Over and out…

Hi

I am not stating the death of this blog but I am taking a step back from it. I think I was a dash overzealous to think I would continue to publish stories from my time in the West Bank that concluded over a month ago while there are such serious events unfolding in the Gaza Strip. Go read about the people who are living there and writing about it!

I have some longer opinion/literary journalistic pieces I am beating away at that will be posted here and my Flickr page will continually have some new photos of the West Bank going up there – so pop in there or subscribe to my RSS.

Stay tuned – but only in a passive way
Thanks for reading up to this point
Over and out

United Nonsense

I used to want to work for the United Nations and if pushed to it I would still have to say that I do believe in what the organisation tries to do – despite all its faults. But I just don’t think me sitting in that UN decaled car driving around Jerusalem or the West Bank is something I want to do anymore. I won’t get into the details of the why…or maybe I will, but I think their presence in WB is somewhat useless. The organisation has such high ideals but little muscle to make any of them a reality. When a country such as Sudan commits certain atrocities they have sanctions slapped down on them, at the least. Now, this wasn’t an easy task to do, granted, but Israel has been committing low-level abuses for decades and not a hint of sanctions.

During Ramadan in this year, I was present at the Gilo terminal in Bethlehem and both UNWRA and UNOCHA were there. But what surprised me was that these people stood on the Bethlehem side and stood…and stood. Perhaps there was a moment when they could help explain the rules to some of the people who were turned away from the checkpoint but could they assist in the matter – no. I was chatting to one of the UNWRA women there and she consistently complained that the people did not appreciate her being there. The Palestinian people have watched the wall been built and completed and watched the UN at the same time document it without making a change. I don’t blame them for having a complaint or two. This is all the more frightening when none of the non-local UN staff there had even seen the inside of the terminal and were unsure of how it worked.

UNOCHA is more of an enigma. Why is a humanitarian coordination office here in WB, one of the biggest deployments in the world, when this is not a humanitarian crisis? A humanitarian dignity crisis to be sure, but not an emergency crisis like say, Haiti. Why all the millions pumped into this observation? I am not the only one asking this question.

And furthermore, their staff are not allowed to be in WB after dark, nor are they allowed to be in certain parts of East Jerusalem after 23:00, for reasons of security. It is hardly imaginable that abuses of human rights are going to occur within suitable hours for the UN to be able to witness and document. I realize that these concerns are really for insurance purposes. But are you here to see or are you not?

If your role here is to merely document – make that clear. Do not make out like you are here to make things better and make the Israeli government do things differently. It is clear you have no such power.

Ah, this post could get out of hand. I will stop there. I don’t want to try and get into a analysis of the effectiveness of the UN in Israel. What I do find interesting however is that there are members of the Knesset and firm Israel supporters who moan about the effectiveness of the UN in Israel. Does that make sense to anyone? Of course the sense of that comments depends on which party of the Knesset you are a member of, but non-Knesset, pro-Israel supporters – what exactly do you want the UN to do? Punish you? Stop the workers getting upset at the terminals? Bizarre.

To cut this short, I lost a lot of respect for the UN during my time in the West Bank. I didn’t loose respect for international law but I do have my concerns for whether it matters if it can’t be enforced. Perhaps the UN works like this in all areas of the world in which it is needed. Only further explorations will tell that one.

Grrrrr……

Rocket ravaged Sderot

They say the town of Sderot is ravaged by rockets from the Gaza strip. We went there the same day the flimsy truce with Hamas was broken on 5 November. Presumably it was Hamas militants responding to an Israeli airstrike in Gaza the evening before. Rockets did fall that morning but most of them to the north, closer to Ashqelon. The alert was on cautious in Sderot and as we arrived at the media centre we were briefed on what to do in the event that the town sirens sounded. The whole town is fitted out with an elaborate and effective alarm system and bomb shelters in the event of rockets being fired. The sirens allow 15 seconds to get to safety.

The Sderot media centre tells us that some 7000 rockets have exploded in Sderot to this date, 10,000 in total. That’s a lot of rockets. Twelve people have died so far. You wouldn’t know it by looking around the town. Even today on an alert day people still go about their business. But if you look a little closer there are indeed rocket-created potholes in the pavement and cement. What look like splattered bullet holes and other structural damage from bits of shrapnel litter the walls of the surrounding buildings. One man showed us the inside of his home and the holes in his ceiling from flying shrapnel from a Qassam rocket that landed outside his apartment block. Most of the homes that have been hit are repaired quickly by the municipality, or some level of compensation is given and the structure destroyed although this is rarely necessary.

I can imagine the stress of living with this everyday. Residents speak of symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress in their children. The adults are constantly concerned about the ‘what-if’ factor. And the town is certainly not a bustling economic centre so I do wonder why people stay here. But ask anyone who is able to leave, why they stay in the face of attack and they talk of home, purpose and principle.

Contrary to popular belief, Hamas are not the only armed group within Gaza who swear on the destruction of Israel. In fact, there are six and any peace process or cease-fire needs to include these other groups. It is no good to have Hamas sign a cease-fire when others can send there own rockets – Hamas of course, needs to have more control in their territory. And what is even more interesting is that the rockets that do leave Gaza are all group-identifiable based on their wing design. All six groups: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committees, Fatah-Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine have their own wing design and rocket names. All are traceable to a particular ideology you might say.

We drive out of Sderot and stand on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip, the Mediterranean glistening on the other side, some 15 kilometres away from us. But in between us and her waters is a world of hurt. So many people, some one and half million caught in a fight most of them have no interest in. You blame the Palestinians for firing rockets, and you blame the Israelis for their policy of collective punishment that allows such a barricade of Gaza Strip. Each side is right and each wrong. People are people and the conflict is bad for everyone. A human story is a human story; the only requirement is that you are human. Residents of the Gaza Strip are as innocent of victims as those of Sderot.

Small confession…

Hi all

Ok, I have left the West Bank as of two days ago, but I have such a backlog of stories and pics that I need to go through so for the sake of completion I will continue adding them to the blog. Perhaps that is a little weird but however….

The remaining posts will be picture heavy. 

Stay tuned!

House Demolitions in the Occupied Territory

Check out the document link below.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions estimates that some 19,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967, based on information gleaned from the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Civil Administration, OCHA and other UN sources, Palestinian human rights groups, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other sources.

Interesting read. And considering that I was witness to a house demolition in the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan, near the old city of Jerusalem on Wednesday, these kind of documents bring home the unjust policies of the Israeli government. It is hard to get your head around it sometimes. 

Have a read: http://www.scribd.com/doc/7581116/ICAHD-House-Demolition-Statistics-in-Palestine

Everything is debatable – I have to keep telling myself that.

I see dead people

– but only after they get out of prison.

I have heard twice now, that’s from two reliable sources, that the Israeli government keeps on ice the bodies of Palestinian prisoners who die while incarcerated until their sentence is finished. Basically that means that the families of those prisoners cannot see the body or receive the body for proper burial until the sentence is completed. This could mean years.

Let me reserve for a moment my own thoughts on how unbelievable and absurd that policy would be and just for a moment, believe that it is true. Could it be that Israel holds the Palestinian people in such contempt that they will spite them, even beyond the grave? I think not. Is this spite spread so thick that they would actually implement an extremely costly policy just for the sake of screwing with people? Again, I think not.

I have not met someone that has a direct story of such an incident and I have no way of determining the truthfulness of such a policy from the Israeli authorities, so, I can only conclude from my common sense that this is not true. And, if such an incident has happened, it just cannot be an official policy.

As wacky as this Israel/Palestine situation is, that just gets a little wacky for me. If anyone has any information about such a policy – let me know! I will simply be flabbergasted if this is the case…

Meet the new neighbours

We here in Palestine are always very welcoming of the new additions to the community. We are particularly appreciative of those who take such an interest in keeping the town safe; take the law into their own hands, stand up to their fears and say NO to crime. They bring armoured personnel carriers and mount machine guns on the balcony of their home, ready to spring into action at the first hint of trouble. So let’s shout a big, hearty welcome, to our new neighbours!

FACTS:
Husan village, west of Bethlehem
3 storey home close to Road 60, just off the main road of Husan
Accusations of stone throwing at cars by settlers of Betar Illit who use the road
IDF responds to accusations
2 personnel carriers, 1 jeep
Some 20 soldiers
02:00 on Saturday morning
Family of the home gets evacuated
An Israeli flag in a Palestinian village
It gets nasty
The international support is called in
We arrive
It stays nasty
The family has an army in their home which they are traumatised by
The soldiers harass the community from their new base
And the story continues…

Another day, another occupation

IDF takes on an empty house

We didn’t hear about it until days after the event. The Israeli army pulled up to the house one night in jeeps, hummers and a tank not far from the Church of Nativity, evacuated everyone from the building and let out a barrage of bullets and grenades and bombs, completely destroying the inside of the structure. It still stands but living there would be impossible.

The reason? They thought there was a wanted man, a member of Hamas, hiding in the house. He wasn’t there, there was no one in the house, they waited for hours for him to come out, it wasn’t even his house, but they destroyed it anyway. Neighbours reported hearing the vehicles and then explosions rocked the ground. The family that lived in the house now stay with relatives. They can’t return to their home, they can hardly start again.

We visited the site yesterday. Holes gaped in the ceiling, the kitchen was completely destroyed and shrapnel holes littered the walls. Rubber and foam left over from the furniture was splattered all around and glass cracked under your shoes. Shards of metal around the rooms had to be carefully navigated and the doors lay in splinters. Outside, the perimeter walls were fallen and the big pine tree was tattered but still standing.

Whatever the reason for the demolition, whether justified or not, it is clear that the Israeli army considers resistance to be futile. Dissent intolerable. Out of the front entrance lay a child play home on a glass littered carpet, still standing and seemingly undamaged. Resistance will continue.

Hard truths

Check out this article written by Rabbi Brian Walt in the Mail & Guardian entitled: Hard Truths.

Read it. Leave a comment. Support this kind of rational and level thinking. The occupation sucks and is not doing anybody good. The more people of position there are out there like this, the better.

An Nu’man – a small report

Check out the following report that a colleague, Niina Karling and myself bashed together. It is on a West Bank village, An Nu’man, south of Jerusalem that has some particular legal and social problems. It was written as part of the requirements to the program we are working with here, in Palestine. There are accompanying photographs but they will not be available in this version.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7512824/An-Numan-Decreasing-options-and-increasing-hardships

(I don’t think that WordPress supports Scribd embedding – so I couldn’t make a nice little picture for this document)

Subliminal subjugation or blatant oppression

Making the checkpoints and terminals difficult doesn’t make any sense. Clearly there is an idea of punishment and simple harassment behind them, not security. Since most of the checkpoints and terminals are illegal under a number of international laws, the international community is watching (they are not doing much about it, but they are watching). The Israelis want the checkpoints and terminals there and there are arguments for their existence but they also don’t want the international community to be involved. The smartest thing the Israelis could do is make it as easy as possible for Palestinians to pass. This way, the Israelis still get their security, they can still tell the Israeli people they are doing all they can to protect them, while at the same time the international community can come and look at the terminals, see them working so well, and see how the people who have permits pass so easily.

“Hey, this occupation isn’t working so badly”, they would say. “Look, the people are coming and going with no hassles. Israel really is the nicest army, the most humane army in the world. What does it matter if they break a few Geneva conventions? They aren’t really doing anything wrong”….and so on.

That’s just the way it works. If people can’t see it, they don’t think about it, there is nothing to write about and no photographs to take. Subliminal subjugation, I would call it. Israel hasn’t chosen the route of subliminal subjugation. They have chosen blatant oppression. So well done Israel on making it so easy to see the mess you have made of international law and human rights. The world is recording everything and when the time comes for this unsustainable social abomination to fall, and history tells us that it will fall, all the political lobbying you can muster won’t save you from this tower of paper.

See my growing collection of checkpoint pictures here

America’s Israel – outside analysis

Check out this engaging analysis by Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs as he takes a look at American support for the Jewish State. Not just Israel as such, but the Jewish state, citing biblical examples and why it isn’t just the Israeli lobby groups that shape American foreign policy. A good read.

Takes a dash of time and thought is required…sorry.

Green line fine art line

Check out this small comment about Francis Alÿs, a Belguim born artist. In 2005, he performed Sometimes doing something poetic can become political and sometimes doing something political can become poetic, in which he walked the perimeter of the area of Jerusalem that was legitimately given to Israel in the UN supported peace agreement that ended the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. He re-drew the original green line using house paint.

Respect. I love political art. Let’s see some more.
Check him out on FlavourPill, here.

James Nachtwey launch

I love this guy. I consider him the greatest conflict and issue photographer living…and probably that has ever lived. Check out his page here. He is the winner of the 2007 TED Prize, awarding him US$100,000 and one wish to change the world. This was his wish: “I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.”

No, I don’t know what the story is but whatever it is, it’s worth checking out. Stay tuned.

I have tried to embed this video but it just ain’t workin’…so have a look at his TED talk here

Watch it!

Life in check

The ride from Tulkarem to Ramallah seems to be a bothersome one. Less than 80 kilometers between the two cities and there are three main checkpoints, never mind the odd flying checkpoint. And at each one you could have your ID checked, be detained for up to three hours or simply be delayed until the Israeli soldiers decide to let you through. Take note, that these are two cities within the West Bank and the route to get to each is far from the border with Israel. International laws (Geneva Convention IV, 64 to be exact) that say an occupying power cannot restrict movement of the local population aside – the man power to support these checkpoints weighed against the actual effectiveness of them in catching perpetrators, or possible terrorists simply defies reason. Here is an example.

I was in a service taxi heading home to Bethlehem, but the first stop was in Ramallah and I was on the route described above. First checkpoint, Anabta, near the Inaav settlement east of Tulkarem we go through without being stopped. Nice. We keep on bouncing through the landscape and quietly roll up to the second checkpoint, some 25 kilometers further south – Za’atara checkpoint. This time we get stopped. It is always a tense moment when you get stopped at the checkpoints. I know I will get through and I am doing absolutely nothing illegal by being here. But it is the questions that freak me out. I am the worst liar in the world and I stumble through the answers as I can’t just tell the guy I disagree with his whole existence in the West Bank. But this entry isn’t about me.

The soldier asked us all for our ID. He had a look at mine, held onto it, took the others, then he noticed one man sitting in the back didn’t hand his over. The man was removed from the taxi and told he couldn’t go through the checkpoint. I wanted to object, but he wasn’t detained, he wasn’t mistreated and he had lost his ID. Now, ok, it is his own fault he lost his ID and he should know better than to go through a checkpoint without it. But he was from Hebron to the south of Ramallah and applications for a new ID need to be done at the place of residence. So if he can’t get home to apply for a new one – and the process is a simple one, it take a day or two to get a replacement – how do they expect him to comply with their law?

“It makes no sense to stop him here,” replied the man next to me, who ended up being an ISM coordinator. Must he now go back to Tulkarem just to try to get to Hebron again? “They should take him to Hebron in their jeep.” All of us in the taxi looked through the back window to see him walk back the way we came. A long line of cars had gathered as we waited for the soldier to check all the IDs. Then given the ok to move on, we drove on, leaving him there at the checkpoint, surrounded by soldiers, and with no town in site.

I thought as we drove away that that man must have been so nervous as we drove through those checkpoints. I didn’t pick up any such vibe but it is all around me all the time. I feel it when I approach the checkpoints even though I am ultimately protected due to my foreign passport. The majority of Palestinians have done nothing wrong but in a society where you are presumed guilty and dangerous, you live a mental siege that creates an inability to feel confident.

We drove up the next hill. Around the bend and Atara checkpoint came into view, mere kilometers from Ramallah. The soldier waved us down…

Ramadan Friday

Today was the second Friday of Ramadan. We arrived at the Bethlehem terminal at O-6-hundred and already the queue stretched and was disorderly and people were sweating from the exertion. We were surprised at the change from the first Friday of Ramadan – at least twice the number of people.

Let me explain briefly for those who may not be in the know before I get into the story. Ramadan is simply speaking the Muslim holy month recognized in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar (not always on the same date every year) and Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. It is especially important for the Muslims to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, the third holiest site of Islam, during Ramadan. Hence many Palestinians attempt to get across the Bethlehem checkpoint from all over southern West Bank. The Israeli government is generally more lenient during this time and men and women of a certain age may pass the checkpoint without permits – more about that later and in other posts. OK – read more about Ramadan here because I’m not Muslim, nor an expert.

And so the story continues.

There were four of us there and we were on checkpoint monitoring duty. We split up. One in front of the cement barrier before the actual Separation Barrier, one at the metal detectors inside the terminal, one at the ID booths and one counting the number of Palestinians that are actually allowed through the terminal. I was supposed to be at the metal detectors but after getting through the first turnstile I was bounced, grabbed by the police and forced to go back to the Bethlehem side. They don’t much want foreign nationals inside the terminal. So back I went. There is only so much arguing one can do.

Once back beyond the cement barriers I saw that some United Nations officials had arrived. They were supposed to be there over an hour ago. The situation had deteriorated at all sections of the terminal and we needed help. The soldiers were getting hot and angry at the teaming masses of people and that mass was growing. I was afraid that the situation was going to turn violent if some kind of organized chaos wasn’t created. I wasn’t sure if the UN guys were going to help with that. And the people grew hot and the sun rose.

We were in a tight group with two UN officials, four of us, four foreigners and we stood out. We were a target for frustration. While people pushed and shoved and lost their shoes in the mass, we stood and chatted. “Who are the journalists here?!”, exclaimed one man. We feebly pointed to some by the wall…no journalists here. “See, see how they use propaganda!” he shouted referring to a soldier who had lifted a young boy above the pushing people and sat with him at the cement barrier. “While we suffer the media come and make it look like it is the Israeli’s who make things better”. It wasn’t a media stunt and the boy was handed to the soldier by his mother but the scene represented a deeper anger. We nodded in understanding and noticed others were lining up to be vocal.

One pushed in and shouted and spat in Arabic, counting our faults on his fingers. “You organizations come here. For six years you come here and write reports and nothing, nothing has changed! Why are you here? What good do you do?”. And I have to agree with him. We probably don’t do much good in the broader issue. But we are here now and we can help with particular problems now. We can help minimise the abuse and loss of dignity just by being here. The international community is watching. And this means sweet bugger all to his livelihood and children’s future.

Again, we nodded it off. We did understand and he was right, we weren’t fixing it. Probably the most widely reported and documented occupation in history and still it deteriorates. We write reports and take pictures and earn a salary and the arguments that all we do is make the occupation work better rings louder and louder. I will leave that argument for a later post but I renew my duty now, because it is this now in which people need me. As people suffer today, I can help to relieve that in anyway I can. So I interfere when I have to, help where I can, and take pictures when I want to. And in this time I hope that those with greater powers than me will fix it. I refuse to get frustrated like some of the UN personnel who complain that these people don’t appreciate them. If you think people don’t appreciate you, maybe you should work a little harder, arrive on time, and don’t leave before it’s over.

Prayer time is 11:45 and inside the terminal over 300 men were still waiting in the queue and outside the barrier. Those who did not even get past the first barrier kneel in prayer in the hot sun and far from their holy site. When you forcibly prevent people from practicing their religion you ask for trouble.

The third Friday of Ramadan is coming closer.

(Check out some more photos from checkpoints here)

Bob Marley and the Diplomats

We, that is me and three other South Africans, went to the South African Representative Office to the Palestinian National Authority today in Ramallah. I met the ambassador, and we do call him an ambassador there as the South African government recognizes a Palestinian state, which means we are indeed dealing with a country and not a territory. I am somewhat proud of this fact even though their ideals and stance and support for a two-state solution, although so very politically correct is somewhat defunct. But they are there and they help and they do their diplomatic work and they drive pretty cool cars.

We sat and drank proper filter coffee in a lovely air-conditioned room and spoke of the situation in Palestine, surprisingly in a good general agreement, and we didn’t talk about home that much, although we did raise the immigrant issue and the growing problem in Johannesburg and Pretoria, both population wise and crime wise.

So now they know we are here in this strange land and we signed the documents in case of an emergency and then we wanted to go. Their offices are a little way outside of the centre of Ramallah, too far to walk anyway, so we needed a lift back. We asked if they could call a taxi but as far as good fortune goes one of their drivers was on his way to Jerusalem in one of those pretty cool cars. And here comes the point of the whole story. I drove in a diplomatic car and liked it. When there was traffic in the way, we had sirens. When there was a slow car, we had good horsepower to overtake. We had diplomatic plates and we had Bob Marley on the sound system – “Oh woman don’t cry”.

Nice. But it made me think. How go the lyrics? In this great future, you can’t forget your past.

Perhaps I am in the wrong line of work.

Does international law matter?

I often ask myself whether international law actually matters. I have asked a number of thoughtful and intelligent people this question. Of course, their answers lie somewhere on the long spectrum between yes and no. I have generally thought the answer was no. If law cannot be enforced effectively then what really is the point of having it. With no enforcement, there is no respect. And it is exactly the respect for international law that is needed, especially in the occupation of Palestinian Territory.

My position on this has shifted somewhat. I have moved beyond considering these laws to be some kind of practical application. It is an ideal; an international morality. I think that does matter.

An Nu’man – village under seige

I and some colleagues just returned from visiting An Nu’man, a dusty, lonely village of about 20 homes and 150 people on the outskirts of Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem. A strange place with a strange legal status under Israeli occupation. Briefly speaking, the residents of the village hold West Bank IDs but yet the village itself falls within the Jerusalem Municipality boundaries since 1967. Since the residents do not have permits to reside in Jerusalem, Israel considers them to be staying illegally in their homes. And now, since the Separation Barrier has been completed in that area, they are walled into the Jerusalem side, with no choice but to be illegal residents of their own homes. Due to the effect of the Separation Barrier, An Nu’man is now officially part of Israel but its people are not. It is amusing, they are good enough to pay fines to Jerusalem but not live there. Read more about the situation here. I have already decided to spend more time there and write about it.

The situation in An Nu’man is a bureaucratic mistake and the solution relatively simple – reroute the wall slightly so the village falls on the West Bank side, solving the humanitarian problem there. Israel’s Supreme Court says no-go. And the men of An Nu’man continue to be seized by the army in their beds as illegal residents of Israel.

Two homes were demolished there in January 2006 and video footage was taken. We sit in the living room of one of the residents and watch the demolition on her computer. Soldiers, jeeps, caterpillars, residents and screams. At the same time the children gather and watch with us. The speakers on the computer are bad and it distorts the screaming and shouting. Soldiers beat some men and woman as they try to interfere with the demolition. The children watch but soon they are bored and watch us instead, fascinated by these foreigners. At first I was surprised that the parents let the kids, younger than 5, watch the scene but then I realize they were there when it happened. I look a little harder in their eyes as they stare back at me. One child swinging prayer beads over his head slams them against the kitchen counter and they shatter and fly around the living room.

Ramadan

Today is the first day of Ramadan. It is hot. I am careful not to enjoy a cool swig of water openly. Not out of fear of repercussions but rather respect. The Muslims here cannot let anything pass their lips from sunrise to sunset; a tough discipline.

A few days ago I came into Jerusalem through the Gilo checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and already the large cement blocks were placed some 30 meters from the terminal gates on the Bethlehem side in preparation for crowd control. The terminal, the wall (separation barrier, security fence, cement monstrosity…whatever) acts as a serious deterrent to all Palestinians who do not have the necessary permit to enter Jerusalem. According to Muslim beliefs, all should enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City at least one Friday during the Ramadan period and pray there if they can. Even with the Israeli government’s leniency during this period the amount of people who want to pray greatly outnumber those who are allowed to. Tensions increase. Even with a capacity of 100,000 on the Dome of the Rock grounds, many more still try to push through.

Most years there are huge numbers of people attempting to cross the checkpoints who are not allowed to cross and so pray at the gates of the terminal – the closest point to the holy site. Gilo checkpoint is a particular problem and often riots, tear gas, casualties and general confusion occur. I am travelling back to Bethlehem on Thursday and will be at the checkpoint on Friday for the first Friday or Ramadan. I’ll report back then.