Category: International Affairs,

Calais ‘jungle’ demolition: Hundreds of migrants abandon bus queues and head back to camp after processing delays

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,Leave a comment

Thousands of people have been loaded onto buses outside the squalid Calais migrant camp and taken to asylum centres dotted around the French countryside in a bid by the government to shut down the so-called ‘jungle’ once and for all.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who is hoping to be chosen as his party’s candidate for the presidential elections next year, has attacked the French government’s plan for Calais – accusing them of having dismantled “nothing at all” in rehousing “11,000 unfortunate migrants.”

He told France 5:

“When I left the presidency, there were fewer than 1,000 migrants in Calais; now we talk about 11,000.

We haven’t dismantled anything at all. We’re taking the 11,000 unfortunates there, and spread them out in France.

Are we going to give them papers? I don’t understand this government’s politics.”

He said that 90 per cent wanted to get to Great Britain, and only 5 per cent were eligible.

He also said, falsely, that Britain returns migrants to Sudan and Eritrea.

“Great Britain sends the Sudanese back to Sudan; the Eritreans back to Eritrea. Germany does the same.

Parts of these countries are at war.”

When told by his interviewers that, according to the spokesman for the interior minister, the majority were eligible for asylum, Mr Sarkozy replied:

“If they were eligible, why keep them for five years in the Jungle?

If they were eligible, they should have been given their papers.”

 

Calais ‘jungle’ demolition: Hundreds of migrants abandon bus queues and head back to camp after processing delays

Why keep them for five years?

Why indeed,  Mr Sarkozy, why indeed.

(Oh, and Jeezus… Get over the whole Channel rivalry and stop shitting on the U.K. for no other reaso n than its there. Jeezus…)

Natasha Annie Tonthola: My fight against Malawi’s ‘hyenas’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,, Chick Stuff,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

I started a community organisation working on a variety of issues, from keeping girls in school by fighting early marriage, educating people about rituals and traditions – including hyenas – which put girls at risk, and teaching about HIV/Aids, unwanted pregnancies and reproductive health.

All the while, something was bubbling up inside me, and I knew that what had happened to me in my life was happening to other girls and women.

My community organisation continued to educate people but it was hard, particularly when we were challenging traditions such as the use of hyenas [the male in a sexual initiation ceremony] and wife inheritance.

…But some elders and religious leaders listened, and some have stopped the practice in their villages.

In my community work I soon learned more about the barriers for girls in school. If families are going through a financial rough patch, they’re more likely to pay fees for boys rather than for girls. If girls drop out of school, the family is eager to marry them off rather than have them sit around the house all day. And many girls miss class because they can’t afford sanitary towels.

To try to solve this problem, one of the main things my organisation is doing is distributing eco-friendly reusable washable sanitary pads and pants. They come as part of a kit including pants with clips so that they stay in place and a waterproof bag, in case girls need to change them in school. They are biodegradable, but cost effective and durable – they last for five years.

Natasha Annie Tonthola: My fight against Malawi’s ‘hyenas’ – BBC News

 

More about her programs:
Free Range Chick Support Dignity Project
Dignity Project

Secret Nazi military base discovered by Russian scientists in the Arctic

On By peanutgallerynhIn International Affairs,Leave a comment

A secret Nazi military base in the Arctic has been discovered by Russian scientists.  The site – located on the island of Alexandra Land 1,000km from the North Pole 0150 was constructed in 1942, a year after Adolf Hitler invaded Russia.  It was codenamed “Schatzgraber” or “Treasure Hunter” by the Germans and was primarily used as a tactical weather station.

Secret Nazi military base discovered by Russian scientists in the Arctic | The Independent

hmmm

Sympathetic Canadians Have a Message for Americans: You Guys Are Great – The New York Times

On By peanutgallerynhIn The Americas,Leave a comment

Some Canadians watching as American politics have hit rock bottom in recent weeks decided that the United States needed a cross-border pep talk.

…Canadians warmly praising the United States for things like its diversity, its space program and for being the birthplace of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

…To a jaded American eye, it may all look like the most Canadian thing ever.

…Canada and the United States have a unique relationship. They share the longest land border in the world, and their economies, societies, law enforcement and defense operations are deeply entwined. Over $1.8 billion a day changes hands in cross-border trade, and roughly 400,000 people travel between the two countries daily.

…Ms. Walczak said that close relationship is one reason Canadians were watching American politics so closely. “Everything is so intertwined, we can’t help but realize that we’ll also be affected by the outcome of this election,” she said.

Sympathetic Canadians Have a Message for Americans: You Guys Are Great – The New York Times

Awwww

Canadians Invited To Share What Makes America Great : NPR

On By peanutgallerynhIn The Americas,Leave a comment

“Tell America It’s Great”

The “Tell America It’s Great” campaign, was started by a Toronto-based creative agency. It put out an open call for Canadians to share videos of what they like about America and what makes it great.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: But as you’re thinking about your future, we just want you to know that…

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: You guys are great.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: You really are great.

 

Canadians Invited To Share What Makes America Great : NPR

Awwww….

No matter how messed up we make this things, Canada always has our back. They’re, like, one of our two best next-door neighbors!

ICG: Yemen’s War Will Get Worse 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

Yemenis are no strangers to horrific attacks on civilians. After 18 months of war, both the US-supported, Saudi-led coalition and its adversaries, a combination of Houthi rebels and fighters loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, stand accused of flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, perpetrated seemingly without consequence. The United Nations estimates the war has claimed more than 10,000 lives, including 4,000 civilians, with the majority of deaths caused by coalition airstrikes.

…The anger and hostility directed toward the Saudi-led coalition in the aftermath of the funeral hall strike will make it harder to contain the regional rivalries unleashed across the Middle East and to convince Yemen’s domestic parties to reach a negotiated settlement. Indeed, the premonitions of Abdul-Qader Hilal, the Sanaa mayor who was killed in Saturday’s attack, are ones that deserve our attention now.

Two and a half years ago, I sat with Hilal in his home on the outskirts of Sana’a as he received rounds of Salafi, tribal, and Houthi mediators in an attempt to solidify a truce between warring factions in Yemen’s north. A politician with connections to all sides of the country’s complicated political and tribal mosaic, he predicted a conflagration if violence in the north was not contained by integrating the Houthis into the political system. When the military tide was unleashed, he warned, it would be hard to stop. “If the Houthis take Amran [a city north of Sanaa], they will take Sana’a,” he said. “If they take Sana’a, we will be talking about [stability in] Riyadh a year later.”

ICG: Yemen’s Terrible War is About to Get Worse – National Yemen

hmmm

What Is Going On At The Border Isn’t Illegal Immigration. It’s Much Trickier.  

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, The Americas,Leave a comment

…This distinction between the shifting demographics at the border isn’t just semantics. It’s not so much an illegal immigration problem, but rather, a steady stream of asylum-seekers.

U.S. officials have known for years that a significant number of Central American migrants are actually turning themselves in at Border Patrol stations and begging for protection. And because they’re asylum-seekers, agents can’t simply turn them away or immediately deport them. The United States has a legal obligation to accept the thousands of migrants until their asylum claims are processed.

“It’s not just economic migrants that are trying to get to the United States for a better living,” Meyer said. “The numbers constitute a high degree of people fleeing for their lives.”

The Obama administration initially responded ..by filling up immigrant detention centers with mothers and their children while their asylum claims were assessed.

The intention was to swiftly process and deport the detainees.

[Authorities found] …that the vast majority of the detained families passed the first of many tests on their asylum applications — more than 86 percent of immigrants held in family detention showed a “credible fear” of returning to their home countries, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It meant they could remain in the United States to follow their applications to the end.

Illegal Immigration Is Changing. Border Security Is Still Catching Up – NBC News

hmmm

After Nigerian First Lady Criticizes Her Husband, He Says She Belongs to His Kitchen 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,Leave a comment

[Buhari’s] wife said his government is being hijacked by outside players who are influencing him in the wrong direction. At 73, the president hasn’t yet decided if he’ll run for reelection in 2019. But if he does, there’s at least one person we now know he can’t count on for a vote.

“He is yet to tell me, but I have decided as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before,” she said on Friday. “I will never do it again.”

After Nigerian First Lady Criticizes Her Husband, He Says She Belongs to His Kitchen | Foreign Policy

Dang…. Clearly that man needs to get his sheee-at together, pronto.