Gaza - Prison, no porridge

For internationals working in Ramallah there is often the sense that you are living on easy-street. I regularly find myself explaining that my quality of life here is much better than it was in London. My commute is a five minute walk, my rent is a third of what I paid in Brixton, and crime levels are so low to make south London seem like a den of vice and hate. The pressures that come with a military occupation are felt much less in the Ramallah bubble then elsewhere in the West Bank and as an Brit there is always the safety net of a budget flight home if things get a little hot.

Part 2 - My boss gets a (brief) taste of freedom

Before I launch into Part 2 of this social media human-themed blog I should update you on Omar (see Part 1). We have actually heard some news – but it is not good. However, before any of it is confirmed I am reluctant to put it out there in this (semi) public forum. For starters, it is very difficult to know what to believe. 

None of us have known Omar very long and although it seems impossible, for those of us who know him as the big loveable goalie from al-‘Amari, to imagine Omar being involved in anything untoward, it is rare to find a young Palestinian man who has not been in trouble with the Israeli authorities at one time or another, legitimately or not. Having said that, we all know that the Israeli military ‘have ways of making people talk’, of making people sign confessions and of locking people away on the basis of testimonies taken under duress. (They even do it with kids.) So it is difficult to know what to think. 

At this stage all we can do is wait anxiously and hope that Omar is not the latest in a long line of Palestinians jailed on dubious grounds, and if he is, that he is able to stay of sound mind and body and is returned to us before too long.

Now it's personal.

It has taken the kidnapping of a good friend and the (temporary) release of my boss from a travel ban to jolt me from my blogging lethargy. Here is part one.

Part 1

I had intended this blog to be about that oh-so Arab Spring cliché - ‘the power of social media’ - because at first that seemed to be the most interesting angle from which to tell the story of two memorable events that took place close to me over the last week. Then it struck me that perhaps I was missing the point and like so many jaded foreign correspondents searching for a ‘modern’ take on an old tale I was bypassing what was important - the flesh and blood at the centre. Anyway judge for yourselves.

The Rise of the Map Geek

Back in May I made some cosmetic changes to this blog to reflect more my life in Ramallah. An explanation of the new look is a little overdue. (If you have subscribed and are reading this in an email format you will have to visit the actual blog page for this to make any sense.)

The new background is an artificially aged satellite picture of Ramallah extracted from Google Earth. My office, from where I'm writing this now, is just above the 'b' in the 'Ramallah Ramblings' title at the top of the page. Just above the 's' in the title is Manara Square, a mini Trafalgar complete with lions, which marks the centre of town and the location of these photos of the World Cup and 'El Clasico' celebrations last year. My apartment is about 3 inches to the south hidden by these words. (Click on the picture to the right for an unobstructed view.)

Reasons to be cheerful? Not yet.

If the hopes of some are to be believed these last few days could prove to have been pretty important in the history of this region and the lives of the Palestinian people. Fortunately, you don't have to rely on me for analysis. You don't even have to read some leftist rag.

Nook Neurosis

(WARNING: This post contains material of a pretentious and self-indulgent nature.)

The following is a delayed response to a post by Chloe in which she ponders the question: To Kindle or not to Kindle...?

In her post, Chloe, committed bibliophile that she is, questions whether forsaking the emotional and physical relationship between reader and book is too heavy a price to pay for the clear practical benefits of using an e-reader. Here's my two-penneth.

More holidays than blog posts

So I lied. 'Normal Ramallah-related service' (see my post from 10th May) will have to wait a little longer. A serious confidence and spare-time drought has reduced my ramblings from a slow trickle to barely a dribble. As a result I've actually been on holiday again since I last posted so I'm going to ease myself back in by posting a few photos with oh-so-witty captions. This is the ultimate exercise in lazy blogging, I know, but it shouldn't be too demanding of you either.

Ultimately Unsure...

In a post from last year I wrote about Ultimate Peace, an US/Israeli initiative which attempts to achieve a form of reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian children through the magic of frisbee.

When I got home I was asked to write an article for Ultimatum, the annual magazine of the sport's governing body in UK. The article was finally published this week. It goes into a bit more detail than the original post and hopefully reflects how my views settled after I had had a little time to ponder. You can read it here.

Rambling to Ramallah - Part II - Touring Turkey

(As you can see I've given the blog a bit of a revamp. More on this to come. The upshot is I've spent so long faffing around with the design I've left little time for writing. Hence the rather large photo to word ratio in this post. This is a relief to you I'm sure. This will be my last holiday related post. Normal Ramallah-related service will resume shortly.)

Long story short, I decided to skip Syria, stay in Turkey for two weeks and fly to Tel Aviv from Istanbul. Turkey is a wonderful country with stunningly diverse scenery and in Istanbul has one of the most mesmerising cities I've ever visited.

Rambling to Ramallah - Part I - Just BBBBecause

Originally posted on 15th April en route from Bucharest to Istanbul

Now this is the business. A (faux) wood panelled compartment, rainy Romanian countryside trundled past the window and no bog roll for 19 hours. This is international train travel and it kicks Easyjet's orange ass every day of the week. (Let's ignore the fact that I face a 1am bus replacement service due a busted bridge on the Bulgaria-Turkey border - all part of the experience, don't you know.)