A New Paintjob (2024)

Kamera: Nikon FE2

Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 35mm f2.8 (1974)

Film: Kodak 5222 @ ISO 400 -1EV

Kjemi: Xtol (stock / 9 min. @ 20°C)

 

Monday 30 December 2024: My New Year resolutions for 2025:

 

1. Do not buy or use any goods or services coming from Israel or their Occupied Palestinian Territories. Boycott Israel - the most racist, fascist, immoral and genocidal apartheid country in the world.

 

For me, this is a simple operation and will only involve my total boycott of the Israeli online genealogy platforms MyHeritage and Geni. I have no interest in any other consumer product coming out of Israel. But many of you may have heard of Ahava Dead Sea products coming from the Occupied Territories. Don’t buy it, don’t use it.

 

2. Do not buy or use any American goods or services as far as it is humanly possible today. They only use their income for WAR. The only way to stop this MADNESS is to stop buying and using their goods and services. Money to the USA is money to Israel.

 

This task is not as simple as boycotting only Israeli goods and products, but I will do my best - just like the USA has done it’s best in supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, providing Israel with weapons and incredible amounts of money, abusing their powers in the UN Security Council, working against international law and justice, supporting apartheid and never ever actually supporting or working to establish a Free Sovereign Palestine.

 

Israel seems to have become a way for all the corrupt American politicians in their archaic 'democratic' system to get an extra income under the table, directly stealing from the people, and for the American War Industries to thrive and grow; it is a Perpetuum mobile where US politicians donate money to Israel and where Israel in return use those money given to buy off US politicians [tax-deductible] and buying their weapons to slaughter Palestinians.

 

Americans get their money back [but first, some commercials] [without paying taxes] [under the table] and the Israelis get their fascist religious extremist zionist dreams come true. Incidentally, Israel's bizarre dreams of grandeur are closely linked to the American voters' archaic dreams of extremist christian zionist Eschatology. These people all belong in the Bronze Age.

 

USA has for so many years since the end of the Cold War been endangering all of Europe’s security by abusing the NATO alliance (this abuse started back in 1999 with the bombing of Yugoslavia!) presiding over a European proxy war with Russia via Ukraine - a war that now even involves North Korea (WTF!) and has killed hundreds of thousands of lives in Europe and flooded Western Europe with refugees once again! It needs to stop, and our own nations and politicians who are hostages to the American gangster regime can do no other - so therefore I can no longer justify MY feeble hard-earned money feeding this warmongering genocidal nation. It has to stop, and the only way I can make a miniscule difference is by boycotting American goods and services.

 

- First on my list: Mark Zuckerberg (1984) and his his Facebook and all of Facebook's subsidiaries through Meta. Easy. Done. Nothing!

 

- Second on my list: Larry Page (b. 1973) and Sergey Brin’s (b. 1973) Google and Alphabet Inc. - this is not so easy. This company with their search engine, Gmail and their subsidiary companies like YouTube and Android have infested the whole world. Instead of Google's search engine I have been using DuckDuckGo for years - but this is also an American company so my search will go on for something more safe and European.

 

As for Gmail, I am using Swiss Proton Mail instead but I have yet to to make the cut final. I hope I will be able to do so during the course of 2025.

 

As for YouTube, I have no clear alternative right now that is not American.

 

Android is easy - I never used it. But instead of Android I use Apple - which I feel is safer - but here is the problem - it is an American company. Maybe the solution is to go full-on dumbphone and get a Swiss Punkt. I might in fact do that.

 

What do you really need an American ‘smartphone’ for anyways? Life is analogue.

 

More American companies and platforms to boycott:

 

- Amazon Inc. - I can get most of my (paper) books and other stuff I usually buy on Amazon locally anyways. Amazon is a convenient marketplace, that's true - but it’s American and I’d rather suffer a little inconvenience just to not let the Americans get my money.

 

- eBay - again, such a great platform and marketplace for (in my case) photographic camera equipment and whatnot - but then again - if I could buy directly from Japanese camera stores with ease and no American involvement I would do so in a heartbeat without using American eBay. Let’s hope the Japanese evolve their international trade in this regard.

 

As for FILM there's plenty of European film providers; hey, we were first with film and photography anyways and have long traditions still thriving and living here. But I do love Kodak 5222. This is a problem - but at least I only use European chemicals these days. Foma and Tetenal.

 

- PayPal - also a very convenient platform to use, but goddamned this is the brainchild of Elon Musk (b. 1971) and I’ll do my very best to never support that fascist bastard. You’ll never see me driving an American car either, and certainly not a Tesla. Most unethical car ever.

 

- Airbnb - an American company that makes it easy to rent a room or a house for anyone in all those illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories - it's just as sick as if American tourists through a 'tourist agency' could come and live in Nazi german confiscated Norwegian flats, houses and cottages to relax or just 'experience' Nazi occupied Norway in 1941. This is exactly what Airbnb is making possible in the Occupied Palestinian Territories these days - and I shall never, ever use Airbnb.

 

OK, that’s a lot but we’re not finished yet.

 

- Disney - Easy. They destroyed Star Wars. Done!

 

- Pepsi and Coca-Cola - Done. Never again. There are many other local alternatives. Easy!

 

- McDonald’s and Burger King - Done. Easy. Probably the worst hamburgers in the world anyways.

 

So when it comes to consumer products that you get in the general store, there are two really big and awful companies that I will do my best to never buy their products ever again. These two companies are the American-owned Mondelez International and the Swiss company Nestlé together with all their subsidiaries and brands.

 

Things not to buy (applicable to me):

 

- Douwe Egberts coffee (Mondelez)

- Toblerone chocolate (Mondelez)

- Heinz products (Mondelez)

 

- L’Oréal and ALL their subsidiary products Garnier, Maybelline, Biotherm, Lancôme, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Kérastase, Guy Laroche, Redken (Nestlé)

 

- Nespresso (Nestlé)

- Nescafé (Nestlé)

- Nesquik (Nestlé)

- Nestea (Nestlé)

 

- Smarties chocolates (Nestlé)

- After Eight chocolate (Nestlé)

- Maggi products (Nestlé)

- Purina dogfood (Nestlé)

 

[and Friskies catfood for those of you with cats - also Nestlé]

 

- Freia chocolate products (Mondelez) [The chocolate that could never ever ever be sold to Sweden otherwise we would lose our independence AGAIN - but which could easily be sold to America instead. Remember all those Edvard Grieg Freia commercials?]

 

- Friele coffee (Mondelez) in Bergen which also produce ALL the norwegian COOP cooffee products and ALL the swedish Gevalia coffee brand products

 

- Marabou candy and ALL their chocolate products (Mondelez)

 

Allright, so already quite an extensive list and that’s not half of it.

 

Therefore at the end, I want to inform you all about the Boycat app - the Ethical Shopping and Boycott Companion. Use it.

 

And if you have more suggestions of Israeli and American companies, products and services to boycott, do let me know. I’m eager ears.

 

PS: I am fully aware that Flickr is American. There are many good things coming out of America. I hope in 2025 USA can change their ways.

Done