Spain is still the preferred route to Europe for many Africans seeking a better life through illegal immigration, but the number of those making the dangerous ocean crossing in flimsy boats has been sharply reduced this year.
Fassara Keita, 26, considers himself among the fortunate. He says he was working as a security guard in his native Mali, but fled a death threat. He walked and rode buses to reach Morocco.
From there, he paid 750 euros ($1,050) last July for a ride in a small boat with 34 other immigrants, which took three days to reach Fuerteventura, one of Spain's Canary Islands.
Arriving without documentation, he was held for 39 days on Fuerteventura, received aid from the Red Cross, and then was flown to Madrid.
"I am asking for asylum. I don't know when I'll get my papers," Keita told CNN. "But I'm better off here than in Mali."
Not all are so lucky. Just this week, six Africans died trying to reach Spain. The boats are flimsy, overcrowded, the crossing perilous. Some flee danger; many others seek jobs.
The Spanish government says illegal crossings by boat reaching all Spanish shores have declined by 60 percent this year, compared with last. The decline is 67 percent for the boats specifically reaching Spain's Canary Islands this year. About 31,000 illegal immigrants arrived by boat last year to the Canaries, which lie a mere 67 miles (110 km) off the coast of northwest Africa.
Officials say the decline is due to increased patrols off the west African coast, in cooperation with the European Union and some African countries. Another factor, they say, is the planeloads of immigrants - more than 6,500 this year alone - who have been sent back to Africa.
Spanish authorities say there's still much work to do.
"As long as the boats keep coming and as long as there's even one death in the Atlantic, we must work forcefully to end clandestine immigration," said Consuelo Rumi, Spain's Secretary of State for Immigration.
Rumi said "the only ones who can be blamed" are the mafias which traffic in humans, and "trick, defraud and extort" the immigrants when offering the clandestine boat rides.
In Madrid, the Roman Catholic Church supports a center catering to African immigrants. It is called Karibu, which means "welcome" in Swahili, said Karibu director Antonio Diaz de Freijo. Diaz de Freijo worked for 12 years as missionary in Africa before helping to start Karibu 20 years ago.
As many as 4,000 African immigrants a year get clothing, food, medical attention and advice at Karibu. But the director says what they really need are working papers.
"The people we serve can't work and fully integrate into society," Diaz de Freijo said. "That's what separates sub-Saharan Africans here from other immigrants."
A Spanish government amnesty two years ago allowed 600,000 illegal immigrants to become legal. But some experts say many sub-Saharan Africans were left out, because they didn't have even the basic documentation to present to authorities.
Immigrants from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa now make up nine percent of Spain's population of 45 million. Morocco and Romania are the leading sources, with more than 500,000 immigrants from each nation, while Ecuador has sent more than 400,000.
The total number of immigrants from the combined, numerous sub-Saharan African countries is far less, but their plight on the boats has sparked a great deal of media attention, some experts say.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is due to speak about immigration at a summit meeting of European Union and Africa nations this weekend in Lisbon, his office said in a statement.
Zapatero is expected to propose a European-African pact based on three principals: developing employment and opportunities for young Africans to help them remain at home; a policy of managing legal migration that includes developing infrastructure as a key to growth, and a firm policy against the clandestine trafficking of illegal immigrants.
In Madrid at the Karibu center, a motorcycle mechanic from Liberia, who gave his name only as Charles, told CNN he'd rather try to get official paperwork to remain in Spain than return home.
"Going back to my country, that is going to be the most difficult," Charles said. "I prefer to live this kind of life in Spain."
Canada recently had a general election. The conservative party has formed a minority government.
Mr Harper, the prime minister-elect, has appointed Michael Fortier, a member of his campaign team, as Minister of Public Works. In doing so, he has put control of the majority of Canada's federal governmental spending, regulation of all public lands and property, and the execution of any government member's bidding firmly outside the system of checks and balances which our parliamentary democracy exists to provide.
Mr. Harper has placed control of Canada's cheque- and rule-books in the hands of an unaccountable, non-representative individual.
He has also appointed Mr. Fortier to the senate, the body which, under Canada's parliamentary system, serves to hold parliament accountable to the interests of the country at large.
In other words, Mr Fortier, inaccessible to the remained of parliament (he is not a member of parliament, and is therefore unable to sit/speak in the house) is effectively accountable to himself only.
I have sent the below letter to my member of parliament. I urge all Canadians to do the same. (http://www.parl.gc.ca allows you to look up your MP and obtain their email address). You will need to include your full name and address (with postal code - important!) in your email or letter, as these are used to ensure that correspondence has been sent to the correct member of parliament. MPs act based on the opinions expressed to them by their constituents. Use the power that you have to help take back the house!
(Incidentally, it is the 80th anniversary of the first and last time that a Governor General refused to dissolve parliament upon the fall of a government. High time for a repeat! Write to her, too!)
-m
--------------
Mr Peterson,
As many other Canadians, and, I am certain, yourself, I am deeply concerned about the Prime Minister's recent appointment of Mr. Fortier to the ministry of public works.
It is my understanding that only members of parliament may sit and speak in the house. It is also my understanding that the senate serves as a check/balance on parliament. How, then, can an unelected minister, unaccountable to parliament by virtue of having no right to speak in the house in the same breath sit in judgement of and hold accountable that same house with a seat in the senate?
Handing the reigns of the public works ministry to an unaccountable, unrepresenting functionary strikes me as a fundamental blow to the very political philosophy upon which our system of representation and governance are based. It is most definitely does not lend any credence to the motto of 'good governance'.
I urge you to take all possible measures to see that this government falls at the earliest opportunity!
Microsoft had a draw the other month to give away copies of the big moo. Great stuff. Thirty-three strong business thinkers throwing out ideas about how to go from passable to brilliant.
I bought an ericsson T39m on ebay last week. Cost me CAD$50 including shipping to Toronto from New York.
The model is just over four years old, but is solid as anything. I love Ericsson's old industrial design - that great flat back with chunky antenna; gorgeous!
Holy smokes. It's been 5 years since we started TIG. A lot has happened in that time. A LOT! It all started in Jen's basement, with Mike, Martin, Aaron, Vittoria, Jen, Jarra, Andy, Myself, and occasionally various members of Jen's family :) We'd work on ideas about what TIG should and shouldn't be. We'd sit for hours typing stuff into the databases of opportunities, and events (although Vittoria did a lot of it herself).
What did *I* do at TIG? Mostly I was an ideas guy. I tried to come up with new features, and to keep the organization focussed on what it was, exactly, that we wanted to be doing. I pushed for us to have an 'elevator pitch', which is just a short way of telling someone what the organization did, in a very easy to understand way. I communicated with many members (Alex Stanley, Alexis, Taikod, and many more). I learned how to have fun again.
I made The Workshop Kit, which I understand more than 5000 of you have downloaded! w00t!
I helped hire Maria Lanza and Vanessa Currie who were/are both awesome! I believe Maria is now teaching sign language, and Vanessa is on the coast of India doing tsunami relief work.
I also got us funding to visit the TIG Slovakia office, in Kremnica, Slovakia, which was operated by Maya Lackova and Petra Machacova.
It was my first time overseas, and the trip of a lifetime. Thanks to Georg & Branislav, we spoke at a conference called "Global Networks" in Bratislava, promoting TIG and "Hope Networks", which is essentially what TIG has always been.
I actually blogged all about the trip on this very blog, which at the time was called an "Update", because blogging hadn't been invented yet. Incidentally, TIG Updates was half my idea and half Mike's idea. I proposed a tool that would allow users to post their thoughts and pictures, so that we (the 5 or 6 official TIG employees) could better keep up with what our members were doing. Mike had the awesome idea of making those posts public instead of having them only available to TIG Staff. Peanut butter + Jelly = Awesome :)
Anyway, I'm ranting...
At TIG we always tried to think of ways to connect with one another, across the world, and without spending much money -- because we didn't have any. Part of our mantra in those early days was "You don't need money to create something worthwhile".
Unfortunately for me, I did need money to pay my rent, and to start paying off my student loans. Consequently, I had to leave my job at TIG after just a year and a half. I'm glad that I was there for that time, though. It was one of the best times of my life. I met so many great people! TIG is a magnet for great people, like you!
Luckily for me, I didn't give up my dream of changing the world, or helping make it better, when I left TIG -- and believe you me, TIG has been with me every step of the way.
After my fulltime work at TIG, I became an instructor of web development at Humber College, where I got to influence over a thousand young people. I told them all about TIG. I know that some of them joined, and a few of my students even got super involved in TIG! I was super happy about that, and still am.
After Humber I worked for myself for a bit, doing freelance web development... It wasn't very fulfilling though, so when I got the chance to do a 6 month contract with Human Rights Internet through NetCorps, I jumped at the chance!
Guess what I did as soon as I got to Croatia? I logged on to TIG and found Croatia's Most Active TIG Member, at the time. Her name was Irena Curin, and the pic attached to this post is of us at the Bosko Petrovic Jazz (Djez) Club near the main square (trg) in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia. We got to be great friends while I was there, and spent many an evening drinking coffee and talking about the position of youth in the world.
My time in Croatia was THE best time I've ever had.
I'm so thankful for all the people there who made my stay enjoyable (Irena Curin, Dinko Cindric, Emina, Cvijeta, Danijela Babic, Tanja Rukavina, Darko Ljubic, Sandra Oskorus, Marko Strpic, Igor, Vesna, Branimir Sloser, Sonnet, The Rachels, Cassie, everyone at Mama Club, and many more).
When I got back from Croatia, the first thing I did was visit the new TIG office, just to say hello. Happily, I arrived just as Mike and Jen were announcing their engagement. What great timing! I was so happy to have been there for that.
Then I got a job doing web development downtown. Lucky me. Then I went to 4 of my best friends weddings. Then I broke my ankle and both bones in my lower right leg. Then I joined a choir, started taking boxing lessons, and learning guitar. Then my grandfather died.
Somewhere in those past 4 years I also dated a few lovely girls/women, and they know who they are.
That pretty much brings us up to date.
I'm still in physio therapy for my leg, which is coming along nicely. I enjoy being able to walk again, even though I now have a bit of a limp. Walking is awesome. I love walking (now I do -- before it was just kind of ok).
I'm sure the future holds a lot of cool stuff for all of us, so into the future we go!
I'm in the process of planning/putting together a podshow that will bring exposure and awareness of major issues and questions faced by youth internationally in today's world.
From youth in military service to the shocking reality of the AIDS crisis in developing nations, the State of the Youth Nation will present weekly(?) the experiences and impressions of us, the world's young, and feature panel discussions with experts to further underscore the relevance of these topics.
Using the topic of youth in military service as an example, the show might present a report from a person from a location where children have been involved in combat, a report from a teenager in England, participating in a combined cadet force program, and a discussion with a group of experts.
But this cannot become a reality without your participation! I'm looking to you, the great, engaged, excited, and connected members of TIG to be the voice of youth in your country, and contribute ten-minute reports to the show.
How will this all work? It's very simple. Start by writing a brief proposal: it needs to include the topic you want to talk about; what personal connection, if any, you have to it; how it affects you, your peers, and your country/region; what resources you have available to record your report; and a brief outline of your proposed report: what perspective will you be taking, any individuals you will be interviewing (who,why).
Please keep in mind that, as this is an entirely voluntary project, I cannot provide you with equipment to make your recordings, nor funds for computer time to digitise and upload your report.
Proposals, show suggestions, and comments are all welcome: please email them to youthnation@thoughtguy.com!
A culture, I am told, is the result of continuous aggregation of experiences and memories, expressions and struggles, lessons and prophecies. How terrifying, then, to watch Israel hold a torch to the fabric of its culture and, through her actions, render the agony of centuries past irrelevant. Spitting in the face of global pledges to "never again" allow crimes of the type and scale committed against Europe's Jewish populations, Israel is turning Palestine into its very own private ghetto. "Awake, O Israel," and stand up against the evils that you faced; "Cease from your slumber," and stop those who would unleash it again upon the world.
Toronto Pride is seeking volunteers for Pride weekend (Weekend after next!!!)!
We've got one more volunteer orientation session coming up this MONDAY, June 21st. Call 416-92-PRIDE to volunteer - they'll give you the details about the volunteer orientation.
It's great fun (this'll be my sixth year volunteering with Pride), you meet a ton of great people, and, well, when else do you get to help make a party for a million people a reality?
The youth hostel my sister and I are staying at is on the northwestern outskirts of Rome - right beside a tennis tournament that has, apparently, been beset by disaster - fire at the players' hotel - and is rather weird - skanky.
We arrived after about 24 hrs of travelling, having left our grandparents' house at around 9am on the monday, arriving around noon on the tuesday. On the way we discovered that, oddly for a major city, London completely shuts down at around 10.30pm - we got kicked out of the coach station at midnight, and had to perch on awkward fences until our bus to Stansted airport at 2.30am.
The flight to Rome was a hyped up smelly coach on wings... Ryanair is great for cheap flights, but only if you can cope with tiny seats, minimally exchanged air, and total lack of service. Meh.
Got in, and slept for a few hours.
Came downtown today.
See above.
Currently trying to kill about an hour's time (strange, huh?), because i'm getting the photos from my camera burned to cd - CAD$13... not too bad, considering that there is 2.52gb of data to be burned :P
The poor lady that runs the place had a bit of a shock when I told her how much data there was...
...ah well.
So tired, so overheated, so dehydrated.
Thank god for immodium...
Going to wait for this burning and copying to be finished, then i guess we'll head back to the youth hostel for some rest, a shower, and then come back down to the Spanish Steps... I dunno about that one, though...
...ah well.
I would post a photo from here, but my camera produces RAW images only... no jpegs from this baby, and since I left my laptop at my grandparents' house, getting at them will have to wait a little while.
Again - meh.
Oka - time to go find something else to do on here other than post updates...
...going to be in rome in May - 11th to the 15th. Anyone know of cheap hotel-type places? (I don't want to stay at the youth hostel... sharing a room with 19 random people is a bit off-putting for me...) And I don't know if I want to be asking to sleep on someone's sofa (my sister is going to be with me) because I don't wanna be a burden :P
