I have 3 dead pixels in the middle of my MacBook Pro and although being mildly annoying, it still works. Jamal, the boy who we took from the West Bank to Jerusalem to have heart surgery had a defective heart. Basically, there was a gap and so clean blood was mixing with the ‘dirty’ blood and so he, wasn’t working properly. He nearly didn’t make it through the checkpoint. With Warren and Doctor Hassan, we did make a difference. Doctor Hassan, was someone we bumped into at the checkpoint. Because he helped us get through he subsequently had his magnetic pass confiscated. It got given back but he is scared of going through the checkpoints now. What the surgical and ICU team did, and continue to do, is saves lives. Ever seen a baby die right in front of you? Me neither, but it got pretty close at times. What PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund ) do is bring these people to the Middle East and help children who need it most. Most of the children I have met from Palestine are sweet, well behaved kids. They don’t scream, or shout or kick up unnecessary fuss but are warm and respectful towards others. Of course the street kids, the tough ones, throw stones at ‘the wall’ or Israeli soldiers is understandable. Of course, they tend to get shot at with a machine gun. Like the one I met at the hospital and the ones at Ramallah.
Those who know me know I am fairly grounded and fairly tough. And I have to say I haven’t had a lot of heart for many things over the last few years. But seeing ‘the wall’, the Israeli military at checkpoints, the Israeli illegal settlements on Palestinian land, hearing first hand about ‘sonic booms’ at night in Gaza, Jamal being turned away at the checkpoint, his family being reunited with him, the feelings of the nurses and doctors who live under occupation and the daily struggle of getting to work to Jerusalem, the family who were rocket fired on when they were on a beach (killing six, all but one, who PCRF are helping)… . On the day I came back from the West Bank and got to my hotel room, I cried. Since leaving Palestine I have had a residue of indignation in my heart and a fire in my stomach. The unsettling things I have heard, seen and experienced have not calmed through being away from there, but in fact grown stronger. It’s been a very long time since I felt a desire to help a cause for a people and individuals who I warmed to very quickly. So warm and friendly were the family and doctors that it felt like home. And like family, it pains me deeply to see them live under such conditions.
Please, take a serious moment; Imagine going on a day out to Brighton with your friends or family and then having a rocket fired upon you killing all of them but you. That’s not going to happen though, because we don’t live in the Gaza strip.
For now, I will be supplying them with photographs for their annual report. Later, I will be collating a series of photographs of my trip and seeking an exhibition to promote PCRF’s work. I hope to be working with PCRF in the future in their ongoing projects.
The documentary I shot will be made into a short promotional doc for PCRF and a longer version will be cut with intent to sell for distribution and/or screenings in festivals.
I was told, ‘but how many can you save? How much can you help? There isn’t much you can do’. My answer to that would be that if it wasn’t for us, those two children would still have a heart condition today that needed surgery and that saving ONE life, is worth your effort, the numbers are degrees... Watching the family reunited reminded me that one life is not just one life, it is an integral part of a whole. It also reminded me that dead pixels, should be the least of my concerns. Fight the good fights… the rest isn’t important.
http://www.pcrf.net/first.html
- J
The day before yesterday I shooting and running down the hall after the Surgeon and the nurse towards an emergency call. A baby who they had operated on earlier in the day had problems. When we got there, they were doing CPR as the heart rate had gone way down. The Surgeon had to operate right there and then. People were rushing about getting things trying to help save this baby’s life. The Surgeon had to drain the blood from around his heart to release the pressure. I shot nearly the entire operation for 35mins non stop.
The first time I watched open heart surgery a week ago it was an eye opener. Forget Red Bull or coffee to wake you up. When I watched, my eyes didn’t blink.
There is a lot of prepping involved. One main prep is done by the Paediatric Anaethetist (Alistar). Another is to use and manage the Profusion machine (Stan). This basically acts like a heart during the operation. The heart is drained of blood and you can see it go white as it does. During this prep you also have to add a dosage of Protamine Sulphate to the blood that is going through the body so it clots easier during surgery, then after surgery you add Heparin Sodium to bring it back to it’s normal state. The actual surgery isn’t very long at all, about half an hour depending.
Needless to say, watching the surgery is pretty amazing and I have no conception to base it on. I have never even seen a stitch done prior to this.
The 8 month old baby who we brought back from Nablus, Jamal, is a sweet child full of life and smiles. Me and him get on pretty well. We documented his surgery and now he is safely in recovery. It’s really good to see him smile again. I have become very fond of him.
In the pictures below there is one of a boy with the video camera we are shooting on. He is the one who was shot in Gaza while playing football with his friend. He is a wilful and happy boy who can handle a camera. We say he’s the future of Al Jazerra.
There are also pictures on actual surgery though not in detail. I do have very detailed pictures of surgery (heart pumping and all) but I realize most people can’t bare to see them. Other ones are of Alistair (with my Leica, he is also a very keen photographer and owns more cameras than myself), in the background Warren (Paediatric nurse). There is also a picture with residents Ahmed and Mohhamed who are class comedians and warm people who also are known to make us the dark Arabic coffee in the morning. In the end, 17 children were operated on within 7 days and 17 lives were saved. Some of these children are pictured here in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).
The baby who was called for emergency in the morning did live. But it was said that it may have been due to the fact that the dosage of Protamine’was wrong. This was probably not due to anybody’s mistake, simply because they haven’t been trained properly to give the right dosage. This is why PCRF are here as well, to give training to the staff so they can carry out these procedures and monitor post surgery.
Some of the pictures may not be palatable for some so bear with it or don't look at all.
The two surgeries featured here is of Jamal, just before, during and after. The other is of the baby who nearly didn’t make it, once during surgery and twice in ICU.
When I arrived in Tel Aviv last Wednesday, no one was there to pick me up. I had been up about 20hrs by then as I had to take a flight from Amsterdam to London and London to Tel Aviv, on the same day. It was 3 hrs until I got my ride to Jerusalem. And I went straight to the hospital and watched open heart surgery for a 5 yr old. But my alienating
24 hrs in Jerusalem didn't last.
I have been here nearly a week now and it’s been nothing short of an experience. The second day a few of us had to go to Nablus (which is in the West Bank) to escort our child to Jerusalem. Between here and there, there are 5 checkpoints. Most of which were okay. Basically you have the Israelie Military checking your passports and generally being not nice, at all. Being an occupying force, they can refuse entry along any point without reason, expecially to any Palestinians. Male Israelie citizens have to do a mandatory 80 days service a year where the women do 40 days.
We got to Nablus and met with the PCRF social worker Ikram and she escorted us to the village where we met with a lovely family who showed us the village sites and very kind and hospitable. Me and Warren (nurse) slept underneath the stars on the roof. Between 5 cups of Arabic coffee and dogs barking all night, I got 15 mins. We were up to see the sun rise and to challenge our checkpoints. We picked up another child who needed surgery on the way. We had gotten through 4 but the last one was a problem as we were entering Jerusalem. He ‘team’ (3 people) had gotten through first and then we found that the army wouldn’t let the child (Jamal, 8 months old utterly adorable baby) through as they didn’t have the ‘proper’ paperwork. We stood our ground with shooting the confrontation telling them we wouldn’t be going any where without them. Extra soldiers with machine guns came, the police came. We stood our ground. It was 40 mins before we had a break in the standoff. They would let the child and mother through. But they wouldn’t let the other child through. More talk. Eventually they let the child but not the parents through. It was very tense. Me and Claire were left behind and we were to be escorted to a police station to look at what we shot. I tried a slight of hand and was giving Warren the tapes which were in a bag but they stopped that and Warren stayed with us. A chief of police came and he let us go through.
We arrived at the hospital before 12 noon.
If you are with a baby who needs heart surgery and men with machine guns won’t let you pass a ‘border’ which the Israelie Goverment made, I don’t know… But we weren’t moving a fuckin inch for those bastards until all of us went through. It’s a terrible state to live in if you are Palestinian here, and of course worse in Gaza. We met a 10 year old boy (in the hospital) from Gaza who had been shot twice while playing football with his friend. The Israelie army fly F- 16's low across residential areas that create sonic booms in the middle of the night. Subsequently, amongst other effects, children develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They blew up the power station and now electricty is limited unless you want to buy from an Israelie company. A few months ago, they shot at a family on a beach with a rocket and killed them all. If you are Arab with Palestinian ID, you are a prisoner in your own town and you are treated like something they stepped on. If we were not foreigners, we would have been beaten with fists, boots and buts of guns at that checkpoint. A large majority of the Palestinians I have met here have been gracious, funny and full of warmth. It makes me extremely sad and angry knowing these people have to live in such inhuman conditions.
- J
Currently in Jerusalem on the PCRF project. Just prior to that, I was in for a family visit and wedding. I have cousins from my fathers side of the Family who live in Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utretch and my Mother’s side up north in Groningen. Prior to going to see some cousins last January, I hadn’t seen some in nearly 20years. But because of a child/teenage history, we all still get on and they always make me feel absolutely, without a doubt, welcome. Family in London haven’t been like that for years. That is negative admission, and a fact.
One of my cousin’s daughter (they have two, the ones pictured) who I saw last year as a baby (Gai Fei, second pic) has a virus called Encephalitis. It’s a brain flu that can affect motor skills and even cause brain damage. Luckily she looks like she will be okay with the current medication she is having which will cease soon.
Went to stay at my other cousin’s new house in Utretch. And I thought the first place was grand. In their back yard, there is wooden decking, a fish pond, a garden and then a stream (albeit it’s all man made). I was offered to get on a dingy and row along the suburb. Never seen anything like it. And it cost as much as an average one bed flat in London.
After that, went to my cousins in the Groningen’s wedding. Chinese Weddings consists of a few small events before culminating in the main event which is loads of tables in a restaurant with plates of ‘special’ food that you share. Typically you have 10 people a table. One of the first events is the men with the groom have to try to get to see the bride via games that the girls on the bride side have devised. In this case, the best man had to do 50 press ups and drink from a baby’s milk bottle amongst other actions seemingly designed to make a fool of a man and a man, out of a boy. Another ‘event’ is a simple tea ceremony. One of the last events is during the dinner; The bride and grooms immediate family have to go around all the tables and raise their glasses. And as I leant after all these years going to them and never knew, the point of all this is to negotiate how little you have to drink with each table because if you have 15 shots of brandy over the 15 tables, the family will be twated. Apparantly, this can last for 2hrs. But the ones I have been to typically last for 3mins per table and then swiftly moved on. I guess the Cantonese don’t like to drink.
Although most of these customs are still around, they are mostly done by my generation as something to do, not something they believe in, it’s just a tradition. And even some of my parents generation don’t really know all the rules of each tradition. Thus in modern times, they become diluted and almost farce, but never seriously scoffed at. For example, they used to carry the bride in a hand carried carriage, I have never seen that before. They just hire in a Merc or a Jag now. I have been to many as a kid. And now I am going to the ones of my peers.
Seeing all my relatives/family in Holland was great. They are all so very kind and generous despite hardly ever being in contact through most of our adult lives. Over the last 2 visits I have now gotten to know their husbands, wives and now children wheras once was just them as children and teens. Despite being very different in vocation and lifestyle, they still treat me like one of the family. Most of them are fairly traditional and conservative. I reserve judgements about this despite I know many won’t. On that note, it brings me to the fish in the pond at my cousins house which reminds me of an old Chinese story...
It’s the story of the great Sage Huan Zu. One day Huan Zu and a friend were walking along river bank. Huan Zu says, ‘how delightfully the fishes are enjoying themselves in the water’. His friend says, ‘You are not the fish, how do you know the fish are enjoying themselves. Huan Zu says, ‘You are not me, how do you know that I don’t know the fish are enjoying themselves…’.
- J
