Today is the 20th anniversary of the Rights of the Child. On this occasion Save the Children Denmark is giving its annual Children’s Rights Award to unaccompanied minors.

Meanwhile, DR reports:

A growing number of child refugees arriving in Denmark unaccompanied by their parents wind up in jail.

This year alone, Save the Children Denmark has knowledge of 16 children who have been remanded in custody for up to 60 days. The reason is that they have been in possession of forged documents.

Some have been consigned to alternative detention facilities, while others wind up in regular prisons such as Vestre Fængsel.

So prison is the first thing some children from war zones experience upon arrival in Denmark.

The Ministry of Justice and The Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs both say the other one is responsible in the matter.

MP Karsten Lauritzen from the ruling party Venstre says that many asylum seekers lie that they’re underaged in order to have a stronger asylum case. And besides, these children aren’t imprisoned for nothing: it’s illegal to travel on forged papers.

It’s true that Denmark hasn’t implemented the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Danish legislation, although it has ratified it, so although it is a breach of the convention to imprison unaccompanied minors, it may still be in accordance with national law to do so.

What the government seems eager to ignore though is the difference between legal and legitimate.

Administrative procedures in Ireland are usually easier than in France. There is no question about it. That said, I also had to deal with some tricky procedures with Irish documents. My wife and I needed to get a passport for our child recently born outside our respective countries, Ireland and France. While the application for the French passport is still in process, we managed to obtain the Irish one fast enough, although, as usual, we had to cope with a lot of non-sense.

We first contacted the embassy and they sent us the documents to be filled in, all very quickly. There was no stupid requirements like those you get in France – like this one: ‘you must sign inside than half an inch blue box sir. Do not touch the blue box with your pen sir, or you will have to refill a complete new form’. I am not kidding, I did have to fill in that damned form twice.  With the Irish application, it is definitely much easier. There is however one requirement, that can turn into a nightmare if you happen to reside in the UK, the so-called Certificate of Identity.

This relates to the witness section of the application form. For applications made in Ireland, this part and the photograph have to be signed by a Garda Síochána. It states the following:

“note to witness: do not certify unless satisfied as to the identity of the applicant.

But if you are applying from abroad, my wife read, it has to be signed by a member of one of the following professions: 

• A member of clergy. Damn, I told you we should have gone to mass more often.
• A lawyer.  Yeah right, they’ll charge us a thousand pounds just to see the form.
• An elected public representative. That would be a politician. I did not know it was considered to be a profession.
• A bank manager.  No one trusts them anymore, that form must be too old.
• Notary, comissioner for oaths, peace comissioner, school principal, we don’t know any…

Hang on, it says here:

• A medical doctor.

Now, that would be us, I said. Surely my dear, the doctor who looked after your pregnancy for the last 9 months should have no problem in acting as witness, right?”

But the doctor said she would not sign because she did not know us well enough. By this she meant ‘not more than 2 years’ as we subsequently understood. So we turned to the Irish embassy again to explain the situation. They said that the British police could also act as witness and they advised us to ask them.

The police gave us the same answer as the doctor though, and it took my wife several phone calls before eventually speaking to a higher authority who explained to us that no one in Britain could act as a witness on a passport application unless they knew the applicant for at least 2 years. This is due to some recent anti-terrorist bill.

But the absurd bit is – and you already know the question – what does this have to do with any foreign passport application? We were not applying for a British passport after all!

I remember that at some point my wife told Mr Chief Police Officer that we were just random EU citizens. This dirty word, however, did not help the already complicated situation.

We had booked flights to go and introduce our child to our respective families but we had a problem:

1. UK and Ireland not being part of the Shengen area, we could not travel without a passport for our child,
2. Under Irish law, we needed the passport application form to be signed by a member of a profession,
3. Under British law the application could not be signed unless the said member of a profession had known us for a minimum of 2 years, which was not the case.

We thought that in Europe the right to free movement applied to all categories of citizens and to their family. But once again we had put too much faith in our ideal European Union and foolishly forgotten Schengen and the twin towers bombing aftermath complications.

How about starting my own political party? I’ll call it:

The Free Movement of the Citizens

(and their families).

“Questo sarebbe un salvataggio di poveri migranti.

Mare calmo come l’olio, barca a vela con bandiera italiana, in una insenatura a pochi metri dalla riva…

Eppure si muovono 2 elicotteri di Stato con 1 o 2 troupes televisive di Stato.

Dopo un po’ di riprese (“alcuni minuti”) arriva finalmente una imbarcazione di soccorso.

Questo “servizio giornalistico”, che può apparire una miserabile messinscena, è una produzione della Rai, della Guardia Costiera o di chi altri?

Da www.malainformazione.it.

Grazie a Marcello per la segnalazione.

Se è come sembra…è un esempio clamoroso di come possa essere veicolata l’informazione senza giornalisti indipendenti.  E il TG1 si confermerebbe organo di informazione non più credibile.

Da qui l’importanza di progetti come fortresseurope che testimoniano la crescente voglia di citizen journalism.

Ecco alcuni fotogrammi che confermano che quantomeno si tratta di manipolazione se non di BUGIA.

La Svizzera firma l’accordo per la partecipazione all’agenzia UE FRONTEX per la protezione delle frontiere esterne.

Berna, 30.09.2009 – In data odierna la Svizzera e l’UE hanno firmato a Bruxelles l’accordo complementare che disciplina le modalità di partecipazione della Svizzera all’Agenzia europea per la gestione della cooperazione operativa alle frontiere esterne (FRONTEX). Di conseguenza la via per la partecipazione della Svizzera a FRONTEX è ora spianata. In linea di massima, la Svizzera collabora alle attività coordinate da FRONTEX su base volontaria e secondo i propri interessi e capacità.

L’anno scorso, il Consiglio federale e il Parlamento avevano già approvato la trasposizione e l’applicazione del regolamento comunitario che istituisce FRONTEX e del regolamento che istituisce le squadre di intervento rapido alle frontiere (RABIT). Dato che, in vista della cooperazione concreta tra la Svizzera e FRONTEX, bisognava chiarire alcuni dettagli, si è reso necessario un accordo complementare. Con la firma in data odierna a Bruxelles di questo accordo complementare, che fissa le modalità di partecipazione all’Agenzia europea per la gestione della cooperazione operativa alle frontiere esterne degli Stati membri dell’Unione europea, la Svizzera può ora aderire a FRONTEX. Secondo stime, il contributo finanziario della Svizzera oscillerebbe mediamente dai 2,3 ai 2,7 milioni di franchi l’anno.

L’Agenzia si prefigge di semplificare l’applicazione delle misure attuali e future nell’ambito della sorveglianza delle frontiere esterne degli Stati membri dell’UE. Tuttavia, essa si occupa unicamente del coordinamento di tali operazioni e non della loro esecuzione. Tale compito compete al rispettivo Paese.

La partecipazione alle attività coordinate da FRONTEX avviene su base volontaria e secondo gli interessi e le capacità della Svizzera. Quale Paese senza sbocchi marittimi, per la Svizzera sono in generale più importanti le operazioni effettuate alle frontiere esterne aeree (aeroporti internazionali) e talvolta anche quelle alle frontiere esterne terrestri rispetto a quelle presso le frontiere esterne marittime. In Svizzera, la cooperazione con FRONTEX è di competenza del Corpo delle guardie di confine.

Uno strumento essenziale per la protezione delle frontiere esterne è rappresentato dai cosiddetti Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT). Con l’adesione a FRONTEX, la Svizzera si impegna a cooperare, su richiesta, alle attività di tali squadre di intervento rapido. Per le operazioni RABIT, la Svizzera mette a disposizione da due a quattro persone, perlopiù specialisti (consulenti in materia di documenti, esperti di veicoli). La Svizzera può però far valere ragioni per non partecipare a un’operazione RABIT (p. es. esigenze d’esercizio a livello nazionale).

Nell’ambito di FRONTEX, la Svizzera si era limitata finora al ruolo di osservatrice e partecipava alle operazioni ad hoc (p. es. Euro 2008, voli di rimpatrio coordinati da FRONTEX).

http://www.efd.admin.ch

http://www.frontex.europa.eu

http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com

Davvero possiamo ancora fingere di non sapere ? E davvero possiamo non sentirci nel profondo dell’animo toccati per ciò che avviene agli emigranti rinchiusi nelle carceri libiche? Gabriele Del Grande sul suo blog, Fortress Europe, ha, ormai da diversi mesi, pubblicato un rapporto, “Fuga da Tripoli”,  in cui accusa la Libia della violazione dei Diritti Umani contro i migranti arrestati sulla rotta per Lampedusa. Anche l’Unione Europea non sarebbe immune da colpe secondo il giornalista toscano : “L’Unione europea si rende complice dei crimini commessi dalle autorità libiche contro i migranti e i rifugiati arrestati sulle rotte per la Sicilia, dal momento che dal 2008 procederà al respingimento collettivo in mare di tutte le imbarcazioni che saranno intercettate da Frontex, mandando migliaia di uomini, donne e bambini a marcire per mesi o per anni nelle carceri libiche, per poi essere rimpatriati anche se rifugiati”.  Secondo tale rapporto sarebbero 1.579 morti nel deserto e 2.483 nel Canale di Sicilia, 83 le testimonianze dirette di torture, stupri e omicidi commessi dalla polizia libicain più di 20 centri di detenzione per migranti, dove sono incarcerate almeno 60000 persone ogni anno, senza alcun processo ed in condizioni a dir poco disumane. Gli immigrati denunciano inoltre deportazioni di massa nel Sahara e rimpatri da Tripoli finanziati anche dall’Italia per ciò che concerne almeno 47 voli. Pubblicate su Fortress Europe vi sono le foto scattate di nascosto nei campi di detenzione di Sebha, Zlitan e Misratah del novembre 2008. Tale testimonianza è ora di pubblico dominio. Noi tutti ora sappiamo e quindi una eventuale indifferenza condannerà per sempre le nostre coscienze.

Ed è per questo che mi indigno per affermazioni a dir poco affrettate : ”Da quando il governo italiano ha adottato la politica dei respingimenti, i clandestini non partono piu’ dai loro paesi e non muoiono piu’ sul fondo del mare, quindi li abbiamo salvati”. Lo ha detto il ministro della Semplificazione, Roberto Calderoli.

Li abbiamo salvati, ha sentenziato il ministro. Almeno mi si conceda di pensare che per salvezza io non intendo, dopo aver speso tutti i miei soldi per scappare dalle guerre e dalla fame, aver viaggiato per mezzo continente africano su carri bestiame, aver messo a repentaglio la mia vita nel Mediterraneo su di una bagnarola ed essere stato respinto, pur avendo avuto diritto secondo la carta dei Diritti Universali dell’Uomo ad asilo politico nei paesi europei. Dicevo esser stato respinto sulle coste libiche, lasciato in balia di poliziotti libici che mi condurranno nelle loro carceri per diversi mesi in cui verrò trattato in condizioni disumane, vedrò le donne delle mie terre violentate e bambini che nasceranno in carcere. Tutto per la colpa manifesta di esser nato nell’africa subsahariana. Mi si conceda, signor Ministro, di non considerarla salvezza questa. E ciò anche senza intendere Salvezza con etimologia cristiana, ma solo umana. Anch’io allora preferirei rischiare di morire in mare. Sono fortemente indignato: i valori trasmessi a noi tutti dai padri fondatori della nostra Costituzione Italiana non sono certo quelli dell’indifferenza verso chi scappa dalla sofferenza. Ed è proprio la Costituzione Italiana che garantisce loro l’accoglienza nel nostro paese sotto forma di asilo politico. Sempre che la Costituzione Italiana valga ancora.

Foto dei campi di detenzione dei migranti in Libia

In the darkness before the darkness before dawn

In the isle of desolation amidst a city of color

A few figures, shadows and backpacks, congregate

A few form a haphazard line extending back from the gate

This gate of the LABO is the absolute border of the country

This gate demarcates our courteous selves

From their mechanism of human reduction and

From our stampeding hive selves, desperate

But all is now quiet as the sky re-casts itself from black to gray

But all is silent, though we all know a little broken English

More vehicles drop off more shadows, the line grows

More vehicles drive by their early shifts, perplexed drivers

Wonder about the line, its curvature along the industrial river bank

Wonder about the Ausländer, Fremden, Farbigen, Amis

No reasonable person save s/he who needs a living

No reasonable anonymous group should be up at this hour

Lights flicker on behind the gate; the dawn is drowned

Lights flicker on to slip silhouettes on forgotten shadows

All are of one mind – the page with the stamp is needed

All are well-informed – only here, only now, only when first

And the gates open

And the flood patters forth

At least 30 meters down the cement walkway to the door

At least 100 desperate shadows suddenly illuminated

Trampling desperately, cattle running to feed

Trampling desperately, the line’s composition changes

Now it’s a smashed amoeba up against a tower of cement and glass

Now it’s time for the shadows to hurry up and wait

The sun’s time has come, its beauty covered by a train

The sun’s arrival is heralded by few anymore, let alone by the shadows

More conversation – civilization resumes its “civil” root

More conversation – mutual vipers flick tongues in ignorance

Rumors fly:  some have been standing there since 3 a.m., you need to get your visa before you can register for classes, only 50 people were given numbers last time, this is the 4th time I’ve been here, when they open the doors you have to squeeze in, they’re denying Egyptians for some reason, Americans have it easy, Americans have it hard, our late friend’s Irene’s going to join the line, this is ridiculous, this is stupid, I thought the Germans were supposed to be efficient, what kind of visa do you need to stay?  we ran out of days three days ago, I have a child – coming through, you should see the bathrooms in there, are we even in front of the right door?

Cantankerous, an official warns us to back away – they need to get in

Cantankerous, a surly Polish woman scoffs at this absurdity

“The ones who’ve been working are us!” she barks

“The ones who are making it worse – that’s all of you!”

Pronouncing his German very slowly and loudly makes him understood

Pronouncing his syllables for the 25% who know the language

The rest look around for broken English translations

The rest mock and jeer and call and mob; the only right they have now

We are to be let in a few at a time, so we don’t crush our way in

We are to let those lucky few with appointments through, the ones with papers

So many stones have been laid in the basket of our visas, yet

So many blasted hopes have been laid at the LABO’s threshold

7:00! Yet another surge, the waves like in concerts crashing against security

7:00! Yet more shouting from the German official, letting a few in

A guard with his back to us puts his arms across the door

A guard lets those few who ran first to get their prize

Hatred swells in the mass:  against them, the guards, the officials inside

Hatred swells in the guards: against the unruly students, some of them scientists

Half-an-hour later, the crush subsides, hope shoved to another dark morning

Half-an-hour later, guards mop the sweat from their brow, cursing the hordes and their
Inconsiderate outright forthright savage uncouth unprecedented impolite forceful
Impudent adolescent murderous screaming bloodthirsty thrashing crushing breaking

Dark skin American clothing headscarves shifty eyes hairy ears bushy eyebrows

Greasy hair unwashed faces grabbing hands strange accents broken English

It isn’t their fault – talk to the boss, get him to hire everyone back, make extra hours

It isn’t their fault – people need visas to eat and the visas eat the people

This is what Ordnung looks like.

It is hard to vote on something you barely know about so if you are voting next week, you are clearly not exempt of home work, but if you already have made up your mind, this post should bring a little bit of confusion, just in case you had a clear understanding of what the Treaty of Lisbon is all about. If you are not voting next week, like most of us, the following may still be of some interest.

This morning I decided to wordle the Treaty of Lisbon and I still wonder why I had not done so yet. I had to twick it a bit because it predictably came up with words such as “article”, “European”, “Union” or “Paragraph”… But even after a bit of purging, I am still not sure about the essence of the text. The wordle picture still comes up with words such as “treaty”, “words” or “sentence”. We know that treaties are made of sentences, which in turn are themselves made of words so what are these bureaucrats trying to tell us about then?

When this kind of question arises, you need a more powerful tool. Enters Textalyser, an online freeware that performs a detailed text analysis. I came across it while browsing the web for online text tools and I decided that Mr Lisbon Treaty would constitute a perfect Guiney-pig for testing this exciting new toy.

So how does Textalyser works? Unlike many political web content, Textalyser does what it says on the digital tin, i.e. it analyses any text content that you drop into its feeding window by producing a detailed list of statistics, e.g. syllable count – the purpose of which I have not yet figured about – but it is quite simple to use and I think it is a good tool for an overall view of a text content.

Here is a very short sample of the results I got for our wannabe-constitutional treaty:

                        Frequency and top words:

Apart from the fact that you need a special degree in statistics analysis to use this kind of calculator, what struck me most at first glance was:

1. The total word count, 49304 words.

I randomly picked up 3 other texts to compare it with – well, let’s just say that I was looking for something with political content: Animal Farm is 29,972 words while Brave New World  is 64,564 words and 1984 is 99,086 words. So if it was a fiction, the Treaty of Lisbon might be a boring novel, but it would certainly not be a long one.

1.  Readability (Gunning-Fog Index) : (6-easy 20-hard) = 12.7

I was not sure about that bit but our online multi-national friend helped me again here. So if it means what I think it does (and so do you, now that you have clicked the above links) then we can assume that reading the Lisbon Treaty is not a piece of cake since we must have achieved 12.7 years of formal education to be able to understand it. However, we already had guessed that, hadn’t we?

1. Max sentence length : 249 words!

The guy who wrote this treaty is probably thinking of himself as the new Marcel Proust. Honestly, how can you read such kind of a sentence without a third level qualification in Bureaucratic language?

So now that we have a proper word count, we can take a quick guess at what this treaty is all about: the European Union’s Council shall replace each paragraph of the Treaty by an article. That’s no big deal if you ask me!

Ho ricevuto questo comunicato da Fortess Europe che incoraggia i cittadini ad auto-organizzare “proiezioni” pubbliche dell’audio documentario di Roman Herzog interamente registrato in Libia. Una “proiezione” pubblica del lavoro si tiene a Roma il 24 settembre alle 21 presso il Cinema Aquila, ma chiunque può organizzare un evento nella sua città, anzi siete incoraggiati a farlo. Più questo documento gira, e più gente sarà consapevole di molte cose che si sanno, ma giacciono putroppo seppellite dall’eterno presente della TV dei gossip, dei reality, del qui e ora. Ma il vero “qui e ora” è qui:

L’osservatorio sulle vittime dell’emigrazione

FORTRESS EUROPE

http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com

In due anni, associazioni e singoli cittadini lettori del blog di Fortress Europe sono stati capaci di organizzare in modo autonomo e indipendente oltre 150 presentazioni del libro “Mamadou va a morire” e oltre 300 proiezioni del documentario “Come un uomo sulla terra”. Adesso è il momento di continuare a creare una mobilitazione sui temi della frontiera. Anche con questo audio documentario di Roman Herzog. Che per la prima volta porta in Italia le voci degli emigranti e dei rifugiati prima del loro imbarco e prima del loro respingimento.

Noi difendiamo l’Europa

Opposizione politica e lotta all’immigrazione in Libia

In 70 minuti di audio, la lotta all’immigrazione in Libia e l’opposizione politica al regime. Con le voci dei profughi, della polizia, e degli oppositori. Interamente registrato in Libia

Un lavoro di Roman Herzog

Anteprima nazionale il 24 settembre alle 21.00

Nuovo Cinema Aquila, via l’Aquila 68, Roma

La lotta all’immigrazione raccontata per la prima volta in un documentario audio interamente registrato in Libia, seguendo le autorità libiche nelle loro attività e visitando i campi di detenzione dove sono rinchiusi profughi e emigranti. Con le testimonianze drammatiche dei rifugiati internati, che raccontano la loro fuga, le torture nelle carceri libiche e le violenze della vita quotidiana a Tripoli. E le dure parole dei militari libici, che all’Europa chiedono di finanziare il loro apparato militare perché “noi difendiamo l’Europa”.

Per ascoltare un estratto dell’audio documentario:

http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com/2009/09/noi-difendiamo-leuropa-un-audio.html

Per contattare l’autore: roman.herzog@virgilio.it

Further to Tim’s demand, here’s the English adaptation of last week’s post. I have been browsing the web and listening to the Irish media for attitudes on the coming referendum and the debate is truly interesting. You do get however the same old comments from the same old guys…

A few Irish friends recently told me about their intention to vote Yes to Lisbon, even though they had gone for the No in June last year. In most cases this change of mind is due to the recession, at least that is their excuse.

Incidentally speaking in Limerick on Sunday 06 September Taoiseach Brian Cowen told voters that “a Yes vote in the Lisbon referendum is the first crucial step to Ireland’s economic recovery” – in other words, a necessary but not sufficient condition. This other recent quote makes me think that somehow, they putting some serious pressure on the unloved Irish head of government: “Government, the main Opposition parties, the main business groupings, the heads of lots of individual multi-national companies have made it clear our job [...] will be made much more difficult were we to fail to endorse the Lisbon Treaty.”  The recession is real in Ireland but I am not at all sure that the return of economic growth depends on a treaty.

In the same manner, the controversial Eamon Dunphy was telling those who were willing to listen that Ireland could not afford to beg for European funds with one hand and reject the treaty with the other. It is true that in Europe the Irish population only represents a drop in the ocean, and some Irish people have concerns over the possible reactions of other member states in the case of a second rejection.

According to RTE, 862,415 people voted against the Treaty in June last year. Out of the EU 27 total population (499,747,211 inhabitants according to Eurostat on Friday 11 September 2009 at 1 PM GMT) this figure would account for approximately 0.0017%. The numbers may vary but the conclusions are nearly always the same: how the population of a country as small as Ireland have the right to decide on the future of such a giant as the Union?

In most cases however, the 15,449,508 French and 4,705,685 Dutch who rejected the Constitution in 2005 are barely mentioned, but even adding these new figures hardly makes up a decent total of 0,04% UE 27 total population. Moreover only 28,256,673 French, 7,646,415 Dutch and 1,614,866 Irish had gone to the polls – besides, France’s and Netherlands governments have since then managed to silence their respective no-voters thanks to other institutional mechanisms. Even if all the registered voters had cast their votes (let’s double the figures for the sake of the argument) the grand total of voters of these three member-states would still not reach 2% of the EU 27 total population.

Here’s a question for the statisticians: how many European registered voters should cast their vote and in how many referenda for that final grand total to actually mean something? Jokes aside, it is hard to believe that in the case of a second rejection, Europeans will begin to despise a nation which they scarcely know anything about. In fact I believe that beyond the debate “for or against”, those who’ll make the effort to cast the same vote on Friday 02 October 2009 as they had done last year in June, are those who will probably have maintained some sort of integrity.

One can only imagine the euphoria people like Michael Gorbachev and millions of others felt as the Berlin wall began crumbling down. The physical demolition was no big deal, but the non-tangible need to fell ‘protected’ by it had for decades excluded the possibility that the wall might someday exist no more. The need for this protective curtain not only divided people, even families, but created bitter hatred and resentment towards those on the other side of the wall, whatever side of the fence one happened to be situated in. A hatred deeply entangled with ignorance and fear – the most dangerous cocktail possible – dangerous to the extent of igniting a full nuclear war.

Gorbachev, since his youth had realised that it was all a game. Like his friends he was a pawn on the East side, fed by the lies of Stalin and his followers, the biggest lie being that the Soviet Union was heaven when compared to the West. He also assumed, rightly enough, that something similar was taking place on the other side of the wall.

During his trips to the West (the first attempt at tearing the wall down) a quasi-insignificant incident showed him that had been right all way long. Shyly, a public officer asked Gorbachev to remove his hat. He was curious about something, and it wasn’t whether Gorbachev really had a big birth mark or not. The officer wanted to know if the Soviet leader had horns. Yes, real horns. It was a rumour many in the West had come to believe – Communists were children of the devil and they actually had horns on their head. A stupidity the result of the demonic blend of ignorance, hatred and fear. Luckily some people on both sides of the wall realised that the only solution was tearing the wall down.

Yet, though this is only modern history, we seem to have not learnt the lesson. We started erecting walls (physical, metaphorical or both) all over again. The most obvious, and devastating find themselves in Northern Ireland, Gaza, in the American-Mexican border, Iraq and last but not least the infamous Fortress Europe. While these walls, intended to keep away terrorists or drug dealers cause the same harm as the Berlin wall did, they are far from impenetrable. Their significance is only virtual. Like the false feeling of security an umbrella can give you if bombs are falling over your head, they achieve nothing positive. No wall will stop cocaine from going to the U.S as much as no wall will stop Hamas sending rockets to Israel. Yet these walls are making the Americans more sceptic towards the Mexicans, the Palestinians more bitter towards the Israeli.

What about Fortress Europe? True there is no real physical wall. However, refugees from the East and the South are still penetrating a wall of hostility and ignorance, coupled with next to useless border controls. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, we viewed the East with curiosity and passion. Africa with pity and awe as one of the richest, yet extremely troubled region ironically associated with poverty. Now, we view them both with fear and hatred.

To add insult to injury, another factor has cropped up – the fear (rational or not) of Islam. Fear that once again is blended with hatred and ignorance. Things get even more complicated is that Muslims, are not confined in Asia and Africa, as much as Christians are not confined in Europe and America. This wall could never become tangible. Where would one draw the line?  Thus we are building non-tangible walls inside Europe. Muslims are seen with suspicion even if they are European citizens. The fear non-Muslims an impact on these Muslims in Europe, they are becoming more of a closed group (another alarming sign).

Yet, the repercussions are even more severe. Muslim dictators and terrorists in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and most of all Pakistan are not at all happy, see the West with hostility. We are giving them valid reason to influence their people that we are bad, sadist, infidels. Remember the Communists having horns?

As if there are not enough walls, and the problems they create, the present Italian government is erecting another wall, this time between Christian Italians themselves. They want to divide the rich North from the poor South. They want people in the South, where prices are (have to be) cheaper be paid less for the same job. Policy is made so that as much as possible the Southerners remain in the South and Northerners in the North. More dividing lines. More fear hate and ignorance.

Before accusing me of moaning and groaning. I must admit I don’t have a solution for these tensions. I really wish I had. However I do have an indication, many leaders are unfortunately avoiding. Stop following Hitler’s and Stalin’s footsteps and start following Gorbachev’s. Replace walls with constructive dialogue. Learn from the success stories, not the failures.

Like the Cold war, this ‘war’ we are in could only be won by not being fought. Any other way is the equivalent of tragedy.

Solo qualche giorno fa ancora 70 morti nelle acque italiane… per giorni in balia delle onde, senza ricevere alcun soccorso. Anche e soprattutto frutto della politica xenofoba del nostro Governo, di gente che per noi decide e che fino a qualche anno fa proponeva navi da guerra con cannoni carichi da piazzare “a difesa” delle nostre coste. Affondare una bagnarola con un cannone, o non prestare soccorso a una bagnarola destinata ad affondare da sola: la differenza e’ poca. Anche io sto inseguendo un sogno. Anche io sono un immigrato, visto che vivo in un paese in cui arte, cultura e musica non hanno ossigeno. Saro’ molto probabilmente costretto a cercare fortuna in paesi piu’ civilizzati (in realta’ lo sto gia’ facendo dal 2003, tra Germania, Ginevra e Londra). Ergo, in qualita’ di immigrato, sostengo fortemente chi da Africa, Asia, Balcani ecc, viene in Europa ad inseguire il proprio sogno, la propria speranza di vita, qualunque essa sia. E condanno con forza brutale chi non concede questo Diritto fondamentale di ogni individuo, nero, giallo, rosso o “verde” esso sia…

Almeno 13.250 persone sono morte, tra il 1993 e il 6 maggio 2009, nel tentativo di raggiungere la fortezza Europa. Durante il viaggio, nei centri d’identificazione, durante il rimpatrio forzato o una volta rimandati nel loro paese. Non sono incidenti casuali o isolati, accusa l’ong United, che ha pubblicato un rapporto basandosi sui dati di Fortress Europe, ma il frutto di una politica dell’esclusione.

Leggendo l’elenco infinito, si riescono a intravedere le storie di ogni vittima. Vengono da paesi in guerra, dall’Afghanistan, dalla Somalia, genericamente dall’Africa subsahariana. Paesi che sporadicamente appaiono nelle pagine dei giornali, ma non commuovono più. È la storia di Zaher Rezai, un giovane afgano di 13 anni, che qualche mese fa è morto schiacciato dalle ruote del camion sotto il quale si era legato per sfuggire ai controlli del Porto di Venezia. In una poesia trovata nelle sue tasche, ha scritto: “Tanto ho navigato, notte e giorno, sulla barca del tuo amore. Che o riuscirò infine ad amarti o morirò annegato. O mio Dio, che dolore riserva l’attimo dell’attesa, ma promettimi, Dio, che non lascerai finisca la primavera”.

[da Internazionale]

Tutti vogliono toccare il milionario. Le telecamere devono riprendere il prosecco gasato del Bar Biffy di Pignone, uno di quei paesi che sono ancora vivi ma di solito non lo fanno sapere alle inviate abbronzate di botulino di Studio Aperto. Siamo tutti piu’ ricchi, siamo in prima pagina. E’ single, ha 47 anni, ha vinto 14o e sal cazzo milioni di euro. Le padellone dei satelliti parcheggiano dappertutto, in cantina non c’e’ piu’ prosecco gasato, le patatine alla paprika hanno riempito tutte le vaschette.

Nessuno vuole vedere i morti, i cadaveri nel mare azzurro, i corpi che affondano assieme alla speranza, i cadaveri dei neonati gettati ai pesci. Regaliamo a Gheddafi tutto l’occorente per fare nuoi lagher. Spariamo ai gommoni, rispediamo in Africa questi negri che vengono a rubare lavoro, motorini e stuprare le nostre donne. Costruiamo un bel muro alto e lungo da Lampedusa fino a Mikonos e non guardiamo piu’ dall’altra parte. Non scrivete piu’ nulla, non ce ne frega un cazzo.

Sono quasi 15 mila le vittime delle frontiere europee dal 1988. http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com/

http://comeunuomosullaterra.blogspot.com/

ATTENZIONE: PERICOLO DI MORTE. 15MILA CADAVERI.