The EUâs Kafkaesque Crisis Regulation
The EU is set to overhaul its migration and border policies prior to June 2024.
The centerpiece of the new policy is mandatory relocation and redistribution of migrants across member states, but will include âstricter measuresâ for asylum, such as extending the detention period at borders beyond the legal 12-week maximum.
Critics say this will open the floodgates to mass confinement and incarceration.
Those in favor of the new legislation suggest it will expedite asylum applications for those escaping armed conflict and quicken access to residence, employment, education, and social assistance.
At least three times this week consensus was blocked on the âCrisis Regulationâ bill â by Germany, and twice by Italy.
The main controversy for EU member states is "mandatory solidarity" which leaves countries three choices: accept a certain number of relocated asylum seekers within their borders, pay âŹ20,000 for the return of individuals denied, or provide financial support for infrastructure and personnel.
Earlier in the week Italyâs far-right government received concessions that member states not be held to standards on reception conditions for migrantsâ arrival, and NGOs would not be under âundue pressureâ to carry out search and rescue missions.Â
Then Germany threatened to veto the vote on the basis of human rights and humanitarian safeguarding concerns. But a steep increase in migrant crossings along the German border with Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as upcoming elections in Bavaria and Hesse and a surge of the far-right AfD to 21% in opinion polls â suggest itâs possible Germany stalled due to internal pressure.
This comes just as Oxfam is accusing the EU of violating rules of international humanitarian aid by using its funds to block migration in the Mediterranean.
The report published a week ago reveals EU-funded migration actions in Niger, Libya and Tunisia worth âŹ667 million breach the aid rules set out by the OECD, including offering funds to coast guards that have directly fired on migrants.
Who owns us?Â
Felliniâs incomparable Nights of Cabiria is the first and last movie my husband and I ever saw in a cinema (grazie a Covid).
The film follows the misadventures of a spunky, irrepressibly optimistic prostitute in Roma in the late 50s â played by Felliniâs wife, the Italian, female Charlie Chaplin of slapstick, Giuletta Masina.Â
Prostitution, as the oldest human profession, asks an uncomfortable question: What are we willing to do for money?
Yet Le Notte di Cabiria seems to argue for all the ways our lives and characters extend beyond and surpass whatever it is we do for a living.Â
This summer New Yorkers were transfixed by the hunt for and eventual capture of the Long Island serial killer. In the reporting, it became clear the vast majority of his victims were sex workers.
This is true of many serial killer cases, not only because of the fact sex workers are more âaccessibleâ, but due to a perception that sex work places people below the interest of society or the law. Killers reason no one will investigate their murder, and/or that the investigation when it comes, will be slower and less painstaking.
In Felliniâs moving portrait, sex workers are the most ethical characters. The prostitute is his hero.
Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Negri said we ought to question the idea of âsovereigntyâ, that is, control, as our absolute aim.
Who is the sovereign after all? Itâs the ruler, the one who rules over others; who gets to decide for themselves, and for others.Â
Cabiria isnât sovereign as far as being able to control much about her environment. Rather sheâs constantly confronted with unpleasant realities kept far out of sight of âclassierâ women, exposed to condescension and worse. Â
But we might dream of being like Cabiria, and having what she has: a sense of joy intact.Â
Afterthoughts on the Anti-Colonial Coup in Niger
In the days following the successful coup in late July, there was a scuffle as the French government sought to confirm the new military government in Niger wouldnât block exports of uranium to France.
To put this in perspective, Niger is the worldâs 7th largest exporter of uranium, and remains responsible for one-fifth of all uranium imported to Europe. The majority of Nigerâs uranium goes directly to French nuclear power plants.Â
This coup occurred days before Niger's National Day of Independence on 3 August, marking 63 years since the country's independence from France in 1960.Â
Nigerâs former president, Mohamed Bazoum was a trusted ally of France â military and governmental advisers from Paris have continued to be a part of Nigerâs government since independence.
During the coup and the days afterward, crowds could be heard chanting "Down with France" while smashing in windows and setting fire to the perimeter walls of the French embassy.
In response, President Emmanuel Macron in the ĂlysĂŠe Palace 2,000 miles away stated that any assault on France and its interests would not be tolerated.Â
This sounded unsettlingly like the complaint of a colonial ruler. Until July, France had maintained a garrison of 1,500 troops in Niger, along with an air force base complete with fighter jets and attack drones.
Post-decolonization, France has quietly preserved a quasi-empire in Africa. French is still the official language for 25 million Nigeriens.
But the most shocking remainder of French colonial power is the CFA (African Financial Community) franc, the former French national currency, one of the primary ways France maintains its monetary control over much of Africa. (The U.S. supported such arrangements in much of the postcolonial world in the hope French influence would ward off socialism and the Soviets.)Â
Mali and Burkina Faso, both in proximity to Niger, also have had military coups as of 2020, 2021 and 2022. All uprisings and collective protests have included outspoken resentment and chanting against France as ongoing colonial occupiers.Â
In July and August, news outlets reported on the danger of increased influence from Russia, who could capitalize on the âinstabilityâ in Africa. Along with anti-French cries, pro-Russian cheers and Russian flag waving proliferated at public rallies in support of the new military government. Wagner offered support to the rebels.Â
The Nigerien coup has been said to threaten a $13-billion dollar project to build a gas pipeline connecting gas fields in Nigeria to Europe, which would pass straight through Niger.
Following the EUâs decision to wean itself off Russian gas last year, the pipeline alone would explain Europeâs sudden sense of urgency over African politics.Â
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