Category Archives: Viva!

United Airlines scandals: Mexican man falsely accused of trafficking daughter on United flight | In English | EL PAÍS – Racism Trumps Common Sense again

The officer attempted to calm Furfey, explaining that both her husband and her daughter were safe and well but that another passenger had accused her husband of child trafficking after noting that “my fair-skinned daughter didn’t look like her Mexican father.”“This passenger had no basis for this claim, nor any evidence to back it up,” said Furfey, adding that the female passenger who had made the accusation was “obviously inebriated” and had displayed a “strange obsession” with her daughter during the flight.When the plane landed at Newark, Port Authority and Customs and Border Patrol officers boarded and escorted Furfey’s husband and daughter from the aircraft before the other passengers had disembarked. They then asked Furfey’s husband for details of his daughter’s place of birth and wanted to know where her birth certificate had been issued. During this interrogation, her daughter began to cry uncontrollably, Furfey recounts.All of Furfey’s husband’s papers were in order and he was carrying a notarized letter stating that he had permission to take her daughter to Mexico on a family visit. On the phone, Furfey corroborated her husband’s responses and authorities appeared satisfied. But they said it wasn’t worth investigating the mental state of the passenger who had made the initial accusation.We never thought flight attendants on United would take the passenger’s observation seriouslyMAURA FURFEYFurfey later complained to the customer service department of United, and received a $100 travel voucher. But she has said that she and her family will never travel on the airline again.“We never thought […] that flight attendants on a major airline – United Airlines – would choose to take such an observation [from a passenger] seriously,” she said of the incident.

Source: United Airlines scandals: Mexican man falsely accused of trafficking daughter on United flight | In English | EL PAÍS

Listen to Bruce Springsteen’s Anti-Trump Protest Song :: Music :: Features :: Bruce Springsteen :: Paste

If Bruce Springsteen’s feelings about Donald Trump weren’t already crystal clear, his new protest anthem, recorded with old friend and Houserockers frontman Joe Grushesky, should do the trick.

Source: Listen to Bruce Springsteen’s Anti-Trump Protest Song :: Music :: Features :: Bruce Springsteen :: Paste

Ivanka Trump trademarks approved in China on the same day she dined with Xi Jinping: Shanghaiist – Nothing against her but this should not be… it is called corruption of government by most people

While Ivanka Trump was sitting down to enjoy a meal of pan-seared dove sole, Thumbelina carrots and the most beautiful chocolate cake along with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month at her father’s Mar-a-Lago resort, she was also being granted provisional approval for three new trademarks in China. Which is really quite the coinkydink.

Source: Ivanka Trump trademarks approved in China on the same day she dined with Xi Jinping: Shanghaiist

Woman Punched By White Supremacist In Berkeley Speaks Out: SFist

Fairly soon, the 5-foot, 1-inch Rosealma, who weighs 95 pounds, says she found herself cornered near a wall, and she says “I was just trying to block myself away from different people who were just pushing me and attacking other people.”Then, she says, “From the corner of my eye I saw this fist coming at me,” and she says “[Damigo] punched me on the bridge of my nose. It cut it a little bit. I got thrown down and I’m pretty sure he just ran [away]. I got right back up. I was punched twice more by two other people. People kept trying to throw me down to hit my head on the rocks that were in the planter. I was just trying to not get my skull cracked open.” She soon found her boyfriend nearby covered in blood.Rosealma was likely targeted because she was wearing all black and sported dreadlocks, trademarks of the “antifa” as the alt-right calls them, though it’s unclear if anything occurred prior to the moment caught on video to provoke the attack.And she wants to set the record straight about a Facebook post she wrote that the alt-right has taken out of context to prove that she was there to do harm. She wrote, “Heading to Berkeley to disrupt the neo-Nazi / white supremacist jerk circle today. Nervous af but determined to bring back 100 nazi scalps.” This was a reference to a line from Inglorious Basterds, she explains. “I guess no has seen Quentin Tarantino movies. I thought that was going to be obvious, but I guess not.” (The line, delivered by Brad Pitt’s character, is “Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps!”)

Source: Woman Punched By White Supremacist In Berkeley Speaks Out: SFist

Humans of New York

“I knew nothing about the guerrillas before I joined them. The only thing I knew was that they lived better than me. I grew up on a farm in a rural area. We were very poor. My mother abandoned our family so I had to take care of my younger siblings. My father was a good man, but he didn’t give me any liberties. He didn’t let me go to town. He didn’t let me go to school. He didn’t let me have a boyfriend. I wanted freedom, and the guerrillas seemed like my only way out. They used to drive by our farm in their jeeps. They seemed powerful. Even the women wore camouflage. One day the guerrillas stopped by our farm to buy some chickens, and I told them I wanted to join. I was only thirteen years old. They told me to meet them at a certain spot at 5 AM the next morning. I didn’t even say ‘goodbye’ to my father. They told me that I was never allowed to speak to my family again.” (Bogotá, Colombia)

Source: Humans of New York

Nile and Orphans #uganda #atozchallenge #Acholi

penned in moon dust

The water’s stories flow

she laps against my boat

pages of history turning

one torn proffered note

lazy sun lulled to sleep

 one hand in the nile

not very far off

 slanted eye, crocodile

a swish of his tail

for my hand it’s too late

better learn from history

spilt blood is her fate

awaken to the falls

book falls from my hand

so much life has been lived

on this river beauty, grand

*

can’t count the drops

seasons droughts and floods

orphans plentiful

Celebrating the strength and  beauty of the Acholi people and the Nile on this A to Z challenge Monday.

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Palestinians Hunger Strike..اناديكم

All those moments of frustration and helpless while I can move around freely and with what seems to be a great comfort. A pretentious luxurious life under occupation….

To boldly realize, with shame. That there are thousands of Palestinians, suffering in what I claim to be suffering trillions of moments that sum up to many lives in imprisonment. By the same occupier, who must be millions of times worse than the soldier who shoots, or kills or simply harass our daily bare existence…

As the prisoners call for an open hunger strike this day … I pray for real liberation and solidarity … Because if anyone deserves freedom, it is those… who sacrificed their freedom for such a cause…once called liberation.

نادية حرحش

Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons started today their hunger strike in protest to Israeli violations of their rights.

I have to admit that I did not think it through much before. I just think of how unbearable it is to be in prison. How much it is basic to protest and call for your liberation. But then I realized that the protest is not just about liberation, it is in principle about the PRISONERS rights inside the prisons.

I had to stop for a real long moment, and my life as a Palestinian outside prison was passing through me at the moment. Each time I move y a checkpoint, and I complain. Each time I stand in awe in front of a segregation wall and think how fascist these people are. Each time I look at myself and think, God I made it for the day. My children are…

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