#bu

La méthode Elon Musk : comment fait-il pour être expert en tout ? - L’Express
▻https://www.lexpress.fr/economie/high-tech/la-methode-delon-musk-et-dautres-polymathes-pour-apprendre-KMRGHPIVSNBRNCDD

sous #paywall, mais je pointe surtout pour le titre qui annonce une analyse impartiale et lucide…
note : apparemment le titre initial était : La méthode d’Elon Musk et d’autres #polymathes pour apprendre

Le patron de Tesla a bouleversé une multitude de domaines. Son mode d’acquisition des connaissances suscite une abondante littérature.

Mais comment fait-il ? Comment fait Elon Musk pour avoir révolutionné autant de secteurs épars ? Connu pour Tesla et SpaceX, Musk a aussi développé des entreprises […]

The Burning Man Fiasco Is the Ultimate Tech Culture Clash | WIRED
▻https://www.wired.com/story/burning-man-diplo-chris-rock-social-media-culture-clash

https://media.wired.com/photos/64f73e1e92478f85cdf459cf/191:100/w_1280,c_limit/burningman-culture-GettyImages-1645171308-(1).jpg

“Light weights.” That was the reply when Diplo posted a video of himself, Chris Rock, and several others escaping this year’s Burning Man after heavy rains left thousands of other Burners stranded and unable to leave. It was a small thing, but also encapsulated a growing divide between long-term attendees and those who show up expecting a weeklong Coachella in the Nevada desert.

“Old-timers like myself tend to relish in the chaos,” says Eddie Codel, the San Francisco–based videographer who called Diplo and Rock lightweights on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. “It allows us to lean into the principle of radical self-reliance a bit more.” Codel is on his 15th burn, he’s been coming since 1997, and Diplo wasn’t the only escaping Burner he called out. When someone else posted a video of RVs stuck in waterlogged sand, he posted, “They were warned.”

’Twas ever thus. Burning Man may have started as a gathering of San Francisco counterculture types, but in recent years it has morphed into a confab of tech bros, celebs, and influencers—many of whom fly in and spend the event’s crushingly hot days in RVs or air-conditioned tents, powered by generators. The Playa, as it’s known, is still orchestrated by the Burning Man Organization, otherwise known as “the Org,” and its core principles—gifting, self-reliance, decommodification (no commercial sponsorships)—remain in place.

But increasingly the Burning Man tenet of “leave no trace” has found itself butting heads with growing piles of debris scattered in the desert following the bacchanal, which can draw more than 70,000 people every year. It’s an ideological minefield, one laid atop a 4-square-mile half-circle of tents and Dune-inspired art installations where everyone has a carbon footprint that’s two-thirds of a ton.

A lot of this came to a head before rain turned Black Rock Desert into a freshly spun clay bowl. Last week, as festivalgoers were driving into Black Rock City, activists from groups like Rave Revolution, Extinction Rebellion, and Scientist Rebellion tried to halt their entry, demanding that the event cease allowing private jets, single-use plastics, and unlimited generator and propane use. They were met by attendees who said they could “go fuck themselves,” and ultimately the protest was shut down by the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribal police. (The route to the event passes through Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation.)

Last Sunday, as news began to spread about the Burners trapped by the rain, reactions grew more pointed. In one popular TikTok, since deleted, Alex Pearlman, who posts using the handle @pearlmania500, lambasted Burners for contributing to climate change while “building a temporary city in the middle of nowhere while we’re in the middle of an unhoused fucking homeless problem.” Reached by email, Pearlman said that TikTok took down the video, claiming it was mass reported for content violations. The creator challenged that, and it got reinstated—then it was removed again. “My reaction was, ‘I guess the community guideline enforcement manager hitched a ride with Diplo and Chris Rock out of Burning Man,’” Pearlman says.

This sort of thing—a rant, about tech industry types at Burning Man, posted on a social media site, then shared on other social media sites—is essentially the rub, the irony of Burning Man in 2023. For years, the event was, and is, the playground of tech utopian types, the place where they got to unplug and get enlightened. Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose Eric Schmidt as Google’s CEO in part because of his Burner cred. But as mobile data on the Playa has gotten better—in 2016, new cell towers connected the desert like never before—more real-time information has come out of Burning Man as it’s happening, for better or worse.

This year, that led to more than a little misinformation, says Matthew Reyes, who has, since 2013, volunteered to run Burning Man’s official live webcast. He didn’t go to the event this year but has been helping from his home near Dayton, Ohio. He says he’s had to file several Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices to try to get fake Burning Man streams removed. It’s part of a larger trend of misinformation coming out of the festival, like the debunked rumor that there was an Ebola outbreak at the festival this year—one spread by blue-check X users. The tools so often used by attendees to share their adventures are now also the tools making the event look like a quagmire.

“All of social media, it’s all about money, about serving custom ads or whatever the monetization scheme is,” Reyes says, adding that he believes internet discourse has hyped up what happened at this year’s event and that oftentimes things that are jokes on the Playa may get misunderstood on platforms. Reyes argues that many media outlets are further distorting the view of what’s happening on the Playa by reporting on what they see rise to the top of those very same social media platforms.

For Reyes, what happened at this year’s Burning Man is actually proof that, for the most part, the festival’s tenets worked. People shared resources; they got out. And, as Codel put it, he had “the time of [his] life.” Climate change, and Burning Man’s potential impacts on it, are part of a crisis happening worldwide—though, as University of Pennsylvania environmental science professor Michael Mann told WIRED this week, “what took place at Burning Man speaks profoundly to the message of the climate protesters who were shouted down by Burning Man only days earlier.” (Burning Man aims to be carbon-negative by 2030, but some speculate the event won’t hit that target.)

But even if the tenets of Burning Man worked, that doesn’t mean they were always followed—like, say, that decommodification one. Over the Labor Day weekend, when Burning Man attendees were stuck in the muck and unsure when they’d get out, a TikTokker posting on the handle @burningmanfashion told followers that her crew was safe and they had “enough tuna for a week.” The camp’s structures had fallen down, but they’d be OK. “The news is saying it’s pretty bad out here—it is,” she said. “Thank goodness we have a ModVan, so we’re safe inside of that. Sorry about the plug, I know we’re not supposed to talk about commercial things.”

#Burning_man #Climat #Pop_culture

#Université_Grenoble_Alpes : “Cher président, l’heure est à la reconnaissance d’un plan d’urgence”
▻https://academia.hypotheses.org/51534

Le 30 août 2023, le président de l’Université Grenoble Alpes s’est adressé à ses “chères et chers collègues” pour leur souhaiter “une bonne rentrée et une bonne année universitaire”, mais également pour “marque[r] la concrétisation de nombreux succès obtenus par … Continuer la lecture →

##ResistESR #Billets #Enseignement #Pratiques_de_l'emploi #Santé_au_travail #austérité #santé_au_travail

Une #université a tué une #librairie

Une université vient de tuer une librairie. Le #libéralisme a fourni l’arme. Les codes des marchés ont fourni la balle. Et l’université, après avoir baissé les yeux, a appuyé sur la détente.

Cette université c’est “mon” université, Nantes Université. Cette librairie c’est la librairie Vent d’Ouest, une librairie “historique”, présente dans le centre de Nantes depuis près de 47 années et travaillant avec l’université depuis presqu’autant de temps.

Une université vient de tuer une librairie. Nantes Université travaillait, pour ses #commandes d’ouvrages (et une université en commande beaucoup …) avec principalement deux #librairies nantaises, Durance et Vent d’Ouest. Pour Vent d’Ouest, cela représentait une trésorerie d’environ 300 000 euros par an, 15% de son chiffre d’affaire. Une ligne de vie pour les 7 salariés de la libraire. Et puis Vent d’Ouest perd ce marché. Du jour au lendemain. Sans même un appel, une alerte ou une explication en amont de la décision de la part de Nantes Université.

https://affordance.framasoft.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Capture-decran-2023-09-02-a-10.27.28-1024x453.png

À qui est allé ce marché ? Au groupe #Nosoli, basé à Lyon, qui s’auto-présente comme le “premier libraire français indépendant multi-enseignes” (sic) et qui donc concrètement a racheté les marques et magasins #Decitre et #Furet_du_Nord (et récemment Chapitre.com) et dont le coeur de métier est bien davantage celui de la #logistique (#supply_chain) que celui de la librairie.

Pourquoi Nosoli a-t-il remporté ce #marché ? Et pourquoi Nantes Université va devoir commander à des librairies Lyonnaises des ouvrages pour … Nantes ? Parce que le code des #marchés_publics. Parce que l’obligation de passer par des #appels_d’offre. Parce le code des marchés publics et des appels d’offre est ainsi fait que désormais (et depuis quelques temps déjà) seuls les plus gros sont en capacité d’entrer dans les critères définis. Parce que les critères définis (par #Nantes_Université notamment) visent bien sûr à faire des #économies_d’échelle. À payer toujours moins. Parce que bien sûr, sur ce poste de dépenses budgétaires comme sur d’autres il faut sans cesse économiser, rogner, négocier, batailler, parce que les universités sont exangues de l’argent que l’état ne leur donne plus et qu’il a converti en médaille en chocolat de “l’autonomie”. Parce qu’à ce jeu les plus gros gagnent toujours les appels d’offre et les marchés publics. C’est même pour cela qu’ils sont gros. Et qu’ils enflent encore. [mise à jour] Mais ici pour ce marché concernant des #livres, ce n’est pas le critère du #prix qui a joué (merci Jack Lang et la prix unique) mais pour être parfaitement précis, c’est le critère du #stock qui, en l’espèce et malgré le recours en justice de la librairie Vent d’Ouest, et bien qu’il soit reconnu comme discriminatoire par le ministère de la culture (en page 62 du Vade Mecum édité par le ministère sur le sujet de l’achat de livres en commande publique), a été décisif pour permettre à Nosoli de remporter le marché. [/mise à jour]

Alors Nosoli le groupe lyonnais a gagné le marché de Nantes Université. Et les librairies nantaises Durance et Vent d’Ouest ont perdu. Et quelques mois après la perte de ce marché, la librairie Vent d’Ouest va fermer.

On pourrait s’en réjouir finalement, ou même s’en foutre totalement. Après tout, Nantes Université va faire des #économies. Après tout une librairie qui ferme à Nantes et 7 salariés qui se trouvent sur le carreau c’est (peut-être) 7 personnes du service logistique du groupe Nosoli qui gardent leur emploi. Et puis quoi, une librairie qui ferme à Nantes mais il y en a 6 qui ont ouvert sur les deux dernières années à Nantes. Alors quoi ?

Alors une université vient de tuer une librairie. Et quand on discute avec les gens qui, à Nantes Université, connaissent autrement que comptablement la réalité de ce qu’était le #marché_public passé avec Durance et Vent d’Ouest, et quand on échange avec celles et ceux qui ont l’habitude, à l’université ou ailleurs, de travailler avec le groupe Nosoli, on entend toujours la même chose : rien jamais ne remplacera la #proximité. Parce qu’avec Durance et Vent d’Ouest les échanges étaient souples, réactifs, pas (trop) systématiquement réglementaires, parce que les gens qui dans les bibliothèques de l’université commandaient les ouvrages connaissaient les gens qui dans les librairies les leur fournissaient, et qu’en cas de souci ils pouvaient même s’y rendre et les croiser, ces gens. Et on entend, en plus de l’aberration écologique, logistique, et sociétale, que les commandes avec le groupe Nosoli sont usuellement et comme avec tout grand groupe logistique … complexes, lentes, difficilement négociables et rattrapables, sans aucune souplesse, sans aucune écoute ou connaissance des besoins fins de l’université “cliente”. Voilà ce que l’on entend, entre autres choses plus âpres et plus en colère.

Une université vient de tuer une librairie. Et ça fait tellement chier. C’est tellement anormal. Tellement schizophrène. Le même jour que celui où j’ai appris l’annonce de la fermeture définitive de la libraire Vent d’Ouest, j’ai aussi reçu un message de Nantes Université m’informant que, champagne, l’université venait – comme 14 autres universités – de remporter un appel à projet de plus de 23 millions d’euros. La cagnotte lancée par la libraire Vent d’Ouest après la perte du marché de Nantes Université lui avait rapporté quelques milliers d’euros qui lui avaient permis de retarder sa fermeture de cinq mois.

Vivre à l’université, travailler à Nantes Université, c’est être tous les jours, à chaque instant et sur chaque sujet, confronté au même type de #schizophrénie. D’un côté on collecte des dizaines de millions d’euros dans de toujours plus nébuleux appels à projets, et de l’autre on gère la misère et la détresse. Et on ferme sa gueule. Parce que ne pas se réjouir de l’obtention de ces 23 millions d’euros c’est être un pisse-froid et c’est aussi mépriser le travail (et l’épuisement) des équipes qui pilotent (et parfois remportent) ces appels à projets. Oui mais voilà. À Nantes Université on organise des grandes fêtes de rentrée et on donnez rendez-vous à la prochaine #distribution_alimentaire, la #fête mais la #précarité. Et l’on fait ça tous les jours. Toutes les universités françaises organisent ou ont organisé des #distributions_alimentaires, et toutes les universités françaises remportent ou ont remporté des appels à projet de dizaines de millions d’euros. Mais les financements qui permettraient de recruter des collègues enseignants chercheurs ou des personnels techniques et administratifs en nombre suffisant, et de les recruter comme titulaires, pour garantir un fonctionnement minimal normal, ces financements on ne les trouve jamais. Mais les financements qui permettraient d’éviter de fermer une librairie avec qui l’université travaille depuis des dizaines d’années et d’éviter de mettre 7 personnes au chômage, on ne les trouve jamais. Mais les financements qui permettraient à tous les étudiant.e.s de manger tous les jours à leur faim, on ne les trouve jamais. Mais les financements qui permettraient à l’UFR Staps de Nantes Université de faire sa rentrée on ne les trouve jamais. Mais les financements qui permettraient aux collègues de la fac de droit de Nantes Université de ne pas sombrer dans l’#épuisement_au_prix et au risque de choix mortifières pour eux comme pour les étudiant.e.s on ne les trouve jamais. Mais les financements qui permettraient aux collègues de l’IAE de Nantes Université de ne pas s’enfoncer dans le #burn-out, ces financements on ne les trouve jamais. Il n’y a pas d’appel à projet à la solidarité partenariale. Il n’y a pas d’appel à projet à la lutte contre la #misère_étudiante. Il n’y a pas d’appel à projet pour permettre à des milliers de post-doctorants d’espérer un jour pouvoir venir enseigner et faire de la recherche à l’université. Il n’y pas d’appel à projet pour sauver l’université publique. Il n’y en a pas.

Il n’y a pas d’appel à projet pour la normalité des choses. Alors Nantes Université, comme tant d’autres, est uniquement traversée par des #régimes_d’exceptionnalité. #Exceptionnalité des financements obtenus dans quelques appels à projets qui font oublier tous les autres appels à projet où l’université se fait retoquer. Exceptionnalité des #crises que traversent les étudiant.e.s, les formations et les #personnels de l’université. Exceptionnalité des mesures parfois prises pour tenter d’en limiter les effets. Dans nos quotidiens à l’université, tout est inscrit dans ces #logiques_d’exceptionnalité, tout n’est lisible qu’au travers de ces #matrices_d’exceptionnalité. Exceptionnalité des financements. Exceptionnalité des crises. Exceptionnalité des remédiations.

Une université vient de tuer une librairie. Cela n’est pas exceptionnel. C’est devenu banal. Voilà l’autre danger de ces régimes d’exceptionnalité permanents : ils inversent nos #représentations_morales. Ce qui devrait être exceptionnel devient #banal. Et ce qui devrait être banal (par exemple qu’une université publique reçoive des dotations suffisantes de l’état pour lui permettre d’exercer sa mission d’enseignement et de recherche), est devenu exceptionnel.

Une université vient de tuer une librairie. Dans le monde qui est le nôtre et celui que nous laissons, il n’est que des #dérèglements. Et si celui du climat dicte déjà tous les autres #effondrements à venir, nous semblons incapables de penser nos relations et nos institutions comme autant d’écosystèmes dans lesquels chaque biotope est essentiel aux autres. Nantes Université a tué la libraire Vent d’Ouest. Le mobile ? L’habitude. L’habitude de ne pas mener les combats avant que les drames ne se produisent. L’habitude de se résigner à appliquer des règles que tout le monde sait pourtant ineptes. L’habitude du renoncement à l’attention à l’autre, au plus proche, au plus fragile, dès lors que l’on peut se réjouir de l’attention que nous portent tant d’autres. L’#habitude d’aller chercher si loin ce que l’on a pourtant si près.

Une université vient de tuer une librairie. Le libéralisme a fourni l’arme. Les codes des marchés ont fourni la balle. L’habitude a fourni le mobile. Et l’université, après avoir baissé les yeux, a froidement appuyé sur la détente.

▻https://affordance.framasoft.org/2023/09/une-universite-a-tue-une-librairie

#ESR #enseignement_supérieur

Opinion | One Thing Not to Fear at Burning Man - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/03/opinion/columnists/one-thing-not-to-fear-at-burning-man.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/09/04/multimedia/04tufekci1-ktwf/04tufekci1-ktwf-facebookJumbo.jpg

Sept. 3, 2023
Two people walk through gray mud at a flooded campground with recreational vehicles.
Credit...Trevor Hughes/USA Today Network, via Reuters
Two people walk through gray mud at a flooded campground with recreational vehicles.

By Zeynep Tufekci

Opinion Columnist

The news that thousands of Burning Man festival goers were told to conserve food and water after torrential rains left them trapped by impassable mud in the Nevada desert led some to chortle about a “Lord of the Flies” scenario for the annual gathering popular with tech lords and moguls.

Alas, I have to spoil the hate-the-tech-rich revelries. No matter how this mess is resolved — and many there seem to be coping — the common belief that civilization is but a thin veneer that will fall apart when authority disappears is not only false, the false belief itself is harmful.

Rutger Bregman, who wrote a book called “Humankind: A Hopeful History,” had read “Lord of the Flies” as a teenager like many, and didn’t doubt its terrible implication about human nature. However, Bregman got curious about whether there were any real-life cases of boys of that age getting stranded on an island.

Bregman learned of one that played out very differently,

In 1965, six boys from 13 to 16, bored in their school in Tonga, in Polynesia, impulsively stole a boat and sailed out, but became helplessly adrift after their sail and rudder broke. They were stranded on an island for more than a year. Instead of descending into cruel anarchy, though, they stayed alive through cooperation. When one of them broke his leg, they took care of him.

Some of the most memorable weeks of my life were spent helping out with rescues and aid in the aftermath of the 1999 earthquake in Turkey that killed thousands of people. The epicenter was my childhood hometown, so I was very familiar with the place, and I rushed to help, unsure of what I would find. Instead of the chaos and looting that was rumored, the people had been mostly sharing everything with one another. Intrigued, I dived into the sociology of disasters and found that this was the common trajectory after similar misfortune.

Rebecca Solnit’s book “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster” documents many such experiences — people altruistically cooperating in the aftermath of earthquakes, hurricanes and other catastrophes — and how the authorities often assume the opposite, and go in to restore law-and-order, but end up doing real harm.

One of the most egregious recent examples of this involved rumors of conditions after Hurricane Katrina in the Superdome in New Orleans — where tens of thousands of people unable to evacuate earlier had gathered. The police chief told Oprah Winfrey that babies were being raped. The mayor said, “They have people standing out there, have been in that frickin’ Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.” There were reports that rescue helicopters were being shot at.

The reality was that even as the situation deteriorated in the Superdome, as Rebecca Solnit’s book documents, many people kept each other alive, especially taking care of the elderly and the frail under very stressful conditions.

But the demonization of the overwhelmingly Black population of New Orleans fueled true ugliness: Some aid was delayed and resources diverted to prevent “looting,” and refugees from the city trying to escape on foot were shot at by residents in the mostly white suburbs.

What about the terrible side of humanity: the wars, the genocides? And what about survival of the fittest?

In his book “Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society,” Nicholas Christakis, a sociologist as well as a physician, explains that people are cooperative and social animals, not lone wolves. Humans have survived not because they were the animals with the sharpest claws and strongest muscles, but because they had smarts and they had one another.

Christakis looked at shipwrecks from 1500 to 1900 and found that survivors often managed by cooperation and that violence and ugliness was far from the norm.

This is not a rosy-eyed view that ignores the terrible aspects of human behavior. Groups can also be organized politically and socially against each other. That’s the basis of wars and genocides. But far from being elements of true human nature that are revealed once the thin veneer of civilization is worn off, such atrocities are organized through the institutions of civilization: through politics and culture and militaries and sustained political campaigns of dehumanization.

The institutions of civilization can also be enlisted to resist this dehumanization. The European Union may not be perfect, but it has helped to largely suppress the sorts of conflicts that wracked the continent for centuries.

I would venture that many of the thousands trapped in the Nevada mud are mostly banding together, sharing shelter, food and water.

If tech luminaries and rich folks are among those suffering in the mire, instead of gloating about their travail, let’s hope this experience reinforces for them the importance of pulling together as a society.

We can help them along by passing laws that make tax havens illegal, create a more equitable tax structure and a strong international framework for stopping the laundering of gains of corruption, force technology and other companies to deal with the harms of their inventions and overcome the current situation where profits are private but the fallout can be societal.

Human nature isn’t an obstacle to a good society, but it needs help from laws and institutions, not thick mud, to let the better angels have a chance.

#Burning_Man #Zeynep_Tufekci #Communs #Solidarité

Se il contrasto ai flussi via mare diventa un mercato dalle “ottime prospettive”

A dieci anni dalla strage di Lampedusa del 3 ottobre 2013, il Mediterraneo è la rotta più fatale del Pianeta con oltre 30mila morti tra 2014 e metà 2023 (le stime ufficiali sono fortemente al ribasso). I Paesi però non investono su ricerca e soccorso ma sul “contrasto ai flussi”. Un giro d’affari d’oro. Il caso di #Cantiere_Navale_Vittoria.

Le prospettive economiche del contrasto al “fenomeno della immigrazione illegale” per mare nei prossimi anni sono “ottime”, scrive nel suo ultimo bilancio Cantiere Navale Vittoria, azienda del settore della nautica civile, militare e paramilitare con sede ad Adria (Rovigo), partner strategico del ministero dell’Interno, della Guardia costiera, della Marina militare nonché fornitore, come riporta, dei “principali ministeri e marine del bacino del Mediterraneo”.

Un mercato dalle “notevoli opportunità” che potrebbe portare a una “pipeline commerciale” superiore a 1,5 miliardi di euro solo per le nuove costruzioni previste nei prossimi anni, sommando commesse nazionali (della Marina, soprattutto) ed estere, tipo Tunisia, Grecia, Oman, Israele, Qatar, Malta, Libia, Romania, Croazia, Algeria.

Là fuori, intanto, la stagione è terribile, segnata ancora una volta da mancati od ostacolati soccorsi e migliaia di morti nel Mediterraneo: 2.652 solo quelli registrati ufficialmente tra gennaio e metà agosto 2023 dalle Nazioni Unite, che schizzano a oltre 31mila se si fa il conto dal 2014 e si allarga lo sguardo alle diverse direttrici (dalla Libia, dalla Tunisia, dalla Turchia, dal Libano, dall’Egitto, dalla Siria, dai Paesi dell’Africa occidentale, etc.). Una strage -e le cifre dell’Organizzazione internazionale per le migrazioni sono solo la punta dell’iceberg– che fa in pezzi il “mai più” promesso dai governi dell’Unione europea dieci anni fa, poche ore dopo il naufragio di Lampedusa del 3 ottobre 2013, divenuto poi per legge la Giornata nazionale in memoria delle vittime dell’immigrazione.

Scorrere l’ultima relazione sulla gestione del cantiere di Adria adiacente al Canal Bianco, un ramo del Po, fa capire meglio dove vanno le politiche (e gli affari). “L’evoluzione del mercato di riferimento in cui opera la società -scrivono infatti gli amministratori- vede la decisa tendenza da parte di tutte le maggiori marine sovrane del Sud Europa nel volersi dotare di nuove unità destinate al pattugliamento d’altura e sotto costa oltre che a mezzi veloci necessari per contrastare efficacemente il fenomeno della immigrazione illegale”.

Ecco perché la “linea di business” chiamata “#Fast_patrol_vessel” -cioè le navi da pattugliamento veloci- pesa sui ricavi del 2022 (circa 100 milioni di euro) per quasi il 50%. Un esempio sono i quattro pattugliatori da 38 metri consegnati nel biennio 2021-2022 alla guardia costiera greca, con altri due che potrebbero essere opzionati nel corso del 2023. La stessa guardia costiera che è finita di nuovo sotto accusa per la strage di Pylos del giugno scorso avendo, secondo i testimoni, imprudentemente trainato il peschereccio partito dalla Libia con a bordo oltre 700 persone e provocato così il suo inabissamento.

La “linea” della ricerca e soccorso non arriva al 20% del fatturato, tallonata da quella del “#refitting”, ovvero la riparazione e rinnovo di assetti già esistenti. “La necessità di provvedere efficacemente al controllo costiero dei mari richiede anche l’ammodernamento delle unità già possedute -si legge ancora nel bilancio- e questo genera aperture molto interessanti nel mercato del refitting che Cantiere Navale Vittoria ha venduto ai propri clienti in anni precedenti”.

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Tipo le cosiddette guardie costiere libiche, che poi con quelle imbarcazioni, cedute con risorse pubbliche italiane ed europee, intercettano e riportano indietro i naufraghi verso il “cimitero più grande” che è il Nord Africa, per usare le parole di papa Francesco, in alcuni casi anche sparando contro le navi delle Ong. O la Guardia nazionale tunisina, per la quale l’azienda sta sistemando sei pattugliatori da 35 metri costruiti nel 2014. Ci sono poi veri e propri prototipi, come la serie di “#intercettori_fluviali_in_alluminio” lunghi dieci metri scarsi studiati per le “dure” condizioni affrontate dalla polizia romena o i due “#innovativi_intercettori” da 20 metri in grado di superare i 70 nodi (130 chilometri all’ora) commissionati dalla polizia reale omanita. Anche se la consegna più importante nell’ultimo anno è stata l’ammiraglia per le “forze armate maltesi”: 75 metri, un ponte di volo e 51,4 milioni di euro di valore. L’ipocrisia è in mezzo al mare.

▻https://altreconomia.it/se-il-contrasto-ai-flussi-via-mare-diventa-un-mercato-dalle-ottime-pros

Les fast patrol vessels (#FPV) :

The patrol boat is excellent for navies and maritime police today strength: more than 43 knots of maximum sustainable speed, with negligible speed loss up to Beaufort 3, combined with high-level accommodations to maximize crew comfort even on extended missions. Built in a series of four sister ships for the Cyprus Navy and the Maritime Police, the high speed allows rapid deployment even at great distances from the base, while the excellent hull design and motion control capabilities minimize the loss of speed in the open sea.

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#migrations #asile #réfugiés #business #complexe_militaro-industriel #contrôles_frontaliers #technologie #navires #frontières #Italie

Le “#navi_quarantena” sono costate più di 130 milioni di euro in due anni

Tra l’aprile 2020 e il giugno 2022 almeno 56mila persone sono transitate dalle imbarcazioni messe a disposizione da operatori privati su volere del governo, per una spesa pro-capite di 220 euro al giorno. Dati inediti evidenziano un esborso pubblico molto più elevato di quanto avrebbe richiesto una più dignitosa accoglienza a terra

https://i0.wp.com/altreconomia.it/app/uploads/2023/08/Gnv-Allegra.jpg?resize=770%2C500&ssl=1#.jpg

Le “navi quarantena” utilizzate per oltre due anni dal governo italiano per l’isolamento preventivo dei richiedenti asilo arrivati sulle coste italiane durante l’emergenza sanitaria sono costate, in totale, quasi 132 milioni di euro: 220 euro a persona al giorno. “Una follia fuori da ogni logica, un simile costo è più di quattro volte quello che si sarebbe speso utilizzando soluzioni residenziali a terra. Un paradosso, considerando che oggi si grida all’emergenza ma si continua a spendere pochissimo per creare un sistema d’accoglienza dignitoso”, spiega Gianfranco Schiavone, presidente del Consorzio italiano solidarietà di Trieste (Ics) e membro dell’Associazione per gli studi giuridici sull’immigrazione (Asgi).

L’86% di quanto speso è andato a Grandi navi veloci Spa, la principale azienda che ha fornito le navi, ma il conto potrebbe essere parziale: dai documenti consultati da Altreconomia non è chiaro se la rendicontazione dei soggetti coinvolti sia già conclusa. Quel che è certo è che vanno aggiunti a questa cifra almeno 420mila euro per i costi sostenuti per la Raffaele Rubattino, proprietà della Compagnia italiana navigazione Spa, per l’accoglienza di 180 profughi tra il 17 aprile e il 5 maggio 2020.

Ma andiamo con ordine. Nel pieno della pandemia da Covid-19, con il lockdown nazionale proclamato il 9 marzo 2020, un doppio decreto istituisce il sistema delle cosiddette “navi quarantena”: da un lato, il 7 aprile 2020 un decreto interministeriale emanato dai ministeri dell’Interno, della Salute e delle Infrastrutture stabilisce che, per tutta la durata dell’emergenza sanitaria, i porti italiani non potevano essere considerati “luoghi sicuri” per lo sbarco dei migranti; dall’altro cinque giorni dopo, il 12 aprile, la Protezione civile affida al Dipartimento per le libertà civili e l’immigrazione del Ministero dell’Interno la gestione dell’isolamento e della quarantena dei cittadini stranieri soccorsi o arrivati autonomamente via mare. È sulla base di questo decreto che il Viminale, insieme alla Croce rossa italiana, viene autorizzato a utilizzare navi per lo svolgimento della sorveglianza sanitaria “con riferimento alle persone soccorse in mare e per le quali non è possibile indicare il “Place of Safety” (luogo sicuro)”. Quelle, quindi, non sbarcate autonomamente. Comincia così la stagione delle navi quarantena: tra il 17 aprile e il 5 maggio 183 persone vengono “ospitate”, come detto, sulla nave Rubattino seguita dal traghetto Moby Zaza (attivo dal 12 maggio), che può ospitare fino a 250 persone appartenente anche esso alla Compagnia di navigazione italiana. Sarà poi Grandi navi veloci, successivamente, a fornire quasi tutti i servizi.

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Traghetti su cui, in totale, dal 17 aprile 2020 al 7 giugno 2022 secondo i dati forniti ad Altreconomia dall’ufficio del Garante nazionale delle persone private della libertà personale, sono salite in totale 56.007 persone, per una permanenza media nel 2021 e 2022 di 10,7 giorni. Considerando un costo totale di 132 milioni di euro significa quindi più di 2.300 euro a persona e 220 al giorno.

“Ipotizziamo di aumentare da 30 a 50 euro il costo pro-capite pro-die per l’accoglienza di queste persone in strutture residenziali sul territorio -osserva Schiavone-. Aumentiamo la diaria perché consideriamo l’oggettiva situazione di emergenza sanitaria che alza i costi. Ebbene, anche così facendo e considerando che comunque la spesa totale potrebbe essere al ribasso significa un costo quattro volte più alto. È irragionevole”. Di questi soldi, ricavati da Altreconomia dai giustificativi di pagamento dei servizi effettuati dal Dipartimento per le libertà civili e l’immigrazione, in seno al ministero dell’Interno, come detto 113 milioni sono stati destinati a Grandi navi veloci (tra nave, carburante e personale), quasi sei milioni a Moby Zaza e poco più di 12 alla Croce rossa italiana (Cri) che assisteva le persone trattenute sulle navi. La stessa Croce rossa a gennaio 2022 aveva minacciato di non garantire più il servizio a seguito del ripetuto superamento del periodo massimo di permanenza sulla nave -10 giorni- per almeno mille persone e che, anche per questo motivo, aveva preoccupato tra gli altri l’Asgi che in un dettagliato report aveva pubblicato le sue perplessità sui rischi di un simile sistema.

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“L’accoglienza a terra avrebbe evitato note criticità logistiche, violazioni di alcune procedure e soprattutto, da un punto di vista strettamente economico avrebbe fatto risparmiare il ministero e aiutato, per esempio, albergatori in difficoltà che si sono trovati a dover chiudere le proprie attività. Chi non avrebbe accettato le accoglienze a 50 euro? Di certo, nessuno, ai 220 costati per le navi”. E forse si sarebbero anche evitate le morti di Bilal, ragazzo tunisino di 22 anni che si è suicidato dalla Moby Zaza a maggio 2020; Abou Diakite, 15 anni, nato in Costa d’Avorio e deceduto nell’ospedale di Palermo dopo essere stato trasportato d’urgenza dalla Gnv Allegra; Giorgio Carducci, psicologo volontario di 47 anni stroncato da un arresto cardiaco. E poi Abdallah Said deceduto a settembre 2020 all’ospedale di Catania dopo due settimane di permanenza sulla Gnv Azzurra.

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Abbiamo chiesto a Croce rossa italiana se era già terminata la rendicontazione delle spese effettuate ma non abbiamo ricevuto risposta nel merito. Il periodo di riferimento dei pagamenti effettuati va dall’ottobre 2020 al 24 febbraio 2023. Mancano però le informazioni del primo trimestre del 2021 che hanno una tabella “vuota”: non è chiaro se perché non sono state effettuati pagamenti o per un errore di caricamento.

Un capitolo chiuso che ha ancora molto da “insegnare” anche per il presente. “Evidenzia come non ci sia nessun tipo di ragionata pianificazione che consenta di trovare delle soluzioni adeguate anche in contesti straordinari, come è indubbiamente stato il Covid-19, ma sulla base di criteri e paletti di ragionevolezza -conclude Schiavone-. Passiamo dalla spesa folle fatta con le navi quarantena al rifiuto attuale di adeguare e prevedere un corrispettivo pro die-pro capite dignitoso per l’accoglienza nei Centri di accoglienza straordinaria (Cas) con la conseguenza che le gare vanno deserte perché le condizioni sono economicamente insostenibili. La stessa amministrazione, certo con tempi diversi e governi, sembra non abbia nessun parametro logico su come operare in emergenza, su cosa e quanto sia ragionevole spendere per conseguire gli obiettivi pubblici. Tutto sembra invece avvenire in modo molto casuale in contrasto con il principio di efficienza che deve guidare l’operato della pubblica amministrazione”.

▻https://altreconomia.it/le-navi-quarantena-sono-costate-piu-di-130-milioni-di-euro-in-due-anni
#budget #coût #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Italie #privatisation #covid #Grandi_navi_veloci #navires #bateaux #Raffaele_Rubattino #Compagnia_italiana_navigazione #lockdown #confinement #isolement #quarantaine #Place_of_Safety #Rubattino #Moby_Zaza #ferry #Croce_rossa_italiana #croce_rossa #hébergement #accueil #GNV

–-

voir aussi ce fil de discussion:
Rights in route. The “#quarantine_ships” between risks and criticisms
►https://seenthis.net/messages/866072

L’IA pourrait être le grand égalisateur dont les régions les moins riches d’Europe ont besoin
▻https://www.observatoiredeleurope.com/lia-pourrait-etre-le-grand-egalisateur-dont-les-regions-les-m

Si elle est exploitée judicieusement, l’IA pourrait stimuler la croissance dans une région aux prises avec des décennies de pénuries de l’ère communiste et d’inégalités et de privations économiques post-communistes.

Petit concentré de #bullshit halluciné.

Berliner Trüffel, Folge 36: Enten und Jungschwäne in Charlottenburg
▻https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/berliner-truffel-folge-36-enten-und-jungschwane-in-charlottenburg-10368

27.8.2023 - Michael Bienert - Die Enten fühlen sich auf dem Brunnenrand vor dem #Renaissance-Theater pudelwohl: Ein Exemplar döst vor sich hin, den Schnabel ins Gefieder gesteckt, eine andere putzt sich. Der laute Autoverkehr um den Ernst-Reuter-Platz stört die sechs Artgenossinnen nicht. Ihre glatt polierten, messingglänzenden Köpfchen beweisen, dass die Bronzevögel gerne gestreichelt werden. Große Kunst zum Anfassen von August Gaul, der um 1900 die Millionenstadt Berlin mit seinen Tierskulpturen bevölkerte, mit anmutigen Kreaturen, weitab von Bedeutungshuberei und wilhelminischem Bombast.

Auf einem niedrigen Sockel ruht ein Brunnenbecken aus Muschelkalk, in der Mitte erhebt sich ein steinerner Pilz, über den Wasser in das Becken rinnt. Und an zwei Seiten des Beckenrands hocken je drei Entlein zusammen. Ein liebliches, ein märchenhaftes Arrangement.
Geschenkt vom Stadtverordneten

Es gibt Anwohner, die es verstimmt, dass der Brunnen derart harmlos plätschert, ohne Hinweis auf seinen Stifter. Der Straßenschmuck von 1908 war ein Geschenk des Industriellen, Berliner Stadtverordneten und ehrenamtlichen Stadtrates Max Cassirer an die Stadt Charlottenburg. Wie sein Neffe, der Kunsthändler Paul Cassirer, förderte er August Gaul. Max Cassirer besaß eine Villa an der #Kaiserallee, der heutigen #Bundesallee. In seinem Garten ließ er einen kleineren Brunnen errichten, ebenfalls mit sechs Vögeln von Gaul auf dem Rand. Damit die Proportionen passten, entschied man sich für Jungschwäne statt ausgewachsener Enten.

Dieser zweite Brunnen steht seit 1962 am #Kurfürstendamm, Ecke #Leibnizstraße. Auch hier könnte an das Schicksal des jüdischen Stadtrates erinnert werden: Die Ehrenbürgerwürde von Charlottenburg wurde Cassirer 1933 aberkannt, seine Fabriken wurden arisiert. Die Villa an der Kaiserallee musste er verkaufen, um eine Zwangsabgabe an den NS-Staat aufzubringen. Ende 1938 rettete er sich der 82-jährige Mäzen ins Ausland, danach wurde er ausgebürgert, um sein Restvermögen und die Kunstsammlung zu beschlagnahmen.

Im Foyer des Rathauses Charlottenburg erinnert ein etwas ramponierter Aufsteller an Max Cassirer und seine Ausplünderung. Der Weg zwischen dem Rathaus und den beiden Brunnen ist aber doch recht lang, und so bleibt es eine Herausforderung, das Schöne und Grausame zusammenzudenken.

#Berlin #Charlottenburg #Wilmersdorf #Otto-Suhr-Allee #Hardenbegstraße #Knesebeckstraße #Geschichte #Nazis #Judenverfolgung #Kunst #Mäzenatentum

#Pre-frontier_information_picture

Je découvre dans un billet de blog que j’ai lu ce matin, cette info :

From the information gathered, Frontex produces, in addition to various dossiers, an annual situation report, which the agency calls an “Pre-frontier information picture.”

►https://digit.site36.net/2023/08/27/what-is-frontex-doing-in-senegal-secret-services-also-participate-in-t
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/997841#message1014789

... et du coup, ce terme de « pre-frontier information picture ».

ça me rappelle, évidemment, la carte de @reka de la #triple_frontière européenne (où une « pré-frontière » est dessinée au milieu du désert du Sahara) :

https://visionscarto.net/local/cache-vignettes/L2048xH1430/13670579344_d898-7ffd7-66a84.jpg?1690212438#.jpg

Je découvre ainsi, en faisant un peu de recherches, qu’il y a un #projet_de_recherche financé par #Horizon_2020 dédié à cette #pré-frontière, #NESTOR :

aN Enhanced pre-frontier intelligence picture to Safeguard The EurOpean boRders

Un système intégré de #surveillance des #frontières de l’UE

Les frontières de l’Europe sont soumises à une pression considérable en raison des flux migratoires, des conflits armés dans les territoires avoisinants, du trafic de biens et de personnes, et de la criminalité transnationale. Toutefois, certains obstacles géographiques, tels que les forêts denses, les hautes montagnes, les terrains accidentés ou les zones maritimes et fluviales entravent la surveillance des itinéraires empruntés par les réseaux criminels. Le projet NESTOR, financé par l’UE, fera la démonstration d’un #système_global_de_surveillance des frontières de nouvelle génération, entièrement fonctionnel et proposant des #informations sur la situation #en_amont des frontières et au-delà des frontières maritimes et terrestres. Ce système repose sur le concept de la gestion européenne intégrée des frontières et recourt à des #technologies d’analyse d’#images_optiques et du spectre de fréquences radio alimentées par un réseau de #capteurs_interopérables.

Objectif

For the past few years, Europe has experienced some major changes at its surrounding territories and in adjacent countries which provoked serious issues at different levels. The European Community faces a number of challenges both at a political and at a tactical level. Irregular migration flows exerting significant pressure to the relevant authorities and agencies that operate at border territories. Armed conflicts, climate pressure and unpredictable factors occurring at the EU external borders, have increased the number of the reported transnational crimes. Smuggling activity is a major concern for Eastern EU Borders particularly, as monitoring the routes used by smugglers is being hindered by mountainous, densely forested areas and rough lands aside with sea or river areas. Due to the severity and the abrupt emergence of events, the relevant authorities operate for a long-time interval, under harsh conditions, 24 hours a day. NESTOR aims to demonstrate a fully functional next generation holistic border surveillance system providing pre-frontier situational awareness beyond maritime and land border areas following the concept of the European Integrated Border Management. NESTOR long-range and wide area surveillance capabilities for detection, recognition classification and tracking of moving targets (e.g. persons, vessels, vehicles, drones etc.) is based on optical, thermal imaging and Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum analysis technologies fed by an interoperable sensors network including stationary installations and mobile manned or unmanned vehicles (aerial, ground, water, underwater) capable of functioning both as standalone, tethered and in swarms. NESTOR BC3i system will fuse in real-time border surveillance data combined with web and social media information, creating and sharing a pre-frontier intelligent picture to local, regional and national command centers in AR environment being interoperable with CISE and EUROSUR.

▻https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101021851/fr

Projet de 6 mio. d’euro et coordonné par la #police_grecque (#Grèce) :

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Les participants (#complexe_militaro-industriel) au projet :

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#données #technologie #interopérabilité #frontières #migrations #asile #réfugiés #surveillance_des_frontières #_Integrated_Border_Management #fréquence_radio #NESTOR_BC3i_system #CISE #EUROSUR

Bulgaria migrant pushbacks: What’s behind the rise in violence at the Bulgarian-Turkish border? (1/4)

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The Bulgarian-Turkish border is seeing an upsurge in pushbacks and violence against migrants. InfoMigrants uncovers the reasons why and who are the most at risk.

This article is the first in a four-part series. All research and interviews were conducted between June and August 2023, with field reporting in Bulgaria carried out between June 18 and 24, 2023.

Pushbacks are “a very serious problem” in Bulgaria, Krassimir Kanev, chair of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, a non-profit dedicated to protecting human rights, told InfoMigrants.

“We even had people who were killed, who were seriously injured, who were pushed back and they died in the snow in Turkey…There have been many such cases, cases of physical ill treatment, sometimes resulting in death…use of firearms sometimes resulting in death…” he said.

Last year alone, an estimated 5,200 migrants were subject to pushbacks at the Bulgarian-Turkish border, according to the Committee.

Similarly, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles recorded 5,268 alleged pushbacks in Bulgaria in 2022 affecting 87,647 persons – but the actual figure is believed to be much higher.

Pushbacks are prohibited under European Union (EU) and international law. They violate the 1951 Refugee Convention principle of non-refoulement, which provides that refugees should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom.

In interviews carried out between June and August 2023, migrants, humanitarian workers, human rights experts and lawyers told InfoMigrants violence against migrants and pushbacks at the Bulgarian-Turkish border have increased in the last two years.

The Bulgarian government, however, has maintained that “Checks have been carried out of formal pushback signals made by foreigners who tried to illegally cross the state border of Bulgaria. The checks ended with the finding that there was no evidence of physical violence.”

A spokesperson from the ministry told InfoMigrants, “It should be noted that many of the claims of ’pushbacks’ are unfounded.”

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Greek migrant repression marks turning point in Bulgaria

Hamid Khoshseiar, a translator and coordinator at the Mission Wings Foundation in Harmanli near to the Bulgarian-Turkish border, works with migrants from the town’s refugee reception center. He said more migrants started trying to enter the EU via the Bulgarian-Turkish border after the Greek government’s swing to the right in 2019. Those numbers have climbed even higher in the last year.

“Around a year ago, we started to see a new practice. People were coming in our office to be registered…because of the increase of the number of pushbacks at the border…” Khoshseiar told InfoMigrants.

In August 2022, a bus carrying at least 47 migrants collided with a police car in Bulgaria, leaving two officers dead.

“After that, the border escalated and became very intensive,” with “more forces,” Khoshseiar explained. “Even the army started to help border police and the gendarmerie [military police]. And also the number of pushbacks and violence increased a lot… people give themselves the right to interpret the law,” he added.

Bulgarian authorities have been stripping migrants at the border before “pushing them back (into Turkey) without any clothes,” Khoshseiar said.

“We also heard a lot about beatings on the border. Some of them (migrants) were sharing that when they (Bulgarian authorities) caught a group, there were six, seven officers opening one small door in the border. And like a tunnel they were hitting everyone who was crossing.”

Khoshseiar added that many migrants told him it was their fifth or sixth time attempting to enter Bulgarian territory.

In order to find out which forces are involved in pushbacks, Khoshseiar also asks his clients about the color of their clothing.

“[The] forces ... involved [are] technically all of them. Border police with green, gendarmerie with dark blue, and police with blue – it’s not specifically one,” he said.

Khoshseiar is also concerned about chain pushbacks, a practice often initiated by European countries where people are pushed back through multiple consecutive countries.

“We heard from people… ’Bulgarian police arrested us, they started beating us. They sent us back to Greece. After that, the Greece police started beating us and send us back to Turkey,’ – chain pushbacks.”

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Bulgarian-Turkish border sees jump in migrant arrivals

Boris Cheshirkov, an external relations officer at the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Sofia, told InfoMigrants that Bulgaria received some 20,000 asylum applications last year – “the highest number in a single year over 30 years of recorded statistics.”

He said the main countries of origin were Syria, Afghanistan and Morocco, adding that this trend has largely continued in 2023. The number of refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons at the end of 2022 was almost double than that of the year before.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 and ongoing conflict in Syria are pushing citizens to journey to Bulgaria, while continued economic and political instability in neighboring Turkey – as well as the devastating aftermath of the February earthquake – are driving Syrians previously living in Turkey to cross the border into Bulgaria.

Migration activities have also resumed following the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, slow and inefficient application processes across the EU have prompted many more to search for unofficial ways to enter the bloc, usually through the use of people smugglers.

https://gw.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/bb0eb97a9613a0ed9962abd367258c7499d2e5fd.jpg

The trilateral Bulgaria-Greece-Turkey contact center at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint confirmed that the Bulgarian-Turkish border has seen another strong wave of irregular migration in the past year, and is making prevention their top priority.

“The first and biggest issue is cross-border crime related to illegal migration – foremost in terms of volume,” a Bulgarian border police spokesperson at the trilateral center told InfoMigrants. The center was established in 2016 soon after refugee arrivals in Europe peaked in 2015.

Higher migrant numbers arguably increase the probability of pushbacks. Migrants are also increasingly aiming for the Bulgarian-Turkish border as other European countries beef up security.

“In the past, much more migration has been through Greece than through Bulgaria,” Kanev from the Helsinki Committee said. “But the Greek government introduced some measures of patrolling the sea. Their border is very well protected. Their land border with Turkey is shorter. Also, the Bulgarian border is very difficult to protect because it goes through a mountain. And it’s quite big and therefore it is very hard to install appropriate technology and supervision throughout this border,” he explained.

Migrants are also increasingly opting for the Bulgarian-Turkish border after hearing stories about violent pushbacks and aggressive behavior from Greek authorities at the Greek-Turkish border or experiencing violence firsthand in a previous failed crossing at the Greek border.

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Authorities beat, stripped, robbed and shot at migrants

Diana Dimova, head of the Bulgarian human rights organization Mission Wings, said nearly 700 migrants who crossed the Bulgarian-Turkish border have passed through her consultation center in Stara Zagora city in the last year.

“The practices they (migrants) share are: being stripped, robbing of personal belongings, phones and money, beatings with police batons, harassment with police dogs, and illegal detention for 24-72 hours in unregulated premises,” Dimova told InfoMigrants.

She and her colleagues have also traveled to Turkey to film the testimonies of scores of refugees who recount being abused and pushed back.

“The resistance from the authorities to cover up these crimes is great,” she said.

Many migrants walk through dense forested areas, crossing the Strandja Nature Park at the border with Turkey. They typically walk four to eight days without food or water, and smugglers “give them pills to endure the journey,” Dimova said. “Many are dehydrated and exhausted to the limit. Huge numbers of people are dying in the forests, mostly in the area of Sredets municipality.”

GPS coordinates given by migrants in distress to hotlines in Europe “are rarely responded to by border police,” she said.

“Usually we call 112 who forward the signal to the border police. We have found that in many cases the border police do not look for them at all or leave them to their fate. In most cases, when 112 is called insistently and help is sought, they arrive at the scene of the tragedy, load those who have survived and send them back onto Turkish territory,” Dimova told InfoMigrants.

“Bulgaria does not have a working system for rescuing refugees in distress – many of these people are left to perish in the forests,” she said.

Her foundation is funded by various foreign organizations as the Bulgarian government does not provide them with financial support.

“There are very few organizations in Bulgaria helping refugees. Most do not want to engage in this topic because of negative public opinion” and are pressured by various institutions to stop their activities, Dimova explained. A number of organizations focusing on refugees in Bulgaria are under investigation – including Mission Wings.

“For more than 10 months, we have been under investigation for suspicions expressed by the State Agency for Refugees that we are involved in the trafficking and smuggling of unaccompanied refugee children. The national security services pressured and harassed us for nearly a year, trying to stop us from helping those arriving from the Bulgarian-Turkish border,” she told InfoMigrants.

https://gw.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/1ba2b11945349f53ca469a829b6b28cb61984afe.jpg

Journalists expose migrant shooting

Sofia Bahudela, an Arabic language worker at Caritas Bulgaria, said the charity is very familiar with migrants who are “extremely traumatized when entering the country.”

“Everything is very dependent on the people serving as border guards,” she told InfoMigrants.

Recounting the story of Ali Husseini, a young man who had been granted protection status in Bulgaria, Bahudela explains how when he traveled to the border to find his brother in 2022, he was stripped, beaten, robbed and then pushed into Turkey. After a week of talks with a lawyer and a trip to Istanbul, he was able to return to Bulgaria, but had to wait a further five months to have his ID reissued. His brother, meanwhile, was deported from Turkey to Afghanistan.

In another case, the Bulgarian government repeatedly rejected accusations that its border guards shot a Syrian refugee in October 2022 after a video released two months after the incident showed a man being fired at on the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

The video was part of a joint investigation by several European media outlets led by the Netherlands-based Lighthouse Reports. In a separate video captured days later, the man identified himself as 19-year-old Abdullah El Rustum of Syria. He said he was shot by Bulgarian border officers after his group was caught trying to enter Bulgaria irregularly. The Lighthouse investigation found that unarmed refugees were fired at from the same position on the Bulgarian side, where the border police were seen to be located.

Maria Cheresheva, a Bulgarian journalist based in the capital Sofia, participated in the Lighthouse probe. She has since been denied access to the Bulgarian-Turkish border on numerous occasions, and said she rarely receives comments from the government on her work.

“There has been no information or progress on this investigation,” Cheresheva told InfoMigrants. The border is a “heavily monitored area. So we are curious why after the rejection of the authorities of both countries (Turkey and Bulgaria), no progress has been done in terms of this report, which was broadly broadcasted around big European media.”

Testimonies of migrants who were pushed back and suffered violence at the border “are rarely taken into account” Cheresheva explained, adding that she has dealt with a number of similar cases, but noted it’s “extremely difficult to prove who caused the violence and how did those people end up in such a situation.”

The stressful and violent situations of pushbacks also make it difficult for migrants to identify the people responsible for the illegal acts: Are they Bulgarian border police, gendarmerie, European Border and Coast Guard Agency (#Frontex) officers, or vigilantes.

Women and children face increased risks at border crossing

Women who attempt to enter Europe via the Bulgarian-Turkish border face heightened risks of sexual violence.

“We have cases of women who say they have experienced violence, including sexual violence, on the way to Bulgaria at the hands of traffickers or police officers in Turkey. Some women have had to pay for their journey to Europe with sex due to lack of financial means,” said Dimova of Mission Wings.

Cases of rape and abuse are difficult to record because “many of the women do not recognize the violence that has been perpetrated against them as a problem or are ashamed to share,” she told InfoMigrants.

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee also confirmed it received reports of sexual harassment and rape from migrants. Chairman Kanev cited a female migrant who informed the Committee that she was stripped naked and subjected to sexual harassment by Bulgarian authorities.

“I suspect that she was also raped, maybe, but she didn’t say that. And then from third parties, you also hear cases of women who were raped,” Kanev said.

Unaccompanied minors also face greater risks at the Bulgarian-Turkish border, journalist Cheresheva said, because there is “nobody to protect them on the way.” Many problems can arise because the “mistreatment and violence happens outside of the system.”

Cheresheva said she has interviewed many migrants who experienced violence at the border as minors. One boy she interviewed was kept in a detention center in Bulgaria and was expecting his asylum procedure to start, but instead he was sent back to Turkey where he was kidnapped. The last Cheresheva heard about the child was that he had been rescued by other refugees living in Turkey.

“With all this violence happening along the borders, not only by authorities but through all kinds of criminal groups, I’m very concerned about the fate of these kids,” Cheresheva said.

Khoshseiar from Mission Wings said he had come across two unaccompanied migrant children in Harmanli, a brother and sister aged 12 and 14.

“I just showed them the way how to get to the reception center, because the reception center should register them. After that we understood that they put them into the car and pushed them back into Turkey,” he said.

https://gw.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/0b7283d26163fca94796ce3a51f1baea4b54db1a.jpg

Bulgaria is a ’peaceful country,’ says Syrian barber

Several migrants InfoMigrants spoke to recounted positive stories of how Bulgaria had welcomed them, and said they had not experienced violence on Bulgarian territory.

Ahmed is a Syrian barber in Sofia. He journeyed to Bulgaria with a group of friends in 2015, when their country was being torn apart by war and conflict.

“I came through the mountains for three days on the border between Turkey and Bulgaria – the situation was very difficult, very difficult indeed,” he told InfoMigrants from his barbershop in the bustling center of the Bulgarian capital.

https://gw.infomigrants.net/media/resize/my_image_big/95a313dea8718dd573755780a1ad2d1ef773d9a3.jpg

“For me personally, there were no issues with the (asylum) documents,” he said.

When asked if he had any issues with border police during the journey, he responded: “No, very good people, really. I swear. I lived in Turkey for nine months. The police there were bad people. In Turkey, not here. I came to Bulgaria because of the police in Turkey, very bad people.”

All of Ahmed’s friends continued on to Germany, except for him.

“I love Bulgaria…I like it, good, peaceful country…” he beamed.

*Name changed

▻https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/51197/bulgaria-migrant-pushbacks-whats-behind-the-rise-in-violence-at-the-bu

#Bulgarie #Turquie #push-backs #refoulements #frontières #asile #migrations #réfugiés #montagne #violence #violence_sexuelle #murs #barrières_frontalières

Microsoft submits new deal for review after CMA confirms original deal is blocked - GOV.UK
▻https://www.gov.uk/government/news/microsoft-submits-new-deal-for-review-after-cma-confirms-original-deal-is-blocke

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64e38edf3309b7000d1c9c09/istock-1170073824.jpg

Under the restructured deal, Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights for existing Activision PC and console games, or for new games released by Activision during the next 15 years (this excludes the European Economic Area). Instead, these rights will be divested to Ubisoft Entertainment SA (Ubisoft) prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision.

Microsoft has stated that the restructured deal is intended to address the concerns set out in the CMA’s Final Report in April. In particular, the transaction is intended to provide an independent third-party content supplier, Ubisoft, with the ability to supply Activision’s gaming content to all cloud gaming service providers (including to Microsoft itself). Ubisoft will be able to license out Activision’s content under different business models, including subscription services. The deal also proposes that Ubisoft would have the ability to require Microsoft to provide versions of games on operating systems other than Windows.

#jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #business #finance #rachat #microsoft #activision_blizzard #ubisoft #cma

Burning Spear revient avec l’album « No Destroyer »
▻https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip/burning-spear-revient-avec-l-album-no-destroyer-3124472

https://www.radiofrance.fr/s3/cruiser-production/2023/08/439a8bd4-1e7e-4063-b9a8-0786b34e3d60/1200x680_sc_burning-spear.jpg

Quinze ans après « Jah Is Real », la légende vivante du roots reggae, publie enfin cette collection de titres inédits enregistrés en 2011.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcKmEMDRtgo&list=OLAK5uy_n5lsniUpco1kAXCju1_IpPuhaafbdmiWE&index=1

#musique #reggae #Burning_Spear

Le madri lontane
▻https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/aree/Romania/Le-madri-lontane-226428

Le migliaia di braccianti romene e bulgare che lavorano nei campi di Italia, Spagna e Germania devono separarsi dai figli per mesi. La lontananza e la “maternità delegata” segnano i figli per sempre

https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/var/obc/storage/images/articoli-da-pubblicare-2/le-madri-lontane-226428/2175382-3-ita-IT/Le-madri-lontane.jpg

#Controverses mode d’emploi

https://www.pressesdesciencespo.fr/resources/titles/27246100412870/images/27246100412870L.jpg

Pratique pédagogique pionnière en sciences sociales, la cartographie des controverses apprend à regarder le monde sans jamais séparer sciences, techniques et société. À tenir compte de tous les points de vue et du contexte dans lequel ils sont émis. À analyser finement l’écosystème qui fait naître un objet, une invention, un phénomène.
Face aux problèmes environnementaux et sanitaires qui nous submergent, face à la cadence inédite des innovations technologiques, les expert·e·s s’affrontent, se contredisent ou s’avouent sans réponse. Les controverses surgissent à un rythme bien plus rapide que la production des savoirs. Dans cet âge d’#incertitude, où la décision doit souvent précéder la connaissance, il nous faut imaginer de nouvelles manières de penser et d’agir collectivement.

La cartographie des controverses fournit ce cadre. Pratique pédagogique pionnière en sciences sociales, elle apprend à regarder le monde sans jamais séparer sciences, techniques et société. À tenir compte de tous les points de vue et du contexte dans lequel ils sont émis. À analyser finement l’écosystème qui fait naître un objet, une invention, un phénomène.

Pour se repérer dans l’incertitude, nous dit-elle, il faut d’abord se perdre dans la complexité.

Ce livre en offre le mode d’emploi, en s’appuyant sur des exemples de controverses contemporaines soigneusement sélectionnées pour leur diversité et la richesse de leurs enseignements.

▻https://www.pressesdesciencespo.fr/fr/book/?gcoi=27246100412870#h2tabtableContents

#livre #controverse #eau #vélo #femmes #hystérie #burn-out #glyphosate #Romainville #rats #Paris #forages #eaux_profondes #enquête

@reka : dans le résumé du livre on parle de « cartographie des controverses », mais je ne sais pas ce qui se cache derrière #cartographie, si c’est « mapping » en anglais qui pourrait donc comporter zéro visualisation :-)

Toxic Data | Aude Vidal
▻https://blog.ecologie-politique.eu/post/Toxic-Data

MMA : Musk vs Zuck, pour la gloire du bizness | Libé | 13.08.23

▻https://www.liberation.fr/economie/economie-numerique/elon-musk-contre-mark-zuckerberg-un-combat-kif-kif-beigne-beigne-20230813

Au bout de sept années de joutes verbales, auraient-ils décidé d’en venir aux mains ? L’explication est un poil simpliste. Car, souligne Clément Dubreuil, professeur de marketing à la Kedge Business School, l’embrouille a tout d’une stratégie commerciale bien connue : celle du clash.

« Le cas d’école que l’on évoque souvent en marketing, c’est l’histoire de Pepsi et Coca-Cola », repère le spécialiste. Une rivalité incarnée dès les années 80 dans une campagne publicitaire de Pepsi. L’entreprise fait alors goûter à l’aveugle les deux boissons. L’objectif : « prouver » que le goût de la canette bleue est meilleur. « La technique de la rivalité en marketing ne date pas d’hier mais elle a pris beaucoup d’importance avec les réseaux sociaux. Depuis, on observe une escalade dans le trash », relate Clément Dubreuil.

BMW contre Audi, McDonald’s contre Burger King, Samsung contre Apple… La technique est déployée par bien d’autres enseignes. Y compris dans le rap, à l’image de la bataille Booba versus Kaaris, achevée en une rixe mémorable à l’aéroport d’Orly, ou sur les réseaux sociaux. Alors que Squeezie s’apprête à détrôner Cyprien de sa place de youtubeur français le plus suivi en 2019, les vidéastes s’écharpent avec humour et en musique. « Cyprien, Cypri-rien, Squeezie first, numéro un », martèle ironiquement l’un des refrains. L’un des clips fait 31 millions de vues, l’autre 21.

#métaliste sur l’#extraction de #terres_rares dans les #Alpes

#extractivisme #exploitation #montagne #mines #nickel #cobalt #graphite #lithium #or #cuivre #platine #matières_premières #green-washing #green_mining #extraction_verte #transition_énergétique #batteries #souveraineté_extractive

#Niger coup: increasing instability, forced displacement & irregular migration across the #Sahel

Niger coup: increasing instability, forced displacement & irregular migration across the Sahel, amidst billions of EU Trust Fund for Stability investments.

On July 26, a military coup took place in Niger, when the democratically elected president was deposed and the commander of the presidential guard declared himself the leader. A nationwide curfew was announced and borders were closed. The military junta justified its actions claiming it was in response to the continuing deterioration of the security situation. On August 10, the leaders of the coup declared a new government, naming 21 ministers, including several generals, but with civilian economist Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the new prime minister.

This was the latest in a series of seven military coups in West and Central Africa since 2020, including in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso. In Mali, a coup within a coup took place in May 2021, when the junta leader of the 2020 coup stripped the president and prime minister of their powers and declared himself president. Burkina Faso suffered two military coups in 2022; in September 2022, the head of an artillery unit of the armed forces ousted the previous junta leader who had led a coup in January 2022, and declared himself president of Burkina Faso.

To add to further potential instability and escalation in the region, the military governments of Burkina Faso and Mali quickly warned – in response to remarks by ECOWAS – that any military intervention against last week’s coup leaders in Niger would be considered a “declaration of war” against their nations. The coup leaders ignored an August 6 deadline by ECOWAS to relinquish power and release the detained elected president. At the August 10 ECOWAS emergency summit in Abuja, West African heads of state repeated that all options remain on the table to restore constitutional order in Niger and ordered the activation of its standby force.
Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso: military coups in the three major recipients of the EU Trust Fund for Stability and addressing the root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in the Sahel

Interestingly, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have been prime target countries in the European Union’s efforts to increase stability in the region and address the root causes of irregular migration and displacement.

In 2015, the European Union established the “EU Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa”. Of a total fund of 5 billion EUR, the Sahel and Lake Chad is the biggest funding window, with 2.2 billion EUR committed between the start of the programme and the end of December 2022, across 214 projects.

The three biggest recipient countries in the Sahel and Lake Chad region are indeed Niger (294 million), Mali (288 million) and Burkina Faso (190 million), in addition to 600 million for regional projects. Among the four various strategic objectives, overall the largest share of the budget (34%) went to security and governance activities (the other strategic priorities are economic opportunities, strengthening resilience and improved migration management). The security and governance objective has been the main priority in Mali (49% of all EUTF funding), Niger (42%) and Burkina Faso (69%) (as well as in Nigeria and Mauritania).

However, the most recent EUTF monitoring report on the Sahel window offers a sobering read on the state of stability and security in these three countries. In summary:

“In Burkina Faso, 2022 was marked by political instability and deepening insecurity. Burkina Faso has suffered from attacks from armed groups. The conflict has sparked an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Burkina Faso is facing the worst food crisis in a decade”.

In Mali, “the political process remains at risk considering the country’s worsening security situation and strained diplomatic relations. In an increasingly insecure environment, 8.8 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in January 2023. In 2022, 1,378 events of violence were reported, causing 4,862 fatalities, a 31% and 155% increase, respectively, compared to 2021”.

In Niger, it was estimated the country would “face an unprecedented food crisis during the 2022 lean season, resulting from conflict, drought, and high food prices. The humanitarian crisis is strongly driven by insecurity. The number of internal displacements and refugees in Niger kept rising.” These conclusions on Niger date from before the July 2023 coup.

The report also concluded that 2022 was the “most violent and deadliest year on record for the countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad window, driven by the profound and continuing security crises in Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Fatalities recorded in the ACLED database in Mali (4,867) and Burkina Faso (4,266) were the highest ever recorded, more than doubling (144% and 119%, respectively) compared to the average for 2020-2021.” Meanwhile, UNICEF reported 11,100 schools are closed due to conflict or threats made against teachers and students. The number of attacks on schools in West and Central Africa more than doubled between 2019 and 2020.

In other words: despite billions of funding towards stability and addressing the root causes of irregular migration and displacement, we are seeing increasing instability, conditions in these countries actually driving more displacement and no lasting drop in irregular migration.
Increasing forced displacement and irregular migration

Indeed, as of July 2023, UNHCR reports a total of almost 3.2 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Sahel, compared to just under 50,000 when the EUTF was established in 2015. Similarly, UNHCR reports almost 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers in the Sahel, compared to over 200,000 when the EUTF was established in 2015.

Irregular migration across the Mediterranean between North Africa and Europe is also on the rise again. According to ISPI, the latest surge in irregular arrivals that Italy is experiencing (136,000 migrants disembarked in Italy in the twelve-month period between June 2022 and May 2023) is almost comparable, in magnitude, to the period of high arrivals in 2014-2017, when on average 155,000 migrants landed each year, which was one of the major drivers for establishing the EUTF. Between 2014 and 2017 close to 80% of all irregular arrivals along the Central Mediterranean route were citizens from sub-Saharan Africa. While figures for 2020-2022 show that the share of arrivals from sub-Saharan Africa fell – suggesting that the efforts to reduce migration may have had an impact – the trend has now reversed again. In the first five months of 2023, sub-Saharan Africans make up more than half of all arrivals again.
Instability, displacement and irregular migration: because, despite, or regardless of billions of investments in stability and addressing root causes?

Of course, despite all of the above, we cannot simply conclude the EUTF actually contributed to instability, more displacement and more irregular migration. We cannot even conclude that it failed to have much positive effect, as it not possible to establish causality and we do not have a counterfactual. Perhaps the situation in the Sahel would have been even worse without these massive investments. Surely, the billions of euros the EUTF spend on the Sahel have contributed to successful projects with a positive impact on people’s lives. However, we can conclude that despite these massive investments, the region is more unstable and insecure and faces much more forced displacement than when the EUTF investments started.

As outlined in an earlier Op-Ed in 2020, the ‘root causes’ approach to migration is both dishonest and ineffective. One of the warnings referred to in that Op-Ed came from a 2019 report by the UK Foreign Affairs Committee concluding that the “EU’s migration work in the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa risks exacerbating existing security problems, fuelling human rights abuses, and endorsing authoritarian regimes. Preventing local populations from crossing borders may help cut the numbers arriving in Europe in the short term, but in the long term it risks damaging economies and creating instability—which in itself can trigger displacement”. This warning seems to be more valid then ever when looking at the current situation across the Sahel.

In response to the latest coup in Niger, the EU announced immediate cessation of budget support and indefinite suspension of all cooperation actions in the domain of security. Similarly, France suspended all development aid and budget support with immediate effect. However, Niger has been a prime partner of the EU in fighting the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel and in curbing irregular migration to Europe. Niger’s new military leaders – when looking at the EU’s dealings with third countries to address irregular migration, most recently with Tunisia and Egypt, as well as earlier deals with Morocco and Turkey – are aware of the importance of migration cooperation with third countries for the EU. As such, they may use these issues as leverage in negotiations and to force acceptance of the new regime. It remains to be seen to what extent – and for how long – the EU will be able to maintain its current stance, and resist the pressure to engage with the new regime and resume cooperation, given the political importance that the EU and its member states accord to stemming irregular migration.
Changing course, or not?

The bigger question remains: it is becoming increasingly clear the current approach of addressing so-called root causes and trying to create stability to reduce migration and forced displacement is not really working. Now that we have seen military coups in all three major recipient countries of EUTF funding in the Sahel, will there be a significant change in the EU’s external migration policy approach in Africa and the Sahel going forward? Or will the current approach prevail, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? What is ultimately needed is a more humane, rational, coherent and comprehensive approach to migration governance, which not only takes into account all aspects of migration (including visa policies, returns, labour migration, etc.), but goes beyond migration and migration-related objectives, and takes into account other policy areas, including trade, agriculture, arms and commodities exports, peace building and conflict resolution. When we are discussing the root causes of migration, we need honest debate and actions that include the real and very serious causes of migration and displacement.

▻https://mixedmigration.org/articles/niger-coup-instability-displacement-migration

#coup_d'Etat #migrations #politiques_migratoires #instabilité_politique #externalisation #EU_Emergency_Trust_Fund #Trust_Fund #Mali #Burkina_Faso #causes_profondes #root_causes #EUTF #insécurité #déplacés_internes #sécheresse

ping @_kg_

Bulgaria – Let somebody die is killing. Chronicle of a failure to render aid on the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

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The facts refer to the night of 19-20 July 2023. In order to protect the people involved, we are releasing this report after a few weeks. After this first intervention, as Collettivo Rotte Balcaniche we continue to deal with similar emergencies, acting in first person in the search and rescue of people stranded in the woods along the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

1:00 am. The telephone of our collective rings. “We got a pregnant woman on Route 79”; it’s a person living in Harmanli camp that we met some weeks before, he is a friend of the woman’s husband. He is helped by a translator, who is also living in the camp. He fears to be accused of smuggling, so he asks us if we can call an ambulance. Route 79 is one of the most patrolled by the border police, as most of the people who cross the Turkish border need to pass by here to go to Sofia. With the help of the interpreter we call the woman: she is eight months pregnant and she is alone in the “jungle” with her two children. They were exhausted so they have been left near the street by the group they were walking with, waiting for rescue. She gives us her location: 42.12.31.6N 27.00.20.9E. We explain to her that the ambulance number is the same of police, so she risks to be illegally pushed-back to Turkey. She knows that and she tells us to call anyway.

2:00 am. We call 112 for the first time. We record this call and all the following ones. No questions about the health conditions of the woman and the children, but the call lasts 11 minutes in order to explain how we got in contact with the woman, how she crossed the border, where she is from, who we are, what we are doing in Bulgaria. They suspect a case of trafficking and we are forced to give them the number of the person who put us in contact with her. We feel under interrogation. “In a couple of minutes our units are gonna be there to search for the woman”, it’s 02:06 am. We realize that we didn’t speak with a rescuer but with a policeman.

03:21 am. One hour passed but nothing happened: we call 112 again. We ask if they called the woman and they answer: “we tried contacting but we can’t reach the phone number”. The woman tells us that she has never received any telephone call. We give them again her location: 42.12.37.6N 27.00.21.5E. We add that it is very near to the street but they answer: “not exactly, it’s more like inside of the woods”, “it’s exactly like near the border, and it’s inside of a wood region, it’s a forest, not a street”. In order to dispel any doubts, we ask: “do you confirm that the coordinates are near to route 79?”. They make us wait and they answer: “they are near a main road. Can’t exactly specify if it’s 79″. We say to them that the woman fainted. “Can she dial us? Can she call so we can get a bit more information?”. We don’t understand which other information they need, we are incredulous: “She’s not conscious so I don’t think she’ll be able to make the call”. They suggest that the translator should contact them. We suspect that they want us to be out of the issue. Other 18 minutes passed, the call has been a farce. Before we feared the consequences of the police arrival, now we are afraid that nobody will arrive. We decide to go there, we have to travel 1 hour and 40 minutes.

04:42 am. Third call. They ask us again for all the information, and again we give the geographical coordinates. We tell them that we are going there and we insist: “Are there any news on the research?”. “I can’t tell this”. Through the interpreter we keep constantly in touch with the woman. She confirms that no searching unit has arrived. The farce is becoming a tragedy.

06:18 am. Fourth call. We are at the location but the street is empty. We want to be irreproachable and let them know that we arrived. We repeat again that we are calling for a pregnant woman in bad conditions. The conversation is absurd, they start again with the questions: “which month?”, “which baby is this? First? Second?”, “how old does she look like?”, “how do you know she’s there? she called you or what?”. We tell them that we are about to start to look for her and they answer: “we are looking for her also”. We say: “Well, where are you because there is no one here, we are on the spot and there is no one”. They justify themselves: “you have new information because obviously she is not at the one coordinates you gave”, “the police went three times to the coordinates and they didn’t find the woman, the coordinates are wrong”. Once again we understand that they are lying.

We will make another call at 06:43 am, when we have already found her. They will ask again for the coordinates and they will tell us to wait for them along the street.

Our research lasts a few minutes. The woman sends us the location again: 42.12′.36.3N 2700.43.3E. She is 500 meters far from the previous coordinates but nearer to the street. We shout “hello” and we follow the voices we hear: we find her 2 meters far from the street, on a gentle slope, lying down under a tree with her two children by her side. They come from Syria, the children are 4 and 7 years old. She is too weak to stand up. We have only some water and bread for them. There is also a boy with them, probably he is underage. He found them and he stopped to help them. We warn him that the police will arrive soon. He doesn’t want to be pushed-back to Turkey, so he goes away, alone and without a backpack. We look around: in reality, the so-called “forest” is a little wooded area of some meters, which divides the street from the fields.

Some minutes later a border police patrol passes by and stops. They approach us with the hand on the gun. They have not been warned about the situation: they assail us with thousands of questions without any interest for the woman and the children. They take our telephones and they delete the photos taken at the police arrival. We decide to call a local lawyer that we met some days before: she answers that it’s normal that the rescuers are late in the “jungle” and she suggests us to go away in order to let the police work. Meanwhile, the gendarmerie and the local police arrive. It’s missing the only essential and requested thing: the ambulance, which will never arrive.

07:45 am. The police escort us to the nearest village (Sredets) and assure us that there is a hospital there. They try to divide the woman and the children in two different cars. We ask to bring them all together in our car. In Sredets we are brought to the border police station nevertheless. We see many border policemen dressed in camouflage, armed with machine guns, leaving in groups with military vehicles. We see two Dutch Frontex agents and also a Bulgarian policeman with a fascist T-shirt of Predappio gatherings. We are constrained at the end of a corridor, standing, with only one chair for the woman, surrounded by five policemen. The youngest one shouts at us that we will be detained “because you are making illegal migrants cross the border”. We ask for some water and a toilet for the woman and the children, at the beginning they deny them. We keep waiting, then they tell us that they can’t go to the hospital because they are undocumented and that they are arrested.

09:00 am. Finally the doctor arrives. He speaks only Bulgarian, he visits the woman in the corridor without any privacy, asking her to uncover the belly in front of five policemen. We call once again the lawyer, we want to demand a doctor’s office and an interpreter for the woman. We are not listened.After 5 minutes the doctor finishes the visit, suggesting only to drink a lot of water.

09:35 am. They give us back our id cards and they invite us to go away. It’s the last time that we see the woman and the two children. The police will confiscate her telephone. They are not given the possibility to apply for asylum and they are brought to the pre-removal detention centre in Lyubimets. Before leading us to the exit, a certain inspector Palov asks us to sign three papers, which justify the hours we spent in the police station as a conversation held with him after an official summons. We reject.

On the way back, we drive again on the Route 79, it’s patrolled by a lot of police. We think about all the people who die every night without the possibility to ask for help. We think about the few people who ask for it in vain. On the land borders as on the sea ones, the failure to render aid is a strategy planned by authorities.

The following day we meet the friend of the woman’s husband. He knows that he will not be able to do such things anymore because he will be accused of smuggling and he will lose all the possibilities to build a new life in Europe. Instead, we can and have to go on as independent activists: we have much less to lose. It’s clear to us the urgency to act first-hand and to disobey to who kills letting people die.

After 20 days we manage to meet the woman with the children, who finally have been transferred to the Harmanli camp. They stayed in the pre-removal detention centre in Lyubimets for 19 days. The woman tells us that, during their stay, she had never been brought to the hospital for a visit, in order to check her pregnancy. She has been visited only by the doctor of the centre: a very superficial and hasty check-up, a treatment very similar to the one received in the Sredets police station. She also gives us her approval to share this report.

▻https://www.meltingpot.org/en/2023/08/bulgaria-let-somebody-die-is-killing
#Bulgarie #frontières #migrations #réfugiés #Turquie #Harmanli

Carbon cash machine

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As the world burns, shareholders are getting record cash pay outs from their fossil fuel investments. Cash earnings made by shareholders in the UK’s two largest oil companies BP and Shell are now triple the amount they were when the Paris Agreement was signed in December 2015.

This is the headline finding of our new report written and researched in collaboration with Corporate Watch.

The report uses a unique analysis of financial data to calculate the combined earnings of shareholders derived from dividend pay outs and share buybacks.

We found that shareholders in BP and Shell have earned a total of £131 billion in dividends and share buybacks combined since the Paris Agreement was signed. And this is just the value of cash earnings; the value of their shares has risen significantly in this period.

In the same period, the top 8 shareholders have significantly expanded their holdings in BP and Shell; those 8 companies alone have raked in a total of £28.7bn in cash earnings from both BP and Shell. The report analyses the environmental and social strategies of those top eight shareholders in BP and Shell and raises major questions about the failure of fossil fuel divestment strategies and market solutions to climate change.

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Those shareholders are not likely to be influenced by campaigners demanding divestment since they all use passive investment strategies. Passive investing is the strategy of buying and holding stocks and based on sector and market benchmarks, such as stock market indices such as Dow Jones, S&P 500 or Nasdaq. Passive investment strategies therefore involve fewer judgement calls and are more automated, making them less responsible to non-financial considerations.

Asset management firms deploying passive investment strategies have ensured that the tidal wave of fossil fuel investment has not abated, despite growing demands for divestment. While some investors have decreased their shareholding in Shell and BP since 2016, a large majority have retained or increased their stakes in the two companies.

The report concludes that we will not be able to stem the flow of oil unless we stem the flow of cash to rich investors. The report therefore raises fundamental questions about the limits facing divestment campaigns. While investment and divestment patterns will be explored in more detail in a follow-up report next month, the analysis we present here demonstrates that a move away from fossil fuels at a pace necessary to abate climate change is simply not possible while power is becoming even more concentrated in the hands of asset managers.

▻https://ccccjustice.org/2023/08/08/carbon-cash-machine

Pour télécharger le #rapport :
▻https://ccccjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Carbon-Cash-Machine.pdf

#énergies_fossiles #investissement #pétrole #combustibles_fossiles #énergie_fossile #BP #Shell #profits #dividendes #business

Atlas der Abwesenheit
Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland

Une somme énorme de savoir sur les pillages allemands, les cruelles expéditions punitives et les « butins », etc...

Le livre en format livre est enfin arrivé en Norvège, 520 pages en format 25 x 25. C’est en Allemand, et je sais qu’il y a des germanophones ici qui seront peut-être intéressés, j’en ai deux copies en plus que j’offre très volontiers à celles et ceux qui le demanderont ! (les premièr·es arrivés seront les premiers servis) !

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#Texas prepares to deploy #Rio_Grande buoys in governor’s latest effort to curb border crossings

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Texas began rolling out what is set to become a new floating barrier on the Rio Grande on Friday in the latest escalation of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico, which already has included bussing migrants to liberal states and authorizing the National Guard to make arrests.

But even before the huge, orange buoys were unloaded from the trailers that hauled them to the border city of Eagle Pass, there were concerns over this part of Abbott’s unprecedented challenge to the federal government’s authority over immigration enforcement. Migrant advocates voiced concerns about drowning risks and environmentalists questioned the impact on the river.

Dozens of the large spherical buoys were stacked on the beds of four tractor trailers in a grassy city park near the river on Friday morning.

Setting up the barriers could take up to two weeks, according to Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is overseeing the project.

Once installed, the above-river parts of the system and the webbing they’re connected with will cover 1,000 feet (305 meter) of the middle of the Rio Grande, with anchors in the riverbed.

Eagle Pass is part of a Border Patrol sector that has seen the second highest number of migrant crossings this fiscal year with about 270,000 encounters — though that is lower than it was at this time last year.

The crossing dynamics shifted in May after the Biden administration stopped implementing Title 42, a pandemic era public health policy that turned many asylum seekers back to Mexico. New rules allowed people to seek asylum through a government application and set up appointments at the ports of entry, though the maximum allowed in per day is set at 1,450. The Texas governor’s policies target the many who are frustrated with the cap and cross illegally through the river.

Earlier iterations of Abbott’s border mission have included installing miles of razor wire at popular crossing points on the river and creating state checkpoints beyond federal stops to inspect incoming commercial traffic.

“We always look to employ whatever strategies will be effective in securing the border,” Abbott said in a June 8 press conference to introduce the buoy strategy.

But the state hasn’t said what tests or studies have been done to determine risks posed to people who try to get around the barrier or environmental impacts.

Immigrant advocates, including Sister Isabel Turcios, a nun who oversees a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, Mexico, which sits just across the river from Eagle Pass, have remained vigilant about the effects of the new barrier on migration. Turcios said she met with the Texas Department of Public Safety in the days leading up to the arrival of the buoys and was told the floating barrier would be placed in deep waters to function as a warning to migrants to avoid the area.

Turcios said she is aware that many of the nearly 200 migrants staying in her shelter on any given day are not deterred from crossing illegally despite sharp concertina wire. But that wire causes more danger because it forces migrants to spend additional time in the river.

“That’s more and more dangerous each time ... because it has perches, it has whirlpools and because of the organized crime,” Turcios said.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw addressed the danger that migrants may face when the buoys are deployed during the June press conference when Abbott spoke: “Anytime they get in that water, it’s a risk to the migrants. This is the deterrent from even coming in the water.”

Less than a week ago — around the Fourth of July holiday — four people, including an infant, drowned near Eagle Pass as they attempted to cross the river.

The federal International Boundary and Water Commission, whose jurisdiction includes boundary demarcation and overseeing U.S.-Mexico treaties, said it didn’t get a heads up from Texas about the proposed floating barrier.

“We are studying what Texas is publicly proposing to determine whether and how this impacts our mission to carry out treaties between the US and Mexico regarding border delineation, flood control, and water distribution, which includes the Rio Grande,” Frank Fisher, a spokesperson for the commission, said in a statement.

On Friday morning, environmental advocates from Eagle Pass and Laredo, another Texas border city about 115 miles (185 kilometers) downriver, held a demonstration by the border that included a prayer for the river ahead of the barrier deployment.

Jessie Fuentes, who owns a canoe and kayaking business that takes paddlers onto the Rio Grande, said he’s worried about unforeseen consequences. On Friday, he filed a lawsuit to stop Texas from using the buoys. He’s seeking a permanent injunction, saying his paddling business is impacted by limited access to the river.

“I know it’s a detriment to the river flow, to the ecology of the river, to the fauna and flora. Every aspect of nature is being affected when you put something that doesn’t belong in the river,” Fuentes said.

Adriana Martinez, a professor at Southern Illinois University who grew up in Eagle Pass, studies the shapes of rivers and how they move sediment and create landforms. She said she’s worried about what the webbing might do.

“A lot of things float down the river, even when it’s not flooding; things that you can’t see like large branches, large rocks,” Martinez said. “And so anything like that could get caught up in these buoys and change the way that water is flowing around them.”

▻https://apnews.com/article/buoys-texas-immigration-rio-grande-mexico-522e45febd880de1453460370043a25f

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▻https://twitter.com/clemrenard_/status/1679018421449637888

#mur_flottant #frontières #migrations #asile #réfugiés #USA #Etats-Unis #barrières_frontalières #barrière_flottante

En #Grèce...
Grèce. Le « #mur_flottant » visant à arrêter les personnes réfugiées mettra des vies en danger
▻https://seenthis.net/messages/823621

#Boycott #JO2024 #JO #paris2024 #paris2024olympicgames #capitalisme #fric #bussiness #profits #propagande...

★ #Anarchisme #Anticapitalisme #FédérationAnarchiste

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Memento Park de Budapest : sous l’œil des vestiges du socialisme -

REGARD SUR L’EST

▻https://regard-est.com/memento-park-de-budapest-sous-loeil-des-vestiges-du-socialisme

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Memento Park de Budapest : sous l’œil des vestiges du socialisme
Assen Slim*Publié le17/07/2023Culture, Politique

À Budapest, le Memento Park, ou Parc des statues (Szobor park), lieu de mémoire emblématique de la Hongrie contemporaine, permet une plongée dans l’atmosphère troublante dégagée par ces vestiges du socialisme qui invitent à la réflexion historique.

#soviétisme #hongrie #mémoire