Ramble VI - Viva Ramallah

With pleasing symmetry, and thanks to the right boot of a little balding Spaniard, in this post I am able to return to the subject of my first post. If you scroll right to the bottom of this page you'll find photos of the reaction in Ramallah in April to Barcelona's defeat of Real Madrid in El Clasico. Well last night the players of those two teams got together with a couple of mates and beat the best of the rest of the world. Naturally, and just as I predicted in that first post, things kicked off once again.

Ramble V - Bloody foreigners, coming over here, trying to help.

Following the existential naval-gazing of the last post (quick summary: Why I am in Palestine = desire to mitigate injustice + personal connection to people + career prospects + post-colonialist guilt) the BIG question for this one is a natural corollary: Should I or any of the 'internationals' even be here at all?

(Now before your politics filter has you reaching for the remote let me say that I'm writing about this stuff because it is relevant to my own decision of whether to stay or go back the UK. If you have got this far then you might at least care about that.)

Ramble IV - My Palestinian Question

(This post was provoked by a piece from Robert Fowke on the Guardian website this week. Read it here.)

"Ok, but why Palestine, why not Tibet or Darfur or the thousands living in poverty in the UK?"

I am asked this question a lot. Not from my friends and family, most of whom are willing to accept my choices at face value, or even from colleagues, who are too polite or indifferent to quiz me about my motivations. No, I am asked this question most often by just one person. Me.

(I know what you're thinking. "Bloody narcissist - always banging on about himself." Well what did you expect? This is a blog about ME.)

Ramble III - Smooth Re-entry

I'm sure you've all been on tenterhooks but your wait is over. I am back in Ramallah and it feels great. The short story is that I had a very enjoyable week in Dahab and a relatively painless re-entry into Israel. I won't bore you with the details of the border crossing, suffice to say that the security personnel seemed taken aback by my honest approach and, despite asking hundreds of questions (including a bizarre request for my grandfather's name!) and recording my answers, were relatively civil in their approach and only detained me for an hour.

Ramble II - Rant Warning

This is a bit of an impromptu post due mostly to having a few hours to kill. I’m sitting in a café in Jerusalem Central Bus Station praying to the god of wireless internet and waiting for a bus to Eilat in southern Israel. My ultimate destination is Dahab on the Red Sea coast of Egypt’s Sinai desert where I will enjoy a week of beach bothering and scuba diving. Now before you curse me for being a Billy Bragg-a-lot and head for the exits allow me to explain how the next seven days will actually be the most stressful of my time in the Middle East.

Ramble I - El Clasico

Welcome to my blog. If you’ve got this far then you’ve either succumbed to one of my thinly veiled pleas for attention on facebook or twitter or you’ve been waylaid in your search for a Palestinian hill-walking club. If you are amongst the latter, please hit backspace and resume your googlings. If you are one of the former allow me to attempt some kind of explanation for the self-indulgent wittering which will surely follow.