Spoiling your Holidays

international | racism & migration related issues | news report

Tuesday August 08, 2006 11:52

by iosaf

a reminder of human misery & now the possibilty of adjusting Shengen.

The second week of August is the peak vacation week for citizens of the EU. Over 200 million EU citizens are not presently at their usual workplace or abode. Many (but not all) choose sunny destinations with the Mediterranean coast and the various EU archipelagoes enduring in popularity. Of course, not all EU citizens enjoy the fun, the month of August annually sees the most lay-offs and timed bankruptcies in continental Europe, whilst both law firms and trade unions are temporarily unavailable to help or counsel the "shafted workers". August and summer also see precarity peak, there is undoubtedly much employment available in tourist sectors but the pay is low and security non-existent. August also sees the influx of African migrants peak.

A short article on "spoiling your holidays".

float. sting. eat. if over-fishing and climate change continue the dominant marine life form in 50 years will be the jellyfish.

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Every year I attempt to bring readers' attention to the tide of migrants who motivated by a combination of true economic desperation in their home states of "sub-Saharan" Africa and the allure of western culture's nonstop advertising of "how good our lifestyle is" attempt to make the crossings into the EU. Crossings which occur at the border enclaves of Melilla, Ceuta, or the stretches of sea and ocean between northern africa and Spain, Malta, Greece and Italy or the visible coastlines of the archipelago of the Canary islands from Western Sahara.

Last year the onslaught brought attention as weekly thousands of poor Africans attempted to enter the EU, attention which in turn brought public indignation, government discussion :-

http://indymedia.ie/article/72231
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=71750

Resulting from the "humanitarian disaster" at the borders of southern Europe last summer & the scandalous abandonment of africans in the desert by the Moroccan authorities, certain states of the EU agreed to create a multi-state task force of naval and coastal guard vessels to patrol the routes of human traffic, migration and desperation & also to notch up the amount of accords with our southern Mediterranean neighbours on the northern African coast.

The figures this year are already considerably higher than last year.
Some indications are that the number of Africans attempting to enter the EU has doubled.

Spain as always is meeting with Morocco to discuss repatriation, this is an old theme which I have explored at length before. http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69199 But now new elements merit reporting. The new Prodi government of Italy is discussing expanding the current mission of the inter-state naval force which now intercepts migrants in EU waters to patrolling the national waters of Libya and Tunisia on behalf of those states.
In short - to stop the rafts and boats before they enter international or European waters. Spain has already achieved such an extraordinary right of securing another states' sovreignty which was once deemed "establishing a protectorate", having being given permission to patrol the national waters of Mauritania on the western coast of Africa whence many sub-Saharan africans begin their odyssey. It is noteworthy that this agreement was made with the a regime which came to power in a coup d'etat last summer (c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/71288 )

But now the item I'd like to draw attention to is the proposals by various government and establishment figures in Italy, Malta, Spain and Greece to redraw Shengen.

On the Spanish front, this would mean adjusting the status of the Canary islands and possibly the already fortified enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla so that once arrived there, no migrant would have automatic right to carry on to mainland Europe. On the Italian front the suggestion is to remove the island of Pantelleria which is equidistant from Tunisia and Sicily as well as the island of Lampedusa which is very close to northern Africa from Shengen. Indeed some are already arguing that Malta itself ought also impose travel restrictions. The other "popular destination" of course is the island of Cyprus, which this year is not proving as popular for "illegal" migrants on account of the Israeli sea blockade on Lebanon whence normally migrant workers of the Levant region (Syria, southern Turkey, Lebanon itself and even Jordan) enter the EU. The Cypriots though are playing host to over 50,000 refugees from the Israeli war on Lebanon.

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I realise that this might bore some Irish readers, who along with the Luxembourgish enjoy the most foreign holidays of any EU citizen.
Therefore with that in mind, I will lastly squeeze into some factiods and titbits on the jellyfish.

It all started and I would say finished about 400 million years ago.

A multi-celular lifeform came into existence in the post-primordial soup, evolved some tentacles brimming with poison, and then stopped. That means the lifeform went no further in evolving.
It could float, it could sting, it could reproduce being a dioceous creature it didn't even need to make up its mind on what sex it was. Indeed, it can't even have been thought to have evolved a brain so the question of it making its mind up is rather lame. Just like you, if you get stung by one. & the shocking factoid for today is this :-

every 15 minutes a EU citizen gets stung by a jellyfish

There are a plethora of reasons for the plentitude of jellyfish in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic in recent years. Perhaps the most scintilating are :-
* the rise in global temperatures commonly termed "global warming" (for the technically minded) has increased salinity favouring the reproductive cycle of jellyfish as well as their ability to float.

* they have no natural predators.

* quite right!!!

400,000,000 years of existence, no brain, eyes, or even sense of direction yet no other creature has evolved which counts jellyfish in its food chain.