By Alessandra Lacaita
Photo credit: Antonio Leo
“Why some people has been killed? Just because of a different color of their skin? Or because they were working to get some money to live? We asked ourselves, but we don’t have answers. Nobody knows. [The killer] was racist.” Mustafa Diarca from the Senegalese association, Teranga, reflects on the recent killing of two Senegalese men in Firenze on December 13th, 2011.
Teranga, in cooperation with other Italian associations, organized a demonstration in the center of Lecce to support all the immigrants living and working in Italy. All colors, religions, cultures and beliefs stood together in the streets of the city to protest the violence and racism they feel in Italy, and to remind the onlookers of the need for basic human rights.
Lecce, population 100,000, is in the southern Italian province of Puglia. The city has always been a destination for immigrants who arrive at the coasts of the region from countries on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Albania and Tunisia. There are also immigrants from northern Italy and the rest of Europe.
Read the rest of this post »
See below article for photo captions.
By Ana Maria Bermudez Medellin, Colombia
Medellin is a city in the middle of a contradictory country, the history of which can be told by the stories of people who lived in the center of violence that has erased many a name in the last century.
Between the 1980s and 90s, the poverty and drug battles, combined with the poor educational system and the marginalization of individuals, resulted in Medellin being the most violent city in the world. Massacres were not uncommon and bombs in shopping centers threatened everyday activities. Kidnappings, extortion and war-like statistics led to a rise in fear city wide. In 1991, the annual number of murders rose to a macabre 6,500. The crisis was felt all over the country, but it was at its worst in Medellín. At the time, notorious Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, attained the sixth largest fortune in the world through a drug business that perpetuated violent activities, which continued in the country until his death in 1993.
Read the rest of this post »
By Philip Simpson
Over the past year, Britain has seen a new wave of protest culture take to the streets. Triggered by the newly elected coalition government, the joint attempts to heal the economy through funding cuts have led Britain to experience its largest period of civil unrest since the “Winter of Discontent” between 1978-79.
The Coalition Government, formed by the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Parties, has implemented cuts across the broad spectrum of the public sector. Workers from community and youth projects, the doctors, nurses and staff of the National Health Service, teachers, public transport workers, emergency services and even the police, have experienced widespread cuts in funding over the past year. The British public has also seen their pension funds slashed by almost half and students have found their education compromised due to a rise in tuition fees from £3,290 per year to a maximum of £9,000 per year.
These dramatic changes have inspired a vibrant and unified but restless protest culture that has taken Britain by storm, with frequent, large scale demonstrations taking place in many of the nation’s cities.
Students were the first to make themselves heard, organizing several peaceful protests in late 2010 in Manchester and London. Tens of thousands of students attended these early marches, which sparked controversy and debate due to the heavy handed tactics used by the Greater Manchester and Metropolitan police forces.
Read the rest of this post »
By Alessandra Lacaita
“I'm Shandy South and I'm performing to you. I just want to make you happy and make you laugh!” Dancing to the rhythm of Michael Jackson songs, South makes his moves, smiling the whole time.
Then he calls some people from the crowd and turns them into dancers. The audience laughs, clearly enjoying themselves. The theatre is imaginary, but the atmosphere is spectacular. This is Covent Garden, in the city of London. Surrounding the performers is an explosion of colours, exhibitions and shops.
Generally, in Covent Garden the visitors are shopping for gifts, snacking on waffles full of chocolate, or supping on plates of paella. In the piazza there is a market defined by hustle and bustle.
Read the rest of this post »
By Abdu Kiyaga
In Africa, where technological development has rapidly spread throughout the last decade, a plethora of information is exchanged through emails, social networking and dating sites. As a result, Africans trust people they have never met or seen, having fallen under the impression that “global village” camaraderie is at play during Internet and telephone communication. Unfortunately, many of trusting individuals fall into the traps of cyber criminals; they send money as “gifts from friends,” or they email documentation to confirm a proposed trip. Few escape the scams of con-artists who prey on individuals still getting acquainted with new technology. In Uganda, mobile phones are used to convince innocent people to reveal their personal details to disguised cyber criminals, while the internet and other technologies are used to monitor private financial information.
Read the rest of this post »
We're rolling out a new website. Take a look and let us know what you think (editor@dinews.org). You can subscribe to receive automatic updates when new content is posted by clicking below the Subscribe header in the right hand toolbar. All our prior content has been moved over, with the exception of photo essays that will be added shortly using a new photo gallery feature. The new site allows you to mention articles on facebook and twitter, as well as leave comments more efficiently, so please take advantage of the new social media options. Enjoy!
By Michael Dawson
“I mean, sometimes I can see why they've always been persecuted. They refuse to acknowledge you in the street, they cut into supermarket queues and they simply have a general disdain for anyone who's not like them. It's a real problem.” Fabian, whose name has been changed for legal reasons, sits unperturbed amidst the hustle and bustle in one of Vienna's most famous Kaffeehäusers. He is dressed smartly and speaks with a level of eloquence, which is juxtaposed against this kind of anti-Semitic diatribe.
“Do you not feel, though, that Viennese society could be somewhat inherently xenophobic?” I ask, immediately noticing a quiet sense of indignation sweeping across Fabian's face.
Read the rest of this post »
By Zoe Thomas
“When I was kid this market was full,” says Suhil Miah, the proprietor of a candy stall in the East London Watney Market. “The market was so full you could hardly see anything; now there are empty stalls,” he explains. “Five years down the line it might not be here any more.” The hustle of people moving through the market, even in early December, can make it difficult to picture the market disappearing. In years past, the market had over a hundred businesses between shop fronts and market stalls. Now there only around half that number still survives, and while many people pass through the market, few seem to stop at the stalls or dart into the shops behind them. “Business has been worse at all the stalls,” says Warren Godfrey, who along with his father, Sean, owns While U Wait, a business that sells luggage, keys and handles shoe repairs. The Godfreys have had their business in Watney Market for 11 years. They says that recently there have been more stalls than previous months, as people who have lost their jobs or been tossed from other markets turn up looking for an opportunity to make money in the bleak British economy.
Read the rest of this post »
By Fahmida Zaman
“What students in Bangladesh have been involved in, known as student politics, was never the 'real' student politics,” says Sajjadur Rahman, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Chittagong. Contradictory to the traditional Bangladeshi understanding of student politics, Rahman's words surprise me. He goes on to explain what 'real' university politics entail: “The political student body should be involved in that institution’s activities, and they should bargain with the [university] authority to protect the students’ interest. But unfortunately, our student politics is nothing but the extension of national politics. They are not student politics at all.” The qualities of “real” student politics can be seen at other universities, such as Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, which requires its organization to work together for students' benefits. Unlike in Bangladesh, most student political groups at universities in the United Kingdom are not encouraged to become involved in national politics.
Read the rest of this post »
|
