Society's Child

Europe's disgrace: Closer look at 'Europe's worst' refugee camp

Sputnik
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 22:36 UTC

While many pages have been filled with stories from the so-called Jungle refugee camp in Calais, another refugee camp - Dunkirk - around 50 kilometers away from Calais, hasn't been talked about very much.

Germany's Deutsche Welle (DW) reported about the horrible living conditions at the Dunkirk refugee camp, home to predominantly Kurdish refugees from Syria.

The refugee camp has quickly grown from 700 inhabitants in October of 2015, to more than 3,000 now.

"This place is for animals, not for humans. France is not good for us," one of the refugees, Omed Mohamed, told DW, while standing ankle-deep in the mixture of mud and human waste.

Comment: Not even fit for animals.

© Reuters/ Benoit Tessier
A migrant is reflected in a puddle as he walks past shelters in a muddy field called the Grande-Synthe jungle, near Dunkirk, northern France

Dunkirk is arguably Europe's worst refugee camp and has conditions "unseen anywhere else along the migration trail," said Angel Muller, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Grande-Synthe, according to DW.

The camp has only two water faucets and one toilet per 115 people. Rats are said to be crawling around the tents in search of scraps of food. Needless to say, the smell around the camp can be intolerable to many, but refugees in Dunkirk have no choice.

Muller said that refugee camps in South Sudan with 80,000 people are better coordinated than the Dunkirk camp, which has 3,000 people in a rich country like France.

"It's really a shame for me [as a French citizen]," Muller told DW.

The U.S. has become an automaton factory

Melissa Dykes
Activist Post
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 22:13 UTC

I found it incredibly hard to write about anything this week. For the first time in a long time, I found I really didn't have that much to say.

Society is going the way of all those dystopic films. Willingly. Not the ones about the police state or the panopticon; the omnipresent surveillance state is already here, has been for a while now. The death of privacy. The tyranny of total transparency for everyone else, national security for the State. A place where information is constantly being extorted from us. A place where police look up your color-coded threat score based on your social media posts before they ever lay eyes on you during a traffic stop or 911 call. A place where they know it is you based on four credit card purchases. A place where computers can decode your thoughts and translate them into sentences without you saying a single word. A place where we spy on ourselves and spy on each other while the system spies on everyone, every minute, every hour, every day, day after day after day.

No, you may have seen some of the films I mean. Not the zombie apocalypse programming. Not the 2012 apocalypse programming. I'm talking about the ones where people have been stripped of their emotions and individuality to bring order out of the chaos of nonconformity, to do away with the danger of outliers. The ones where people have been sold a mockery of "peace" built on uniformity. Where sameness saves and individuality is certain doom.

Woody Guthrie hated 'Old Man Trump': A real estate empire's racist foundations

Will Kaufman
The Conversation
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 21:59 UTC

In December 1950, Woody Guthrie signed his name to the lease of a new apartment in Brooklyn. Even now, over half a century later, that uninspiring document prompts a double-take.

Below all the legal jargon is the signature of the man who had composed "This Land Is Your Land," the most resounding appeal to an equal share for all in America. Below that is the signature of Donald Trump's father, Fred. No pairing could appear more unlikely.

Emails reveal dismissive attitude of state officials in Flint water crisis

Joshua Krause
The Daily Sheeple
Sat, 23 Jan 2016 18:16 UTC

It's been nearly two years since the residents of Flint, Michigan were first exposed to highly polluted tap water. The financially insecure city switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, which saved the city millions of dollars. However, residents of Flint immediately started complaining about the color and foul taste of the water, but those complaints fell on deaf ears and assurances that the water was safe.

In reality the water was loaded with high levels of lead, likely caused by corrosion of old lead pipes. Once the truth was impossible to ignore, Governor Rick Snyder was quick to apologize and asked FEMA to distribute clean water to Flint. In an effort to provide transparency,the governor released 295 pages of emails related to the crisis, (some of them redacted) which don't paint a pretty for the state government.

Comment: Michigan state officials lied about lead in Flint's water - knowingly poisoning countless children

Flint residents told that their children could be taken away if they don't pay for city's poison water

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 17:50 UTC

Not only is the Michigan government poisoning residents, but now they are threatening to take their children for not paying for it.

As the water crisis in Flint deepens, it is becoming apparent that the effects of the lead-infested water are not just a health hazard, but the situation has the potential of ruining many more lives outside of the poison issue. There is no denying that the water in Flint is undrinkable and that it is contaminated with lead and other substances, and it is clear that the government of Flint is responsible for the problem.

However, the city's government continues to charge people for the poison water and then threatening to foreclose their home or take their children if they refuse to pay. Michigan law states that parents are neglectful if they do not have running water in their home, and if they chose not to pay for water they can't drink anyway, then they could be guilty of child endangerment. Activists in Flint say that some residents have already received similar threats from the government if they refuse to pay their bills.

Flint residents have recently filed two class action lawsuits calling for all water bills since April of 2014 to be considered null and void because of the fact that the water was poisonous.

"We are seeking for the court to declare that all the bills that have been issued for usage of water invalid because the water has not been fit for its intended purpose," said Trachelle Young, one of the attorneys bringing the lawsuit said in court.

"Essentially, the residents have been getting billed for water that they cannot use. Because of that, we do not feel that is a fair way to treat the residents," Young added.

Comment: Unfortunately, this is a natural consequence of having psychopaths allowed to participate in government and corporate rule. To get a handle of this phenomenon, check out Harrison Koehli's Ponerology 101 series, or pick up Political Ponerology by Andrew Lobaczewski.

Ponerology 101: The Political Psychopath
Ponerology 101: Lobaczewski and the origins of Political Ponerology
Ponerology 101: The Psychopath's Mask of Sanity

German lawyers file lawsuit against Merkel in constitutional court

Sputnik
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 15:33 UTC

A group of lawyers have filed a lawsuit against the immigration policy of the German government in the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, according to German magazine Der Spiegel.

The lawyers accuse Angela Merkel of repeatedly making decisions contrary to the German law, with opening the borders for refugees being one of the most serious ones.

"The German Chancellor has no right to overstep the boundaries of the law in the framework of her policy and exceed the powers that she has received from the voters through parliament," author of the lawsuit and Dusseldorf's attorney Clemens Antweiler said, cited by the magazine.

Comment: For more on Europe's turning point with the refugee crises: Is this the end of liberal Europe?

Brit government mulls taking in refugee kids

Press TV
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 01:40 UTC

The British government is reportedly considering plans to allow thousands of unaccompanied refugee children into the UK within weeks. The idea comes amid mounting pressure on ministers to provide refuge for large numbers of young people fleeing war in their homelands without their parents, according to the Guardian.

Downing Street said the government was looking at calls from charities, led by 'Save the Children', for the UK to admit at least 3,000 unaccompanied young people who have arrived in Europe from countries including Syria and Afghanistan, and who are judged to be at serious risk of falling prey to people traffickers. Government sources said such a humanitarian gesture would be in addition to the 20,000 refugees the UK has already agreed to accept, mainly from camps on the borders of Syria, by 2020.

Following a visit to refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk on Saturday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on PM David Cameron to offer children not just a refuge in the UK but proper homes and education, equivalent to the welcome received by those rescued from the Nazis and brought to the UK in 1939.

"We must reach out the hand of humanity to the victims of war and brutal repression," he said. "Along with other EU states, Britain needs to accept its share of refugees from the conflicts on Europe's borders, including the horrific civil war in Syria," said Corbyn.

Comment: Do. There is no mull. Given the trajectory for orphaned children of the war without humanitarian outreach, the tragedy continues forward and the ramifications increase and multiply. Commit and step up!

Authoritarian mindset: Humiliation and herd-think among American nationalists

Dan Sanchez
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC

How Dare You Disrespect My Captors

Libertarian stand-up comic Doug Stanhope has said:

"Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met, and to take pride in accomplishments you had no part in."

I would only quibble with the "nothing but" part. The collectivist herd-think that is nationalism also teaches you to take offense at imagined insults that have absolutely nothing to do with you personally.

Take for example the outrage of American nationalists over President Obama's dealings with Iran. They denounce the nuclear deal that his administration negotiated (which on Saturday led to the lifting of international sanctions on Iran) as a total capitulation that makes all of America look weak.

Never mind that the entire Iran nuclear scare is, as Gareth Porter has thoroughly demonstrated, a phony, manufactured crisis in the first place. Never mind that the peace deal actually makes individual Americans more secure by decreasing the likelihood that their sons and savings will be sucked into yet another disastrous war in the Middle East.

Comment: A common thread among these authoritarian types is their belligerence in the face of any rational or "alternative" idea or information that flies in the face of their dyed-in-the-wool beliefs. They are so identified with their ideas of patriotism that to try to assimilate any facts that contradict their beliefs must be met with an almost violent reaction. No wonder the US is now in the position that it is in; it simply has so many individuals who are all-too-willing to defend lies and offensive behavior at a lethal cost.

See also: The great global change game: Our civilization is headed for the fate of the Bronze Age - destruction

Superyacht belonging to 'Russian businessman' bursts into flames at marina in Fethiye, Turkey

RT
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 01:51 UTC

A 90-ft yacht supposedly worth at least $5.7 million has caught fire while anchored at a marina in Fethiye, Turkey.

In the video published by Yacht Marine Brokerage, the superyacht is seen ablaze with thick plumes of black smoke billowing from it. The yacht caught fire on a rainy day on Thursday at the marina where the vessel was docked, on Turkey's southwestern Turquoise Coast in the Mediterranean.

The fire was so huge that in order to prevent flames from spreading to other boats, the burning yacht had to be towed away, with a person seen on board. The man was later identified by the authorities as the ship's captain, Vladimir Lopata, who suffered from smoke inhalation and was taken to hospital, Boat International reported.

According to the Daily Mail, the luxurious vessel belonged to a Russian businessman. But some commentators on YouTube suggested the owner is Ukrainian.

The boat is a Princess 95 yacht called Queen Anna. The semi-custom superyachts series was launched in 2009, and has a master suite, VIP and two twin rooms. An investigation has been launched.

Not so American? Russian WWII soldiers feature in Trump's campaign video, then disappeared from clip

RT
Sat, 23 Jan 2016 16:21 UTC

Images of Russian World War Two veterans were included in US presidential candidate Donald Trump's latest campaign video on American "wounded warriors." After the mistake had been noticed by viewers, the images disappeared from the clip.

The Republican front-runner's campaign shared the Facebook video on Friday. In it, Trump speaks about the "incompetence" with which American war veterans are allegedly being treated by the authorities, vowing to change things for the better.

"Our great veterans are being treated terribly... We are gonna take care of our wounded warriors. These are our greatest people, we will take care of them like they've never been taken care of before," Trump said, before concluding: "If Trump becomes president, believe me, our veterans will be proud again!"

"If people who torture animals are psychopaths, then what are government officials who use taxpayer dollars to fund animal torture? Many are...

parzival

Billionaires should not exist. I agree with the author but respectfully disagree with SOTT’s comment. Money system is an artificial scam so the...

LadyRad

Western elites have made no secret of their envy of the Chinese governments complete control of their population. The Chinese social credit system...

zaddick

The truth is at the top of the pendulum which is fixed to the ceiling. For instance, Donald Drumpf did nothing when the fake erection took place,...

scrutinizer

well you sure don't have to think about anything so what would you call it

cracker

Society's Child

Europe's disgrace: Closer look at 'Europe's worst' refugee camp

The U.S. has become an automaton factory

Woody Guthrie hated 'Old Man Trump': A real estate empire's racist foundations

Emails reveal dismissive attitude of state officials in Flint water crisis

Flint residents told that their children could be taken away if they don't pay for city's poison water

German lawyers file lawsuit against Merkel in constitutional court

Brit government mulls taking in refugee kids

Authoritarian mindset: Humiliation and herd-think among American nationalists

Superyacht belonging to 'Russian businessman' bursts into flames at marina in Fethiye, Turkey

Not so American? Russian WWII soldiers feature in Trump's campaign video, then disappeared from clip

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us