I heard about the indiscriminate killing of activists on a boat bringing aid to Gaza by the Israeli army when I was in Paris a couple of days ago. I obviously felt concerned by the people on the boat, but the first thing I thought was “what a mistake!”. Israel’s relationships in the region would not probably be a case study for a guidebook on good neighbourly relations. In fact, the only country with which Israel had until now relatively good relations was Turkey, the relationship with Egypt and Jordan being more ambiguous, and with the rest (i.e. Lebanon and Syria) being “unfriendly”. Turkey and Israel signed in 1996 a military cooperation agreement and later a 20-year deal for water transfers from Turkey to Israel. Now the relation is on the verge of breaking.

At a moment in which the United States are not very tolerant with Israel’s arrogance and tough approach to its problematic situation, particularly Palestine occupation and settlements, the worsening of its relationship with the only “ally” in the region is very bad news indeed.

Furthermore, the killing of unarmed activists on a boat in international waters will not exactly help to improve the image that Israel has in the world as the bully in the Middle East. In my travels in the region and through my studies, I’ve understood that the real picture is much more nuanced and complex, as it always is, but people’s and their governments’ perceptions are often more important than reality. Or better said, they do constitute a very relevant part of reality. Ignoring them or treating them with arrogance, as Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has done by saying that the world’s reaction is “an attack of international hypocrisy”, is another serious mistake.

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Mi problema,
es que siempre espero el tren
pero cuando pasa,
ya no lo quiero coger,
y ni me lleva,
ni me deja de traer.

Y la espera,
raya,
la máxima idiotez,
las ventajas tienden a desaparecer,
y nunca gano,
pero no dejo de perder.

– La Raya, Maldita Nerea

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Gracias Guillermo por un fantástico domingo.

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And now that you found it
It’s gone
Now that you feel it
You don’t
It’s gone forever

– “Nude”, Radiohead

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Harriet and Alan met in a winter night. Alan still remembers today their first kiss. The sweetness of her lips, the twinkling in her eyes. It was like he was dragged to her by an unannounced passion. He still cannot explain how he dared to kiss her beauty. Harriet’s love for Alan bursted from the moment she put her eyes and lips on his.

After a year in their relationship, Alan proposed Harriet to build a boat to sail to faraway places where their love could be eternal. She was delighted with the idea of spending all her life traveling with him, where nobody could bother them, where she could have him for ever. For a year, they put all their efforts and money to make the most beautiful white sailing boat love can build. They call it Handa. On a spring morning, Handa left port for a trip that would only end when Harriet and Alan would be both gone for ever.

Alan grew up in a Mediterranean town, he knew the secrets of the sea. He taught Harriet how to sail and steer the boat, how to read maps and find directions, how to fish and cook fish. She excelled in all of these, for she was a good learner. Among all, what she loved the most was fishing. She enjoyed the quietness of the sea, the stillness of the rod, and its sudden movement announcing the biting catch. Alan would sit down next to her, reading, admiring how the wind caressed her long blonde hair and the sun twinkled in her grey blue eyes.

Days, months and years passed with laughs, kisses and lovers’ bickering. Their boat was giving them what it was promised, a place where to love and be loved for ever. They had long conversations under starry skies about important and trivial things. They named their future children a thousand times. They drunk delicious wine until they giggled together and imagined dreams to build side by side. Happiness sprang from their hearts feeding their souls, bringing them where they wanted to belong.

Alan liked to read books and study the waves, the moon and the stars. He liked to dream about adventures he had read a million times in a thousand novels. He shared these dreams with Harriet, he wanted her to be with him in every and each one of them. Harriet liked the boat. She found all she wished in it. She didn’t understand why Alan wanted something more, for her the whole world was the boat and him.

While she was fishing, birds would often flocked around Harriet’s catch. First, she tried to scare them away, but they always came back.Then she realized how beautiful they were. She started giving them part of her fish, until fishing became a way for getting her feathered friends back every day. She found company in them for those moments when Alan was immersed in his books imagining life in many places at once.

Days, months, years passed. With time, Alan got more absorbed in his books and Harriet more entertained by her birds. The boat, meanwhile, was getting old, and despite all Harriet’s efforts its painting was falling, its wood corroding and its sails tearing up. She asked Alan many times to take better care of the boat. Yet, regardless of sudden outbursts of activity, he would often get distracted by his mind, losing all motivation to nurse their love vessel.

One night a vicious storm erupted. The high waves rocked violently the hull, the strong winds ripped the sails, and the heavy rain broke the corroded wood. Harriet and Alan found refuge in the cabin. He tied himself to the bed and fell asleep, accepting his impotency to do something against the destructive power of the storm. For the first time since they departed, Harriet felt alone. She was scared, and nobody was there to make her fear go away. She stood awake the whole night, while the boat shook and tremble, waiting the end of her life. The next morning, calm returned. Her immense relief became soon sadness. Her heart was slowly breaking. Yet, she remained silent.

Without sails and a broken boat. Harriet and Alan found themselves lost in the middle of the ocean. The force of the storm revealed the deterioration of the boat, in which they have put so much hope for a better life together. Harriet still believed in their dream. She remembered the times where they sat long hours looking at the sea, talking about a thousand and one things. These memories kept her working on the boat, trying to get it back to sail. Alan closed himself up, absorbed in his books and his remote dreams. She tried once and again to bring him back, but he stopped listening, he stopped looking at her.

One day, a graceful white albatross flew to Harriet’s side and stayed there staring at her. Harriet offered the bird some fish. The bird took it and left it aside. Harriet intrigued asked the bird: “What do you want, if you don’t want food?”. The bird responded in a calm and soft voice: “I am here to save you.” Harriet looked at the albatross in sheer amazement. “Was it actually talking?” The bird continued talking: “There is a boat coming soon. In that boat birds are masters, for its captain loves them. But”, it paused for a moment, “there is only space for one more person. The boat comes to save you, Alan will have to stay.” Then it flapped quickly its wings and flew away.

The next morning, a white speck appeared in the horizon. Alan did not see it. Harriet knew what it was, but she didn’t tell him. The idea of leaving a boat that was sinking, of being saved by a bird and his captain, who loved what she loved, tempted her. Yet, she loved Alan. She didn’t want to let their love die, even if he was letting it perish in insensibility. He pulled him out of the cabin where he sought refuge since the day of the storm, and asked him what he wanted to do, whether he was going to help her in repairing the boat or, instead, keep daydreaming. He sighed, looked at her, and said that the boat was not in such a bad state, that it only needed minor repairs, which he would do soon after finishing the book he was reading, and went back into the cabin. Harriet’s heart was definitely breaking. Alan didn’t know. And she remained silent.

One misty night, the thought stroke him. He suddenly stopped reading, looked around and saw the reality from which he had progressively escaped until now. He saw the painting in the walls falling, the cover of the sofas ripped up, the pipes in the kitchen leaking. He realized the state in which the boat he built with love for Harriet was. His whole body shook. He stood up and started to remove the broken covers, when he heard noises from upstairs.

He heard Harriet shouting from the deck, “I am leaving the boat, it’s finished, it’s sinking, there is not future! You’d better do the same!”. When Alan heard this, he imagined Harriet jumping out of the boat into the cold waters. He hurried upstairs, ready to jump next to her to swim to the nearest land. “We can always build another boat”, he thought while jumping up the stairs. But when he arrived to the deck, he didn’t see Harriet waiting for him in the water. He saw her on another boat surrounded by all kinds of birds, waving him goodbye, disappearing in the myst. She was shouting to him, but he could only hear vaguely the last words: “You will find another boat, I’ll remember…!”.

Alan stood for a long moment paralyzed looking into the horizon at the fading boat on which Harriet was leaving him. He then realized with a sudden violence what he had done. He had let the boat died. It was sinking because of him. She was leaving because there was no future, and it was all his fault. Their love was wrecked because of him. He looked at the broken ship and saw no hope, this was the end. The memories were shriekingly painful. He was suffering for the absence of the star that guided his life, the love that fulfilled his soul. He decided to burn it.

He lit a rag wet in petrol from the broken engine and started with the tore off sails. The fire caught quickly. The flames spread fast. Alan stood still, watching how the boat his heart built was rapidly burning, being consumed by the senselessness that pushed Harriet away, making her to abandon him forever. The fire was closer and closer to him, but he didn’t move. He didn’t see any reason to keep living. He was decided to die there.

He could feel the heat increasing on the tip of his toes of his bare feet. Sweat began to stream down profusely from his face. His head started to turn around in dizziness. Suddenly, he saw his childhood, his life and felt hope. He turned around and jumped off the boat. He came down into the water with a big splash, started to swim away from the boat, while the flames exploded in contact with the remaining petrol in the engine. He stopped swimming, turned his head and stared at the erupting vessel. He began to cry.

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The victims of these injustices are not only women, but all. A world that is unjust for some, it is actually unjust for most of us except the minority that takes advantages of the injustice. Thus, all of us should be activists in removing from our planet the stigma of being a woman.

I’d like to quote a sentence that I read today on Francisco Polo’s blog:

To be a girl is so powerful that we had to educate everyone not to be one.

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