From Pakistan to Greece – the story of an Afghan refugee part 2

It was the 19th of January, my birthday. It was freezing. We were six persons in a small boat. The ocean water looked very dangerous. At one point, he youngest of us, a 14-year old boy, wanted to change his place in the boat. He slipped and fell down into the water. He couldn’t swim. Somehow we brought him back to the boat. After that happened, I was scared to death. One of my friend said ‘If I arrive in Greece I will kill one cow. The other one said: ‘If I arrive, I kill two cows’. But none of them killed any of the cows so far.

Azadi is laughing and with him the deep wrinkles that highlight his eyes like a corona the sun. Like many other refugees who get stranded on the Greek island Lesvos, Azadi escaped the war in Afghanistan. When he arrived, he was 19. That was one year ago. Because of the ethnic diversity in Afghanistan and his long journey to the fortress Europe, Azadi speaks many languages: Pashtu, Urdu, Farsi, Hindi, Greek, Turkish and English. I asked him about his long journey from Afghanistan to Greece. Because he escaped Afganistan with his mother and little brother several years ago to keep on living in Pakistan, this is where the story, that he is willing to share, starts.

If you cross the border from Pakistan to Iran, it means you risk your life. If the border patrol sees you, they have the permission to shoot you immediately. When the mafia took us in a truck from Pakistan to Teheran, the capital of Iran, we were 60 people in one truck. Sometimes they put 80 people inside. It took 24 hours. There was no food, no water. Nothing. You had to sit the whole time. You can’t stand. You are not allowed to ask for anything. No moving. No toilet. There were kids and women. A two year old child died in the truck. If the police would have caught us, they deport us back to Afghanistan. When we arrived near Teheran, the mafia dropped us. From there we had to walk to the border. The mafia said: ‘Be quick, run!’ First I couldn’t walk because I had to sit the whole time. I tried to, but I fell down. I was walking with other refugees for 40 hours. Some people walk one week. We had a small bottle of water for six people.
In Van, next to the Border, they put us in another truck. This time we were 70 to 80 people. Most of the people die here, on the way from Van, at the Turkish-Iranian border, to Istanbul, because it’s a very hard way. It takes more than 30 hours to arrive in Istanbul. In the big city the mafia releases you, if you can pay. I paid. But there were people who had not enough money. All the time, the mafia asks for money. During the traffic they say, the police is waiting outside, we have to pay them. And you have to because you are in the middle of nowhere, there is no place to go, no water, no food. And also on the borders you have to pay. To come from Pakistan to Greece, it cost me around 5000 US Dollar. But they are not only rich people who flee the country. In general, if people have too many problems, poor or rich, they start selling their lives. They sell whatever they can, they collect money from their families.
The refugees who did not have enough money in Istanbul were beaten up by the mafia who gave a telephone to call their families and to ask if they can send money over. They keep you as long as you can’t pay.

There is almost no tone in his voice left. It sounds as if he would get not enough oxygen. He looks to the ground. He says nothing. Sometimes for minutes. The struggle he fights is visible on his face. It is as if something would pull him back telling me all this. Then unexpectedly, he gathers some strength, continues telling about the last part of his journey. The part they travelled all by themselves. Almost.

From Turkish mainland to Lesvos it took us five hours. At the western coast of Turkey the mafia told us ‘you have to go to the lights that you can see on the other side over there, this is Greece’. When we left with our boat, the Turkish navy saw us on the ocean. One of them called us, he asked: ‘Hey brother where do you go?’ We said ‘We go to Greece!’ and then ‘See you, bye bye’. They just let us go. The next police we saw was not Frontex. It was the Greek navy. They came and said: ‘Hey you, stupid,’ and they used other bad words, ‘where do you go?’ We said: ‘We need help, we want to go to Greece’. And then they said: ‘Go and die, we can not help you, go back to Turkey’. We said: ‘Okay’, and we turned the boat. So we went back and tried it again. The Greek navy came again and said: ‘Why are you here we told you to go back to Turkey’. ‘Yes’, we said, ‘but we want to go to Greece’. This time they took us, called the Pagani detention centre to ask if they have space for six afghan men. Then they took us to the hospital to x-ray and at two o’clock in the night they dropped us in Pagani. We knew about Pagani before. But we thought it’s a refugee camp with the facilities for refugees. We didn’t know it’s a prison. Pagani has to be closed because it is not a welcome centre. It’s a prison. There are no facilities for refugees. Even people who are here legally can’t do nothing.

Released migrants at Pagani waiting for the bus that brings them to the so called freedom

The prison gate opens and one by one runs for the bus. note the amount of luggage.

The big joy - celebrating of released migrants in the bus

Azadi was kept three weeks in the prison Pagani before he was released to an open camp for minors on the same island. The open camp is a former hospital for mental diseases in the middle of a forest, one hour by bus from Mytilini and one more hour by foot. In contrast to Pagani, the open camp in Aiassos is a paradise. An isolated paradise. The hundred young men who live here are free to leave the house whenever they want. They are on an island anyways. They can’t go nowhere. There are courses in Greek and sometimes in German, depending the volunteer’s countries of origin. Several volunteers, a Greek lawyer, two afghan cooks and a security officer are working there. Interpreters are lacking. There is a computer room. But most of the time the internet is not working. There is also a sports room. But right now it is stuffed with forty bunk beds that were ordered for new refugees who arrived recently in Lesvos. In very rare cases the refugees can work in Aiassos or nearby. Usually during the olive harvest. Most of them hang around in the house or the huge garden. They wait. For something. Azadi stayed one year in the open camp.

You get information about what you can do after prison from your friends. In Azadi you have a lot of free time, you talk. When I got the informations, I realized that this country is really bad for refugees. It is not a safe place for us. No place where you can think about a future. I have a friend from Afghanistan with very good education. He came to Greece to go to university. He got political asylum. But there is no way. He can’t pay his accommodation here. There is nobody who helps him, who shows him around even. They don’t care for you. You have to do everything by yourself. Even the organisations for refugees do not care really. They maybe tell you: Look you have to make it like this or like that but they don’t care in the end. Nobody here provides nothing for refugees. Even migrants who have the possibility to work, like him, who have political asylum, can’t find work. In the end even if you get the citizenship here, they can send you back.

Azadi has not been deported back. Maybe it was because he is able to communicate in many languages. Maybe because he is one of the few who got the political asylum. Maybe because he was lucky in unlucky times. He knows that being lucky is a condition that can vanish like a little boat in the big ocean sometimes does. Some of his friends have been hindered on their way. He knows their stories like his own.

In Greece when they try to deport you back to your country, the Greek police sends you to Alexandroupolis usually, close to the Turkish border. Then the Greek border patrol opens some fire in the night. At this time nobody notices that we are going to be sent back. They are scared of the media, of the Turkish army. With the fire the Turkish border patrol understands something happened. So they come and take us and sent us back with the plane to Afghanistan. But you have to pay your ticket. If you can’t pay, you have to go to a Turkish prison. I know people who had to stay in prison because of that for two years. Because they couldn’t pay their own deportation-ticket.

One year in Lesvos. Has he really been here the whole time? What happened during this one year? Did he try to go on, to reach another European country?

I decided to go to Athens and from there with the plane to Italy. I had faked papers. The police caught me on the airport and I had stay in prison for six days. But believe me, there is no other way than fake papers. You have to risk, even though we know that the police catches us many times and it is possible that they send us back to our country, there is no other chance. Now Greece has a new law that if you get caught at the airport with fake papers, you will stay for three months in prison. But there are certain days were it is easier for migrants to cross borders. Usually the tourist season is good or christmas.

Von Lesvos zum „unknown Land“

Folgender (leicht gekürzter) Text ist das Produkt von AktıvistInnen des No Border Camps in Lesvos 2009 und wurde MirantInnen gewidmet, die wir im Laufe des einwöchigen Camps auf ihrer Weiterreise nach Athen verabschiedet haben. Und allen anderen, die Ihnen folgen werden.

Schon lange ist Europa im allgemeinen und die EU im besonderen kein sicherer Hafen mehr. Gern wird in den nationalen Diskursen, die Europas Migrationspolitiken dominieren, behauptet, das Boot ist voll. Lange haben wir mitgestritten, ob und wie voll es ist. Inzwischen stellen wir fest, sie haben recht, das Boot ist voll und es ist reif zum Abwracken. Es ist allerhöchste Zeit für ein neues und größeres Boot. Die Zitate in dieser Rede stammen aus Interviews mit Tarek und Jean-Marie aus Marokko.

I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat

„Das Recht auf Hoffnung. Die Grenzen erscheinen vielen daher wie die Pforte zum Paradies. Davor ist ein Feuergraben, den du überwinden musst, Europa ist das Schloss mit dem Meer als Schlossgraben davor. Der erste Kontakt mit denen, die es geschafft haben, ist immer gleich: Sie sagen uns, es sei das Paradies. Wir alle wollen das Paradies sehen. Wir bestehen auf dem Recht des Sehen-dürfens, auf dem Recht auf eine Chance.“ (Tarek)

Wir gehören zu den ersten Generationen, die das Verschwinden der Schlagbäume erlebt haben. Die ersten Generationen, für die es Alltag wurde – aber alles andere als normal oder selbstverständlich – in multinationalen, postkolonialen, ghettoisierten, diskriminierten, mehrsprachigen Milieus aufzuwachsen. Wir haben erlebt, dass das Begehren nach Bewegungsfreiheit eiserne Vorhänge zerreißen kann. Wir sind groß geworden mit Globalisierung, mit Internet und Computer, mit Handy, mit Interrail, mit Heimfahrten über den Autoput und Mitmenschlichkeit über Grenzen hinweg. Wir sind erwachsen geworden mit den Balkankriegen, mit den Kriegen in Somalia, Ruanda und im Sudan, und den Afghanistan- und den Irakkriegen und denen, die wir aus unserem Alltag verdrängen. Wir stoßen an die neuen Grenzen, die unsere Städte und Länder durchziehen. Die Allgegenwart des Terrors als Rechtfertigung für Kontrolle, Entrechtung, Internierung und Intervention ist das Mantra unserer Zeit. Unser Leben ist die Veränderung und die Transformation: Das Absterben der alten sozialen Ordnung, das Aufkommen der Prekarität und das große Fragezeichen namens Zukunft.

„Wir sind alle Opfer der Lügen und der Versprechungen aus dem Fernsehen. Wir glauben an diese Erfolgsgeschichten. Wenn tausend Personen auswandern und es nicht schaffen, aber eine schafft es – dann gucken wir nicht auf die tausend, wir gucken auf den einen. Es wird nicht gefragt, was er da drüben macht, ob er den Müll weg räumt oder Drogen verkauft. Man sieht, was er hat, wenn er wiederkommt: ein Auto, Markenklamotten, ein richtiges Leben. Die Menschenschmuggler profitieren davon, sie versprechen dir, was du hören willst. Wir nennen sie Traum-Verkäufer.” (Tarek)

Tarifa, eine Kleinstadt, die nur Fans des Kite-surfens und des Thun ein Begriff war. Ceuta und Melilla, Fußnoten der spanischen Kolonialgeschichte. Die Kanaren, das grosse europäische Sonnenstudio. Lampedusa, eine Unbekannte. Lesvos, eine kleine Tourismusinsel, ein beispielhafter Schauplatz europäischer Bevölkerungspolitiken. Heute ist jeder dieser Orte ein Newsbreaker in den europäischen Nachrichten. Die Hotspots der Europa zugewandten Migration. Stätten des Bodycounts der Toten der Überfahrt. Stätten der Internierung und Stätten des Transit. Kleine Städte mit 10- oder 20.000 EinwohnerInnen, die mit Lagern und Grenzpolizei militarisiert sind. Kleine Städte, wohin die sozialen Probleme und gesellschaftliche Folgen einer europäischen Migrationspolitik abgeschoben werden. Orte, viel zu klein, um mit den Lasten zurecht zu kommen, die dort abgeladen werden.Die Externalisierung der Lager, das Abschieben, das findet hier seine Fortsetzung. An den grünen Tischen der europäischen Metropolen werden Dublin II – Abkommen beschlossen, die diese Barbarei legalisieren. Hier auf Lesvos ist das Lager Pagani der Ort, der das Elend dieser Abkommen verkörpert.

Pagani – schließt Pagani. Ohne Wenn und Aber. Die Schiffe und Hubschrauber der Frontex – abrüsten. Ohne Wenn und Aber. Die Freilassungspapiere – ausstellen. Lasst die Kinder und Frauen und Männer frei. Ohne Wenn und Aber.

„Unser ganzer Kontinent ist auf der Suche nach Hoffnung. Die Hoffnung, durch Migration der Misere zu entkommen, das ist die Luft die wir atmen, eine Musik, die immer da ist, eine ganze Kultur. Die Idee der Migration wurde in uns geboren, als wir noch jung waren. Kinder träumen, überall auf der Welt. Wenn man hier ein Kind fragt, was möchtest du werden, Arzt, Professor oder Pilot – dann antwortet es: Ich werde Migrant. Jemand, der ins Ausland gegangen ist, ist mehr wert als alle anderen.“ (Tarek)

Viele von uns sehen die begehrlichen Blicke auf die roten Pässe. Wir kennen diese Scham, Schengens Segen für uns und Schengens Fluch für die anderen. Glaubt ihr, wir werden nicht zornig auf diese Zustände und richten uns ein als Profiteure dieser Ordnung? Und ihr, ja ihr, glaubt ihr, wir sehen nicht wie eure perfiden Grenzsysteme die Schlepperbanden überhaupt
erst nötig gemacht haben? Glaubt ihr ernsthaft, die im wahren Sinn des Wortes kommenden BürgerInnen Europas nutzen ihre Hände nicht zum Arbeiten, ihren Verstand nicht zum Denken, ihre Menge nicht um sich zu versammeln, nur weil ihr
Migration illegalisiert. Jeder weiß, das unsere europäische Verfassung überhaupt nur auf Basis dieser Arbeit, dieser Ausbeutung und dieser Mobilität funktioniert.
Ihr stopft Lager mit 1000en von MigrantInnen voll. Ihr versenkt ihre Boote auf See. Ihr tretet eins der ältesten Rechte mit Füßen – Schiffbrüchigen zu helfen. Ihr produziert eine einzige Katastrophe. Glaubt ihr tatsächlich, damit kommt ihr durch, das geht immer so weiter und Rom ist ewig? Habt ihr das tatsächlich geglaubt? Unglaublich. Ihr habt euch geirrt. Wir haben es satt.

„the cat hunts the mouse and the mouse is always faster. And so are we, always. Migration existed since ever, since the beginning of human existence and why should that end now? In africa nothing is changing actually. So our families sent us on the journey, which changed us so much that we are not able to go back. I came here by accident. And it is the best journey ever. The track has been the best experience of my life.“ (Jean-Marie)

Was wir wollen ist einfach. Es ist das Recht nach einer Reise in Ruhe seinen Koffer auszupacken und anzukommen. Danke für eure Aufmerksamkeit und Anteilnahme.

BürgerInnen Europas 2009: Frank John (kommunistischer Buchhalter und Freelancer, Hamburg), Efthimia Panagiotidis (Soziologin, Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben, Uni- Hamburg), Arndt Neumann ( Historiker, Hamburg), Irene Hatzidimou (Organizerin ver.di, Hamburg/Hannover), Gerda Heck (Forschungsstelle für interkulturelle Studien, Uni Köln), Lena Oswald (Politologin, Hamburg), Meike Bergmann (Geschäftsführerin dock europe GmbH), Vassilis Tsianos (Soziologe, Lehrbeauftragter Uni Hamburg), Miriam Edding (Vorstand Stiftung DO Hamburg), Jan-Ole Arps (Politologe, Berlin), Ole Bonnemeier (Arzt, Hamburg), Andreas Georgiadis (KFZ-Meister, Selbständiger), Christoph Breitsprecher (Linguist, wiss. Mitarbeiter Uni Hamburg), Anja Kanngieser (Researcher Melbourne/Hamburg), Aida Ibrahim ( Studentin Uni Hamburg)I

First Mesopotamian Social Forum coming up

From the 25th to the 30th of September, the first Mesopotamian social forum takes place in Amed/Diyabakir (Eastern Anatolia/ Turkish Kurdistan). Grass root activist from the Kurdish movement, Turkey, Europe and everybody who is interested is invited to meet, live and work together for a week. Discussions, workshops and cultural activities are planned. Topics of interest will be the Kurdish movement, the Middle East, women, ecology, youth, migration and economy. There are camping facilities on a park ground in the city. Accomodation in families and hotels can be provided.

More information for subscription and in general about the camp@ http://international-amed-camp.org/

no border protest in mytilini

Slowly the no border activists are leaving Lesvos. Officially the camp is ending today.The detention centre Pagani is not closed yet. However many refugees have been released in the last days or transfered to another new open camp next to the Mytilini airport where they can move freely. (Addition by the author: this open camp has been closed down by local authorities around one week later.)

No-border activists in the port of Mytellini (Photo: A. Steinke)

Protest against the practices of the European border Patrol FRONTEX (photo: A. Steinke)

http://www.youtube.com/user/noborderlesvos#play/uploads/0/vVNCKE_DgXI

No freedom of movement- The refugee prison of Pagani in Greece

The borders are invisible for them. If they cross them, they are hidden under trucks, inside the cargo platform, squeezed in little boats or walking over mountain passes. They risk their lifes to live because they can’t in their own countries. They escape from war, torture and starvation. They who are called les “sans-papiers” (the ones without papers) who have not been detected by the european bureaucracy cross borders without legal papers that they might never get, their families pay thousands of Dollars to brokers who organise vehicles and contacts for them. In the trucks they put plastic bags over their heads in order not to get spotted by the control stick that the border patrol puts into the truck to check the oxygen. In the boats they share the little space with dozens of other refugees. Many of them die on their way. Alone in the Aegean Sea 1.100 refugees died in the last 20 years. Others who get caught by the european border patrol like FRONTEX on their long journey to Europe are usually deported back immidiately to their countries of origin where the the journey begins again. The ones who make it to the desired fortress of Europe are stranded in places such as the island Lesbos in the Aegean Sea of Greece. Two kilometres from Mitilini, the island capital female, male and minor refugees are brought to Pagani, the so called “welcome camp”, a detention centre where they are arrested untill they get the “white paper” and are registred in the EURODAC system. Only with this paper, that announces their deportation back to their countries of origin not later than in a month, they are able to leave the island with a ferry that brings them to Athens. There some of the refugees apply for asylum that is given by the greek state in 0,6 percent of all cases. By becoming entangled in bureaucratic processes, two refugees died in the last month in the Alien Department. Although officially the refugees are supposed to get imprisoned one week before the “white paper” is handed out to them, some of them stay several month.

Physical boundaries (photo: A. Steinke)

When we arrived in Pagani with around hundred other participants of the no border camp in Lesbos, dozens of minor refugees press themselves against grids of the prison window. They scream for freedom, hold up transparents, wave their hands.

The borders of (neo-)liberalism (Photo: A. Steinke)

Against the criminalisation of migration (photo: A. Steinke)

The room at the first floor is inhabited by young boys from Afghanistan, Somalia and Palestine, all under 18. The minors are supposed to be in the open camp of Aiassos. But there is no space left there. Some of the minors talk English. We talk to them, look into their room. 160 people are living here. It smells like rotten matrasses, fear and bodies who haven’t been washed with soap for a long while. The bunk beds have five to six stories and dirty sheets. The ones who are sick lying in them like dead bodies. It is very noisy and loud. One of the young boys says his whole family is here, the women are in the third story of the building. There is not enough space for everybody. Some are sleeping on the toilet. They ask us for medicine against headache and throat pain, for clean water, for soap for medics and they scream again and again: Freedom, freedom! They are not allowed to go out of the building. If there is somebody behaving not to the rule, the whole imprisoned community is punished, is not allowed to breathe fresh air in the patio. A former refugee tells us that sometimes they can’t leave their prison for days and if they can they are forced to return to the building after five minutes.

See the video that has been recorded inside a room of Pagani @: www.noborderlesvos09.gr/de/node/283

We climb up their windows, talk to kids who look like adults, about their needs, destinies and families. We record and take pictures. we drum against the gate which unexpectedly all of a sudden opens. Then the police comes, forces us down the road to leave Pagani.

Two days later we are back with the whole no border camp. Around 300-400 people come to show their solidarity with the refugees. The demonstration is blocked by riot cops who have been brought over from Athens. After around 1,5 hours a delegation group of activists, layers, doctors and photographers is left through the police blockade to see Pagani from inside, to examine ill refugees, to negotiate with the Pagani authorities for releasing the refugees, claim our demands. In the meanwhile we are outside as loud as we can be, hitting stomes against the crash barrier, speak up, fight against borders…

On the road to Pagani

Camouflaged state control on greek soil

The delegation group managed to negotiote the release of three sick people who have been brought to the hospital and documented the interiour of the detention camp. Here you see the toilets.

There were further negotiations about the release of women with small children. However, the authorities refused to free their husbands and fathers also, the women refused to be released without them and remained in Pagani.

The demonstration moved down to Mytilini as the largest demonstration seen in Mytilini for a long time, claiming and shouting again for the closure of Pagani and freedom of movement worldwide. Posters have been put up all over the streets and a visual mark was left in the city in order to break the invisibility of Pagani and to bring the issue to the centre of the city.

General information about Pagani and the no border-camp @: http://www.noborderlesvos09.gr/eng

Grenzen

Bild: taz

Auf dem Bid ist die Grenze bei Rafah zu sehen, die den Gaza-Streifen von Ägypten trennt. Im Januar 2008 war sie plötzlich offen. Den Palästinensern war es gelungen eine Bresche in die Mauer zu schlagen, woraufhin Hunderttausende flohen oder sich mit Nahrung und Kleidung eindeckten während sich die Extremisten mit neuen Waffen versorgten. Mittlerweile ist die Mauer wieder dicht und der Gaza-Streifen wird durch geheime, unterirdische Tunnel versorgt.

Mehr Fotos von der Materie der Trennung und Exklusion @ “http://www.taz.de/index.php?id=bildergalerie&tx_gooffotoboek_pi1%5Bfid%5D=1&tx_gooffotoboek_pi1%5Bsrcdir%5D=Kampf-den-Mauern&tx_gooffotoboek_pi1%5Bfunc%5D=combine&no_cache=1>>”www.taz.de/index.php?id=bildergalerie&tx_gooffotoboek_pi1%5Bfid%5D=1&tx_gooffotoboek_pi1%5Bsrcdir%5D=Kampf-den-Mauern&tx_gooffotoboek_pi1%5Bfunc%5D=combine&no_cache=1

short information for refugees arriving at Lesvos – a contribution by NO border camp activists

Painter: Victor Gonzáles López 2007

You are in Mytilene on the island of Lesvos in Greece, EU.
For the next steps there are three possible ways:

Way 1: Continue the journey
You might be arrested or you register at the police station on your own. From this point, you become a “Greek case”, all other European countries will deport you to Greece if they catch you. You come to Pagani detention center. There your fingerprints will be taken. Those are stored in a computer and go to most European police stations. If you manage to arrive in another European country, they might deport you to Greece according to Dublin-II-regulations. Your detention could take up to 3 months. When you are released, you get the deportation decision, which says that you have to leave Greece within 30 days. With this you are allowed to travel in Greece, e.g. to Athens, but not Patras and Igoumenitsa and you can’t legally travel to another EU-country. This is not a travel document!

Way 2: Apply for Asylum in Greece
You actually have no chance to obtain political asylum in Greece. But, having submitted the application, you can win some more time to stay legally in Greece. Normally, you have to submit the application at the aliens police in Athens or Thessaloniki. But in a few cases, also other police departments (like Mytilene`s) accept such applications. The decision will be issued in Athens and Thessaloniki respectively.
You might be detained until the decision on your application is judged. Your fingerprints are being taken as well, see above.
If you submitted such application in Greece, you normally cannot do it again in another EU-country because you will be sent back to Greece.

Way 3: Stay illegal
If you have not been registered already, you can try to buy a ticket for the ferry to Athens or Thessaloniki (Samiotis or Zoumboulis, both on Kounturioti str. in Mytilene). To get on the ferry, it is useful to behave western-like, that means to wear jeans and T-Shirt, a travel bag or a backpack, have a fresh hair cut and so on.
From Athens or Thessaloniki, travel on to another country and do way 1 or 2 there without saying that you have been to Greece. At the moment, chances to stay are good in Norway, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, but this can change anytime.
In any case, try to get more information and help from these organizations in Athens:

Net of Immigration and Refugees
Tsamadou 13, Tel: 210-3813928

Lawyers Association of Athens, Akadimias 60, Athens

UNHCR, Taigetou 23, 210-6726462-3

Greek Council for Refugees, Solomou 25, Tel: 210-3814710

Ecumenical Refugee Program Iridanou 4a, Tel: 210-7295926

Embodying Masculinity and Ethnicity in Macedonia

by vaporiss on deviantART

What is masculinity? What are its indicators and who defines them? What role play
women in the establishing and reproduction of the notion of the masculine gender? How does ethnicity, nationality and class influence gender?

These questions are discussed in the following essay (4 pages) that you can download as a pdf file @: Embodying Masculinity and Ethnicity in Macedonia

New US border control strategy: webcams and volunteers

The USA border control encourages civilians to track immigrants via webcams who try to cross the boarder from Mexico to the USA. Since last November the Texas Border’s Coalition installed a network of 15 webcams that is constantly sending live pictures into the world wide web. @ texasborderwatch.com the public is called to report suspicious behaviour to the police. On the webpage the border patrol gives hints such as: “Look for individuals on foot carrying backpacks”. Or: “During the day if you see four or five young men in a boat report this activity. At night if you see vehicle, boat and or people movement report this activity.” Or: “If you see vehicles parked along side of road for an extended period of time and or if you see people moving late night please report this activity.” Everybody who is bored enough can help the police hunting drugdealers and immigrants without papers. According to Don Reay, head of the Texas border’s coalition, more than 100.000 people applied for a voluntarily border surveillance. Even people in Australian and Europe would observe the live videos. It seems boredom is a global disease. The project which is supposed to be extended up to 200 cameras costs two million US Dollars.

An article about the new border strategy in german can be find @ tagesanzeiger.ch