Notes from the Global Forum on Migration and Development Athens-2009

Civil society representatives in the Global Forum for Migration and Development 2009 (GFMD) taking place in Athens this week (some weeks ago) have recommended to their governmental counterparts to increase efforts for reducing the cost of remittances and make transfer easier and safer.

Who curbs media freedom in Turkey?

As a follow-up on my post on The Wall Street Journal’s false claim that the recent curbs in freedom of expression and media in Turkey are the result of the increased power of Islamist forces within government. This is an article from Osservatorio sui Balcani explaining that the Turkish Armed Forces control websites, suppressing journalists critical of the Army. The website of the Turkish daily Radikal has recently written about a “black list” developed by the Armed Forces. The Turkish Army has created a “Group of Studies on the West” in the late 1990s which aims to counter the Islamic Prosperity Party of Necmettin Erbakan.

This is a link to the very good article (in Italian): http://www.osservatoriobalcani.org/article/articleview/12137/1/167/

The Wall Street What?

One of the downsides of my job is that I have to keep tabs regularly on ‘respectable publications’ like the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch’s pamphlet hasn’t ceased to add insult to injury with its recent articles.

Eastern Europe’s Responsibility to the World

Whether we are from Eastern Europe or just care for the region, I think it might be our role to see this group of countries in a different light. To leave aside the eternal victimization and point out some of its responsibilities towards the rest of the world. This might play a role not only in creating a more just world, but also in strengthening Eastern Europe itself.

A young man with a moustache in Amsterdam

Not with a harmonica.

And why a moustache, how does it help anyhow? Too poor to shave? Possibly. Too stressed out to keep appearances the man approaches, moustache, and only a hoodie to shield him from the All Saints rain. “Are you a tourist?” He is asked. “Are you here looking for some fun?”Fun is when the bench is dry and there are warm and clean leftovers from the 24/7 snack bar.Old men have all the money and all the fun. Young men scurry like rats along wet pavements, looking…looking for the work to get the money to get the fun that makes it worth going to find the man with the moustache in Amsterdam. Looking for work – just like that. Easier to find the camel which slid through the needle’s eye. Young men die in old men’s wars, break backs in old men’s factories. Men die young, old men die too. Who shall inherit the Earth?

Freedom of Speech in Kosovo

Anonymous death threats address at Jeta Xharra and to her team of journalists from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) have raised new concerns about the dependence of Kosovo’s media on a newborn political and business elite.

The threat followed the television show ‘Jeta në Kosovë’ (Life in Kosovo) produced by BIRN journalists, on government control over media outlets and the links of former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to organ trafficking of Serbian and Albanian prisoners of war.

Serge Latouche-Degrowth

French economist Serge Latouche speaks about the society of degrowth. A shorter version of this text was published in English on www.ipsnews.net, but here is a chance to read his original French answers, in full.

The Ideology of the Romanian Green Ecologist Party?!

The Green Ecologist Party of Romania has two platforms: one asking for complete deregulation and withdrawal of the state from all aspects of economic life. And another one which asks for more regulation of financial markets and governmental intervention to tackle inequality and the activity of corporations. Which is it then? Obviously none, it’s just fun to have a party and why not have it as a green party? Seems pretty neutral and cool and fashionable, even though the guys who run it are neither neutral nor cool nor fashionable.

Upselling in London (Or Palate di Merda)

by Claudia (venting her frustrations)

As many other students in London, I work part-time in a restaurant. Yesterday, I attended a compulsory training on „upselling”, which means, basically, to keep suggesting to customers that they need and want to buy more things — even though they are full or drunk, they could still get more. The whole thing lasted for 2 and a half hours, but it was, from my perspective (not that of the trainer, I am sure) deliriously funny.

 

The New Persepolis

I have seen this in the news yesterday. Two Iranian exiles asked for the permission to use the characters and drawing style of Persepolis from its author, in order to depict the pro-Moussavi demonstrations taking place this month after the elections in Teheran. They want to use the popularity of Persepolis to gather more worldwide sympathy for the anti-Ahmadinejad opposition. 

It is worth noting that the creator of Persepolis, M. Satrapi, gave her approval for this, but she was not involved in conceiving the new cartoons. I was very curious because I really liked Persepolis. 

I was also disappointed, because it is a pretty skematic good vs. evil depiction of what happened around the elections, and makes the people who support Ahmadinejad into an indetermined mass of individuals who don’t think. Things are bound to be more complicated than that, and it’s a pity that it feels that this cartoon could have been drawn by anyone in the West who, say, wants to see Ahmadinejad go down. I doubt it will gather more worldwide support than that of the people who already sympathize with Moussavi. 

Here is the link, it is still an interesting read:
http://www.spreadpersepolis.com/ 

In any case, the problem with its simplicity is not that it criticizes the oppression and the police violence against the demonstrators–that should be criticized. It’s more that, being created by Iranians and not by Europeans or Americans (even if exiles), I would have liked to see the faces of those people who support Ahmadinejad; it’s, regardless of the election results being accurate or not, half of the country. And I would have liked to see a hint of who Moussavi is, apart of this image of apostle of freedom emerging over the last month. In any case, it is good to see the old faces from Persepolis again, though I wonder what those characters would really think and comment in this situation…Maybe they would be on the same side, but with more clever argumentation.