Category: Europe,

Hungarians Just Destroyed All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields…

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. 

Hungarians Just Destroyed All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields… | Eco Snippets

hmmm

Afghan boy’s hope of new life in Europe ends in suicide

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Middle East,Leave a comment

SVANGSTA, Sweden (Reuters) – Mustafa Ansari’s journey ended one April morning in his bedroom in a quiet Swedish village. At around 7 a.m., staff at the young asylum-seekers’ center where Ansari was staying found him dead. 

…An autopsy found Ansari, who had no papers but was described in the autopsy as 17, had committed suicide. During nine months in Sweden, the authorities had not managed to carry out a single interview for his asylum application.

The young Afghan was a new kind of casualty in Europe’s migration crisis. While thousands have died on the journey to Europe, Ansari made it, only to become caught up in an overloaded system. His story highlights the limits on capacity even in a country like Sweden, which has one of the most open policies towards migrants and refugees. It also underlines the anxieties and risks faced by the more than 100,000 unaccompanied young asylum-seekers who have reached Europe since 2015.

…Processing times for asylum-seekers in the country have nearly tripled over five years to a median of longer than nine months, from just over three months in 2011. Care-workers have lost track of more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors, a third of whom are Afghan males, since 2014.

…Asylum-seekers are generally more likely to attempt suicide than the general population, studies have shown. They suffer high rates of depression, psychosis and other mental health conditions, largely because of the trauma they have fled. In Sweden, government and other groups have estimated that around a quarter of asylum-seekers suffer from mental illnesses like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ansari had traveled alone. His autopsy report says he was suffering from depression and bipolar disorder. Friends say he desperately missed his family. He waited months for a meeting to process his claim, but the agency canceled one meeting and messed up the venue for the other. “He used to speak about his frustration,” said his fellow asylum-seeker, 18-year-old Afghan Mohsen Naghawi. “He saw himself as unlucky.”

…Like many Afghans, Ansari planned to bring over his family from Iran once he had won asylum.

…”You have to remember that it is a very big responsibility for these boys,” said Ansari’s 18-year old friend, Naghawi. “Their families have sold everything and this is on their shoulders.”

That sense of responsibility intensifies the moment the boys touch Swedish soil.

…As winter approached and the days darkened, extremist attackers in Paris were found to have entered Europe with refugees traveling through Greece. This was a provincial, conservative part of Sweden. Some of Ansari’s friends said they feared the Swedish authorities might be delaying their applications as a tactic to make it easier to deport them.

As spring neared, according to the migrant center staffer Kullberg, Ansari started to adopt European ways. He was accepting handshakes, even hugs, from female staff.

But he had yet to meet anyone from the Migration Agency.

He began to spend hours in his room. His smile disappeared, he stopped going to school and he lost weight, his friends said.

Afghan boy’s hope of new life in Europe ends in suicide

sigh…

Human beings suck!

‘It is a disgrace to Europe’: former child refugee Lord Dubs on the Calais camp | UK news | The Guardian

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,Leave a comment

The Home Office says it is in “active discussions” with the UNHCR and Italian, Greek and French governments to “speed up mechanisms to identify, assess and transfer refugee children to the UK where this is in their best interests.” But no children have come as a result of the Dubs commitment.

“I was shocked that nothing had happened despite the amendment. There are more people than ever, and the conditions are as awful as ever – children living in shacks, in tents very makeshift, with just one meal a day, often not enough to eat, with no support system except for the volunteers, left to their own devices,” Dubs says.

“Visually, it is pretty awful, hemmed in, with barbed wire along the motorway; what it will be like in the cold and winter, I shudder to think. Human beings can’t survive indefinitely like this. No wonder there is violence in the camp, no wonder they are so desperate to escape. It is not surprising they are doing everything they can to get across the Channel. In their position, I would be doing the same.”

He is reluctant to overstate the similarities between his own experience as a child fleeing war and the ordeal confronting many of these children, but he recognises that his campaign has been given moral weight by his timely reminder of how much Britain had helped Jewish children fleeing the Nazis.

“It was important, politically, to remember that Britain had set a strong humanitarian example in 1938, which undoubtedly saved the lives of many people who would otherwise have ended up in the gas chambers,” he says.

…Dubs leaves the camp determined to keep fighting to ensure that at least some of the children are helped. “These kids are having a terrible time. There’s no safety, no security. The situation we saw today is terrible. It is a disgrace to Europe to have 9,000 people with so many children living in those conditions.”

‘It is a disgrace to Europe’: former child refugee Lord Dubs on the Calais camp | UK news | The Guardian

The humanity!

French police make woman remove clothing on Nice beach following burkini ban | World news | The Guardian

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Europe,, Media and Culture,, Religion,Leave a comment

Authorities in 15 towns have banned burkinis, citing public concern following recent terrorist attacks in the country

Photographs have emerged of armed French police confronting a woman on a beach and making her remove some of her clothing [emphasis mine] as part of a controversial ban on the burkini.

Source: French police make woman remove clothing on Nice beach following burkini ban | World news | The Guardian

This is absolute bullshit. There is no difference whatsoever between this and the immoral monsters who call themselves morality police and attack or harass women for not being properly hijabbed. Monsters.

Erdogan visits Russia after coup attempt stirs tensions with the West 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Middle East,Leave a comment

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg Tuesday, a step toward mending ties ruptured last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near Syria’s border.

Judy Woodruff discusses the turmoil in Turkey with Kemal Kirişci of the Brookings Institution and Henri Barkey of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

…”A telling moment in St. Petersburg: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin welcomed Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan”

Erdogan visits Russia after coup attempt stirs tensions with the West | PBS NewsHour

hmmmm