the world's a little blurry, or maybe it's my eyes

I'm turning over this entry almost entirely to Amanda Palmer. This is from her latest Patreon entry:

right now, if you are in Ukraine, please know that we are sending all our love.

i am sure that all of you - my patrons, who are People of the Internet - are all already inundated with news, stories, and harrowing, unforgettable images from the senseless destruction of life, property and peace over there.

we are just a little community of 10,000 or so people.

i have been wondering: what can we do?

i could make the usual speeches and send you links to the red cross and the UNHCR and hope for the best, as we watch our checkbooks flow to the larger and more established aid and relief charities. but then i thought about gaba.

(Editrix insert: This is Gaba Kulka. She's a friend of AFP's who lives in Poland. She'll explain below.)

gaba kulka is one of my old-school touring musician friends. she lives in poland and we have kept up with each other - on stages, in person, on the internet - for a very long time.

So I looked up her music on YouTube. This one came up. I don't speak Polish, so Google Translate it is, and I don't think it translates accurately, but I get the gist, I think:

My ambiguities
instead of explaining, they became permanent
you ask if it's good
ask another time
I'm too busy
I try not to make a mistake

You don't pick up rice from the street when it's sprinkled once
the damn pigeons had eaten everything up, only dust and limescale
why everything is so simple is so simple
it's as simple as that until it happens to you

Your doubts
they will always stay on this topic
no belonging
when I want to gain one, I lose the other
I will lull my vigilance
maybe it will stop bothering me like that
overabundance
when I cannot love, I have no way to cheat

You don't pick up rice from the street when it's sprinkled once
the damn pigeons had eaten everything up, only dust and limescale
why everything is so simple is so simple
it's as simple as that until it happens to you

My ambiguities and
your ambiguities
overlap
Maybe it will be alright

I hear a lot of Amanda energy in that song. I can see why they're friends, I think. This was off her 2009 album, "Hat, Rabbit".

she writer crazy-intelligent punk-cabaret-type songs, speaks better [f*cking] english than i do even thought it's her second language, and has a daughter, matylda, who is almost exactly ash's age.

she and i have been comparing notes as musician-moms since the babies came. we've had a beautiful, slowly flowering friendship, and i treasure her. we have phoned each other every couple of months since the pandemic started, and checked in on one another's mental health. we joke with each other. we mourn with each other. we compare notes about our weird kids.

here we are, performing and hanging out together in 2012:

This was probably around the time Amanda was recording with the Grand Theft Orchestra.



This picture makes me giggle. AFP with her usual mugging for the camera, and Kulka with the long-suffering expression, but that hint of a smile.

i have been listening to the pain in gaba's voice about the political situation over there.

so when the invasion of ukraine happened, i called her.

she told me that she and her husband were literally at the supermarket, buying nappies, buckwheat and other simple supplies for the refugees that were flooding into poland. she told me that friends in the neighborhood were converting their homes into apartments to house the people landing on their doorsteps. [f*ck].

my first reaction was to want to cover her grocery bill. and to ask her if those friends needed cash. to to ask if we could send her money, to spend on these immediate issues in her neighborhood. but she's one person, and a busy mom, not a [f*cking] charity. i could not ask her to do this.

so i took a deep breath and asked her what, very specifically, we could do to help.

us. right here and now.

this community: what could WE do to help?

after thinking about it for a week, this is what she wrote:

Ever since the Russian army's aggression on Ukraine, Polish people started mobilising at every level to help our eastern neighbours, and that feels like a beacon of hope in this grim time.

But even though the countless, grassroots efforts have been uplifting, they have also been really hard to get my head around, and this fragmentation has become an increasing problem - it may feel overwhelming right now, to find the exact right place where you should put your energy and money.

What we need is better communication, and a more centralized system of support for people affected by this war.

That's why my first thought went to nonprofits that I'd already known for years, who already have the know-how - most of all Fundacja Ocalenie, who has been working with and providing help to refugees in Poland for many years.

Luckily some people have it together, and know that combining efforts is the way to go: There is a huge fundraiser, Together For Ukraine:



https://zrzutka.pl/en/razemdlaukrainy

It is based on one of the largest fundraising platforms in Poland.

The organizations benefiting from the fundraiser include Fundacja Ocalenie, Polskie Forum Migracyjne, Homo Faber, Fundacja Dialog and many more.

They post frequent and helpful updates documenting how some of the funds are already put to use.

As an addition: if someone likes to know very precisely what their money buys. Here are two verified fundraisers that gather money for 1) tactical first aid kits https://zrzutka.pl/dlaukrainy and 2) bulletproof vests and helmets https://zrzutka.pl/pomocukrainie The links come from the Euromaidan-Warszawa organisation, which has been active since 2013.

Please consider supporting them.

I looked up Fundacja Ocalenie on Charity Navigator. They tend to judge their reviewed charities harshly, but considering none of us want to be scammed, and we can't all fly over and ask to see the public books of every international effort out there, I trust the work they do. They give them four stars, which in my judgement is kind of amazing--I've listed as worthy charitable efforts on the sidebar charities that come in at 3.5.

Anyway, back to Amanda:

.........

I really trust Gaba, and I hope you trust who I trust, so please consider sending your money over in that direction. I just donated $500.

Like I said above, even if you can only donate $10, it will mean a great deal to the cause that you took the time to do it, and it will send a message of people-power.

If you donate, leave us a comment here, and we will praise and love you.

I didn't donate because I want the praise and love. I am not well off, RL. (This is not a secret.) Hells, I'm not even moderately okay RL, financially. And what I donated--five flat plus the processing fee so the charity effort didn't have to front it, which came, ultimately, to a bit over ten--is not their recommended mid-range of 70 zloty, which works out to about sixteen USD. But I had to help.

...............

and another thing, and possibly even more important....for a more sustainable future in the NEWS department:

THE KYIV INDEPENDENT is on Patreon - one of the only independent media outlets in the country. I supported them last week and I cannot tell you how good it feels to be able to know that my dollars are literally keeping real, honest journalism funded in ukraine.

this is a super powerful place to put your money, and you can become a patron for a dollar. even if you've been cutting back on patronage lately (and i know there's been a lot of belt-tightening lately), this is different.

this is revolutionary beyonf art and music. this is giving funding, a voice, a megaphone to a press that really, really needs the support.

i became the 3,249th patron last week....they are are now up to OVER 6,000 PATRONS, bringing in about $67,914/month. it's amazing.

the newspaper is in ENGLISH. your funding will help then with bills, internet access, office costs, reportage, security, translators, photographers....you name it.....everything you can imagine. this is incredible.

PEOPLE. POWER!!!!!!!!

please become a patron of these guys alongside me:

https://www.patreon.com/kyivindependent

The rest of the Patreon was her thanking her fans, wishing us love and strength, and the never-ending end-of-all-posts tag with all her social media. The only thing about her words I changed was censoring [f*ck] a little, because I still try not to curse on the wee blog. This was the important message, though.

When I get up tomorrow--it's late--I'll code up a graphic and slap this fundraising effort into the sidebar. (Under Zen, of course. Priorities. But it'll be there when I get it done.)

And...that's it. Hang in there, people. Give if you can to a country that's being pounded into dust because Putin was left alone in the archives too long and decided he needed Ukraine 'back'. They are shelling schools. They are shelling hospitals. They are deliberately killing children. They are using thermobaric weapons and petal mines (and believe me, the irony of Russia using a weapon that they reverse-engineered from a US design we used in Viet Nam, which was based on an earlier, larger Luftwaffe one does NOT escape me). We need to help.

So help if you can. I try to avoid politics on the blog, there's enough drama on the grid, but...this was necessary. If you can at all spare it, donate. Ukraine needs everyone's aid to get through this.