Palestine will be free?

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Celestial had a prophecy regarding the nation of Israel, in which Russia will wage war against this nation. She even said that this nation is inhabited by mostly fake Jews, which makes one wonder who are the real Jews among them? Are the real Jews the ones who never forsook God after he became human on Earth? If this is true and this would have damning implications for both Christians and Jews alike, then Palestinian Christians might be the Jews that never forsook him when he became Jesus on Earth. Meanwhile the fake Jews are more likely to be the apostate Jews, the Jews who repeatedly reject God and refuse him so much they insult the Holy Spirit this way.

If God will make Russia drive out the fake Jews out of Israel, then he will allow the real Jews (the Palestinian Christians) to return to Israel and inhabit all of it. Kind of ironic to think that not only are Palestinian Christians the Jews that never forsook God, but also that they might even be the direct descendants of the Jews who converted to Christianity. Whereas many of the Jews who remain Jewish (the way we understand things to be) are mostly the descendants of both Jews and women who converted to their faiths, I do know that Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of both Jews and Southern Italian female converts.

Somebody else said that Israel, as we know it, is ruled by evil people that it seems most Christians don’t really care much about the Jews who never left God when he became Jesus on earth. Instead our attention’s spent on the apostate Jews, the Jews who refuse to convert to Christianity. The Jews who refuse to accept Jesus that it’s quite traitorous of us to support them a lot, at the expense of Palestinian Christians who all shrank in number the more Israel got formed in recent memory. Who do we support? Who should we support?

Should we support the Jews who never left God when he became Jesus, or should we support the Jews who repeatedly reject the Lord? Who are we to truly support when the existence of Palestinian Christians arise? If we are to support the true Jews, the Jews who never left God when he became human, then we have to support the return of Palestinian sovereignty if because Palestinian Christians might be their direct descendants in a way many Ashkenazi Jews aren’t. A difficult choice, given our expectations and understandings of things, but one that involves whose land really is it.

And they’re not who you think they are.

Romance vs reality

It’s way easier to romanticise a country you like than it is to face the reality of it, when I mean by that the country has the potential to disappoint or horrify you a lot if you’re not prepared to read up on its flaws. It’s easier to think of Japan as the land of anime and anime fans than it is to see it as a country where stray dogs do roam and terrorise the countryside, where racism exists both for immigrants and for indigenous people (Ryukyuan and Ainu) and where young athletes face bullying.

In the case with Germany, it’s like thinking it’s a dog friendly country because they allow dogs inside buildings, ignoring the grim reality where dogs get poisoned often and shot by hunters for intruding on their game (which happens often in German news reports). Not to mention Germany actually has more cat owners than America does, so if America’s bad Germany’s even worse for dog owners if we bring up dog poisoning. But if they knew, that would ruin the romance of such a place.

To be honest, I had the habit of romanticising countries before only to be disappointed by a flaw one has. I think one of the reasons why you won’t see some people flat out admitting their favourite country’s flaws, because if they knew they’d be just as disappointed and horrified. Ignorance is bliss, so goes the phrase. There are those who remain blissfully ignorant of their favourite country’s flaws, mostly because either they know their home country more or romanticise it a lot to the point of putting it on a pedestal even if they’d fall off at any time.

Though I still think looking up on the problems a country has makes one better informed about it than if they didn’t, especially if it’s something they have to prepare for should they go out and stay for a longer time. Better to know the faults ahead of time than to remain ignorant of the grim reality later on, hence that’s why it’s not a good idea to romanticise a country. Demonising it isn’t any better, but romanticising it does no good either.

Experiencing it

It’s one thing to read up on something, it’s another to actually experience it. The former at best gives you a foretaste of something, for instance reading up on what goes in Cameroon gives you a foretaste of the country. The latter is when you actually go to the country and stay there for a given duration, though the advantage here’s that you’d experience Cameroonian culture as it actually is since reading up on a description only goes so far.

While reading up on a country can spark one’s interest, it gets complicated by factors like whether if someone has the budget to actually go there and whether if one goes the extra mile to acquire dual citizenship. That’s if the host country permits it, which worsens matters if one wants dual citizenship real badly since it depends on the country. Some countries allow this, some don’t so with the latter you’d have to renounce your citizenship to become a citizen of that country.

Not to mention in the case with missionaries they may be called to stay in that country to preach the gospel there, if he wills it they’d have to stay there longer than they wished for. Sometimes that country’s not the country they want to go to, say you want to go to Japan but you’re called to evangelise in Cameroon to the chieftains and stay there for some time. There’s also culture shock, reverse culture shock and acculturation from staying somewhere else for so long.

But for those who really want to stay in a foreign country, it’s worth experiencing this especially if it’s something that they wish to do or are called to do.

Going to foreign language websites

When it comes to people describing a foreign culture, unless if they lived there for a long time (well, any considerable time to be more generous) they’ll always be outsiders to them. If you want to know what’s going on in France, your best bet is to hang out in Francophone websites which helps if you know some French enough to bother looking up and reading about them. This is also true for any Francophone country like Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.

You even get a better idea of what it’s like there if you hang out at websites in their countries’ respective languages, this may not always be the case for others but at least you get a feel or foretaste of it should you plan to travel. It also helps to read anything as written by a native there, if because they were born into those countries and cultures their writings give a better idea of what those countries and cultures are like. As I said before, an outsider’s view will always mark them as outside the country they go to.

If you use a certain place’s language to type in keywords to find things like stray dogs attacking deer, you’ll find what you want (if you knew the right words like chien errant chevreuil in French or freilaufende/streunende/wildernde hunde rehe in German) you stumble upon an article where stray dogs attacking wildlife are the byproduct of irresponsible owners. Seems like the West and non-West have more in common with each other than one realises, sometimes in ways nobody expects.

Something like owners allowing their dogs to roam is common to both, to confess there were times I go to Japanese language websites to look up on stray dogs. (This is how I learnt not all Japanese people care about anime.) Or common stereotypes about certain people, for better or worse. While finding articles in the languages you’re familiar with is fine, finding articles in their countries’ languages give a better idea of what’s going on there and it’s not a game of whispers.

If you really want to know what actually goes on in Chile, learn some Spanish and type in keywords to figure out what’s really going on there. It’s also best to trust what locals experience and know of, since they were born in those places and have been there longer.

Missed trip

I was going to Asingan in November 2019, a week after I had pizza in Cubao but due to my stubborn insistence on wanting to find a way to pass the time with it didn’t happen, I cried a lot even though it rained there. I also didn’t want to go to Montalban, until the day I went to Los Banos.

I still want to go to Asingan to see my relatives there, especially in Isabella where I want to see their house again. I want to read their books, sleep in there and hang out with Auntie Elsa since the last time I went there I bought fabrics with her that I turned into a skirt.

I miss going there, maybe by December I’ll go there again.

2015 Restaurant

One of my cousins was fishing in the river next to the restaurant and then he got the fish, then cooked it and we ate it. That’s what I remember from my trip to Asingan, in addition to visiting other people’s places, seeing the cats and dogs and reading books there’s a tonne of excitement like my feet touching the river and the power plant.

Wish I could’ve gone to Asingan again, maybe this year it will be fulfilled as I didn’t get to go there in 2019. I did go to Los Banos and hang out in a hotel for 2 days, but I kind of miss Asingan a lot for things like the books, animals, the stay and family members together that I wish I’d go there again in the forseeable future.

In Asingan

I went to Asingan in 2013 and 2015 where I stayed there for a few days, in 2015 I got there again buying some carabao milk to drink, hanging out in the electricity plant and then the river, buying some fabric to sew into a skirt and then hanging out in my relative’s new house where one of them said that they have a cat named Pinkie Pie.

(No relation to the My Little Pony character.) I missed going there in 2019, if because it rained there so I’d like to go there again this year if I’m lucky. I’ve been there to Asingan since 2009 and 2012 respectively, then in 2013 for my paternal grandfather’s funeral. I sort of wish to go there again in the future, but for now it’s going to be Cubao this time around for me to stay there for a little while.

To the mountains

I’ve been to the mountains twice with my father, where I went up and then down seeing the dogs and cats there. Last year, I saw dogs in the road and guarding every building as the cats stayed in the farm and this year I saw dogs in every garden and residence as well as two docile dogs in the restaurant which I fed them with eggs.

It was a long walk to the mountain, in fact longer than the walk we took to Cubao by foot (only 9 kilometres going there). It was a long walk going from the suburbs to the rural parts, seeing the forests and rubbish where in March 2019 it was dry and sunny and in July 2020, it was wet and rainy as far as I remember going there again this year.

Adoption

The dog got abused before

The nun adopts it and cares

For it as it guards the church.

Killing all the

Killing all the kids

But somebody saves

Their child from doom.