help. The time to act is now. You can safely send any tax-deductible contribution, no matter how big or small, online, through the MECA website today.           Since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, millions of Syrians have fled their homes, with more than 900,000 of them seeking refuge in Lebanon. Among them, 80,000 Palestinian and Syrian refugees have sought refuge in the already overcrowded and impoverished Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, where they rely largely upon the generosity of other refugee families for support.  To make matters worse for displaced families, this winter has been one of the harshest in recorded history in the region, leaving many without shelter, heat, or food. The brutal cold that has swept through many countries of the Arab world cannot be disconnected from the changing global weather patterns, most recent of which devastated millions in the Philippines with Typhoon Haiyan. Needless to say, it is the most marginalized populations that carry the burden of these crises. We recognize that our struggle is bound with the struggle of others across the many borders that separate us, and we cannot imagine justice for us until we have realized justice for all. With this in mind, we will contribute 5% of our fundraising efforts to our brothers and sisters in the Philippines who also need our help. Donate Now Al Nakab Center for Youth Activities The funds raised will go to support the work of Al Nakab Center for Youth Activities in Burj el Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. Al Nakab Center was founded in July 2013 as a joint project between Ma’an Youth Group and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) - Lebanon to address the growing needs of Syrian and Palestinian families seeking refuge in the camp as a result of the protracted violence in Syria. The center is entirely run by independent grassroots Palestinian and Lebanese youth organizers in Beirut and offers educational and cultural activities to Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth living in the camp, including English, Arabic and Math classes for Syrian students through its accelerated learning program. Many children who have fled Syria have had to seek alternative schooling to the Lebanese public school system, which is stretched over capacity and where integration into the Lebanese curriculum has been difficult due to language differences. Al Nakab Center has thus created a special accelerated learning curriculum for Syrian refugees in order to fill in this gap, and meet children’s educational needs in ways the formal schooling system cannot.  Designed according to the needs highlighted by the refugee families themselves, Al Nakab Center also functions as a resource institution for displaced Syrian and Palestinian families who need access to a physical gathering space and resources such as its computer lab, which provides internet access for families in the camp. As such, the center has been vital to those who now suffer from post-traumatic stress and isolation as a result of the refugee crisis from Syria. The center needs $10,680 in order to continue its programming for the next 6 months. To find out more about Al Nakab Center, visit their Facebook page, or contact PYM atpalyouth.usa@gmail.com for more information. For more information, please contact palyouth.usa@gmail.com or visit our website at http://www.pymusa.org/.

 

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Baghdad still burning ten years later

This is a straight copy and paste from the blog of a woman who recorded her thoughts about the invasion of Iraq in the blog, Baghdad Burning, from August 2003 to January 2007.  Then she seemed to simply disappear after relocating to Syria.  The cliché, out of the frying pan into the fire sprang to mind.  I remember googling, whatever happened to Riverbend? and coming upon the Graduate Grumblings blog with a growing list of comments asking the same question.  Well, Riverbend popped back into the blogosphere just the other day with what she says is probably her last post.

Here it is but the whole blog is worth a look at:

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Ten Years On...

April 9, 2013 marks ten years since the fall of Baghdad. Ten years since the invasion. Since the lives of millions of Iraqis changed forever. It’s difficult to believe. It feels like only yesterday I was sharing day to day activities with the world. I feel obliged today to put my thoughts down on the blog once again, probably for the last time.

In 2003, we were counting our lives in days and weeks. Would we make it to next month? Would we make it through the summer? Some of us did and many of us didn't. 

Back in 2003, one year seemed like a lifetime ahead. The idiots said, “Things will improve immediately.” The optimists were giving our occupiers a year, or two… The realists said, “Things won’t improve for at least five years.” And the pessimists? The pessimists said, “It will take ten years. It will take a decade.”

Looking back at the last ten years, what have our occupiers and their Iraqi governments given us in ten years? What have our puppets achieved in this last decade? What have we learned?

We learned a lot.

We learned that while life is not fair, death is even less fair- it takes the good people. Even in death you can be unlucky. Lucky ones die a ‘normal’ death… A familiar death of cancer, or a heart-attack, or stroke. Unlucky ones have to be collected in bits and pieces. Their families trying to bury what can be salvaged and scraped off of streets that have seen so much blood, it is a wonder they are not red. 

We learned that you can be floating on a sea of oil, but your people can be destitute. Your city can be an open sewer; your women and children can be eating out of trash dumps and begging for money in foreign lands. 

We learned that justice does not prevail in this day and age. Innocent people are persecuted and executed daily. Some of them in courts, some of them in streets, and some of them in the private torture chambers.

We are learning that corruption is the way to go. You want a passport issued? Pay someone. You want a document ratified? Pay someone. You want someone dead? Pay someone. 

We learned that it’s not that difficult to make billions disappear. 

We are learning that those amenities we took for granted before 2003, you know- the luxuries – electricity, clean water from faucets, walkable streets, safe schools – those are for deserving populations. Those are for people who don’t allow occupiers into their country. 

We’re learning that the biggest fans of the occupation (you know who you are, you traitors) eventually leave abroad. And where do they go? The USA, most likely, with the UK a close second. If I were an American, I’d be outraged. After spending so much money and so many lives, I’d expect the minor Chalabis and Malikis and Hashimis of Iraq to, well, stay in Iraq. Invest in their country. I’d stand in passport control and ask them, “Weren’t you happy when we invaded your country? Weren’t you happy we liberated you? Go back. Go back to the country you’re so happy with because now, you’re free!” 

We’re learning that militias aren’t particular about who they kill. The easiest thing in the world would be to say that Shia militias kill Sunnis and Sunni militias kill Shia, but that’s not the way it works. That’s too simple. 

We’re learning that the leaders don’t make history. Populations don’t make history. Historians don’t write history. News networks do. The Foxes, and CNNs, and BBCs, and Jazeeras of the world make history. They twist and turn things to fit their own private agendas. 

We’re learning that the masks are off. No one is ashamed of the hypocrisy anymore. You can be against one country (like Iran), but empowering them somewhere else (like in Iraq). You can claim to be against religious extremism (like in Afghanistan), but promoting religious extremism somewhere else (like in Iraq and Egypt and Syria). 

Those who didn’t know it in 2003 are learning (much too late) that an occupation is not the portal to freedom and democracy. The occupiers do not have your best interests at heart. 

We are learning that ignorance is the death of civilized societies and that everyone thinks their particular form of fanaticism is acceptable. 

We are learning how easy it is to manipulate populations with their own prejudices and that politics and religion never mix, even if a super-power says they should mix. 

But it wasn’t all a bad education… 

We learned that you sometimes receive kindness  when you least expect it. We learned that people often step outside of the stereotypes we build for them and surprise us. We learned and continue to learn that there is strength in numbers and that Iraqis are not easy to oppress. It is a matter of time… 

And then there are things we'd like to learn...

Ahmed Chalabi, Iyad Allawi, Ibrahim Jaafari, Tarek Al Hashemi and the rest of the vultures, where are they now? Have they crawled back under their rocks in countries like the USA, the UK, etc.? Where will Maliki be in a year or two? Will he return to Iran or take the millions he made off of killing Iraqis and then seek asylum in some European country? Far away from the angry Iraqi masses… 

What about George Bush, Condi, Wolfowitz, and Powell? Will they ever be held accountable for the devastation and the death they wrought in Iraq? Saddam was held accountable for 300,000 Iraqis... Surely someone should be held accountable for the million or so?

Finally, after all is said and done, we shouldn't forget what this was about - making America safer... And are you safer Americans? If you are, why is it that we hear more and more about attacks on your embassies and diplomats? Why is it that you are constantly warned to not go to this country or that one? Is it better now, ten years down the line? Do you feel safer, with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis out of the way (granted half of them were women and children, but children grow up, right?)?

And what happened to Riverbend and my family? I eventually moved from Syria. I moved before the heavy fighting, before it got ugly. That’s how fortunate I was. I moved to another country nearby, stayed almost a year, and then made another move to a third Arab country with the hope that, this time, it’ll stick until… Until when? Even the pessimists aren’t sure anymore. When will things improve? When will be able to live normally? How long will it take?  

For those of you who are disappointed reality has reared its ugly head again, go to Fox News, I'm sure they have a reportage that will soothe your conscience. 

For those of you who have been asking about me and wondering how I have been doing, I thank you. "Lo khuliyet, qulibet..." Which means "If the world were empty of good people, it would end." I only need to check my emails to know it won't be ending any time soon. 

The first posts are here.

Capitalist assimilation? Israel licenses former minister, Murdoch, Rothschild and Cheney to steal from Syria

Well here's some direct evidence of the fact that you don't have to be Jewish to benefit from the zionist project. See this report from the Israeli business magazine, GLOBES:

A month before US President Barack Obama is due to visit Israel, the Israeli government has awarded the first license to drill for oil on the Golan Heights. The license covers half the area of the Golan from the latitude of Katzrin in the north to Tzemach in the south.

In the past, the US government reacted angrily when Israel approved construction in eastern Jerusalem ahead of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

Sources inform ''Globes'' that, a few days ago, the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources' Petroleum Council recommended awarding the license to Genie Energy Ltd. (NYSE: GNE), headed by former minister Effie Eitam. Shareholders include chairman Howard Jonas, Lord Jacob Rothschild, and Rupert Murdoch. Former US Vice President Dick Cheney is an advisor.

Awarding a drilling license on the Golan could cause an international fracas, given the Golan's status as occupied Syrian territory under international law. There was no known political intervention in the licensing process, the proximity of the event to Obama's upcoming visit is coincidental.

There's a clear contrast between the settlement construction announcement referred to in the piece and this drilling license.  Settlement construction for Jews only is part and parcel of the zionist project and carries a cost.  This drilling business is all benefit and look who benefits, Murdoch, Rothschild, Cheney and a former Israeli minister, Effie Eitam.

And let's just see if Obama raises any objection to this exploitation of occupied territory by a multinational corporation acting in partnership with the State of Israel.

And another and.  And I wonder if Israel's recent bombing of Syria had anything to do with this or was that another coincidence?  Perhaps it was, I just don't want to ignore it.

Another why oh whine from Jonathan Freedland

Here he is in today's (or yesterday's) Guardian:

I'm weary of those who get so much more exercised, so much more excited, by deaths in Gaza than they do by deaths in, say, Syria. An estimated 800 died under Assad during the same eight days of what Israel called Operation Pillar of Defence. But, for some reason, the loss of those lives failed to touch the activists who so rapidly organised the demos and student sit-ins against Israel. You might have heard me make this point before, and you might be weary of it. Well, so am I. I'm tired, too, of the argument that "We hold western nations like Israel to a higher standard", because I see only a fraction of the outrage that's directed at Israel turned on the US – a western nation – for its drone war in Pakistan which has cost an estimated 3,000 lives, nearly 900 of them civilians, since 2004.

Well it's easy to simply say, it's the ethnic cleansing stupid!  That is the ethnic cleansing, recent, current and on-going, without which Israel could not exist as a state for Jews that rubs a lot of people up the wrong way.  Those of us who remember apartheid in South Africa remember being told that there were more human rights abuses elsewhere in Africa but racist rule, enshrined in a state's basic laws was considered a no-no.

There is also the fact that Israel has apologists throughout the western media and enablers and supporters in all western governments.  This doesn't apply in the case of Syria.

The question about the USA could be more serious.  Remember that Jonathan is:

tired, too, of the argument that "We hold western nations like Israel to a higher standard", because I see only a fraction of the outrage that's directed at Israel turned on the US – a western nation – for itsdrone war in Pakistan which has cost an estimated 3,000 lives, nearly 900 of them civilians, since 2004.

Here the media cover for the US is about the same as it is for Israel but he might be wondering, why demonstrations against America's wars tend to be smaller than demonstrations against Israel. Unfortunately the basic premise is wrong. Demonstrations against America's wars tend to be between 10 and 20 times the size of Palestine Solidarity demos. Actually, I think there should still be more outrage against Israel because of its core lack of legitimacy than there is against America. After all, if America stopped the drone strikes the USA would still be the USA. If Israel stopped the colonial settlement, the ethnic cleansing and the segregation it  would no longer be Israel and then it's periodic culls would end and so, I'm guessing, would the outrage they cause.

Jonathan Freedland's problem with getting his head around the sheer repugnance of the State of Israel in the eyes of humanist opinion is that he, like the Israel he supports, is in a perpetual state of denial.

Zionists try the what about Syria routine

It would be trite for me to say that I can't believe the hasbara brigade sometimes because I can never believe them and nor should you.  But Jonathan Freedland abuses the privilege of being the resident hasbarista at The Guardian.  See the headline of his article from some time last week and you don't need to read the article itself to know what it is saying:

We condemn Israel. So why the silence on Syria?

When Israelis kill Arabs there is outrage. But Assad's brutal campaign has cost 30,000 lives and there've been no protests

 Except of course, Freedland rarely condemns Israel.  The article attracted well over 800 comments most of which seemed to notice that there has been nothing like "silence on Syria".  And Chris Doyle of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding had a withering criticism of Freedland published in the letters page a couple of days after Freedland's piece appeared:

Jonathan Freedland's argument about contrasting reactions to events inIsrael and Syria is significantly flawed (Comment, 20 October). First, there has been huge outrage over the Assad regime's brutality, including weekly protests outside the Syrian embassy and others in Trafalgar Square. Is there any credible figure in British politics who has not condemned its behaviour?

Second, the British government has quite rightly unequivocally opposed the Assad regime's crimes and supported 19 rounds of sanctions against regime figures and entities. Though Israel's crimes are not directly comparable, when its forces bomb schools, level villages, use human shields, demolish houses, torture civilians, and steal land there is little more than routine tame verbal criticism and a business as usual approach. Britain cannot even support Palestinian statehood. This rank hypocrisy and double standards rankles with many.

There is little more that we can expect the British government to do on Syria short of engaging in a dangerous war, while the Assad regime hardly cares what British protesters think, any more than it cares about peaceful Syrian demonstrators. In contrast, there is much our government could do tangibly to demonstrate that it takes Israel's consistent violations of law and Palestinian human rights seriously, not least a full arms embargo.

In both cases there has been plenty of prominent media coverage, not least in the Guardian. Those suffering in other conflicts such as Congo would love even a fraction of the attention.
Chris Doyle

 Luckily for the hasbaristas Jenny Tonge also had a letter published saying,

Jonathan Freedland makes the usual plea "why condemn Israel?". Israel claims to be a western-style democracy that respects human rights and international law. The US and the EU, as well as our own country, have social, academic, cultural and trade links with Israel, and many of us have friends or colleagues in Israel. To many UK citizens, it is their home too. Israel drove the Palestinians from their homeland and livelihoods in 1948 and for 45 years Israel has occupied the West Bank. The treatment of the Palestinians is brutal and humiliating, as I have witnessed. We are right to condemn Israel for its actions. We are right to demand a higher standard of behaviour from Israel than from Arab states that are only now struggling to achieve political change. I have been to Syria. Does Mr Freedland really want Israel to be judged by the same standards by which we judge Syria?
Jenny Tonge
House of Lords

Darling of the hasbara bloggers, Norman Geras, couldn't believe his luck skipping past every point to the nugget that Israel should be held to a higher standard than Syria. Of course Israel should be held to the same standard as Syria but it isn't held to any standard at all.

Jim Denham at Shiraz Socialist was also rather pleased about Jenny Tonge's letter.  He describes Freedland's ludicrously transparent zionist propaganda as "wisdom" and he just loves Norman Geras's "devastating reposte" to Jenny Tonge.  But even Jim Denham is forced to concede that western bankrolling and arming of Israel makes a real difference from the west's approach to Syria.

But it was thanks to Jim Denham jumping through hoops to serve the racist war criminals of the State of Israel that I saw what truly was a "devastating reposte" to Freedland's effort.  It was in one of the below the line comments to the original (well, not that original) article from a David Pavett.  It's a long comment so I won't reproduce it in full here. Let these few lines suffice:

[Freedland writes] They say nothing because there is no pressure on them to say anything. Here and abroad, there is virtual silence, save for the desperate pleas of a few Syrian expats and yesterday's cry for humanitarian help from the Turkish foreign minister.

Virtual silence! What can he mean? Later he says "The story is rarely on the front page or on the TV bulletins."

Whatever political universe JF lives in it is clearly not the same as the one I am familiar with. In mine I have watched hours and hours of news footage of the fighting in Syria (largely filmed on the mobile phones of opposition activists). I have read acres and acres of front page news items and endless discussion of the problems.

Many comments make a similar point and it is encouraging to see that zionists are no longer getting away with their hasbara antics though it is worrying to think that Freedland thought that he could get away such nonsense without people noticing.

Syria: the Palestinian dilemma

Here's a Comment is Free piece from The Guardian website by Sharif Nashishibi:

Palestinian leaders, organisations and officials were generally silent at the start of Syria's revolution, mainly out of concern for the fate of the half million Palestinian refugees in the country.

However, that has now changed, and not in President Bashar al-Assad's favour. Attacks on Palestinian camps by Syrian forces loyal to him – most recently last week against the Yarmouk camp – have resulted in killings, injuries, and the displacement of thousands. This has angered Palestinian refugees, many of whom are now openly supporting the revolution, as well as taking in Syrian refugees.

This is particularly damaging for the Assad regime because it has long regarded itself as a guardian of the Palestinian cause.

In an obvious reference to Palestinians, Jihad Makdissi, the Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, wrote on Facebook that "guests" in Syria "have to respect the rules of hospitality" or "depart to the oases of democracy in Arab countries". He later removed his comments following an outcry.

The regime's supporters often cite the fact that Palestinian refugees in Syria are treated far better than in other Arab countries. What they overlook, though, is that the law enshrining the rights of these refugees was enacted well before the Ba'ath party took power.

While several Palestinian leaders have now broken their silence about Syria, attitudes vary. Yasser Abed Rabbo, the PLO's secretary-general, described an attack by Assad's forces on a Palestinian camp in Latakia as "a crime against humanity." On the other hand, Nour Abdulhadi, the PLO's director in Syria for political affairs, later said Palestinian refugees "will remain as supporters of the Syrian government" – a claim seemingly out of step with the facts.

One major blow to Assad has been Hamas's stance. Not only did it refuse a request to hold pro-regime rallies in refugee camps in Syria, but it also allowed residents of Gaza to stage protests against him.

Its senior leaders left Damascus earlier this year, with political leader Khaled Meshaal – who reportedly twice turned down requests to meet Assad – now living in Qatar.

The article first appeared on Friday so comments are now closed.

On Hizbullah on Assad

Far be it from me to criticise heroic resistance to the State of Israel, after all I am all Hizbullah, but this Qunfuz blog has a very detailed critical piece on where Hizbullah stands on the repression now taking place in Syria:

One of my favourite chants from the Syrian uprising is the powerful and cleanly apparent illi yuqtil sha‘abu kha’in, or ‘he who kills his people is a traitor.’ It’s cleanly apparent to me at least – but not to everybody. Some kneejerk ‘leftists’ (a rapidly diminishing number) still hold that the Syrian regime is a nationalist, resistance regime, a necessary bulwark against Zionism, and that therefore it must be protected from its unruly subjects; that in fact it’s the unruly subjects, rather than those who murder them, who are the traitors.

Very sadly, Shia Islamists – Lebanon’s Hizbullah, the sectarian parties in power in Baghdad, and Iran – have repeated the same argument, not because they believe it but for tedious clannish reasons. Syrians aren’t very surprised by the Iraqi or Iranian positions; it’s Hizbullah’s betrayal which sticks in the craw. After all, until Hassan Nasrallah began propagandising on behalf of the regime’s repression, Syrians of all sects supported and admired Hizbullah. During Israel’s 2006 assault they welcomed southern Lebanese refugees into their homes. Indeed, the regime’s alliance with Hizbullah can in large part be credited to the Syrian people; the alliance was one of the regime’s only real sources of popularity. The Asad clique needed Hizbullah’s resistance flag to cover its own nationalist nakedness.

Sectarianism is the old curse of the mashreq, exacerbated in modern times by Sykes-Picot, minority dictatorships, Zionist meddling, and the invasion of Iraq....

Despite my disappointment with Hizbullah’s leadership, I still of course respect and admire their victories against Zionism. Look at this organisation, the first Arab organisation to confront and defeat the occupier: it succeeds because it is of its people, it fights for justice for its people, it arms its people. None of these things can be said for the Syrian regime, which arms against the people, and fears the people – which is why the Syrian regime will never confront and defeat the occupier.

It is entirely true that in a period of violent transition, with numerous internal and external actors plotting, nobody can know what kind of regime may rise after the Asads. One thing is certain, however: if the next system is to any extent democratic or representative, it will oppose Zionism, demand the return of the occupied Golan Heights, and struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people. The history of Syria (in struggle with Zionism since before the modern states of Syria or Israel were established) and the sentiments of 23 million Syrians attest to that.

I missed a big enough chunk from the middle to make the site well worth a visit and I wish he'd name some names of those he describes as "kneejerk "leftists"". But if you visit, check out the about page.