Jim Pascual Agustin's Blog

Funny what one remembers when you wake up before dawn…. this poem from my book SOUND BEFORE WATER (University of Sto.Tomas Publishing House, Manila 2013; Minimal Press, Cape Town 2025) —

along with a lot of random things like Norman’s newspapers stuffed in his jacket to keep himself warm in winter in Cape Town – that was around 1995 or so… when I was working in a secondhand music shop in a rundown area.. we were buying and selling music cds, vinyl, etc… I was the manager… we bought from suspicious characters with tattoos sometimes, and also rich folks who had massive collections… it was dirty work in many ways… but Norman suddenly came to mind while I was unable to get back to sleep… he didn’t smell nice but he bought lots of stuff from me.. he had money somehow… then there was Clive who tried to protect my wife who was also working there — some gangster types scared my wife… Clive was a regular drunk and homeless guy who hung around the shop sometimes — completely harmless, but he protected my wife when she was on her own and Clive saw a way to divert the attention of the gangsters away from her … my wife and I bought shopping vouchers for Clive when Christmas came around – it was for chicken — not for alcohol… so he bought so much chicken and shared it around he said they had chicken coming out of their ears… Norman’s Newspapers and Clive’s Chickens… one day I have to write properly about them and all those amazing random memories before my brain switches itself off completely.

From my Facebook account that is being shadow banned each time I mention Palestine

From a Facebook post… Someone in G’aza shared a photo and said, “I didn’t remove the water from the roof of my tent because the birds drink from it”
Even with almost nothing, they’re still giving.
Humanity at its purest.

Source of photo – https://www.facebook.com/100069781067470/posts/1031246045878088/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Message from Gaza

Please join the internet silence if you can.

From our health workers for Palestine colleagues

From the heartbreakingly beautiful testimonial writings of Gaza’s Dr Ezzideen

There is no internet.
No signal. No sound. No world beyond this cage.

I walked thirty minutes through ruins and dust. Not in search of escape, but for a fragment of signal, just enough to whisper, “We are still alive.”

Not because anyone is listening,
but because to die unheard is the final death.

Gaza is silent now.
Not with peace, but with obliteration.
Not a silence of stillness, but of smothering.

They severed the last cable.
No messages leave. No images enter.
Even grief has been forbidden.

I passed the corpses of buildings, of homes, of men, some breathing, some not.
All of them erased by the same hand that erased our voices.

This is not a siege of bombs alone.
It is a siege of memory: a war against our ability to say, “We were here.”

The bombing never stopped, especially in Jabalia.
They shell the streets where children beg for food.
They shell the lines where mothers wait for flour.
They shell hunger itself.

No food. No water. No exit.
And those who try, those who reach for aid, are struck down.

People die here, and no one knows.
Not because the killing paused, but because the killing of connection succeeded.

The internet was our final breath.
It was not a luxury; it was the last evidence of our humanity.

Now it is gone.
And in the dark, they massacre without consequence.

I found this faint eSIM signal as a dying man finds a flicker of flame.
I stood beneath a broken sky, risking death, not for rescue, but to send this.

A single message.
A last resistance.

If you are reading this, remember:
we walked through fire to say it.
We were not silent.
We were silenced.

And when the cables are restored,
the truth will bleed through the wires,
and the world will know what it chose not to see.

Starting today
LOCAL TIME ZONE from*21:00 (9PM) to **21:30 (9:30PM), I will turn off my mobile phone.
In the strongest form of internet disconnection, from 21:00 (9PM) to 21:30 (9:30 PM) for one week—for the Palestinian people.

Silence for Gaza

30 minutes of digital silence

THIS IS A coordinated digital campaign of the “Silence for Gaza” movement was launched. It is a growing wave.

Because something can be done: a daily digital break for 30 minutes every evening, from 21:00 (9:00PM) to 21:30 (9:30 PM) local time in each country.

During this break:
No social media.
No messages.
No comments.
Phones and computers are turned off.

This collective action will send a strong digital signal to the algorithms, and show our solidarity with Gaza.
(It’s not easy—but let’s do something. That’s what matters.)

The idea:
Every day, at the same time, millions of users around the world go completely silent on social media for 30 minutes.
No posts.
No likes.
No comments.
No opening apps.
Complete digital silence. Turn off your phone.

It is an act of resistance—a global digital protest.

The anger of so many citizens in the face of immense injustice.

Because something can be done: simple and effective.

Remember 21:00 (9PM) digital silence.
(Set an alarm on your phone: 21:00 (9PM) reminder.)

⸻

Technical Explanation:

Algorithmic Impact
Social media platforms depend on constant user activity.
We are the ones who keep the system running.
A sudden, synchronized drop in activity—even for a short time—can:
(a) disrupt visibility algorithms.
(b) affect real-time traffic statistics.
(c) send a technical signal to servers about abnormal user behavior.
This act highlights a citizen resistance to injustice, which until now was fueled by our passivity.Symbolic Impact
In a hyperconnected world, digital silence is a powerful statement.
It creates a stark contrast between the noise of social media and the forced silence in Gaza.
It’s a moment of collective reflection.Social Impact
If the action is widespread, leaders will see that citizens reject the crime in Gaza—
And only then will they move.

We aim to create a progressive wave that spreads worldwide .

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-06-03-new-documentary-shines-a-light-on-the-environmental-damage-caused-by-elon-musks-tech-ambitions/

I could have died on 2 January 2025. But I didn’t. I survived a mini stroke.

In the middle of a not-so-hot Cape Town afternoon while I was doing my regular body weight exercise. I was busy performing staggered push-ups using the thickest book I could use for the movement (funny enough it was the Vicassan Tagalog-English Dictionary that I had lugged with me to Cape Town back in 1994).

One moment I was doing my tenth then in an instant I had my head “stuck on the floor” unable to pull my body up. First thought was that this must be a bout of vertigo which some friends have described having.

I luckily had the phone within reach, so I called my wife who was at the other end of the house. She rushed in panic and was stunned to see me on the floor all helpless. We called the emergency assistance line of the local community forum. They quickly sent for an ambulance once they arrived and assessed that I have just had a stroke.

The ambulance came, quicker than we expected, and I had my first ride in one – also first time being lifted off the ground on to a gurney like in a medical series scene! The ambulance drove fast, but to me it looked like we were going backwards. Glimpses of trucks on the windows.

20 minutes later I was being wheeled in the hospital that was about 15 kilometers away – the one closer to us told the ambulance crew they had an hour of waiting time.

The first doctor to see to me confirmed that  it was a stroke. He booked me for various tests… MRI, ultrasound, etc…

After all the tests were done and they had the results…. The first thing they asked me was if I was a heavy drinker. I rarely have alcohol these days. I prefer not to have headaches if I can avoid them.

They could not pinpoint a particular cause of the stroke. I was healthy and fit. The only thing that they suspected was cholesterol levels. But mine wasn’t even high. It was normal.

My left arm and leg were the badly affected side. Luckily my speech was spared so that I could still make a lot of noise and opportunities to annoy other people.

I had spasms on my affected limbs and I could not walk. It was a terrifying experience to be suddenly so helpless and totally dependent on others.

A great friend who came to visit asked if I had been stressed over something. I was actually feeling all fine, but there has been something bothering me for many months – the genocide in Gaza.

I ended up staying  in hospital for two months, with a few infections and other medical issues popping up along the way, which hindered my physical rehabilitation routine.

We should all be sick of the so-called enlightened leaders of the West propping up the terrorist state of Israel. Who can bear seeing so much bloodshed and not be affected or afflicted with something like a stroke?

The heart and mind can only take so much brutality on devices daily, and we’re not even there to physically witness the death and destruction that Zionists continue to spread unabated. When is it going to be enough?

My writing cannot undo the horrors, but I try to express my feelings through what I write. Some people, it seems, found my stance too much for them to allow… So not long ago a handful of South Africa based poets singled me out and publicly made a show of displeasure online. I responded with a blog post about them and shared an entire section from one of my books…

Alien to Any Skin: intergalactic nightmares

I blame Netanyahu, all the bloody Zionists, and the lot who attacked me online for this stroke. There. I said it.

You know who you are, you intolerant monsters!

San Anselmo Publications posted another poem from STUN THE SLOPES WITH LIGHTNING BOLTS.

Here is the link. Please share your thoughts and engage with the piece. Thank you.

Here is the link

https://www.facebook.com/100063764483662/posts/1231424552326349/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

My publisher in the Philippines, San Anselmo Publications, will be releasing my latest poetry manuscript online via their Facebook page.

Here is the link to the post I shared on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/100002193243035/posts/9348981388518210/?app=fbl

On 2 January 2025. The universe reminded me how fleeting everything is. One moment you’re exercising to get fit and in the next you can be on the floor with a view of ants eager to take you apart for their offspring.

I was doing staggered push ups getting ready to jump in the swimming pool afterwards, so it was lucky I didn’t get that far. A mini stroke is like an evil former friend who knows exactly how to hurt you.

And this when I’m dlsupposed to be preparing for the South African launch of SOUND BEFORE WATER.