#deplorable migrant camp

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

"THERE'S NO MENTAL HEALTH UNDER BOMBING AND COLONIAL OCCUPATION": Open letter from Brazilian psychology associations calling for an end to the violence against the Palestinian people

We call on all people, the international community, especially mental health professionals, to work towards a non-violent and definitive solution to the ongoing conflict, to take concrete actions for an immediate ceasefire in the area, and for the ending of the brutal colonialism in place. We also emphasize the importance of opening the borders to humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people.

In these last days, Israel’s brutal and cruel bombing in the Gaza Strip – a territory that has been besieged by Israel for the last 17 years – has resulted in  the deaths of more than 8,000 Palestinian (including more than 3,400 children), and more than 20,000 injured people. Alongside, millions of people have been forcibly displaced and deprived of basic needs (PRCS, 2023)[1].

However, the figures fail to represent the current reality, as the death toll and injuries rise second by second.Israeli air strikes destroyed more than half of Palestinian residences, besides deliberate attacks on hospitals, schools and universities, erupting a massive humanitarian crisis.

We also condemn and deplore the violence against Israeli civilians, victims of Hamas’ violent retaliation, especially because it has affected innocent people, many of whom are still kidnapped.

Recent statements released by an official representative of the Israeli governmentrefered to Palestinian people as “human animals”[2]. Accordingly, the entire Gaza population  be held like hostages, through a complete blockade of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicines. Israel very recently blocked access to internet signals, isolating Gaza from the rest of world. (MSF, 2023)[3]

The collective punishing of innocent people constitutes a war crime and, hence, must be strongly condemned. (ICRC, 2022).[4] We consider that Israeli government pronouncements have amplified the racist ideology, relying on international impunity and compliance. Xenophobia reinforcement turns migrants, refugees and stateless people – not just Palestinians – the main victims of the dehumanising discourse.

It’s crucial to keep an eye on what’s going on in Gaza: 2.2 million people – most of whom were already displaced migrants from historic Palestinian territories irregularly occupied by Israel – have been living in an open-air prison for 17 years[5]. Israel determines what comes in and out of Gaza: people, energy, food, medicine, fuel and humanitarian aid. Whole families have their homes destroyed by bombings, children are born and die surrounded by walls, and their national identity and existence as a people have been denied for decades.

The systematic ethnic cleansing of a walls-confined population living under a military siege by air, land and sea is undoubtedly a horrendous crime.. The colonial measure imposed on this population, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and other parts of historic Palestine, has already produced 6.1 million Palestinian refugees (UNRWA, 2023)[6].

While witnessing the unacceptable thousands of deaths, we note with concern the harassment and attempt to silence supports of Palestinian rights. Under any circumstance, it should be acceptable to persecute those who denounce the existence of stateless people living in apartheid conditions.

These claims are incontestable. The UN Human Rights Council 2022[7] presented a report pointing out 3 essential elements: Palestine is strictly an open-air prison, the largest prison in the world; there is an apartheid regime throughout Palestine; and some aspects of everyday life in Gaza share similarities to a concentration camp. None of this began on the 7th of October 2023. There is nothing new except for the intensification of war propaganda against the Palestinian people. That can be named as Media Genocide, which is the intentional elimination of a people through war propaganda and, the circulation of false news and narratives.

The Palestinian struggle is also a struggle to be waged in Brazil.. We perceive the Palestinian tragedy as deeply connected to the war against the poor, Black people and traditional communities in our country. The same logic of racial and ethnic supremacy relies on Brazilian whiteness, which justifies police incursions into favelas systematically murdering Black people including children, teenagers and young people. It is important to emphasise that there are numerous agreements between the Brazilian security forces and the Israeli armed forces, with Brazil being one of the biggest markets of Israel’s arms industry[8]. Israeli ammunition finds Black and peripheral Brazilian bodies.

The supremacist rhetoric of brutalisation and dehumanisation has historically been denounced by the Black movement in Brazil, for example in the context of the former South African apartheid regime and also in international solidarity actions for the Palestinian people. Black liberation movements have also experienced the ideological condemnation of their freedom efforts, which were labelled under the rubric of “terrorists”. The dehumanisation of Black people is also the dehumanisation of the Arab people, a violence consolidated by the whiteness global alliance and its genocide and ethnocide practice.

THE SOCIAL COMMITMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY IN DEFENSE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

We, as psychologists committed to every human life’s dignity, guided by the Fundamental Principles of our Ethic Code, urge for a radical commitment to the anti-racist and anti-genocide struggle, which is connected to the ethical and political duty of psychology.

We call on our professional category and psychology students to bravely tackle this issue affecting the whole world. A call to fulfill  our ethical duty to uphold human dignity, by keeping a critical distance from war propaganda and demanding humane and dignified relations throughout all the ongoing situations.

Almost every child or teenager in Gaza has been born in a state of segregation, a situation that combined with constant attacks, and the side effects of the siege and occupation has been triggering severe psychological distress and psychiatric disorders[9]. The colonial and apartheid regime imposed on Palestinians, described in six reports released by United Nations and recognised by several humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International,  are social determinants of mental health deterioration.[10].

Therefore, a historical analysis of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, the Nakba effects and the 1948 catastrophe is essential. Psychology, as a science and a profession, must reject superficial or improper analyses in this sense. We criticize institutions and associations in the mental health field whose statements endorse the dehumanising rhetoric worldwide spread. For instance, the APA declaration[11] neglected the Palestinian historical context, disregardingthe violence imposed on the besieged Gaza population. There is no mention of the terrible bombing of the small enclave [a territory or part of a territory surrounded by another state] affecting Palestinians in an incomparable way to Israelis. We consider that these statements[12] ignore contingencies such as precarious mental health, besides amplifying the collective trauma resulting from decades of oppression, continuous violence, humiliation and injustice inflicted by Israel’s occupation.

Politics and mental health cannot be dichotomised. One cannot analyse the occupation of Palestine without examining the strategies of dehumanisation, and the stripping of dignity and life of the Palestinian people.

The dehumanisation of Palestinian lives – whether in deeds or speeches – normalises Palestinian suffering, as if it was natural, obvious and impossible to stop. Palestinians have been vocalising their suffering for decades and pleading for visibility to the international community. They do so in countless non-violent ways: resisting every minute, every second, to avoid disappearing. They produce art, music, and poetry. They cultivate and care for their original land and territory.

Until we see a Palestine free of Israeli colonial domination, no number of bombs will extinguish the innate desire to live with dignity. In this way, the Palestinian resistance is incurable, quoting Mahmoud Darwish.

As psychologists, we understand and accept the historic call to stand alongside the Palestinian people. The complicity with mass genocide, ethnic cleansing and the murder of children in particular, shall not be in our name.

We condemn the system of segregation, discrimination and collective punishment imposed on Palestine. There is an urgent need to build peace, which only comes through the consolidation of the Palestinian State and establishing a regime that respects the universal rights of all those who live in the region.

The Palestinian people – like all people in their self-determination – need to be able to exist beyond the imposed walls, the barbed wires, the refugee camps and all the dehumanisation: they need to be able to make their contribution to the beautiful story, yet to be built, of collective emancipation and the development of the humankind.

Link to the letter.

Link if you wish to sign it.

#palestine #israel #gaza #politics #brazil #psychology #brazilian politics #israeli politics #mod nise da silveira

[hardynwa]

Akwa Ibom Bakkassi returnees get relief materials after 14 years in IDP camp

The Akwa Ibom Bakassi Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons Cooperative Association (AKIBARCON) said since their unplanned return from Bakassi Penninsula in 2008, the Federal Government just started sending them relief materials in 2022. The President of the group, Obong Solomon Inyang, and the Secretary-General, Dr Anthony Edem, disclosed this on Monday in Oron during a flag off of distribution of fishing equipment and other relief materials to them by the federal government. They, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to implement the Green Tree Agreement that was signed in 2006, saying that its non-implementation has adversely affected the economic and social well-being of the Bakassi returnees and internally displaced persons in the state. The group, while urging the FG to make the relief materials available on a monthly basis, decried the deplorable conditions of about, “75,000 voiceless Bakassi Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons in the state.” Presenting the items on behalf of the presidency, the Federal Commissioner, National Commission For Refugees, Migrants, and Internally displaced persons (NCFRMI), Hajia Ismali Ahmed-Suleiman, assured that her visit to the area would have a positive impact on the welfare of the refugees in the camp. She noted that the President was mindful about the welfare of Nigerians, especially the vulnerable members of the society even as she encouraged them not to lose hope because of their present condition. “I commend your orderly conduct and for being able to set a peace settlement mechanism without resorting to conflict,” she added. In his address, Mr Cajetan Iheanacho, head of office, Oron field, disclosed that, “the refugees location in Akwa Ibom State is spread over sixteen (16) Local Government Areas, but for administrative convenience, it is reduced to seven settlements”. He said there are over 1500 new arrivals (returnees) awaiting registration in the state pointing out that in Oron and Nsit Ubium alone, they have profiled 200 and 130 refugees respectively. “The NCFRMI Akwa Ibom field office in collaboration with UNHCR carried out registration exercise of the refugees in the month of September 2021. At the end of the registration, we had a total number of 1,670 registered refugees. “In Oron alone, we have over 200 profiled new arrivals awaiting registration and in Nsit Ubium we discovered over 130 refugees and profiled them. So, far in the entire state we have over 1,500 new arrivals waiting registration,” he said. Read the full article

[popwasabi]

“They Called Us Enemy”: George Takei Recalls Interment and Its Cautionary History

Written by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott

Illustrated by Harmony Becker

 This past weekend I got to make my annual pilgrimage to the nerd Mecca capital of the world; San Diego Comic-Con.

It’s a fun and often exhausting experience between panel hopping to see your favorite movie or TV show actors speak and standing in line often for hours just to see them or to buy merch in the Dealer’s hall.

(At least it wasn’t hot this year.)

Every year though, somehow or another, I always meet at least one celebrity be it intentionally or accidentally. Last year I got to run into Billy West, best known for his voice acting roles on Ren &Stimpy and Futurama, the year before that it was MMA legend Josh Barnett who is a huge comic book geek and before that I met my all-time favorite TV composer Bear McCreary. This year I got to not only meet, but cross a massive name off my bucket list, in George Takei.

(^It me...)

Takei needs no introduction of course; the outspoken OG Star Trek alum is now firmly an internet personality of sorts and hugely popular figure amongst my generation and nerdom alike. But he wasn’t there at Comic-Con to talk about Star Trek or any number of Science Fiction related items to his acting past. No, this time he was here to promote his new graphic novel “They Called Us Enemy” based on a much darker period in his life; the infamous internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps across the country during World War II.

Takei has never been shy about his opinions on politics and society and definitely very open about his time in those camps but this graphic novel helps not only shed a light on his own personal experience there and all the nuanced feelings that came from that but just how deplorable Executive Order 9066 was on American History.

Now, with the recreation of concentration camps this time along the southern border indefinitely imprisoning migrants seeking asylum in our country, Takei’s graphic novel reminds us all why this is so wrong and why we should not turn our backs again.

“They Called Us Enemy” is one-part history book detailing key events, people and often distressing quotes from our politicians on Japanese-American concentration camps but three-parts a visual and written history of Takei’s family journey from pre-WWII internment to the present. Through his parents, his father a first generation Japanese American, his mother second generation to how the events of Pearl Harbor unlawfully stripped them of their dignity, they try their best to make sense of the situation while keeping their children from baring the weight of this shameful period of history. What is an “extended vacation” for Takei and his siblings is a prolonged agonizing experience of doubt, humiliation and degradation for his parents and the toll it takes on his father especially is told through the panels of this graphic novel.

I think the most astounding thing about this graphic novel is that it isn’t especially bitter. It’s upsetting for sure, and bitter in parts, as Takei certainly wants his reader to feel how his family felt through this period in American history but he makes a point of showing how inevitably in all things in America, the wheels of justice may be slow but they do not stop moving forward as long as there are those willing to fight for it. How Takei’s family handles this humiliating and degrading experience is both brave and sad all at once. Takei, for his and his younger siblings, part are completely ignorant of the situation they’ve been forced into and his parents do their best to keep things as normal as possible for them through this ordeal treating it as a long “vacation” for them. They do this despite the fact they’ve been forcibly torn away from their homes, given no time to pack their things, given nametags like cattle and forced to sleep and live in conditions befitting of farm animals.

America may not have led anyone into death camps, during this period, as the Germans did with the Jews but as Takei points out it was still based on fear of a perceived “enemy” and still forced Japanese Americans into these horrid conditions and to do things that our constitution and Bill of Rights explicitly states against for its citizens.

But for Takei, as a child back then, it was an adventure of sorts for he and his siblings that was shielded by his parents to keep him from grasping the full scope of what was really going on. In this way, the graphic novel is somewhat bittersweet; sweet that George and his siblings through the tireless effort of their parents was able to enjoy some level of a childhood within the camps but bitter that as he grew older he finally understood why he was there.

Through Takei’s writings and Harmony becker’s wonderful illustrations we get a grasp of the simultaneous joy and pain that Takei associates with this period in his life; how his mom, when given little time to grab her own personal belongings when the soldiers came, grabbed only things for her children such as sweets and a sewing machine to fashion them new clothes in the camps as to keep their childhoods alive, and how his father helped organize camp leadership and helped lead these disillusioned Americans who had no idea what the future held or if there was a future there at all.

It was in these camps in fact that Takei discovered his love for acting and theater, as funny as that may sound, as camp members were able to show movies within its barb-wired fences. Takei would use this inspiration when his family returned to Los Angeles to become an actor down the line and eventually take up his famous role as Sulu in “Star Trek” and the reason largely was because of the camps. As the graphic novel states Gene Rodenberry (Star Trek’s original creator) wanted a show that envisioned a future where a diverse cast of people worked together for the benefit of all humanity and having an Asian American not only be present in this cast but be a resourceful, responsible lead was paramount. Takei understanding how taking on a role that could give Asian Americans agency in popular media wanted the part immediately as it could help show the country that people who looked like him weren’t the enemy.

Fifty plus years later and he is still advocating for that representation and need for diversity today.

(Being God damn fabulous at it too)

The graphic novel does lay out many things that most average Americans are probably not familiar with; the fact that much of these Japanese-Americans belongings were liquefied and sold off after they were taken from their homes, that many of them tried to join the fight against Japan after Pearl Harbor but were turned away because of their race, and of course after the US finally needed more troops they conscripted members of these very same camps, people they had openly vilified and wrongly detained, to enlist later to become the 442nd Battalion the most decorated group of its kind during World War II.

It’s again infuriating and uplifting all at once; as Takei points out the people who chose to enlist from the camps were as much patriots and heroes as those who chose not to and who could blame them? Many Japanese Americans saw it as an opportunity to prove they were indeed Americans and show the country that had wronged them that they were as patriotic as their white counterparts. For the others it was an act of civil disobedience showing that they didn’t need prove anything to the country that had turned their backs on them.

Takei’s family chose the latter in this regard and nearly lost everything in the process.

The path toward justice is often a long and degrading road for victims and the unjustly accused. For Japanese Americans during this time it took damn near half a century before reparations were made and by then many of its oldest prisoners had passed away not knowing that America had admitted their guilt. 

Its sad and if reading about this part of history and seeing what’s happening now at the border doesn’t make your blood boil, I’m not sure what will.

“They Call Us Enemy” does a great job of not only informing Americans on what happened during this time period and Takei’s very personal story in between all that, but offers a stark warning about repeating the mistakes of the past as we are now at the border. We cannot keep going with this cycle of endlessly vilifying folks for simply looking the part of “the enemy” regardless of their legal status or us being at war with countries that happen to look like them. 

I’m of the mind that people deserve inalienable rights regardless of citizenry. Locking up people and throwing away the key indefinitely and ripping children from the arms of their screaming mothers (Something we didn’t even do to Japanese Americans) without trial is FUCKING WRONG PERIOD and ill-befitting of country that self-labels itself as the “greatest” on Earth.

If we are to pretend we are the good guys in any of these types of conflicts we better start acting like it. FUCKING NAZIS in Nuremberg were given trials after World War II; you cannot tell me an “illegal” doesn’t deserve a chance at a hearing.

I’m often very angry and bitter about the state of the country these days and where we appear to be trending as a society but Takei’s book is not all doom in gloom when it comes to its warning on where we currently stand on justice. As the graphic novel states:

Our strength as a country is that we are capable of change, we are capable of becoming the pillars of democracy and justice that we profess to be through the valiant efforts of those who fight for it. Whether it was the Abolitionists of the Civil War period, Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights era or for these wrongly interred folks, Fred Korematsu, Yuri Kochiyama, Wayne Collins, or Daniel K. Inouye, we will always find a way to move forward as long as brave individuals come together to fight for what’s right.

We can be those brave individuals too, so long as we stand up, voice our disapproval and move the needle of our democracy. We still have all the power here to affect change. We cannot let the wrongs of the past continue on in our present, our democracy and the very fabric of decency, respect, and justice depend on it. Takei’s family and 120,000 plus Japanese Americans who suffered through this depend on us being better for the present and future.

Don’t turn your back on it. Not now, not ever.

#they called us enemy #George Takei #japanese internment #internment camps #Star Trek #The Terror #Sulu #Graphic novel #comics #comic #comic books #reading #politics #border #social justice #Fred Korematsu #World War II #WWII #asian americans #asian #Americans #Japanese #Japan #Japanese American #The Farewell #crazy rich asians

[uk-news-talking-politics]

Coronavirus: Displaced people are being left without help

By Marta Welander

There's been very little mention of the effect of the coronavirus on some of the most marginalised people in Europe - the displaced.

The far-right and some European governments have started capitalising on the spread of Covid-19 to feed into anti-migrant narratives. There is no evidence indicating that displaced people are bringing this virus into their countries of refuge, but there is a real concern about what will happen to migrants once the virus takes root in marginalised displaced communities where access to medical care is very limited.

There are things which can be done, across Europe. We just need governments to listen.

The overcrowded Greek islands

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have issued warnings that the evacuation of squalid Greek camps is more urgent than ever. Due to the unhygienic, overcrowded living conditions, the threat of an outbreak among camp residents is extremely serious, yet there are reportedly no epidemic response plans in place. MSF describes these conditions as providing "the perfect storm for a Covid-19 outbreak", due to the lack of adequate sanitation services and the extremely limited medical care. This means that the risk of the virus spreading in the camps in Greece is very high.

The World Health Organisation continues to emphasise the importance of social distancing but individuals on the Greek islands have no way of observing any of these precautions. Refugee Rights Europe therefore fully supports MSF in urging for the immediate evacuation of the 42,000 individuals in the camps in the Greek islands and moving them to appropriate accommodation. We also need an emergency relocation of children from the islands to other European Union member states.

The border land in northern France

In the absence of accommodation provision, displaced people in northern France are experiencing extremely poor living conditions. The sanitary conditions are deplorable. There is a severe lack of sanitation facilities and water points, which are often located hundreds of meters or even kilometres away from settlements. This means that the risk of the virus spreading, once it has taken root, is critically high. Exposure to very cold and humid climate, coupled with stress and exhaustion brought on by ongoing uncertainty and daily evictions of living spaces, means the individuals here are at heightened risk of experiencing health complications if they contract the virus.

The detection of cases is next to impossible, given that most people are unable to access health services, while others are likely to fear the risk of detention or removal if they present themselves. They are therefore much more likely to go undetected and untreated. The recently adopted confinement measures are further exacerbating the poor living conditions, as frontline organisations are not currently allowed to go to the settlements to provide support.

Immediate measures should be taken by the French authorities to respond adequately to the situation. Robust measures for infection prevention and control, increased dissemination of information in relevant languages and formats, rapid identification and isolation of existing cases, and of course the treatment of individuals experiencing severe cases are urgently needed. Adequate accommodation must be provided, irrespective of immigration status.

There is a brief flicker of good news here. French authorities recently made a decision to extend the validity of immigration documents by three months, including long term residents permits, asylum claim certificates and receipts of residence permit requests, where such documents would otherwise expire by March 16th.

Individuals in immigration detention

As highlighted by the Global Detention Project, individuals placed in immigration detention centres are "frequently confined in facilities with inadequate sanitary provisions and limited health care, and all too often they are forced to share rooms with countless others". It is clear that the only option for social distancing would be to place individuals in full isolation, which in itself risks leading to deteriorating mental health.

We therefore fully support the calls of the Board of Border Criminologies and demand the increased use of testing in immigration detention centres, and for immigration authorities to release individuals where feasible. This has now been done in Spain. In the UK a number of lawyers and campaigners have called for immigration centres detainees to be released because "there is a very real risk of an uncontrolled outbreak of Covid-19 in immigration detention".

In France and Italy several NGOs are also calling for immigration centres to be gradually closed down to avoid further spread of illness. In France, one case of a detainee being infected by the virus has already been reported in the detention centre of Lille-Lesquin. Detained individuals have now issued a statement to alert the authorities and the general public regarding this critical situation, which was followed by a call for the unconditional release of all individuals deprived of their liberty in the context of immigration detention. On top of the health argument, NGOs also argue that the legal ground for detention no longer exists, given that individuals cannot be deported due to the closure of borders, and should therefore be released.

Maintaining access to rights and services for displaced people

In a number of European countries, safeguarding and preventive measures have been taken to avoid further spread of the virus. Public institutions and services have been shut down. This can have dramatic consequences on ensuring the most basic rights of displaced individuals.

In Belgium, for instance, asylum seekers can no longer register their claim to the Foreigners' Office which has been closed until further notice without any alternative plan being defined.

Such suspension of service provision also affects the ability of NGOs to support displaced people. In France, for instance, legal assistance usually provided by NGOs in administrative detention centres is suspended due to confinement measures adopted by the government.

Not leaving displaced people behind

Overall, health authorities across Europe must present a plan relating to refugee camps and settlements on their territories, which includes measures for infection prevention and control, dissemination of information in relevant languages and formats, rapid identification and isolation of existing cases, and of course the treatment of individuals experiencing severe cases. The European Commission must also assert its influence to ensure that EU member states are indeed drawing up and implementing such plans.

It must be made clear and communicated proactively, by all European states, that individuals who present themselves for testing and/or health care will not face the threat of detention or removal. In addition, suitable accommodation provision must be made a priority for individuals trapped in unsanitary informal settlements across Europe, again without conditions of claiming asylum and without the risk of deportation. Individuals in detention must have access to testing and should be released wherever feasible.

These measures will protect displaced populations. But the reality of the virus is that we are all in this together. They will safeguard host communities too. For all our sakes, displaced people, must be treated with dignity, respect and humanity.

#coronavirus #immigration

[nevertheless-she-wrote]

Detention Camps: It’s a dire situation

Disclaimer: In no way am I comparing this situation to the Holocaust. PERIOD.

Aloha Everyone,

It’s been a hot minute since I have written on my blog. This is because I like to spend my time prepping material before I put it out in the public. Without further delay, let’s get cracking.

Anyone who watches the news or reads around there social media knows that the “Detention” Camps holding thousands of migrants who crossed our border are disgusting. The conditions are dire. In many cases people have no clean water to drink, a pot to piss in, and a bed to sleep in. It’s really hot in these “camps” and many people have been getting sick. Not to mention the lack of food they are getting, and when they do get some it lacks nutrition. 

My concern is what makes this different from a modern-day concentration camp. People are dying, starving, being separated from families. Not to mention the death of the children who were ripped out of their families lives. Many politicians have denounced this behavior and have even visited the “camps” to see how bad the conditions are. Every time a government official comes out of these “camps” the conditions get worse and worse. So much so that after I drafted the first version of this essay, I had to rewrite it to make it current. WTF. To add more salt to the wound, here is a tweet Donald J. Trump( I still don’t want to call him president it makes me barf) wrote stating what he thinks. 

"If Illegal Immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detentions centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved!" 

The falsities in this sentence are beyond me. First things first, these places were never quickly built in fact most of them were already standing.  The fact that he literally says nothing about the conditions themselves, but uses this tweet to make an example out these innocent human beings is EVIL. Moving on to the next tweet(yes, there is more).

“.....came from, and in far safer conditions. No matter how good things actually look, even if perfect, the Democrat visitors will act shocked & aghast at how terrible things are. Just Pols. If they really want to fix them, change the Immigration Laws and Loopholes. So easy to do! “

Soooo... Yeah, this one makes my head spin. He is now using his deny, deny, tells a lie, and then deny so more tactic. The phrase before the first period is one that is simple but has many different motives. “.....came from, and in far safer conditions.”; basically he’s is saying, even though they are getting sick, dying, starving, and babies are being separated, at least they are in America. He might as well say that they should feel privileged to e treated like zoo animals. Second phrase: “No matter how good things actually look, even if perfect, the Democrat visitors will act shocked & aghast at how terrible things are.” This statement contradicts itself from beginning to end. He is clearly stating to people who believe him that, ‘Hey, they are making this up. There are no bad conditions. In fact, it’s near perfect there.’ Now the fact that at the end of this phrase he says, “...will act shocked & aghast at how terrible things are.”, how can things be terrible if they are near perfect Sir. Which one is it, make up your mind. And to top, he used the Democrats as a scapegoat in his latest episode of “Fake News”. 

So here is the segway into the conclusion of this much-needed breakdown. Again, don’t trust Trump. But look at his tweets from a different perspective. Less of false statements and more of hidden truths. Think about what he is hiding not what he is saying. 

As for the deplorable conditions in the Detention Camps, send things to your representatives about your feelings. Maybe, you can send them ideas for legislation to make all this inhuman behavior to STOP. Continue to post on the conditions and the innocent people living in them.

Next time on Nevertheless, She Wrote, I will be writing about the crisis in Sudan. The urgent help the citizens need, and how you can spread awareness.

Stay posted, and keep reading. Thank you

#helpmigrants #detention centers #politics #stopthisnow

[theculturedmarxist]

       28 June 2019  

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the US-backed coup that overthrow the elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, who was dragged out of the presidential palace in his pajamas by armed troops, bundled onto an airplane and flown out of the country.

This event ushered in a decade of unending repression by a succession of extreme right-wing and deeply corrupt governments. They have ruled the country with a ruthless determination to defend the interests of the national oligarchy—the so-called “ten families” of multi-millionaires and billionaires—and of foreign finance capital.

For the masses of Honduran workers and rural poor, the policies implemented by the right-wing regimes that followed the ouster of Zelaya have proven disastrous. Honduras is today the most unequal country in Latin America, itself the most unequal region in the world. Nearly 70 percent of the country’s population lives in poverty, while over 60 percent lack formal employment. The murder rate, which soared to the highest in the world, still remains nine times that in the United States.

One result has been a mass exodus. The US government has reported detaining 175,000 Hondurans on the US-Mexican border in the last eight months. The country accounts for by far the largest share of migrants and refugees fleeing to the US border—30 percent of the total. This is nearly double the 16 percent share recorded just three years ago.

These masses of workers and their families fleeing their own country because of intolerable conditions created by imperialism and the native ruling class confront the same horrific circumstances that have shocked the population of the US and the world with the recent publication of the photograph of a Salvadoran father and his daughter who drowned together in the Rio Grande.

Just last April, an adult and three children from Honduras drowned in the same river when their raft capsized. On Thursday, Mexican authorities reported that a young Honduran woman traveling north with her family fell from a train and was crushed beneath its wheels.

Now these refugees are confronting the combined repression, detention and abuse from the governments of the United States, Mexico and Guatemala, which have united in the use of naked force in an attempt to prevent them from escaping poverty, state terror and rampant violence.

Democratic Party candidates and congressional leaders have shed crocodile tears over the deaths in the Rio Grande and postured as defenders of immigrants. These sentiments are belied, however, by the fact that Democratic President Barack Obama, the “deporter-in-chief”, and his then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, presided over the coup that devastated Honduras, driving its people in desperation to flee the country despite the threats of death, persecution and being thrown into a US concentration camp.

After Zelaya’s overthrow, kidnapping and expulsion from the country, the Obama administration sought to preserve a veneer of commitment to “democracy” in Latin America—and deniability for its military, intelligence and diplomatic operatives—by publicly deploring the ouster of Zelaya.

Clinton, however, pointedly refused to describe the military’s seizure and deportation of an elected president as a “coup,” a designation that under the US Foreign Assistance Act, would have required the Obama administration to cut off aid and ties to the coup regime.

The administration likewise failed to demand Zelaya’s reinstatement. Given that the US accounted for 70 percent of Honduran export earnings and provided the guns and aid upon which the country’s military depended, it had unquestioned power to force a reversal of the coup.

Its formal reservations notwithstanding, however, it was soon revealed that top US officials had been in discussions with the military commanders and right-wing politicians who organized the coup shortly before Zelaya’s overthrow.

A conservative and wealthy bourgeois politician of the Honduran Liberal Party, which regularly alternated power with the equally right-wing National Party under US and military-dominated regimes, Zelaya earned Washington’s enmity by becoming swept up by Latin America’s so-called “Pink Tide”. This collection of bourgeois nationalist governments was able, thanks to the commodity boom and the rise of China’s economic influence in the region, to adopt a posture of populism and independence from US imperialism.

For Zelaya, the clear attraction was cheap Venezuelan oil and loans. However, US imperialism, which had sought seven years earlier to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a civilian-military coup, was determined to eliminate a government aligned with Venezuela and Cuba in Honduras.

The Central American country has longed served as a staging ground for counterrevolutionary operations in the region, from the 1954 CIA overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala through to the CIA-organized “contra” war against Nicaragua in the 1980s. The civil wars and counter-insurgency campaigns carried out by US imperialism in the region, using Honduras as its base, would claim the lives of hundreds of thousands. It remains the site of the largest US military base in Latin America at Soto Cano.

Much the same US personnel involved in the 2002 coup against Chavez in Venezuela under George W. Bush were involved in the 2009 coup against Zelaya in Honduras under Barack Obama. And the same strategic policy guides the Trump administration’s present regime change operation against the government of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

Underlying this clear continuity in Washington’s foreign policy, under both Democratic and Republican administrations alike, is the drive by US imperialism to reverse the decline of its global economic hegemony by military means, particularly in the region that it has so long regarded as its “own backyard.”

The Honduran working class responded to the 2009 coup with immense heroism. It staged continuous demonstrations and strikes in the teeth of savage repression. This included the arbitrary detention of thousands, the shooting of protesters, the gang rape of women detained at protests and the organization of death squads to assassinate journalists and opponents of the coup regime.

Washington ignored this savage brutality, and the US corporate media largely passed over it in silence.

For his part, Zelaya placed his faith in the pseudo-democratic façade of the Obama administration, appealing for its aid and submitting himself—and subordinating the mass movement against the coup—to a series of negotiations aimed at forming a “government of national unity” with those who overthrew him.

In the end, these negotiations led nowhere. The right-wing coup regime led by Zelaya’s former Liberal Party ally Roberto Micheletti was able to drag out the process until rigged elections could be staged in November 2009, installing the right-wing government of Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo and allowing Washington and world imperialism to pretend that the coup had never happened.

Despite the heroism of the Honduran workers, the leadership of the unions and other organizations supporting Zelaya’s reinstatement led the mass movement into a political blind alley, leaving the working class unprepared to confront Zelaya’s capitulation and the consolidation of power by the coup regime under Lobo.

Honduras is today confronting its most severe crisis since the coup of ten years ago. For over a month, mass protests and strikes by teachers and doctors against sweeping IMF-dictated cuts and threats of privatization of education and healthcare have rocked the country. Students have joined these mass protests, occupying their schools and confronting riot police and troops.

Today will see mass demonstrations throughout Honduras marking the coup anniversary. These protests will pay homage to the 136 killed during the repression of the protests against the coup, as well as the 14 murdered by death squads and the 13 disappeared. Since then, many more have been slain, including four killed in just the most recent protests.

They will undoubtedly also advance the demand for the bringing down of the government of Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), the corrupt president and overseer for the International Monetary Fund, who is kept in power by the Honduran military and US Marines.

Zelaya, now the leader of the Partido Libertad y Refundación, is advancing this demand, once again from the standpoint of reaching a deal within the ruling oligarchy and securing support from Washington.

In 2009, the World Socialist Web Site stated that the struggle of the Honduran working class had “helped expose two great political fictions. The first is the pretense that the Obama administration has inaugurated a new era of non-intervention and mutual respect in US-Latin American relations. The second is that the region’s bourgeois regimes of a nationalist or populist stripe—from Venezuela’s Chavez to Zelaya himself—offer any way forward for the working class and oppressed masses.”

It went on to warn that those “calling themselves ‘socialists’ who promote illusions in these figures are disarming the working class and preparing even greater defeats.”

With the resurgence of the class struggle, these lessons are crucial. Workers can defend their rights only through a conscious break with all forms of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalism, which are instruments not for waging the class struggle but for suppressing it.

What is required is a political rearming and international unification of the working class of Honduras with workers throughout Central America, the United States and the entire hemisphere in a common struggle against capitalist exploitation, oppression and war. This means building sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International throughout the Americas.

Bill Van Auken

#thanks obama #honduras #latin america #central america #hillary clinton #imperialism #cia #imf #international monetary fund #indigenous oppression #us marines

[desroundtree]

Two Hundred Fifty

Two hundred fifty migrant children have been held in a Texas detention facility under the most deplorable conditions you could imagine, after being separated from their parents at the border while LEGALLY seeking asylum.  Parents that were sent back to their country WITHOUT their children.  Children who arrived shaken, battered and bruised - in more ways than one - their parents forced to return home with empty arms and broken hearts.

Reports say there are sick infants being cared for by teens in clothes that haven't been changed in weeks, some in the same clothes they made their journey in. Children are eating uncooked frozen dinners to survive, the older of them making sure the younger ones received water first, if and when it was distributed.  They are subjected to a timeless nightmare, where the fluorescent lights are on 24 hours a day and the only bed they have to sleep on is a crowded CELL floor, huddled together for warmth under aluminum blankets.  The flu and lice are being passed from child to child like a toy at a playdate.  

This is happening to children, in this country, right now.

The Hispanic Caucus has verified these claims. They have seen children being forced to exist in conditions some adults wouldn't even survive.  Social workers have seen it.  Officials have seen it.  Employees have seen it.  Lawyers have seen it.

Yet, here we are.

The majority of us view this as a huge moral dilemma.  But of course, there are some who do not.  There are some who believe this is just treatment for ANYONE entering the country “illegally” even though seeking asylum in the US, and most countries is legal.  

Anyone that can stand by and allow these children to be treated the way they have been treated is missing a very large part of what I would call their soul.  If you can look at these children, day in and day out, then go home to your own children safe in their beds - you are lacking compassion and can't even claim to have an ounce empathy.

Don't we think being separated from their parents is enough?  Don't we think the harrowing conditions they lived in mirror the ones they are experiencing now?  Is it anyone's fault for wanting a better life - one free from the fear and persecution.  Little did they know they would experience that and more but only this time it's on American soil.  Concentration camps filled with sick children are functioning right on our southern border and it seems as if there is nothing we can do about it. 

It's hard for me to imagine - and even harder for me to accept - that this is happening and it's being lauded as the only way to handle this situation.  It is cruel and inhumane to force children to sleep on the floors of cells with no blankets, no hope, and nothing that resembles even the slightest bit of kindness.  These are children.  Doesn't matter where they are from or how they got here - these are kids. They shouldn't be fighting to stay alive, on their own, and against the very people they came to for help.

We have become desensitized or maybe I am not seeing the amount of outrage I thought I would at the idea of this even being true.  I am seeing a lot of words but no action, no marches being publicized, none of the outrage that I thought an atrocity like this would garner.  I hope people we can find a place of resolve because of this, and it motivates us to make our voices heard, to push against things that are downright wrong, and to understand how little this has to do with politics and how much it has to do with morality.

#250 Children #Immigration #Seeking Asylum Is Legal #Migrants #Migrant Women and Children #immigrants #detention centers #concentration camps #aoc #Hispanic Caucus #abolish ice #family detention #end family detention #morality #show compassion #show empathy #show kindness #show love

[myweddingsandevents]

[on-the-wings-of-hope-prose-en]

Breakthrough

We are all law-abiding citizens. State laws – and especially those that concern our health – we execute zealously, carefully. Well, and because the laws we have now are fascist in nature – it’s not our fault, but that of the rulers. And why have they created such laws, we still wonder? Did they truly want a nationwide, meaningful and merciless riot? Did they not believe in our Slavic powers, replacing us with overseas migrants, putting muzzles on our faces like on their obedient slaves, and trying to send us to plague camps?

Yet it was lazy for us to fight for the future and our lives at first, comrades. Our life under the leadership of the false-ours thieves wasn’t comfy, that’s true, but we have already managed to get used to it in our way. Already we started to forget about the feats of the courage of our civil ancestors, hung the yoke of credit around our necks, and plunged headlong into the pool of reckless consumerism, having even frightened for a short duration capitalist devils, who were dwelling there, with our speed of drowning.

Since then, we have lived like this, poor or bad, gurgled in these pools, being put on our knees by the traitors-in-power, listening on TV to their speeches about our indescribable rising. It was a pleasure to listen to the lies that were given out for the truth! Our consciousness was amused by the feeling of national greatness, unprecedented growth, a cosmic take-off, a long-awaited breakthrough! But for sure we scraped the bottom of the pool for a long time and tried to dig it even deeper. And we flopped in it for so long that a new generation of our children managed to grow up in the pool, having taken its dirt in their souls. But a breakthrough, decisive for our fate, happened completely all of a sudden.

And so foreign medics came and sailed to us in their dressing gowns with a sign of the bloody cross on them at the loud call of our authorities. Help us out, they said, our Western friends-enemies, our dear contagious W.H.O., for our Slavic people are sick and ill, still suffering from the cosmic ooze, which we have poured through their veins shortly before the call. And soon those non-Christians arrived in white robes and with eyes as black as the night, and so they began walking around the streets of our cities so pompous, as if this land was already conquered by them, and was not ours, Slavic, with the blood of ancestors who fought with the fascists, stained and watered. Or maybe they weren’t even doctors at all, but enemy soldiers and murderers, dressed up in white robes and called to our Russia by traitors-Koschei? Of that, we don’t know and are even a little bit afraid to think about. Because what if it’s them, foreigners, that have developed this poisonous liquid in their laboratories?

And so, we were starving, friends-enemies, by the time of the arrival of those Varangians, white as a funeral shroud, and so we looked at the rulers of our thoughts and purses with no joy in our eyes. These authorities were maddened, having become incredibly violent, and by that time many of us have been marked with that deplorable digital black stigma already. We, asymptomatically contagious, could not leave our homes without the need which they have approved, or buy products in stores, or speak freely our opinion about them on the Internet in every possible way and pour out the heartache in the terrible comments, and calm down on that. And so that pain and bitterness, unshed, bubbled in our hearts, begging to be unleashed even more than before.

Therefore, when these non-Christians came to our motherland in their false-white clothes, so we came out of our homes to greet them. We had no faith in their kind and selfless intentions, and we didn’t believe in their proclaimed ability to heal us. And so we stood up in a righteous fury from the sofas with our backs and spines spread out, took axes and cudgels in our weary arms, and went to drive those treacherous scoundrels for what the world is worth because there was almost no worth for a human life left in the world!

And so we drove such an abomination far, far away. We drove them through the cities and villages, straight to Moscow and the red Kremlin, until they were all there along with our rulers. And so we almost set out to storm the Kremlin, yet one natural and unexpected event suddenly happened. The earth trembled on the Kremlin Square, and all of a sudden, a thousand-laid tile started shaking. And then the mighty wind came down without a single warning, howling, and the battlements from the walls of the Kremlin were torn apart by the wind, having fallen. And for a few painful minutes, everything was shaking around, spinning and howling, and once the storm came to an end, whoa, a part of the Kremlin collapsed into a huge hole!

Wow, and that turned out to be a huge hellhole – we have never seen such a thing. A breakthrough as it is, the most natural and righteous! And a fierce multitude of our rulers disappeared into that breakthrough, and their overseas henchmen ran away and scattered. And the wind stopped howling and crying, and the thunderclouds dispersed, and the red sun peeked out from behind those clouds and as if smiled at us all at that moment. And so we threw away our codes and fascist certificates, and left poisonous syringes in destroyed hospitals, and smiled in response to the sun. And we started to feel better, and joy descended into our souls once again, and soon enough we all began to build a decent working life and a state of justice.

Just look, what long-awaited breakthroughs happen on our Slavic land, friends-enemies! And if someone comes to us with a sword, a syringe, or his darkest code, he will rest forever in the Russian land by the will of heaven and by the force of nature! And you, who have read this – be healthy, non-QR’e, brave and truthful – and maybe then it will all come true!

30.10.2021

[processproductionsophielindsay]

ANNETTE MESSAGER

Sleeping Heart (2017)

https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/208-annette-messager-sleeping-songs/works/artworks46709/

In the main gallery, the show opens with Sleeping Songs, thirteen works constructed of sleeping bags, duvets and winter coats. Throughout her career, Messager has transformed the materials of her everyday environment, and here she adapts into human forms household elements that evoke both shelter and displacement. From Birth, in which one down jacket emerges from another, to Seule (Lonely), an empty coat with hands clasped, a selection of works can be seen to chronicle the life cycle from youth to old age.

The latter, however, at the intersection of wall and floor, could also speak to borders and isolation, and sleeping bags, of course, can’t help but wrenchingly call to mind the refugee and migrant crisis. Messager previously addressed the issue in Dessus Dessous (Below), her 2015-2016 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Calais, France. Over roughly that same period, the vicinity of Calais was home to the Jungle, a refugee and migrant camp whose deplorable living conditions drew international attention. “I saw many people in the station, in the street, waiting, in the night, as they tried to go through,” she says. On view is a work from that show, 3 Pantins PQ (3 Puppets PQ) (2015), three fabric figures with toilet paper extending from their bodies, beings reduced to bare necessities.

Innocents-Help (2017)

https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/208-annette-messager-sleeping-songs/works/artworks37141/

Speaking again to children lost, Innocents, help (2017) is an homage to Massacre of the Innocents, Poussin’s depiction of the New Testament story of Herod. Crafted of black and red netting, fabric, wire and resin—materials of viscidity and capture—faces, hands, and hearts are hung up within it. Nets are an ongoing medium for Messager; in the past she has woven words into these webs—seductive words, like Desir, Chance, and Secret—but this new declaration is a distress call.

Jumping (2018)

https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/208-annette-messager-sleeping-songs/works/artworks46704/

In the lower gallery, the 17th-century vaulted stone space houses another troubled civilization, Petite Babylone (2019), a new installation and literal underworld in which hundreds of black-wrapped body parts, abstract shapes and stuffed animals are gathered. The work continues the exploration Messager began with Continents Noirs / Black Continents (2010-2012), in which she suspended carbonized cityscapes from the ceiling, and La chambre des légends (2019), an installation of blackened geometric objects shown in Messager’s exhibition at the Institut Giacometti earlier this year. Petite Babylone, the phrase poignantly holding a small being within its words, references the 2011 tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, when, as Messager notes, dogs and other animals could not escape the subsequent nuclear catastrophe, and remained wandering the island. In the dusky room, a single light at the center of this host of animals casts shadows that move along the walls, ghosts that are both menacing and darkly comical, a recurring duality in Messager’s work.

Perdu Dans Les Limbes (2019)

https://dailyartfair.com/exhibition/9788/annette-messager-marian-goodman-gallery

Babylon is, of course, a mythic city of language and scattering, but one etymology of its name is a Sumerian term meaning “Gate of God,” connoting a womb and a physical place. In another subterranean space, Messager’s first-ever video work, a two-channel installation, creates this sense of a chamber: The room has been painted pitch-black, and in the void materializes the silent image of a woman, pregnant. Her body is bifurcated—one wall depicts her belly and breasts; another, her hands and mane of hair. Messager was originally moved to create the footage after viewing an exhibition of Japanese art, including images of women who had returned as ghosts to haunt their husbands; titled Perdu dans les limbes (Lost in limbos), this divided projection of a woman is, too, an apparition, passe-muraille.

Sleeping Deep Red (Detail) (2017)

https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/208-annette-messager-sleeping-songs/works/artworks43927/

The phantoms of this exhibition are not just figments of the artist’s imagination. “I think the older I am, I have a lot of phantoms around me,” says Messager, “because I am older and I have lost many people — friends, family. They are with me.” A powerful exploration of life on both sides of the veil, Messager’s exhibition might also be seen, as the tragedy of the refugee and migrant crisis continues to unfold, as a reminder to allow people to pass through the walls.

Biography

Annette Messager was born in Berk-sur-Mer in 1943. She lives and works in Malakoff, just south of Paris. From the 1970s onward, Annette Messager’s work has been known for a heterogeneity of form and subject, ranging from the personal to the fictional, the social to the universal. Through an embrace of everyday materials, and principles of assemblage, collection and theatrical display, her diverse media has included construction, documents, language, objects, taxidermy, drawings, photographs, fabric, embroidery, image collections, albums, sculpture and installation. Messager has explored fairy tales, mythology, and doppelgangers throughout her œuvre. Often using reminiscence and memory as a vehicle for inspiration, Messager's wide range of hybrid forms has had an affinity with traditions as varied as the romantic, the grotesque, the absurd, the phantasmagoric.

Annette Messager was awarded the Praemium Imperiale for sculpture in 2016. She won the Golden Lion for best national pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art will present a major exhibition of her work in 2020. Recently she has exhibited at the Institut Giacometti in Paris (2018), the Institut Valencià Art Modern (IVAM) in Spain (2018), and the Villa Medici in Rome (2017). In France, an important exhibition was put in at the Musée des Beaux-Arts and at the Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode in Calais, in 2015–16. In 2014 Messager had major exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art MCA, Sydney, and at K21 in Düsseldorf. Earlier solo shows have been exhibited at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico (2011); the Hayward Gallery in London (2009); the Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMMA), Finland (2008); the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (2008); and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2008). A major retrospective of her work was organised by the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2007.

[rightsinexile]

News on Countries of Origin

Global

Poor people in low-income countries at least four times more likely to be displaced by climate change

Africa

Could Boko Haram’s spread in Northwest Nigeria increase Islamist groups in Lake Chad Basin and Sahel?

ANGOLA: Angolan security forces hunt down protesters speaking out against deplorable living conditions

CAMEROON: 

Nine civilians killed in army attack in Anglophone South-West region

In Cameroon’s seperatist war children are the biggest losers

Update on Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis: IRRI

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: 

CAR’s capital in “apocalyptic situation” as rebels close in 

Central African Republic faces dire humanitarian situation

Displaced Central Africans recount rapes and disappearances

What is behind the renewed violence in CAR?

Refugees flee CAR, a crisis the World neglects

UNHCR appeals for access as Central African displacement soars

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: 

Armed group atrocities creating havoc in eastern DRC

Military operations in DRC’s North-East compounds IDP crisis

DRC attacks might amount to crimes against humanity says OHCHR

ETHIOPIA: 

Ethiopian refugees crossing into Sudan surpass 61,200

Dire need in Eritrean refugee camps cut off in Tigray conflict

Tigray: One hundred days of war

20.000 refugees missing after Ethiopian camps are destroyed, says UN

Report on prison conditions in Ethiopia

Remarks of UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi during visit in Ethiopia

Thousands of Ethiopians seek asylum in Sudan’s Blue Nile State

Seven thousand flee fighting in Metekel Zone of western Ethiopia

Tigrayan UN peacekeepers seek asylum in South Sudan, refusing to return to Ethiopia

Eritrean troops’ massacre of hundreds of civilians in Axum may amount to crimes against humanity

Ethiopia’s war leads to ethnic cleansing in Tigray: internal US government report

How one of north Africa’s most notorious human traffickers escaped justice in Ethiopia

MALAWI: Resurgence of killings, abductions of people with albinism in Malawi

NIGERIA: How government’s weakness to tackle herder clashes strengthened Sunday Igboho

RWANDA: Rwandan opposition activist Seif Bamporiki killed in Cape Town

SOUTH SUDAN:

Violence in South Sudan engulfs country

Urgent action needed to tackle threat of conflict, flooding and hunger in South Sudan

On-and-off fighting cuts swath of destruction in Equatoria, displacing thousands and threatening South Sudan’s unity government

WESTERN SAHARA: Boats emerge from Sahara sand to transport migrants to Spain

Americas

HAITI:

Dispute over Haiti presidential term triggers public unrest

Thousands march in Haiti to say ‘no to dictatorship

Opponents of president Moise seek refuge in Domenican Republic

Haiti braces for unrest as a defiant president Moise refuses to step down

HONDURAS: US sanctions Honduras for systemic corruption, violence, human rights violations, perpetrated by security forces

Asia

UN agency urges immediate rescue to prevent boat tragedy in Andaman Sea

CHINA: 

How I survived a Chinese “re-education” camp for Uighurs

Dozens of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists detained, charged in widest use of national security law to date

MALAYSIA: Malaysian’s man win against Islamic gay sex charge hailed as step towards acceptance of LGBT+ rights

MYANMAR:

Army blocks Facebook access as civil disobedience grows

Evidence shows police deploying sub-machine guns against peaceful protesters in Myanmar

At least two civilians killed as Myanmar police disperse protesters

What Myanmar coup means for the Rohingya

UK and Canada impose sanctions on Myanmar generals after coup

Terrified UN envoy issues warning on potential military violence during mass protests

Rohingya refugees fear returning to Myanmar after coup

Myanmar coup stokes fear among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Myanmar added to CIVICUS human rights watchlist tracking countries that have experienced recent and rapid decline in rights

SRI LANKA: Escalating attacks on journalists in Sri Lanka 

Europe

BELARUS: New reprisals against civil society activists underpin vicious crackdown on human rights

RUSSIA: Escaped gay men sent back by Russian police to Chechnya

MENA

IRAQ: Iraq send mixed signals over closing camps for displaced Iraqis

LEBANON: 

Security forces wound protesters with live fire in Tripoli

Crowds torch government building as lockdown unrest continues

LIBYA: 

Libyan officials undertake online course on migrant and refugee protection

More than 150 migrants freed from secret Libyan detention center used by traffickers

SYRIA: 

Tens of thousands Syrians on the run due to floods in northwest Syria

UN warns of catastrophic situation for more than 120.000 people in Northern Syria

Syria lists Yezidi’s as a Muslim sect as opposed to being a separate religion

YEMEN:

Biden cancels Houthi terror designation and restoring aid

UN Rights Office calls for de-escalation in hostilities in Marib Governorate

#asylum #asylum seeker #refugee #COI

[anthony1165]

From CNN: Biden administration will begin to admit migrants held in tent camp near the US-Mexico border

Biden administration will begin to admit migrants held in tent camp near the US-Mexico border

[newstfionline]

In a year dominated by pandemic, many other dramas unfolded

David Crary, Associated Press, December 12, 2020

     Not since World War II has a single phenomenon dominated the news worldwide as the COVID-19 pandemic has in 2020. In the United States, a tumultuous presidential election and a wave of protests over racial injustice also drew relentless coverage.      Overshadowed, to an extent, were other dramatic developments. Among them: China’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy; an apocalyptic explosion in Beirut; the shocking helicopter-crash death of basketball icon Kobe Bryant and his daughter.      Some seemingly epic events early in the year now seem distant, like President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and the January announcement by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that they were exiting their prominent roles in Britain’s royal family. Just a few weeks later came the long-awaited Brexit, Britain’s formal withdrawal from the European Union.      As most of the world battled COVID, armed conflicts broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan and in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Afghanistan’s seemingly endless war dragged on, even as the warring sides warily edged into peace talks. Massive protests challenged the ruling powers in Belarus and Thailand.      Some other major events of 2020:      Iran: The year ended as it began with tensions between Iran and the U.S. inflamed by the killing of a top official. On Jan. 3, a U.S. drone strike killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran responded with a missile attack that injured dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq. In December, a mysterious attack near Tehran killed a nuclear scientist whom the U.S. and others had identified as organizing Iran’s effort to seek nuclear weapons two decades ago. Iran blamed that attack on Israel.      Immigration: Throughout 2020, the Trump administration pushed to extend a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, even as it implemented immigration policies that outraged human-rights advocates. The targets included unaccompanied children seeking refuge in the U.S.; hundreds were detained in hotels before being expelled. The administration also sought to suspend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects some young immigrants from deportation. But a federal judge ruled that new applications for the program must be accepted.      Hong Kong: China imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong. The ensuing crackdown on dissent effectively voided China’s pledge to allow the city to maintain rights promised for 50 years following the 1997 handover from British colonial rule. The arrests of leading opposition figures and the expulsion of local lawmakers—prompting the entire opposition camp to resign—led numerous countries to curtail legal cooperation with Hong Kong. The U.S. imposed travel bans and financial sanctions.      Opioids: Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, pleaded guilty to three criminal charges, formally taking responsibility for its part in an opioid epidemic that has contributed to the deaths of more than 470,000 Americans over two decades. Purdue admitted impeding efforts to combat the addiction crisis. The pleas arose from a settlement that includes $8.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures, but victims’ advocates worried that Purdue’s owners, the Sackler family, might emerge with their fortune largely intact.      Notable Deaths: For sports fans worldwide, 2020 was sadly bookended by the deaths of two popular superstars—basketball’s Kobe Bryant, 41, and soccer’s Diego Maradona, 60. Among those killed along with Bryant in the helicopter crash was his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, herself a promising athlete. Other revered figures who died included U.S. civil rights leader John Lewis, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, and actors Chadwick Boseman and Sean Connery. Many admirers of liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg not only mourned her death, but deplored her replacement by a conservative, Amy Coney Barrett.      Beirut Explosion: Lebanon’s capital was devastated in August by one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded. A fire detonated a stockpile of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrates left to rot at a port warehouse. The explosion tore through Beirut, sucking in the air and blowing up homes as windows shattered for miles around. More than 200 people were killed and thousands injured, compounding the woes of a nation already beset by mass protests and economic meltdown.      France-Muslims: The October beheading of a teacher by an 18-year-old Chechen outside Paris, followed by the killing of three people in Nice by a Tunisian migrant, prompted France to declare its highest-level security alert. The attacks came amid a trial over the 2015 massacre at the satiric newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had published cartoons of Islam’s prophet. The teacher was beheaded for showing the cartoons to his class while discussing freedom of expression—vigorously defended by President Emmanuel Macron. The caricatures and Macron’s stance fueled calls from Muslim nations to boycott French products; and some French Muslims resented the security crackdown.      Hurricanes: It was such a historically busy hurricane season that forecasters had to turn to the Greek alphabet after running out of assigned names. In the U.S., Louisiana took the brunt of the onslaught: three hurricanes and two tropical storms. The worst to hit the state was Hurricane Laura, which swept ashore in August. In November, several Central American countries were ravaged by two Category 4 hurricanes. In Tennessee, an outbreak of tornadoes in March killed 25 people.      Israel-Diplomacy: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scored a diplomatic coup in September by signing historic accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House. It was Israel’s first normalization deal with Arab countries in more than 25 years. Later, Sudan and Morocco also pledged warmer official relations with Israel. The moves enabled Netanyahu to deliver welcome accomplishments to his electorate while under fire for his handling of the coronavirus crisis and his ongoing corruption trial.      Wildfires: Thousands of wildfires raged throughout the western U.S., claiming dozens of lives, destroying thousands of homes, and bringing apocalyptic scenes of orange skies and hazardous air. Months before the usual start of the wildfire season, drought, extreme warm temperatures and winds gusting up to 100 mph fueled some of the most destructive blazes in the region’s history. Scientists say climate change is responsible for more intense and frequent extreme events such as storms, droughts, flooding and wildfires—including massive brush fires that raged for months in Australia.

#2020 #year overview

[trailsandturbulations]

Why I voted for Trump again

A few months ago I received an email from Ola, a friend in Poland whom I have known for over 40 years, informing me that she is officially breaking up with me forever because she had found out that I support Trump. “I don’t understand how you can!” she wrote. Had she asked, “I can’t understand why,” she would have left a gate for dialogue and potential understanding at least slightly open. But “how can you!” disqualified my morality and thus my right to defend my political stance. There was no point in replying, so I removed Ola from my list of friends, as was her wish, forever.

Ola was not the only one among my friends and acquaintances who have kicked me out of polite society. After all, declaring myself openly as a Trump supporter revealed my racism, xenophobia, transphobia, white supremacy, parochialism, ignorance, lack of understanding of my own best interests, my utmost stupidity. Perhaps also my religious fundamentalism, bigotry, over-attachment to firearms, as well as hostility towards political correctness, globalism, science, and alternative sources of energy. If I knew myself as well as some of those friends of mine appear to know me, I, too, would sever all social contacts with myself.

Fortunately, I know myself from a different perspective. I also know Trump and his followers from the angles that the media such as CNN or the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza prefer not to explore.

My demographic profile, my professional career, and my charity activities indicate that I rightly belong on the side of the Democratic Party. I’m a woman with a graduate degree, a house in a suburb, a new car of a good make and model, and annual income that puts me squarely within the upper-middle class range. In addition, I’m an immigrant married to a refugee who is a Person of Color. I’m a retired college professor who volunteers with foster children and with refugees and immigrants, those legal and those not quite so, who need free English lessons. I give money to environmental organizations such as the Nature Conservancy. The only magazine with a regular subscription in our home is Science News.

It would thus seem incomparably easier for me to fit myself ideologically into the group to which I already demographically and culturally belong. It would cost me nothing. The tax-rate raise for the rich, who apparently don’t pay their fair share, promised by the Democratic Party, would not apply to me since I never achieved that level of affluence. Supporting the Democrats would not detract from my social standing. Quite the opposite: I would avoid conflicts with “my kind of people” and could, like them, look down at those ideologically challenged. Ola would still be my friend. My kids would “like” my social media posts instead of hiding their accounts from my view lest I leave a politically incorrect comment under their posts. 

So why did I find myself on the wretched side? Maybe because I’d rather not be on the side of accusatory hate that would command me to break off contacts with a friend in another country for supporting a political candidate who has nothing to do with my life. Or the red-hot hate that makes a person put on a black mask, pick up a baton, and beat unconscious a diminutive, gay Asian journalist for writing from the wrong perspective. Or the bigoted hate that attempts to cancel out of existence anyone who holds the incorrect values. The dangerous hate that brings to mind genocides like the Holocaust and Rwanda. The hate that prides itself on tolerance and believes that love conquers all.

My husband and I used to be Democrats. We both voted for Obama. Alas, the eight years of Obama’s presidency brought us only deep disappointments in all fields of government activity. Race and class divisions deepened, trust in the government diminished, corruption increased, the wave of hope that had brought Obama to the top of political popularity receded. Early in 2016 I knew I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, but I didn’t expect that I would end up voting for Trump. I did so without enthusiasm, with a smidgen of shame, choosing the lesser of two evils. Four years later, this November, I voted for Trump with full conviction, and if he chooses to run again in 2024 I’m fairly certain that I will vote for him again.

Despite unrelenting demonization, harassment, sneer, false accusations, and plots (amply documented) to deprive him of the presidency, some of which had started before he took office, and above all, contempt with which Trump and his followers had been treated by the liberal elites, the support of the regular people for their unorthodox leader not only held, but grew by millions. In the November 2020 elections, Trump received nearly 72,7 million votes: close to 10 million more than in 2016, and 3 million more than Obama at the peak of his popularity in 2008.

Contempt is one of the key factors that motivate chunks of the traditional electorate of the Democratic Party to switch camps. Hillary Clinton’s undiplomatic “basket of deplorables” comment cost her lots of precious votes, if not the presidency itself. The ridicule that Trump received for saying that he loves “the poorly educated” pitched the Democrats against those diploma-less, hardworking Americans, who then decided to support the man who was not embarrassed to stand by them. Alas, those lessons appeared wasted on Joe Biden, who didn’t hesitate to call Trump’s supporters “chumps” and “ugly folks.” Biden may have won the presidency–perhaps honestly, perhaps through massive fraud–perhaps we will never know. However, the “blue wave” predicted by the polls did not materialize.

Low- and medium-income, undereducated, working Americans have pride and do not allow themselves to be insulted. Pride is one of the few luxuries they can afford, especially in hard times. They recognize Trump as one of their own, who fights for their wellbeing. Trump is not a politician; he’s a street fighter who will not turn the other cheek, but will hit back twice as hard. He has no filters, only a strong tendency towards exaggeration, a loose treatment of facts, and a disregard for details. Like many other Trump supporters, I’m thoroughly annoyed by his antics, and put off by his crude comments and his total lack of diplomacy; because of that, I don’t follow his tweets and have never “liked” his Facebook page. I don’t approve of all his moves. However, I appreciate that he calls a spade a spade, and that he talks directly to the people, not to the cameras, media, or other politicians. And time after time, Trump’s outlandish statements ridiculed by his enemies and treated with skepticism by his followers somehow turn out to be true. Trump approaches all his tasks with boundless energy and the force of a Soviet tank. In his famous rallies, he invariably uses the pronoun “we”–in stark contrast to Obama, whose favorite pronoun was “I”. Trump renders to Cesar what is Cesar’s, giving ample credit to local politicians and activists as well as regular folks who have distinguished themselves in the process of making America great again.

Trump’s enemy is the Swamp: corrupt government agencies (including the FBI and CIA), the media, the "Big Tech" that rules the internet (the likes od Google, Yahoo, or Facebook), the entertainment industry, and institutions of higher education, that latter overzealous in propagating the ideologies of Marxism, theories of gender identity, and the critical race theory, according to which each member of the society is assigned to one of two groups: the oppressed and the oppressors. Trump has promised to drain the Swamp and restore dignity to average, much denigrated Americans.

Trump is the first president in the history of our collective memory to live up, at least in large part, to all the promises he had made to his supporters. "Promises Made, Promises Kept": Reduced corporate tax rates allowed bringing industrial plants from overseas, primarily from China, back to the States. The driving force of the economy was amplified by new international trade agreements coupled with relaxing a host of domestic regulations. Activity returned to the coal mines of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, fracking production of oil and gas heated up, closed oil pipelines reopened, and suddenly we reclaimed our energy independence from the Middle East, for the first time since 1957.  All these measures improved the labor market and caused the unemployment rate to drop to a historically low level of 3.7% in 2019 (i.e. just before the pandemic). Black and Latin unemployment has fallen to its lowest rates in the country's history.

In the Middle East, Trump dealt quickly and effectively with the Islamic Caliphate, moved the US Embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, and has already mediated three peace agreements between Israel and Islamic countries. As a pragmatist who doesn’t believe in spending our money to make other countries happy against their will, Trump is withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan. Because it's not our war.

Our war is the one on our southern border, through which thousands of illegal immigrants, emboldened by friendly policies in the Democrat-run cities, have crossed with impunity. A steady stream of undocumented migrants not only from Latin America, but from all over the world, poured into our country in numbers exceeding a hundred thousand a month; not only work seekers, but also gang members, smugglers of fentanyl and young girls destined for prostitution, as well as individuals with criminal record, some previously deported back to their home countries. The wall, or rather the border fence, the agreement with Mexico, and changes to the procedures for granting political asylum have reduced the chances of criminal elements crossing our border without consequences. (Regarding children separated from their parents: the photos of children in cages circulating on the Internet date back to Obama's second term, when trainloads of children from Latin America were sent out alone, under the supervision of paid "coyotes", and let loose at our border crossings. The 500-plus children separated from adults, who were not necessarily their parents, during the Trump presidency, are remaining in the protective custody of the American government because their biological parents refuse to take them back, hoping to reunite with them on their next attempt to cross the border.)

It is impossible to enumerate all of Trump's achievements here because the list is too long. The gains for the country and the society are not advertised in the media because they contradict the narrative of the cultural elites who are no longer concerned with achieving the American Dream that Trump had promised to restore because they or their parents have already reached it. Recently, I got a phone call from a Polish friend who, together with her husband, fled from the Polish socialist poverty, from a squalid one-room rental with mold-covered walls, with no chance for a better future. They did hard manual labor for many years, cleaning smelly motels and lifting bricks on construction sites during the day, studying English and earning professional certifications at night. Krystian, their grown-up son, for whose studies they paid thirty thousand dollars a year with their capitalist savings and loans, announced right before the elections that he was going to vote for Biden because only socialism would guarantee equality for all Americans. “You Boomers don’t get it,” he dismissed the reactions of his shocked parents who had spent half their lives in socialism. I nodded with understanding because my own kids, when told that I voted for Trump in 2016, first growled at me, and then restricted my freedom of family speech to non-political topics.

As I write these words, I occasionally look out of the window, where Alejandro, Krystian's peer and also a son of immigrants, is laying out the boards of our new deck. It snowed last night and the morning is frosty, but the construction work does not stop because of the weather if there are paying customers. Alejandro, in a quilted coat and a hat pulled over his ears, keeps rubbing his freezing hands, but continues working. Alejandro did not go to college because he has to earn a living and help his family; besides, he didn’t do well enough in his Mexican ghetto school. He did not vote in 2016, but last week he joined the growing number of “Latinos for Trump” voters. Alejandro believes Trump's policies will help him achieve the American Dream. Krystian, on the other hand, is already used to living in comfort, and can therefore afford himself the luxury of theorizing about socialism.

"If Trump loses, we're totally screwed," says James, co-owner of a small, somewhat struggling company that employs Alejandro. If James's business goes under, Alejandro will lose his job. "All the small-business entrepreneurs and their employees in Reno are for Trump," says James. Robert, our electrician, independently confirms James' words. "We’d never had it so good before Trump," he adds. "We fear that our prosperity will end if the Democrats win.”

While the Democratic Party chose the so-called "identity politics" that divides people into groups according to race-and gender-based demographic indicators, Trump's politics began to unite people of average economic status–those whose income is not guaranteed, whose material comfort is not stable, but depends on fluctuations of the economy. The rich can afford to support the Democrats because they don't have to fear economic downturns; the rich can also afford the luxury of isolating themselves from the pandemic because they generally have a choice of earning money from home, and getting whatever they need delivered to their doors by peons like Alejandro. Those living on welfare have nothing to fear, either, especially if Democrats come into power. It’s the working people whose livelihoods are at stake if the economy flounders.

Two weeks before the elections, my husband David and I offered our services as canvassing volunteers, going door-to-door and reminding residents to vote. An appropriate phone app showed us party affiliations of households in the neighborhoods we canvassed: Republican houses were marked in red, and Democratic houses, in blue. The posher the neighborhood, the bluer the maps appeared. “Gated communities” turned out to be predominantly blue; as Republican volunteers, we were not even allowed beyond the gate. The generational division was also apparent: in many conservative homes, the parents complained that their adult children had changed their political affiliation in college or right after they graduated. "Universities have completely brainwashed them. Now we regret paying their tuition,"  they expressed exactly the same sentiment I’d heard from Krystian’s mother.

Our canvassing activity didn’t afford us any insight into the political views of racial minorities in our area as the suburbs of Reno are inhabited mainly by whites, with an occasional Asian or Latino family. However, on the national scale, the support for Trump among the racial minorities has increased significantly: 26% of minority voters chose Trump this time around. Among the Blacks, Trump secured the votes of 18% of men (by comparison, only 5% of Black men voted for a Republican candidate in 2008) and 8% of women (compared to 4% in 2016). 35% of the Latinos, such as Alejandro, cast their votes for Trump. Trump was even more successful with the indigenous populations: 59% of the Native Hawaiians and 52% of the continental Native Americans voted for him; perhaps they had never got the message that he’s a racist. Among the non-race based minority groups, Trump received electoral support from 28% of the LGBT community–so much for the claims of his homophobia. (The above calculations are based on exit polls). The Blacks and Latinos who cross over to Trump’s camp want to be treated as regular Americans, not as persecuted minorities and victims of “systemic” racism, courted every four years by the Democrats as dependable election fodder. “What do you have to lose?” Trump called out to them during his 2016 campaign. The People of Color began looking around and noticing that, in reality, they won’t be losing anything by abandoning the Democratic Party.

Neither the dilemmas of the People of Color who feel they’re being used by the Democrats, nor the uncertainty of James’s business future and Alejandro’s job situation would necessarily motivate me to vote for Trump. As the Polish expression goes, those are not my monkeys. I could easily and comfortably stand with Krystian, who has a double major in business and political science and counts on a good job for some corporation, in a fully air-conditioned office, with an income several times higher than Alejandro’s. I have earned my place among the elites, whose members would surely stop insulting me at every turn if I carried my club membership card. My children, not much older than Krystian, have also chosen the political and social comfort of the elites. Had I chosen to vote for Biden, I could have had redeemed myself from my fall for Trump four years ago, and maybe would regain the full member rights in my own family. Oh well.

It is nevertheless my concern for children that motivates me the most to support Trump. Not my own children, but other people’s. Not those from elite families, like my grandchildren, attending private schools or top public ones in gated community catchment areas, but those from families struggling to survive in poor neighborhoods or ethnic ghettos, attending schools which are intellectual deserts. Having worked with, or for, underprivileged children for most of my professional life, I know such schools only too well.

One of the prominent items on Trump’s political and social agenda is school choice: the right of families to send their children to schools best suited to their needs, interests, and abilities. The US is the only one among highly developed countries in which children are tied to their neighborhood schools like feudal peasants to land. There is a marked difference in the quality of schools in rich and poor areas: not only in the physical structures and equipment, but also in the breadth and depth of curricular offerings and the standards of instruction. Needless to say, graduates of excellent schools achieve higher test scores and better chances of admission to top universities than those from the schools in the ghettos; in some of the latter, not a single student achieves the lowest required threshold of academic performance (e.g., thirteen Baltimore City high schools achieved zero proficiency in mathematics; Baltimore has been a bastion of the Democratic Party since the 1960s).

Access to good schools is important to Americans. The quality of its public schools affects a neighborhood’s property values and apartment rent rates. People on limited incomes cannot afford to move, but they have no right to send their children to schools offering better educational perspectives. Thus the children of the less affluent are sentenced not only to years of academic mediocrity, but also to the influence and effects of drugs and crime in their school environments, perpetuating the patterns of failure and poverty.

The Trump administration has been battling the Democratic opposition to allow the money designated for the education of a child to follow each student to a school of his/her choice. All the highly developed countries, in which children and adolescents achieve high levels of academic performance, allow school choice; in some countries, school choice is a constitutional right. Only equal access to the same educational opportunities can erase the glaring economic imbalances by creating paths to prosperity and social equality for the future generations of Americans.

The Democratic Party and its ardent supporters, the teachers’ unions, are fiercely opposing all political and administrative efforts to guarantee the right to school choice for all citizens. The multi-million dollar financial contributions from the teachers’ unions to the Democratic Party’s Political Action Committees are to ensure that no school choice proposal will never be approved by the Congress. One has to wonder why the liberal elites so vehemently deny poor children access to good education; why they don’t consider those children as deserving of the same opportunities as their own offspring. Two words come to mind: control and contempt. Because the Swamp sucks you in.

And that’s why I voted for Trump.

[socialjusticeartshare]

About those 545 kids still separated from parents: Expect long-lasting psychological distress

The fact that 545 sets of parents whose children were removed from them at the U.S.-Mexico border cannot be found has reactivated the alarms sounded for several years now by child development and immigration experts.

They warn of severe, even lifelong psychological and behavioral consequences for migrant children forcibly separated from their parents as part of a White House plan to prevent immigrants from crossing the border.

The Trump administration began separating children from parents as part of a pilot program in El Paso, Texas, in 2017. By the time President Trump announced his “zero tolerance” policy against immigrants the following year, the practice had been implemented up and down the U.S.-Mexico border,��according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

1,500 separations occurred in 2017 and 2,800 in 2018.

The practice included holding migrants for possible criminal prosecution — even if they were seeking asylum — and eventually deporting them while their children remained in facilities located around the U.S.

The plan was devised by White House adviser Stephen Miller. Eventually, a federal judge ordered the program stopped and the children reunited with their parents, but that proved not to be easily done.

The Texas Tribune reported that 1,500 separations occurred in 2017 and 2,800 in 2018 and that federal officials took little or no steps to ensure those families eventually could be reunited.

“It was only in 2019, after a federal judge ordered officials to hand their names over to immigration lawyers, that the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups tried in earnest to begin reuniting them,” the Tribune reported, adding that 485 parents have been reached so far and 545 cannot be found.

Irreparable damage

Ryan Eller

The repercussions of such separations for children already impacted by leaving their homes in search of a new life may include anxiety, depression, PTSD, chemical abuse and suicide, experts on the situation report.

But the United States itself will suffer long-term negative effects, added Ryan Eller, executive director of the New Moral Majority and formerly head of Define American, an immigration freedom movement.

“The kidnapping and abduction of children by ripping them from their parents and concentrating them in cages will go down as one of the biggest moral stains in United States history.”

“The kidnapping and abduction of children by ripping them from their parents and concentrating them in cages will go down as one of the biggest moral stains in United States history,” he said. “Those children will be suffering the rest of their lives from the early childhood trauma we have placed on them.”

Social workers, psychologists and other experts on child development agree that forced separation from loved ones and the notoriously brutal conditions of detention facilities will have lifelong impacts on the migrant children.

Dawn Hallman

“That does things to kids’ brains,” said Dawn Hallman, an adjunct professor of child development at Dallas College Eastfield Campus in Texas and executive director of the Dallas Association for Parent Education. “Some children are resilient, and some will make it through, but not without a huge amount of damage.”

The harm done to youth, and also to their parents, is a function of both the duration of separation, the sudden and traumatic way it occurred, and the deplorable conditions of the facilities where they have been held, Hallman said.

And more than half the children taken from their parents have not yet been reunited with them, despite the court order. The administration has handed the problem to the ACLU to solve.

“The government deported hundreds of parents without their children — without a plan for how they would be ever be found.”

In an online statement, the ACLU said it is continuing the search. “Now, we must ensure the administration heeds the court’s ruling and the policy of family separation ends once and for all. The government deported hundreds of parents without their children — without a plan for how they would be ever be found.”

A flawed plan from the beginning

Child advocates say all facets of the plan are deeply flawed.

“It is not a hard call for any psychologist to say this system is inhumane, cruel and immoral,” said Tanya Sharon, a professor of psychology and a specialist in child and adolescent development at Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

“It is not a hard call for any psychologist to say this system is inhumane, cruel and immoral.”

Its impact on children is grave, whether for babies, toddlers or teens who experience continuous stress from separation and detention. The process of learning to trust others, their environment and the future is radically interrupted for infants, Sharon said. “Attachment is an enormous issue for young children who have been deprived and basically kidnapped. That can be incredibly disruptive.”

Often overlooked are the constant fear and danger those children faced on their perilous journeys to the U.S.-Mexican border, plus whatever dire conditions motivated the trip in the first place.

Tanya Sharon

“No one tries to come to the U.S. blithely,” Sharon added. “They invest enormous amounts of money, endure arduous conditions and usually travel by foot because the options in their home countries are worse than the risk of traveling to the United States.

“So, when these kids come to the U.S. and are separated from their parents, they are losing their lifelines and they lose confidence that their parents can be trusted,” she added. “Their lives become really, really frightening.”

Such trauma makes them vulnerable to psychological distress, increased rates of depression and anxiety, she added. “PTSD also is entirely possible.”

Older children are susceptible to suffering damage to self-image and identity as they absorb the message that they are unwanted or considered to be criminals.

The intensity and duration of the separation and incarceration overcomes the resilience that is built into human beings, Sharon said. “Most kids are resilient to a few stressors; humans have evolved so we can adapt.”

‘They didn’t flippin’ care’

But research shows that no child is resilient to four or more adverse childhood events. And such events are in high supply in the shelters. “The U.S. government in its camps is absolutely creating significant risks of trauma,” Sharon noted.

And being reconnected with loved ones by itself is no guarantee of healing, she continued. “Being reunited with the family absolutely is a critical first step. But if that family is still stressed, besieged by conditions in their environment, that may not be enough.”

Being beset with acute anxiety, depression and self-esteem issues typically contributes to developing unhealthy relationships, substance abuse and suicide, Hallman said.

“Just imagine the level of panic these parents have felt for several years now.”

Parents who lost their children to the U.S. policy likely suffer the same emotional fate. “To come to a country to save your child’s life only to be separated as child and parent — recall the panic of losing sight of your child in a grocery store,” Hallman said. “Just imagine the level of panic these parents have felt for several years now.”

Trump spokesman Tim Murtaugh told CNN that many of these parents, when contacted, do not want their children back — a claim disputed as outrageous by critics of the administration’s policy.

But the child and family experts do agree that Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy has been disruptive to a sense of community for thousands of migrants and their families

“Now there are 545 children who don’t know where their parents are. Who in their right minds thought this was a good idea?” Hallman asked. “It was a terror tactic. They knew what this would do to people and didn’t flippin’ care.”

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#545 separated children #psychological distress #separated from parents