Category Archives: Fail!

Why women need to keep marching in Italy – The Local

“During the Women’s March I not only saw a strong, courageous, and emotional demonstration, but I felt a new energy which I’ve rarely felt during other public demonstrations: togetherness between protesters of different ages, genders, sexual orientations and religions.”

Source: Why women need to keep marching in Italy – The Local

The Humiliation of Entering The United States As Arab | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Ten years later, after months of back and forth with the Embassy and papers flowing in and out, I was finally given a visitor’s visa for 5 years on my third try, routine for Lebanese citizens who were granted the document as far as I know. A few months later, I visited the United States of America for the first time ever.On my second visit, the border control officer said his system “couldn’t process” me, so I was taken into another room where, an hour and another interrogation later, I was permitted entry to come into the US to do my medical residency interviews. This happened again on my third entry, with longer waiting times. Entering the US has been the most invasive thing to my being, and I’ve survived medical school.It’s also what has been happening to many of my colleagues and friends: doctors, scientists, researchers, humans. Just because they were unfortunate enough to be born in countries that are not worthy of enough of having their citizens treated with the minimum of human decency. I can tell you stories about physicians who were kept in those rooms for four hours, waiting for who knows what. It’s never easy to sit there and not know what’s going to happen to you, just because you dared seek entry of a foreign country that you’ve already been thoroughly vetted to be given a visa to.

Source: The Humiliation of Entering The United States As Arab | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

100+ Asian American & Pacific Islander Organizations Pledge to Resist Repression Under Trump Administration | Race Files

Mr. Trump’s campaign used explicit racial appeals to win the support of disaffected white voters, promising to restore their economic and social standing by deporting millions of immigrants, building a wall, creating a Muslim registry, banning Muslim immigration, and punishing Black dissent. He also engaged in deeply misogynistic language and behavior throughout his campaign. He insulted all people of color; people with disabilities; and women – all of whom amount to the majority of America. In the global arena, he has signaled at a new nuclear arms race, promised to expand the use of torture, and disparaged the United Nations.Since his election, Mr. Trump has chosen known white nationalists, corporate moguls, religious zealots, climate deniers, hawkish ex-generals, anti-Islam spokespersons, and anti-government crusaders to serve in his Administration. Right-wing extremists now dominate his party, which will control all three branches of the federal government and the majority of state legislatures, and are positioned to jeopardize the future of the Supreme Court for the next generation and beyond. Together this new realignment of forces seeks to turn back the clock on civil rights and environmental protections, to maximize corporate profits by privatizing the public sector, and to create a racially and culturally exclusive America.This is not business as usual, and we will not engage in business-as-usual tactics and strategies.

Source: 100+ Asian American & Pacific Islander Organizations Pledge to Resist Repression Under Trump Administration | Race Files

Russia to target Merkel with ‘more disinformation’ ahead of vote – The Local

Chancellor Angel Merkel will face an even broader Russian disinformation campaign ahead of elections this year, according to EU findings, a source close to the matter said on Monday.The source, who asked not to be identified, told reporters that France and the Netherlands were also likely targets as they too go to the polls with populist, anti-EU figures strongly in the running after Donald Trump’s upset US election victory.The source said the East StratCom Task Force set up in 2015 to combat a Russian disinformation campaign found Merkel had come under increasing attack last year, especially over her decision to let nearly a million immigrants into Germany.EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini formed the group in the fallout from the Ukraine crisis when Moscow manipulated information in the press and over social networks to wrong-foot Kiev and the 28-nation bloc about its intentions.The team of about ten experts and Russian-speakers monitors news stories, be it about Ukraine, the migrant crisis or terror attacks in Europe which show Western leaders in a poor light.It aims to demonstrate that apparently authoritative stories are  fake and so counter their impact.According to a statement on the group’s website, over the past 15 months it found “more than 2,500 examples in 18 languages of stories contradicting publicly available facts.”

Source: Russia to target Merkel with ‘more disinformation’ ahead of vote – The Local

I Kept Feeling the Women’s March on Washington Lacked Passion, But Then I Figured the Real Problem – The Ladies Finger The Ladies Finger

As I chanted “No Trump. No KKK. No Fascist USA,” I looked into the faces of the marchers around me, and I got my answer: Americans are not accustomed to this. Most of these hundreds of thousands of people had probably never been to a protest before, and never marched with their children and their parents and screamed at the top of their lungs in the middle of a metropolitan road. This was their first time, their introduction to taking the streets. What I assumed was a lack of passion turned out to be something equally important: a first step. The million people: women, men, children, and allies who marched on Washington, did not have the experience of fighting against overt oppression, but they knew they needed to show up; they knew they must be united in the face of a new era that will have them fight for the rights they have long taken for granted. On this day, the American Woman showed up, she rose to the occasion, and though she was hesitant, she was determined.We arrived at the White House, filling the National Mall with pink pussy hats and chants of “my body, my rights”, and made our presence known. Soon after people started to scatter, but for the rest of the day, one could not go anywhere without running into someone with a sign or a pussy hat. This may not be the desperate protest that started a revolution against a Middle Eastern dictatorship, but it is the American woman beginning her fight. The movement has begun.

Source: I Kept Feeling the Women’s March on Washington Lacked Passion, But Then I Figured the Real Problem – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Growing up in fear of men – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

I was 14 the first time a boy kissed me. It was during a Math class. I needed to use the washroom, and he came out a minute after I did. I didn’t want it. He wasn’t gentle about it. I still remember his nails digging into my arms. I remember how long it took. I remember his hand grabbing my waist, his grip in my hair, his tongue in my mouth, and his teeth scraping my lips. I remember how hard his grip was when he was grabbing my breasts.This was the same boy who became the face of my nightmares for two years. Sebastian made jokes about it in class: about my body, about what he wanted to do to me. The boys laughed; the girls rolled their eyes. The Math teacher ignored it all. I smiled along with the girls who insisted that he liked me. I cried when I was alone. I cried a lot over those two years. Fourteen-year-old me didn’t even know that I had the ability to cry so much.The first boy I was ever infatuated with was in the same Math class. I liked him. He was nice to me. He made me laugh. I was happy when he was around. Sebastian didn’t like that. He made it his mission to become friends with the boy I liked. I never knew in detail what it was that Sebastian said to him; what it was that made him ashamed to be around me. I didn’t know if Sebastian even told him about the kiss, or if he made it sound consensual. My crush started avoiding me, making me feel like I wasn’t good enough. After a while, I didn’t think I was good enough for anyone either.Looking back, I’m not disappointed in myself anymore. After a while I told people. I told teachers, and I told other girls who had been through similar experiences. The teachers were the biggest disappointments. It isn’t reasonable to expect children to protect other children.  Teachers are supposed to have a duty towards the children they teach. The adult figures in my life failed me. It shouldn’t have taken me screaming and crying in class one day for a teacher to actually remove him from the class. That same male teacher shouldn’t have told me, when I raised my voice because Sebastian wouldn’t stop, that ‘it took two to tango.’

Source: Growing up in fear of men – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

When a Palestinian girl is shot and killed ‘by accident’ | +972 Magazine

Samah’s father, Abed, finished his work in the field at around midday, informing his daughters that he would pick them up from Nablus. The mother, Halleh, and younger brother A. also came along for the ride. After some shopping in the city they started back home. After an hour the family’s car reached Hawara checkpoint. They passed the checkpoint without any other cars ahead of them; soldiers were present, but they did not try and stop the car. Then shots rang out. The front windshield was smashed. After that came the screams.Abed shouted for the passengers to duck. The car lurched on for a short distance, and then stopped. When Abed looked back, Samah was bleeding from her head. The hospital will later determine that a bullet went through her forehead, having found an exit wound.A Red Crescent ambulance in the area evacuated Samah to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. The rest of the family members hopped in a cab, and the two vehicles headed north back toward the checkpoint, where they were delayed. The soldiers refused to let the ambulance pass to Nablus. Abed, heated, asked the soldiers “Why did you kill my daughter?” “She had a knife,” they answered. He screamed at them: “A knife, what knife? She was holding a knife while sitting in a car with her mother and her siblings?”

Source: When a Palestinian girl is shot and killed ‘by accident’ | +972 Magazine

Lebanon’s Parliament Ridicules And Votes Down Anti-Sexual & Racial Harassment Law | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

If you needed anymore proof that the current batch of patriarchal parliament members are no good, look no further than their constant ridicule and systematic decimation of women rights. Even the law they passed to “protect” women from domestic abuse a few years ago was passed in a near stillborn form after decades of labor.A few days ago, that parliament struck again when MP Ghassan Moukhaiber’s proposed law from 2014, aimed at criminalizing sexual and racial harassment, came up for a discussion and a vote. Instead of behaving in a civil manner and actually discussing the many merits of the law, which is of vital importance for the betterment of any society, our parliament members met the proposal with uproars and ridicule.

Source: Lebanon’s Parliament Ridicules And Votes Down Anti-Sexual & Racial Harassment Law | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Anne Applebaum Interview About President Donald Trump – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Applebaum: I don’t want to predict calamity. But I am afraid of a new Russian occupation of parts of Eastern Europe. Also of a new Russian campaign to exert influence in Germany or other parts Europe, aimed at making continental politics less democratic. I am afraid of a US trade war and even a shooting war with China.

Source: Anne Applebaum Interview About President Donald Trump – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Donald Trump presidency: A man baby in the White House | In English | EL PAÍS

The most abnormal thing is his character; that the richest, most powerful and most influential nation on the planet is going to have as its president a “man baby,” as he was defined with terrifying lucidity by the US political humorist Jon Stewart. Trump is a 70-year-old man with the emotional development of, well, perhaps not a newborn baby, but certainly a spoiled elementary school brat.

Source: Donald Trump presidency: A man baby in the White House | In English | EL PAÍS