Category: Migrancy
Namibia I
Preparing to travel to Luderitz next week to visit the newly opened (Sept. 2024) Namibian Maritime Museum, with an invitation from director Dr. Angel Tordesillas for a tour (and now, as it turns out we’re traveling on the same flight from Windhoek to Luderitz, an offer of transport from the airport and around town). Learning…
Landlocked ports: eSwatini
I learned in 2024 that SD (Swaziland then) was registered as a port during Apartheid to avoid the sanctions against RSA at the time. Still the case, apparently:
Copenhagen II
Part of UN City Copenhagen, apparently the biggest humanitarian warehouse in the world: Bit difficult to square with its proximity to what used to be a cruise terminal and now an exclusive Padel club. We didn’t see limousines, but plenty of Teslas.
Missing Persons (I)
From the BBC: And from another piece on how many people cross the channel in small boats, confirming that so far 2023 is the only year to have seen a decrease:* *Surely not thanks to fishy Rishi and his floating hostels and other silly ideas? And finally: Looking at you, Fishy.
DALI vs. Francis Scott Bridge (II)
(Ed. note – couldn’t decide if this was a part deux (II) or needs a new category… Boxship SOS? Boxes Stopping? BoxStop! StopBox? Agency is slippery here.) Today is Good Friday, when Jesus dies again, and 45 real people have just been reported dead in Limpopo after the bus they were traveling on from Gaborone…
Outside the Frame: Ramallah
Less than a month ago I messaged my sister to ask if she was OK after learning that she was in Ramallah for work. Today, in that terrifying party or the world (thanks, WhatsApp), this: And these images of Palestinians going about prayers during Ramadan next to the rubble of a destroyed mosque: (There’s a…
Self-Determination (I)
Monday (19 Feb) was Day 1 of the ICJ’s hearings on “Israel’s illegal occupation of Gaza”, as Al Jazeera describes it. 6 (or so) lawyers representing Palestine, each with 30 mins to do persuasion about one facet of what they painted a pretty convincing picture of as Israel’s* systematic and orchestrated – and quite successful!…
Outside the Frame: Sudan
DR.dk yesterday published a story about “The World’s Forgotten Conflict”, which has now displaced up to 8m of Sudan’s 49 million inhabitants (after decades of conflict already, did they ever call it home?). They rightly call attention to an attention issue: The article quotes Jan Egelund, the GS of Norwegian Refugee Council, as being horrified…
Costs of the Red Sea in 2024
Maersk is in and out of the Red Sea, which seems like poor decision-making on the part of new(ish) non-Danish CEO. He’ll get boardroom tut tuts for what he probably thought was a mighty bold fuck you to what’s actually happening in the world. Meanwhile, it’s costing lives and livelihoods. FreightWaves: BBC: Eddie Skoller was…
Landmines and Diamonds
Watching Season 6 of The Crown (first 4 episodes dropped 16 Nov). It’s mostly about the crash – events leading up to, etc. – that killed Diana in Paris in 1997. People don’t love it. Bad writing, they say. And insensitive, some of the others say, to the treatment of its subject. But maybe it’s…