Ambika Varma

Yuko Shimizu - Fighting back the male gaze

hiding from Instagram on Twitter

I tried to attend the @OntariosDoctors annual general meeting tonight in Ottawa, and was removed from the room by members of their executive team Sandy Zidaric and Adam Farber because I wore my watermelon pin that I’ve worn countless times without issue in many spaces including on parliament hill. They cited the concern that the watermelon pin as a political symbol could possibly make other physician colleagues in the room “uncomfortable” or “unsafe”. All the while genocide continues in Palestine. When I asked if their policy of what could not be worn on the bodies of their members in their meetings have applied to any other political symbols or attire, they could not give me other examples. They asked me to remove the watermelon pin or leave the room, or sit in another room by myself to tune into the meeting virtually. I declined and left. I explained to them this is an incredibly disappointing and discriminatory policy for their meetings, and I hope it is revised. I know medical colleagues including medical learners who have been kicked out of clinic because they wore a watermelon pin. These are examples of anti-Palestinian racism. As a physician, I stand in solidarity with my Palestinian medical colleagues who have been killed by the Israeli military and continue to be subjected to genocidal violence. Over 1,700 Palestinian healthcare workers have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza. Many Palestinian healthcare workers remain in Israeli captivity and are being tortured by the Israeli military, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a paediatrician who stayed to care for his patients in the hospital he was the medical director of. Shame on @OntariosDoctors for not only censoring what is allowed to be displayed on the bodies of their members, and even more so to be painfully silent in the face of attacks on our medical and healthcare worker colleagues in Palestine. Don’t look away from the genocide in Gaza. These acts of discrimination are forms of racism, and racism is a distraction from the real issue of ending Canadian complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

C.S. Lewis’ incredible observation on friendship

I like that building high speed rail in California requires nine thousand years of environmental impact studies but throwing up a data center the size of Texas takes fourteen seconds with zero material public support.

Premier of Ontario

Doug Ford gets a free degree in the U.S. while taking OSAP away from Ontario students.

Vacation brain is awesome. All I did was eat and drink and walk around and not deny myself anything so my brain is like “wow great town. I should move here. It would probably be like this every day”

and for the lady, perhaps a deep cleaned house, cancelled plans, a new series to watch, and zero human interaction?

Please don't forget that the only difference between you and a disabled person is time. Even if the disability is temporary, it will happen in your lifetime. Disability is part of the human condition. Advocating for disability rights is advocating for your inevitable future.

every drug dealer ever

microdosing pto by dissociating at work

When you realize that routines are actually rituals of devotion to yourself and your dreams they become much easier to follow

Breakfast from the countryside of Palestine

my most embarrassing and juvenile hope is that one day this app becomes twitter again

This happens to me all the time

always mildly surprised that the collective grief of the pandemic didn't make people kinder to each other

How come they never start in 1500