By Rebecca Hanser
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 2012 (IPS)

For more than two decades, the internationally beloved singer and human rights activist Yvonne Chaka Chaka has been at the forefront of the South African pop music scene.

Yvonne Chaka Chaka. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Growing up during Apartheid, Chaka Chaka had a difficult childhood. After losing her father at the age of 11, Chaka Chaka’s mother was left to raise three daughters as a single mother with a meagre salary.

She grew up in a society rife with social, class and ethnic segregation, but this did not prevent Chaka Chaka from graduating with two diplomas from the University of South Africa (UNISA).

She was discovered in Johannesburg in 1985 and went on to release award-winning albums with hit songs like “I Cry for Freedom”, “Back on my Feet” and “Power of Africa”.

Chaka Chaka not only reached stardom status in South Africa and the Mbaganga music scene –a South African music style – but was also anointed the Princess of Africa.

“Being a public figure with a popular following is a great privilege but it comes with special responsibilities,” the singer told IPS in an interview.

The Princess of Africa is also known for her charity work. In addition to being Goodwill Ambassador for the UNISA and Chief Executive Officer of Gestetner Tshwane, UNICEF has also appointed her as Special Ambassador on Malaria in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Chaka Chaka spoke to IPS U.N. correspondent Rebecca Hanser on growing up in South Africa, her life as a world-class performer, and her work as a human rights activist fighting illiteracy, poverty, homophobia and illnesses like HIV and malaria.

Q: Having grown up in South Africa, what was the situation like in terms of race in your country?

A: I was born in Soweto and grew up under apartheid. The fight against discrimination runs deep in my veins. I know what it is like to be treated as inferior because of the colour of my skin.

When we remade our country it was on the basis of the equal worth and the equal dignity of every member of our society.

We learned the lesson the hard way in South Africa but we will never forget it. Nelson Mandela created the Rainbow Nation and I believe we are all equal. That is what we fought for: our freedom.

Q: Throughout Africa, discrimination based on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation is still active. Stories of violence and discrimination against the gay community inflicted by their own families reach us on a daily basis. Being a mother yourself, what is your response to this?

A: These stories break my heart. Sadly, we hear similar stories from many different parts of the world. Is it not already bad enough that our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters are stigmatised, discriminated against and attacked?

The fact that many cannot even rely on the love and support of their own parents makes it even worse. What kind of mother could treat her own children with contempt in this way?

As a mother of four boys myself, I see my job as helping them to be the best people they can be; to discover who they are; to be happy and safe; to love and be loved. I have often said that I don’t care if they bring home an Indian or an Albino, Patricia or Peter, so long as they are happy.

Q: You recently joined Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and pop artist Ricky Martin at a special event on the need for leadership in the fight against homophobia at the United Nations headquarters. Can you elaborate on the legislation in Africa, and in particular on the anti-gay laws of African nations?

A: Far too many countries on our continent still have laws that treat lesbian and gay people as criminals simply for loving someone of the same gender.

When Western countries tell us as Africans we should get rid of these laws, you hear people saying “No, we are not colonies anymore, these are our laws and we will keep them.” But where did these laws come from? In almost all cases they were imposed by the former colonial powers. Most were written in 19th Century London! They have no place in modern Africa.

When I hear that MPs in Uganda want to introduce the death penalty now for homosexuality or that lawmakers in Nigeria want to strengthen the existing punishments for same-sex couples, it makes me angry and frustrated that people can be so prejudiced. When did we start to treat one another with such contempt?

We need to start again and remember that we are all born free and equal and should have a chance to live that way every day of our lives. We need to respect each other and not be so judgmental or fearful.

Q: What do you think should change to resolve the situation for those suffering from discrimination and violence for being different?

A: First thing we must do is get rid of these antiquated laws that criminalise homosexuality and we need to put in their place new laws that protect everyone from discrimination, including on grounds of sexuality and gender identity. Once we’ve done that, we have a larger task on our hands, which is to change social attitudes, to help people to open their hearts and minds to one another.

Changing the laws is a necessary first step, but it will take education, training and talking with one another to overcome homophobia. But we know it can be done. We are making progress in the war against racism and sexism. It is time to take up the fight against homophobia. This is a war we can win if we all do our bit.

Excerpt:

Robin J. Hayes has always been one to break boundaries. Most recently, she is doing so with her latest documentary film, “Black and Cuba”, which explores how African-Americans and Afro-Cubans can learn from each other about community-building and public debates on racism in their countries.

“A film can be shown in so many different community spaces,” Hayes, a filmmaker and scholar at the New School, told IPS. “It gives many different types of people an opportunity to learn about issues that are important to them.”

Robin J. Hayes, documentary filmmaker and scholar at the New School. Photo courtesy of Robin J. Hayes

After completing her bachelor’s degree at the New York University, Hayes was a community organiser for a legal clinic to assist homeless families at the Urban Justice Centre. She was the first person at Yale University to earn a combined doctorate degree in African-American Studies and Political Science. She has also served as a national coordinator of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organisation (IFCO).

But Hayes wanted to share her vision with a broader audience, so she became a filmmaker. She continues to conduct research, write, publish and lecture throughout the nation on the politics of the African Diaspora.

Hayes spoke to IPS correspondent Rebecca Hanser about her life as an academic and filmmaker and about her latest documentary.

Q: As a scholar, you work a lot with themes concerning ethnicity, race, (in)equality policies, African-American cultures and black political movements. What draws you to these themes and is it something you feel personally related to?

A: As a scholar, I am drawn to research about race, social movements and black cultures around the world because of my experience as a community organiser. Before grad school, I worked for several years with an organisation called IFCO/Pastors for Peace that advocated for a “people’s foreign policy” in the Americas.

During my time at IFCO, I met people from all walks of life who worked across borders to create social change. I’m also a native of East Flatbush, Brooklyn and am one of a few people on my block that was able to get an advanced degree.

Q: What is your latest documentary “Black and Cuba” about? What inspired you to make it and why in Cuba?

A: “Black and Cuba” follows a diverse group of Yale students who feel like outcasts at their elite institution, band together and adventure to Cuba to see if revolution is truly possible. It is based on a short documentary I directed, entitled “Beautiful Me(s): Finding our Revolutionary Selves in Black Cuba”.

I was one of the students who made that journey to Cuba. Many of the students were from neighbourhoods like mine. The idea for the film came out of our desire to take what we learned from this trip and share it with our family members and neighbours who had done so much to support our educational success but were still grappling with the challenges of racial inequality and economic hardship. A documentary made information accessible in a way that our academic work could not.

We were drawn to Cuba because we were interested in seeing how the ideas we were learning about could play out on the ground. Cuba did have a revolution in 1959, after which many socialist reforms were made, including implementing universal health care and ending private education. With 60 percent of the population being black, it seemed like the perfect place to explore the possibilities of addressing issues related to racism and class.

Q: What can you share about the process of filming this documentary? What was it like to be in Cuba with the other travellers? How has this journey changed your life?

A: Our group worked hard to raise funds for the trip, which was organised through the Centre for Cuban Studies, so we had developed a close bond by the time we travelled to Cuba. We did not have much in terms of previous filmmaking experience, which I think helped us capture our experiences in a very earnest way.

In Cuba, we spent a lot of time having candid conversations with all kinds of people—rappers, students, teachers—and learning as much about their impressions of life in the United States as we did about their experiences in Cuba. Also, we saw some sites and performances that are a bit off the usual tourist path, such as the Monument to the Maroons in Santiago, which is a World UNESCO Heritage Site.

The journey changed my life in that it gave me a great deal of optimism about the possibilities of change. Afro-Cubans and African Americans have overcome a great number of obstacles, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Q: For your studies and work you have travelled all over the country and beyond. In your view, what should be change in terms of ethnic and racial policies in the United States?

A: “Black and Cuba” discusses some of the issues that arise from racial and economic inequality, such as the racial achievement gap in education, violence and disparities in health care access. My hope is that viewers will decide for themselves what changes they would like to see in their communities and support organisations on the ground that are already working towards them.

In our group, we wanted to use our education to create the kind of social change that could improve our communities. It wasn’t enough for us to have opportunities when so many of our family members and neighbours do not.

Q: What made you combine your work as scholar and academic with filmmaking? Are films an effective way to convey your message?

A: I love my work as a scholar of race, inequality and politics, but academic writing is for a very specific audience. A film can be shown in so many different community spaces as well as on laptops, phones and tablets. It gives many different types of people an opportunity to learn about issues that are important to them.

By Rebecca Hanser
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13 2012 (IPS)

They wait in parking lots, hoping for someone to come and offer them a few days of work. This work could entail anything from cleaning to construction, and though they may not be trained or equipped for these types of jobs, they have little choice, for they are day labourers, undocumented immigrants with no legal or moral support and subject at the mercy of their employers.

Day labourers come to the United States with hopes of a better future, but often they end up performing precarious work under terrible, sometimes even dangerous, conditions.

Carlos Canales is a former day labourer who co-founded the National Day Labourer Organising Network and fights for day labourers’ rights. Credit: Rebecca Hanser/IPS

Carlos Canales, born in El Salvador, used to be one of them. After years in the day labour business, he worked his way to become a community and labour organiser fighting for the rights of his fellow labourers, who sacrifice so much for the sake of a better life.

Canales spoke to IPS correspondent Rebecca Hanser about his life in El Salvador, his adventurous but dangerous journey through Central America and his career from day labourer to human rights activist.

Q: Like so many other day labourers, your origins lie in another country. Can you describe your life in El Salvador prior to coming to the United States?

A: During the 1970s, I was recruited by the local Catholic Church to recruit young students, and my  duties consisted of teaching leadership courses. I was also part of one of the many groups that would visit the haciendas (mansions) of the wealthier population and make denuncias.

This means that we confront these people, who are often rich employers, for their irresponsible way of treating their employees – sometimes they don’t even pay them, or they leave them working in bad conditions.

Basically, what I am doing right now here in New York for the day labourers. I always felt opposed to social injustice, because for workers not to get paid for their work did is theft to me. But we were in the middle of a revolution, so this was also an era in my life filled with violence and danger. I was constantly on guard.

Q: Can you describe your journey from your native country El Salvador to the United States? Why did you choose the United States?

A: I chose the United States for the challenge and adventure. At that time, I was already married and my wife and I had a little baby girl. It wasn’t easy to leave the country at that time and enter the United States.

Every immigrant’s journey begins differently. We travelled from El Salvador to Guatemala by bus. In Guatemala, we bought a plane ticket to go to the border city Matamoros in Mexico. From there we had to walk across the U.S.-Mexican border. And we would always travel by night, starting at 6 pm and walk until 3 am. Imagine that we had a baby with us while doing this!

Our coyote or pollero – the guy that “transported” us – would guide us to the other side of the border. Using inner tubes, we swam to cross the Rio Grande River and when we got to the other side we still had to be alert because of the patrol guards everywhere.

In trying to take a plane to Houston, I was arrested after being falsely accused of human trafficking – they thought I was the coyote! They let my wife and daughter go, but I spent two months in prison until I was released on bail. I left for Houston and stayed there while working in the construction sector as a jornalero (day labourer). That’s where “my career” as a day labourer started.

Q: After you crossed the border, was this what you had in mind, working as a day labourer in Houston, Texas?

A: I definitely got what I asked for, without sometimes even being aware of it. Still, I remained optimistic, though it was tough to be the new kid on the block because the contratistas – people who offer day labourers work – didn’t know me so they never selected me for work.

Finally, after my brother-in-law begged a contratista to give me some work, I got my first assignment. It was then that I experienced what most day labourers are exposed to: dangerous working conditions, sometimes even life-threatening or fatal. I had to work with boiling liquids on a rooftop in Houston where temperatures rose to 110 degrees.

Because I was inexperienced, I got burned badly that day. I had no protection, but I was happy I finally got paid. But there are day labourers and immigrants out there who’ve experienced worse – people dying in trucks while being transported, stranded in the middle of nowhere and suffocating to death.

It’s like Russian roulette. You’re betting with your life.

Q: Now you are an active labour and community organiser in New York fighting for the rights of day labourers. Can you tell us something about your work?

A: Right now my work consists of designing campaigns to establish “day labourer centres” to try and get workers off the street and under some sort of protection or guidance. They are always in danger while waiting on the streets for work.

I am also co-founder and member of the National Day Labourer Organising Network (NDLON), and I help organise demonstrations or marchas and legislative campaigns to improve labour laws. I’m also the one day labourers turn to for advice on legal matters when they aren’t being paid or are working in dangerous situations and I accompany them during confrontations with employers in legal proceedings.

It remains insecure and dangerous work. All day labourers have their own reasons to for doing what they do and their own unique stories to tell, but they also have their own scars. All of us. Some are more traumatic than the others, but trust me, we have them.

Excerpt:

Day labourers of Hempstead, Long Island. Credit: Rebecca Hanser/IPS

By Rebecca Hanser
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 2012 (IPS)

Undocumented immigrants have played a significant role in recovery efforts since Hurricane Sandy swept the northeast United States one month ago. But despite their contributions, they have been left in the storm’s wake with little financial, legal or moral support.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), almost 236,000 New Yorkers requested financial relief after Hurricane Sandy, which brought devastation, hardship and billions of dollars in damages.

But for day labourers – men and women without full-time employment, who search for temporary work to make ends meet – natural disasters such as Sandy mean opportunities for work, even if workers are unauthorised and ill-equipped for the job. These factors often lead to dangerous working conditions and exploitation.

These day workers are usually undocumented immigrants, predominantly from Latin America who, unaware of their rights, often fall victim to unscrupulous employers who not only fail to pay them but also expose them to dangerous working circumstances that leave them vulnerable injury or even death.

Risky business

“After the hurricane, we mostly did cleaning jobs in hotels, at the beaches and parking lots because everything was flooded or covered in dirt and mud,” José, a 43-year-old Honduran immigrant, told IPS. José was one of the many day labourers waiting for work at a parking lot in Hempstead, Long Island.

“No one protects us here, neither our employers, nor the clients,” Ruiz, a 72-year-old Honduran, told IPS. “We are on our own. We don’t have protection but someone has to do the job. After Sandy, many labourers got sick and injured because with such natural disasters you don’t make it out without coming down with something.”

Local authorities and government agencies have emphasised the need for licensed and experienced professionals to handle the post-Sandy cleanup, but these rules are often broken amidst chaos and disaster. Because of the hurricane, many contractors, homeowners and other victims hired day labourers.

“This government has lied and abandoned us! They don’t care about us. And that’s why we have to unite as one, and be a family to each other, because if they don’t care for us, who [will]?” added Ruiz.

A 52-year-old Salvadoran by the name of Lucas is one of the day labourers responsible for bringing attention to this situation. “The government should listen to us,” he said. He said that demonstrations have brought the labourers confidence. “The last one was even aired on television and got people talking about and noticing us. Finally we are not invisible anymore,” he added.

Describing post-Sandy in Long Island as a “war zone”, day labourer Francisco, 46, fled from his native country of El Salvador because of the civil war. After travelling on foot and by train and bus, he eventually wound up in New York, searching for work. “I’ve travelled a long and dangerous road to get here in hope of a better future. Instead I ended up as a day labourer.”

Calls for more safety and protection

As the number of day labourers has risen, so have centres that pursue better working conditions for them. Among these organisations are the Workers Justice Project (WJP), the NDLON and El Centro del Inmigrante (ECDI).

These centres aim to achieve economic and social empowerment through education, leadership development and counselling. In order to reduce labourers’ chances of being exploited, they also teach them about their rights and the laws that support them.

“We are always fighting for our lives while doing this work and there is so much insecurity every day, whether we will have work or not, because we depend on patrones [employers] who come…to offer us work,” Carlos, 50, from El Salvador told IPS.

Jorge, a 52-year-old Honduran, highlighted the problem that all day labourers face: “Most patrones are abusers. They hire us to work for them but refuse to pay us. We have no right to file a complaint because we are undocumented immigrants.”

Hurricane Sandy has made it more difficult for these centres to assist and counsel day labourers on their quest for work in hard-hit areas of New York.

“Our centre in Brooklyn was unfortunately badly damaged by the flooding,” said Ligia Guallpa, director of the WJP, during a press telebriefing. “Basically we’re left without a centre.” She expressed concerns over the day labourers who are currently working on the reconstruction of particularly battered areas like Coney Island and Sea Gate.

“Now, more than ever there is a need for these day labourers,” Guallpa emphasised. “Many of these workers are now being picked off the street instead of coming to the centre first, which means that they are being exposed to all kinds of violations.”

Guallpa called the entire situation “very unfortunate”, estimating that more than 10,000 day labourers are helping to reconstruct parts of New York and New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Physical and legal safety

Guallpa added that having the centre operate again would be critical so that “the labourers can help rebuild the communities with proper equipment, training resources and assistance”.

Nadia Marina Molina, programme coordinator at the NDLON, agreed with this, pointing out that day workers need not only sufficient information but also proper equipment, which employers often don’t provide. In this spirit, her group has developed a “health and safety material series…for workers and organisations who want to distribute them”.

Located on the north shore of Staten Island, El Centro del Inmigrante (ECDI) had a little more luck than WJP and was not affected by the storm. As a result, they could start on recovery efforts immediately.

“Already twenty families came to our centre for work […] of which most stayed with friends and family because they had to evacuate their homes,” explained Gonzalo Mercado, executive director at ECDI, during the telebriefing.

So far, neither of the centres experienced any type of immigration enforcement actions against illegal and undocumented immigrants, identity checking procedures, arrests or deportation.

Guallpa hoped that none of these actions would come soon, and with good reason. “A lot of day labourers are actually members of the community,” she emphasised, “who live and work here and work hard to rebuild”.

By Rebecca Hanser
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1 2012 (IPS)

As the international community comes together on Dec. 1 to celebrate World AIDS Day, a new report from UNAIDS reveals that while significant progress has been made in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS, stigmatisation, violence and discrimination against members of the gay community continue relentlessly.

Michael Ighodaro is a gay rights activist in the United States and Africa. Credit: Rebecca Hanser/IPS

Michael Ighodaro, a gay rights activist recently diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, is living proof of the incessant human rights violations in his native country of Nigeria.

After he was brutally attacked, beaten and violated and his apartment burned down, Ighodaro was forced to flee to the United States. He now lives in New York and continues his work as an activist to raise awareness about violence against gays.

“In Nigeria, it was like I was living a lie. In the streets you cannot walk the way you want to walk and cannot openly confess you’re gay,” he told IPS.

Ighodaro spoke to IPS U.N. correspondent Rebecca Hanser about his life and struggles in Nigeria as a gay man with HIV and his work as a gay rights activist.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: Having been born in Nigeria, a country known for its intolerance towards homosexuality, can you describe your younger years and what it was like for you to cope with this intolerance?

A: I discovered that I was gay when I was only seven years old. My mother noticed I was different from my brothers and sisters and she thought I was sick so she brought me to churches and made me visit witchdoctors to find out what was wrong with me.

When they concluded I was gay, I had no idea what that meant, because I was still very young. My mother said that it was evil and I had to be cured, which made me believe it was a bad thing to be gay and I became afraid to talk about it.

However, it didn’t stop me from being who I am. At the age of seventeen I was dating boys. My parents couldn’t take it anymore and forced me to leave my home. My dad didn’t want to pay for my school anymore so I also had to drop out of high school. At that age, it was hard for me not to have a family or a home or friends. I had just my gay friends, and still it was very lonely.

Q: What was your life like in Nigeria after you moved out of your home?

A: When I moved away from my home I felt free and did everything I wanted. I had a very active sex life and it gave me such a liberating feeling to finally be able to give in to it. Unfortunately, at that point I didn’t know anything about condoms, lubricants or safe sex. Things would’ve worked out differently if I had been better informed or educated.

I found out that I was HIV-positive when I was 23 years old. That’s also when I discovered what killed some of my closest gay friends in Nigeria. That really hurt me and woke me up.

In Nigeria, it was like I was living a lie. In the streets you cannot walk the way you want to walk and cannot openly confess you’re gay. You have to say you’re straight if you want to have access to something. You have to buckle up so much that at a certain point you even start to believe your own lies.

Q: Progress has been made in preventing HIV, but stigmatisation, violence and discrimination remain rampant. What are your thoughts on this imbalance?

A: Gay people are not just being stigmatised in Africa but all over the world. The worst part is that we are even being stigmatised in our own communities. In the gay community, members are mostly struggling with gay laws, the fight for gay rights and HIV prevention strategies, but they somehow neglect gay people with HIV.

They fail to specifically talk about gays with HIV, because you have to remember that a gay man with HIV is different from a gay man without it. These are two different things.

Q: You are also an active gay rights activist both in Africa and now also here in the United States. What message do you try to convey through your work?

A: There are many organisations I am involved with, even now in Africa, like ICARE, which is supported by the organisation African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHR). I also recently started an organisation here in the United States called African MSM Plus. It focuses on counselling and supporting gay men with HIV.

I am also an IRM-advocate. IRMA is an organisation that fights for more advanced rectal microbicide research for people who engage in anal intercourse. In Africa I am also involved in an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) organisation called Mind Builders initiative.

Unfortunately, these organisations in Africa have to work “underground” because there is no tolerance for such gay community centres. We have to hide, which is hard because we also offer walk-in sessions. But we keep doing this work because it is necessary. We shouldn’t only look at the challenges ahead of us but instead at our successes.

My message is short and powerful: stay yourself, because you cannot stop people from thinking differently.

Q: In terms of violence and discrimination, what is the worst that has ever happened to you?

A: The night I was beaten up and attacked – it is all in my head. Whenever I close my eyes, I can still see the guys that did this to me. I try to forget, but every night in my sleep I still see them in front of me, calling me a faggot. It is terrible, but it’s something I have to live with for the rest of my life.

Excerpt:

By Rebecca Hanser
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 28 2012 (IPS)

Along the borders of modern Europe, migrants have much to contend with, ranging from contradictory and confusing national immigration policies to horrific war zones, which these borders areas are slowly becoming.

Their stories and more are the subject of journalist and writer Matthew Carr’s latest book, “Fortress Europe: Dispatches from a Gated Community”, which takes the reader on a 279-page journey across the heavily debated and pressured border regions of contemporary Europe.

Matthew Carr, author of the book “Fortress Europe”. Photo courtesy of Matt Carr.

Throughout his research for the book, Carr “heard some very grim stories” and met “migrants trapped in unbelievably vulnerable situations”, the author told IPS as he elaborated on his face-to-face interviews with migrants.

These migrants, predominantly from North Africa, risk their lives to cross seas, deserts and mountains to reach the shores of Europe, a continent they believe will bring them freedom, refuge and a brighter future. Instead, they find hardship in exploitation, deportation, racial discrimination and xenophobia that together amount to violations of their human rights.

Carr spoke to IPS U.N. correspondent Rebecca Hanser about his latest book, the writing process and highlights of his research.

Q: “Fortress Europe” covers terrain similar to your last book, “Blood and Faith”, which covered the expulsion of Muslims from Spain in the early seventeenth century. Why did you choose this topic and what draws you to these themes?

A: The seventeenth century expulsion of Spain’s Morisco minority was an early example of a phenomenon that has often been repeated in European history, in which powerful societies victimise social groups depicted as alien, inferior and incompatible, and attempt to “purify” themselves through violence, persecution and exclusion.

I wrote that book as a “warning from history” in the context of Europe’s obsession with immigration, and the increasingly prevalent rhetoric that represents Muslim immigration in particular as an existential and cultural threat. So writing about migrants, refugees and borders was in many ways a logical progression from that.

Q: You mentioned that it took you two and a half years to complete the research for and write this book. Can you tell us something about this journey? What were its highlights, and how has it changed your life?

Every book you write changes your way of thinking to some extent, and this one is no exception. Travelling around these borders, I constantly heard some very grim stories. I met migrants trapped in unbelievably vulnerable situations. When I first started out on these journeys I was shocked by what I heard, but within a short time such stories became almost routine.

At the same time I was constantly struck by the resilience and strength of many of the migrants I met. And wherever I went I met men and women in non-governmental and solidarity organisations who went to extraordinary lengths to try and help them. Without their help I could never have written the book.

Q: In “Fortress Europe”, you often refer to Europe’s history to describe the atrocities and deleterious situations migrants deal with. Is history is repeating itself in Europe?

A: I wouldn’t say that it’s repeating itself – history never does. But both the European Union and “Fortress Europe” are products of history, and there are certainly some disturbing similarities and continuities between Europe’s current treatment of undocumented migrants and refugees, and the ways in which European societies have behaved in the twentieth century towards minorities and towards certain categories of immigrants and refugees.

A sense of this history can, I hope, help remind us of the dangerous consequences of the current “immigration regimes” – and also fuel a search for more humane and coherent alternatives to these policies.

Q: With the Schengen agreement of 1985, which eliminated internal border controls among 26 of its countries, Europe was extolled, to a degree, for its “borderless policies”. However, your book has shown not only a dark side to globalisation but also of Europe, highlighting human rights violations at its borders. What effects could these practises have on Europe’s reputation?

One of the reasons the architects of the European Union placed human rights at the heart of its political identity was because they wanted to differentiate the new Europe from the catastrophic events of the first half of the twentieth century. Today the EU’s “hardened” border enforcement efforts have helped create situations in which stateless migrants are routinely exposed to death, violence, marginalisation and official harassment.

These consequences are often overlooked or unseen by the general public, but they nevertheless represent a glaring contradiction between Europe’s commitment to human rights, openness and solidarity, and the way these principles are implemented on the ground.

Q: In your book, you mentioned that the Nigerian journalist Emmanuel Mayah went under cover as a migrant in 2010, crossing the Sahara and joining other migrants in overcrowded trucks to reach Spain. Could his example perhaps be the inspiration for a sequel to “Fortress Europe”?

A: Maybe, but I think the story of these Saharan crossings is something that someone else should tell. It’s certainly a very difficult story to tell right now, given the current situation in Mali and Libya, for example, and any journalist who chooses to undertake it would have to be a lot more intrepid than I am – and they would need a lot of luck! But going undercover like that – I don’t think I would be a very successful chameleon. My acting range is rather limited!

Excerpt:

By Rebecca Hanser
NEW YORK, Nov 19 2012 (IPS)

Dee Knight experienced Hurricane Sandy in several different capacities. As a reporter and an organiser, not only did he report on the aftermath of the hurricane, but he was also a part of “Occupy Sandy”, a response to the hurricane based on solidarity and charity.

The People’s Power Assembly Movement (PPAM), for which Knight is an organiser, and the Workers World Party, for whose Workers World newspaper he is a reporter, both support the Occupy Sandy hurricane relief operation, a coordinated community relief effort aiming to organise and distribute resources and volunteers to aid people affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Dee Knight, a reporter for the Workers World newspaper and a member of the hurricane relief group Occupy Sandy. Photo courtesy of Dee Knight.

Knight draws a powerful lesson from his experiences. “To heal and protect our broad community, as many of us as possible need to come together, working in solidarity with the most affected victims,” he told IPS.

Knight spoke to IPS U.N. correspondent Rebecca Hanser about his experiences at the distribution centres during Operation Sandy and the tenacious efforts of the Occupy forces to support survivors of Sandy and help rebuild New York’s hard-hit neighbourhoods.

Q: What is the “Occupy Sandy Hurricane Relief Operation”? How and when was it founded?

A: Occupy Sandy Hurricane Relief Operation was a group of Occupy activists who decided to set up the operation and using the network they created during Occupy Wall Street. They assigned themselves tasks, like surveying the relief needs of Hurricane victims.

They also recruited other organisers and coordinators appealing for help from churches and other institutions in order to build an infrastructure to appeal for, receive, organise and deliver the aid, as well as to canvas affected neighbourhoods to determine people’s precise needs and deliver aid.

Q: What do you think makes the Occupy Sandy operation different from, for example, other state-led operations or those organised by local authorities?

A: At the all-important level of vision and goals, “Occupy Sandy” implies a set of values and understandings – the key thing is that it is “horizontal” and not “vertical”, meaning it is people-to-people solidarity and mutual aid.

As an all-volunteer program, it depends on people’s willingness to give what they can to help others. And there is recognition that the storm hit all of us in various ways, and the damage and hurt caused to those most affected also affects all the rest of us.

In order to heal and protect our broad community, we need to come together, as many of us as possible, and work in solidarity with the most affected victims.

Q: What is your opinion of the debate that surfaced after Sandy on the role of climate change and global warming in contributing to such natural disasters?

A: I share the view of the Occupy Sandy organisers, that this disaster was a direct result of climate change, just as the terrible droughts last summer in the Midwest, which knocked out a huge fraction of the corn and wheat crops, were. It was a wakeup call for all of us that if concrete steps are not taken immediately to reduce and reverse the damage caused by fossil fuels, we can look forward to more disasters of this type.

Also, as Occupy Sandy says, the responsibility lies with the official power structure, which is the captive servant of giant corporations, especially the energy monopolies that only want to profit from fossil fuels, and therefore work hard to prevent a transition to sustainable, renewable energy.

In general, the profit system imposes social structures in which the needs and interests of the general population, especially the poor, come last, while profits come first. This has to change if we are to prevent future disasters.

Q: During the operation, what moment resonated the most with you?

A: I was moved by the Occupy Sandy coordinator who ran the orientation for volunteer canvassers. He insisted on a type of “efficiency” that was slower rather than faster: instead of focusing on the quickest possible delivery of a high volume of supplies, the focus would be on taking the time to understand people’s needs, including their need to be heard and understood.

The coordinator also urged us to find those people in the community who are already emerging as leaders, based on their awareness of other people’s needs and their ability to help get things done. These people, he said, should be supported, and enabled to do more, especially knowing that the current stage of solidarity and struggle will surely be followed by even more challenging stages, in which the communities try to rebuild, and in some cases, resist efforts to displace them by opportunist developers or politicians interested in gentrifying their neighbourhoods, as happened in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina.

Q: How were your experiences in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy?

Where I live in the northwest Bronx, the damage was relatively slight – mainly trees downed. But my wife was recruited to work as a nurse in an evacuation centre. I work in Yonkers, operating a car repair service, that was fortunately spared any physical effects of the storm.

But the Yonkers population was traumatised, with 30 to 40 percent losing electricity, and trees down everywhere. Gas lines were hours long. Our car repair business lost some business, but we were very lucky.

Excerpt:

A street in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, which wreaked havoc along much of the East Coast. Credit: May S. Young/CC by 2.0

By Rebecca Hanser
NEW YORK, Nov 1 2012 (IPS)

As the East Coast deals with the havoc and devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, climate scientists are seeing yet another reason to put climate change and global warming on the current political agenda.

The storm has reignited the hotly debated topics of climate change and global warming, which environmentalists blame for Hurricane Sandy. With recovery an immediate concern, environmental groups also worry about different forms of pollution resulting from the storm.

“Sandy is what happens when the temperature goes up a degree. The scientists who predicted this kind of megastorm have issued another stark warning: if we stay on our current path, our children will live on a super-heated planet that’s four or five degrees warmer than it is right now,” said Bill McKibben, president and co-founder of the climate advocacy movement 350.org, in a press release.

Global warming is caused mainly by human activities such as burning fossil fuels like coal. This operation and others lead to higher concentrations of greenhouse gasses that raise the temperatures of both the oceans and the earth’s atmosphere.

“The fossil fuel industry is causing the climate crisis, leading to more extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy,” McKibben said. “We’re calling on Big Oil to stop spending millions to influence this election and donate the money to disaster relief instead.”

A recent report published by the Rainforest Action Network demonstrated that banks that finance and invest in carbon intensive companies are also responsible for the deteriorating global climate. They also do not properly measure their carbon footprints, despite sufficient and available guidelines to help them do so, according to the report, “Bankrolling Climate Disruption: The Impacts of the Banking Sector’s Financed Emissions“.

Climate change controversy

Not everyone agrees with the claim that global warming and climate change alone have paved the way for Hurricane Sandy.

“It’s a probabilistic issue. You can’t say that Sandy occurred because of climate change, but what you can say is that that such storms are much more likely to happen with contributing factors that include things directly related to climate change,” Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at Environmental Defence Fund, told IPS.

“Could Sandy have happened without climate change? Sure. Is it likely? No,” Hamburg added.

David Biello, an environmental journalist and associate editor at Scientific American, agreed. “Global warming didn’t spawn Sandy but it certainly contributed to the impact, with a couple of features definitely worsening it,” he told IPS.

“Higher sea surface temperatures have made the storm surge stronger,” he explained. “Normally hurricanes come up to the coast and turn right back into the ocean, but as a consequence of the major meltdown of Arctic sea ice this summer, there was a weather pattern preventing Sandy from taking that course, and [it] steered it back into land.”

One conclusion on which experts do agree is that the frequency and intensity of hurricanes like Sandy will increase over time.

“Global warming was probably a small but significant factor for Sandy. But it’s a factor that will grow over time,” Michael Oppenheimer, climate scientist and professor at Princeton University, told IPS.

“Such massive storms only happen once every 100 years, and now this kind of event is becoming more frequent, which is a huge challenge for human adaptation and resilience of our infrastructure,” Biello elaborated.

Hamburg agreed, noting, “we’re not seeing more hurricanes…It is more the different types of storms, the intensity of the storm surge.”

A political storm

Hurricane Sandy has broken the so-called “climate silence” of this year’s elections. The storm has thrown a wrench into campaign efforts, halting activities Monday and Tuesday as it became impossible to ignore the topic of climate change, which has penetrated the national dialogue.

“The presidential candidates decided not to speak about climate change, but climate change has decided to speak to them,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, in a press release.

Biello, the environmental journalist, believed otherwise. “I’d like to think so, but we’ve had several wake-up calls along the way, of which the biggest was Katrina, which wiped…New Orleans of the map. Unfortunately, up until now, not much progress has been made.”

Immediate concerns

The New York-based organisation Riverkeeper expressed concern about the increase in water pollution due to floating debris, oil spills, and other chemicals leaking from the fuel tanks of swamped vehicles and boats, all of which are contaminating the waters of the Hudson River and New York Harbour.

Riverkeeper also stressed the danger to public health caused by sewage overflows, which are already considered a “chronic problem”.

In a press release, the group explained that although sewage overflow is common during moderate or heavy storms, the contamination with Sandy was different because during the storm surge sewage, spilled back onto roads and into homes instead of being discharged into the river or harbour.

“This storm is not yet over,” said U.S. President Obama in a speech Tuesday at the Red Cross headquarters. “There is no time for inaction. Recovery is going to take a significant amount of time.”