Refugees Caught in Tide of European History

Written on March 11th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on Greek Reporter, by A. Makris, March 9, 2016.

Syrian and Iraqi war refugees are sleeping by railroad tracks in northern Greece hoping to be allowed to travel onward to Germany and other northern EU countries. Seventy-three years ago, these tracks were traversed by another group heading to Germany for a completely different future: the Nazi death camps … //

… Shifting plates:

  • The turmoil that has come in the wake of these mass migrations has shaken countries to their roots and foreshadowed era-changing politics.
  • It is almost as if the European continent is built on political tectonic plates. With each chafing and grinding, the lives of hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, are shattered. Individuals, rich and poor alike, are caught up in consequences beyond their control … //

… When friends become foes:

  • “Can’t we go back to Syria now,” is a plea many Syrian parents at Idomeni have heard from their children. The same look of bewilderment, the same faux courage is on the faces of Syrian and Iraqi kids as they are captured for posterity in the faces of Greek and Turkish children in black-and-white photographs taken during the great uprooting … //

… Starting over

  • About the same time Shermini and her family left, so did Waad Alnaimee, a Sunni Muslim from Baghdad and a former director in Iraq’s Ministry of Culture. He fled the Iraqi capital after his eldest daughter was kidnapped — she was freed by the police — and his car was crumpled in a bombing, an assassination attempt on him.
  • “In the new Iranian-controlled Iraq there is no place for Sunni Muslims,” he says … //

… (full text).

Refugee related Links:

Other Links:

Isis document leak reportedly reveals identities of 22,000 recruits, on The Guardian, by Ewen MacAskill, March 9, 2016: documents obtained by German intelligence thought to contain names of 16 Britons, in information stolen in Syria by fighter disillusioned with Islamic State … Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, confirmed the documents were real …;

France: la loi El Khomri:

INDIA: deductions that make your salary more tax-efficient, on The Financial Express, by Adhil Shetty, March 8, 2016: You can save a significant amount of tax if you utilise the tax deductions on offer to the maximum, including the lesser-known ones;

Canada: rising grocery prices pushing food security to the forefront, on Saskatoon Star Phoenix, by Morgan Modjeski, March 7, 2016;

INDIA: CBDT halves Income Tax refunds issue timeline to 15 days for this fiscal, on The Economic Times, March 7, 2016;

CANADA: street census key to chip away at homelessness, on Winnipeg Free Press, by Christina Maes Nino, March 7, 2016;

Winning Scotland’s job challenge, on Herald Scotland, by Patrick Harvie, March 6, 2016;

We should view share of the economy as everyone’s birthright, on The Boston Globe, by Thomas Powers, March 6, 2016;

Fair wage for workers in age of robots, on OPINION, by Lydia Lim, March 6, 2016;

Accélérationnisme: et si demain on ne devait plus travailler? dans Café Babel.fr, par Katarzyna Piasecka, le 5 mars 2016;

Sternstunde Philosophie, von SRF Kultur:

… and this – uploaded on YouTube by DontTrustTheRabbit:

Comments are closed.