Evicting Vulnerable ahead of Paris Olympics is “Social Cleansing”
On a Tuesday morning in late May, at least three dozen police officers surrounded an encampment of migrants in central Paris. The streets above the banks of the Seine were virtually empty and the cafés still closed when they evicted more than 100 boys and young men, many from West Africa. It was just past 7 a.m. Read More Read More
Chile: Struggling to Emerge from 50 Years of Neoliberalism
September 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of a bloody coup d’etat that toppled Chile’s socialist government in 1973. Led by General Augusto Pinochet, the military dictatorship that took power killed or “disappeared” more than 3,000 people over the next 17 years. What is less well-known, is that ousted President Salvador Allende’s ambitious socialist... Read More
France Welcomes Ukrainians but Migrants from Africa and the Mid-East Sleep on the Streets
More than 4 million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russian troops invaded on February 24. Human Rights campaigners have praised the French government for the speed with which it set up a reception center with provisions for shelter, food and healthcare. But they wonder why the authorities haven’t extended the same warm welcome to asylum-seekers from across Africa and... Read More
Division on the Right, Implosion on the Left
As Russian forces poured across Ukrainian borders on Feb. 24, French President Emmanuel Macron warned in a televised address that the incursion marked “a turning point in the history of Europe and of our country” and would have “profound, lasting consequences for our lives.” Read More Read More
In the Horn of Africa, a coalition to prevent the next locust invasion
Locust outbreaks, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change, are occurring in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. To face this plague, scientists, computer programmers and volunteer “locust hunters” are getting organized in the Horn of Africa. Read More Read More
In Africa, using apps to expand access to healthcare
Serge Mahougnon’s condition was worsening. What little food he ate, he could not keep down. In February 2020, temperatures in Cotonou, Bénin, reached close to 30° Celsius, but Mahougnon was freezing. The 24-year-old financial trader was suffering from Typhoid fever, a disease that begins with intestinal inflammation, and can be fatal. Read More Read More
Cops are in Crisis. In this History of Policing in North America, France and Britain, we find out why
Over the past year, public anger over police violence has led to calls for de-funding or abolition of police forces. Some even want to police their own communities — which it turns out, is precisely how policing began. Read More Read More
Small Countries to Suffer in Wild West World Economy
The World Trade Organization is charged with preventing small trade disputes from erupting into full-scale economic warfare. In what may seem a minor administrative inconvenience, it has been dealt a near-fatal blow. The US government has blocked the WTO from hiring more members – judges who rule on trade complaints – effectively paralyzing the WTO’s trade dispute... Read More
French Authorities deny shelter to teen migrants
Standing on a small Paris street armed with a thermos of tea, biscuits and a bag of mobile phones, Sylvie Brugnon and Quentin Gauthier stop several young men heading toward the French Red Cross offices a few metres away. A pair of boys arrive, ill-dressed for the cold and shivering. They slept outside the night before. Read More Read More
The Hierarchy of Suffering * La Hiérarchie de Souffrances
Some tragedies are prized over others. From the heroes we put on pedestals to our choice of commemorations, it is clear that some atrocities are engraved in our collective memory while others are all but ignored. In this article for MediaPart I argue (in French), that this hierarchy of suffering is part of a continuing pattern of inequality. Read More Read More
