#International Day of Migrants

[migrantsday]

UN figures, the total number of international migrants.

UN Web TV "Add Your Voice" series - According to UN figures, the total number of international migrants has increased over the last 10 years from an estimated 150 million in 2000 to 214 million persons today. The numbers are such that migrants would constitute the fifth most populous country in the world.

Source: UNifeed / UNTV / OHCHR / UNDP / OCHA / UNHCR

[versuasiva]

8 de marzo

tercer año fuera de mi país,

tercer año que los fantasmas creen que ganaron,

porque a mi antigua yo,

la silenciaron,

la amordazaron y empujaron al miedo absoluto,

le quitaron la esperanza y sus sueños,

le quitaron las ganas de vivir,

le quitaron su valiosa intimidad,

le robaron la luz de las metas que tenía,

la juzgaron y cuando creía que era suficiente, siguieron, terminándola de apuñalar emocionalmente hasta no poder respirar y hasta no querer respirar,

se la comieron viva y con zapatos creyendo que no sabría levantarse,

pensaron que estaría sola en esta historia,

la historia que alguna vez dije que se quedarían solo en eso: una historia, pero.. hoy luego de algunos años, la desempolvo, la remarco

y hoy, abro el libro,

lo escribo, porque luego de estos años,

ya no existe el miedo,

ni a las denuncias,

ni a la vergüenza popular,

ni a nada,

PORQUE ME QUITARON TODO,

sobre todo..

las ganas de vivir,

me persiguieron políticamente y me siguen persiguiendo de manera silenciosa, a través de los años, cada vez que digo una palabra clave sobre mi activismo o historia,

aparecen como fantasmas el pasado, con nuevos nombres, pero misma figura, rostro,

y ya no tengo miedo, porque sé que no estoy sola,

porque estoy al otro lado del mundo donde la violencia sigue, pero al menos me siento protegida estando lejos,

sólo mis verdaderas amigas conocen la verdadera historia y por eso no me dejan de abrazar fuerte, cada vez que pueden,

tuve que dejar mi valioso activismo, mis posts, mi familia, mi vida, mi ganas de vivir en el futuro en mi país,

porque tuve que irme a poder sentir un poco de paz, vivir un poco, olvidando lo malo,

sabiendo que tu país te trató tan mal,

y el sistema no te decepcionó porque para ti y para tu hermana, nunca funcionó,

el sistema nunca funcionó para nosotras, con diecisiete años y mi hermana con diez, ni cuando tenía veinte, ni mucho menos a mis veintiuno, pero a esos hombres, de alguna manera se les premia,

esa carta en pandemia, sacándo de la cárcel al infierno vivo, fue la señal para que mi padre y mi madre empacaran mis cosas y me dijeran: “tienes que irte del país, a fuerza, luego te mandamos a tu hermana”

luego de saber que mi destino era huir de mi país o morir en las manos de mis victimarios, la respuesta no fue clara, fue obligatoria,

y aquí estoy..

hablando de lo que nunca, nunca, me gusta hablar, la verdadera razón de mis antiguos miedos..

pasaron años y nada, nadie me derrumbó, sigo en pie y nadie tiene autoridad de callarme ahora,

porque, luego de tanto y tan poco,

volví.

Este escrito y fuerza invertida, es dedicada a mi hermana, Pierina. Que literalmente fue “la voz que me salvó la vida” un grito de ella, hizo que no terminaran de acabar con mi vida. Su voz fue mi salvación cuando fuimos pequeñas, más adelante, su testimonio y palabras años después, fue mi punto final para salir de un infierno que vivía en carne propia. Porque mi hermanita es lo más precioso que tengo en la vida, ella me salvó la vida y yo le daré la mejor vida a ella, lejos de tanta violencia que vivimos.

Te amo Pierina Juárez, te espero pronto, aquí, para ser felices como siempre lo soñamos.

[murderousink23]

12/18/2023 is National Muffin Day 🇧🇷, Answer The Telephone Like Buddy The Elf Day 🇺🇲, Arabic Language Day 🇺🇳, International Migrants Day 🇺🇳

[humanrightsconnected]

As we honor the International Migrants Day, find out from African Communities Together (ACT), Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM), Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Heartland Alliance, The International Detention Coalition (IDC), and Justice for Migrant Women how you can defend and expand the rights of migrants! 

[coochiequeens]

Today we honor the Women fighting to end sex based violence 

Today, the United States commemorates the work of women human rights defenders: women and girls, in all their diversity, who champion human rights for all. As President Biden said, “The world is more peaceful, safe, and prosperous when the human rights of women are respected, and they can fully participate in economic, social, and political life.” Women, in all their diversity, offer unique contributions, including to making and keeping peace in countries around the world. Those contributions lead to better outcomes not just for women, but for society as a whole.

Women human rights defenders are often on the receiving end of multiple and intersecting forms of gender-based discrimination and violence, compounded by other attributes, such as race, religion, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, sex characteristics, or socioeconomic status. Acts of gender-based harassment, threats, and abuse create barriers to women’s full and equal participation in democracy and civic life. These acts can also have a chilling effect, leading to self-censorship and disengagement of women and girls from public life and discouraging them from pursuing their political and civic ambitions.

Despite these challenges, women human rights defenders are leading the charge globally on issues that affect everyone, including combating authoritarianism, championing democracy and equal political participation, seeking accountability and justice for human rights abuses and violations, defending free and independent media, pushing for climate crisis solutions, and working to build a more sustainable future for all.

On this International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, the United States commits to continuing to work with partners and allies to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and strengthen the representation of women around the world, including addressing systemic barriers to women’s participation in politics and public life. We remain resolute in our commitment to champion and support women human rights defenders, in all their diversity, and continue to promote the critical role they play in advocating for and securing the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.

Azza Soliman – Egypt

Leading human rights defender Azza Soliman, co-founder of the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA),  continues to be oppressed by the government of Egypt. Azza along with other human rights defenders, including Mozn Hassan, the director of Nazra for Feminist Studies, have been for the past five years banned from leaving the country and their assets have been confiscated. Their only ‘crime’ is their progressive work on women’s human rights and calling for the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls in Egypt. 

Follow the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance on Facebook.

Dina Smailova – Kazakhstan

In January 2020, Dina Smailova, head of a leading women’s rights organization NeMolchi (meaning, Do Not Be Silent in Russian) in Kazakhstan faced criminal charges for defamation. She had been litigating the “Talgo” rape case in Kazakhstan, which has received much public attention. The defamation charge related to a comment she made about a prominent Kazakh blogger, related to his coverage of the “Talgo” case which revealed the survivor’s personal information and suggested she was “lying” about the incident. Thankfully, in March Dina won the case, and is no longer facing criminal charges for defamation. 

The charges Dina faced are part of a worrying global trend of defamation laws being used in an attempt to silence those who speak up about their own sexual harassment or assault or speak out in defense of others. 

Read more about the “Talgo” rape case and the charges Dina faced.

Joanna Mamombe (a member of Parliament), Cecilia Chimbiri, and Netsai Marova – Zimbabwe 

On 13 May 2020, Joanna Mamombe (a member of Parliament), Cecilia Chimbiri, and Netsai Marova attended a peaceful demonstration to protest the Government of Zimbabwe’s failure to address hunger facing vulnerable communities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The three women were arrested at a police checkpoint as they were leaving. 

Following their arrest, they were taken from police custody by five unidentified men, not in uniform, who are believed to be state security agents. They were held incommunicado for 36 hours during which time they reported to have undergone torture, rape, and physical assault. They were rearrested on charges of making false statements prejudicial to the state after their ordeal became public and are currently remanded without bail pending trial for several days, during which time, due to COVID-19 restrictions, they were denied visits from their family or friends. They were eventually released on bail, but the violence against them has yet to be properly investigated, they still need proper medical attention for their injuries, and they still face charges.

Take action to call on the African Union to hold Zimbabwe accountable.  

Loujain AlHathloul, Nouf Abdelaziz, Samar Badawi, Nassima Al-Sadah, Mohammed Al-Bajadi, and Miyaa Al-Zahrani – Saudi Arabia 

On 15 May 2018, Saudi Arabia began a campaign of arrests of Saudi Women Human Rights Defenders. In the past year, the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia has further deteriorated. Whilst five of the women human rights defenders detained in 2018 have been provisionally released, Loujain AlHathloul, Nouf Abdelaziz, Samar Badawi, Nassima Al-Sadah, Mohammed Al-Bajadi, and Miyaa Al-Zahrani remain in detention.

On Monday 26 October,  Loujain AlHathloul, a 31-year-old Saudi women’s rights activist who has been arbitrarily detained since May of 2018 started a hunger strike to protest the conditions of her imprisonment in Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday 25 November, her case was referred to the Specialized Criminal Court where she will face charges related to terrorism and national security. 

As part of the Free Saudi Activists Coalition, we continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Saudi activists. Join us. 

Manjula Pradeep and Manisha Mashaal –  India 

On 14 September 2020, a young Dalit woman was gang-raped in Hathras, India, and died of her injuries. This was one of a number of grave incidents of rape and caste-based sexual violence that lead to widespread public outrage in India, shedding a spotlight on an issue that has for too long been invisiblized by the intersecting caste- and gender-based discrimination faced by Dalit women. Manjula Pradeep and Manisha Mashaal are two lawyers at the forefront of the movement to end caste-based discrimination in India, having founded Wise Act of Youth Visioning and Engagement (WAYVE) Foundation and Swabhiman Society respectively. 

We recently collaborated with them on the release of Justice Denied: Sexual Violence and Intersectional Discrimination – Barriers to Accessing Justice for Dalit Women and Girls in Haryana, India. 

Take action to call on the Haryana government to address sexual violence and caste-based discrimination.

The migrant women who went public about forced sterilizations in immigration detention – United States 

Earlier this year, a number of migrant women claimed they had been forced to undergo hysterectomies and other procedures whilst in immigration detention in the United States leaving them unable to conceive. A whistleblower complaint, filed on behalf of Dawn Wooten, a nurse and former employee of the detention center in question, includes claims of an alarmingly high rate of hysterectomies performed on Spanish speaking women at the center. 

Since going public with their claims, at least six women have already been deported, and several more face “imminent” deportation. 

Proyecto Matria – Puerto Rico, United States

Proyecto Matria, an NGO which works on economic development for poor and marginalized women, with a focus on gender equality, have faced many threats over the years, most recently from a local conservative politician, but they continue to push forward, following their philosophy of “service with activism”.

Grassroots activists and organizations around the world are on the front lines of the movement to end violence against women, providing safe spaces and services to survivors. Too often, like Proyecto Matria, these organizations face hostility from local and national governments, making their essential work even more difficult. 

Follow Proyecto Matria on Facebook and Twitter

International WHRDs day is part of the 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence, a time for global action to increase awareness and galvanize advocacy on behalf of women, girls, and marginalized genders.

[remittancesday]

Focus on the economic impact of Remittances on households, communities, and nations.

“Digital remittances: Towards financial inclusion and cost reduction.” International Day of Remittances 2024. Remittances remain essential for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. By helping to put food on the table and pay for school, housing and medical expenses, they provide a crucial lifeline for those who receive them. The International Day of Family Remittances draws our attention to the economic impact of this money on households, communities, and nations, and recognises the sacrifice, separation and generosity often involved.

[dijetemjeseca]

Svjetski dan migranata

[mediaheights]

International Migrants Day is seen as an opportunity to recognize the contributions made by millions of migrants to the economies of their host and home countries promote respect for their basic human rights. #InternationalMigrantsDay Build your brand with digital media & take the benefits of social media branding contact Media Heights. By Mediaheightspr.com #Digitalbranding #MEDIAHEIGHTS #advertisingagency #web #MEDIAHEIGHTSPRCOM #best #public #relation #agency #in #chandigarh #mohali #punjab #north #india #digitalmarketingcompany #searchengineoptimization #content #instagrammarketing #buildingrelationships #globally #customer #internetbanding — at media heights #smo #branding #facebook #twitter #marketingonline #brand #searchengineoptimization #internetmarketing #follow #digitalagency #marketingagency #motivation #digitalmarketingtips #onlinebusiness #websitedesign #marketingonline #brand #searchengineoptimization #content #instagrammarketing #advertisingagency #web #technology #onlinebranding #branding360degree #SEO #SEObrandingagency #websiteranking #websitetrafic #Digitalmarketing #mediaheights #OnlineAdvertising #instagrammarketing #advertisingagency #web #marketingonline #brand

[pixoplanet]

It's December 18th. 🗽 In the year 2000, the United Nations proclaimed this day as International Migrants Day to mark the anniversary of the 1990 adoption of its International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and to shine a spotlight on the plights, rights, and contributions of the millions of migrants all over the world. 281 million of us, or 3.6% of the global population are currently international migrants. 

The term "migrant" is often confused with the term "refugee." There is a difference. Those of us who leave our home countries voluntarily are migrants, while those of us who are forced to leave because it's too dangerous to stay are refugees. 

Migration is a global problem driven by many factors. These start with aspirations for safety, dignity, and peace. Some move to be with family or for economic reasons; others for education. Many people migrate because their homes have become dangerous or difficult to live in. They might be fleeing from unrest, famine, drought, or economic collapse. The decision to leave home is always heart-wrenching and often the beginning of a dangerous, sometimes fatal journey. And if they do reach their destination, migrants, unlike refugees, are at the mercy of the new country’s immigration laws and can be turned away or deported back to their homeland. 

"On this International Migrants Day, UNESCO calls on the international community to promote the fundamental human rights of migrants to safety, dignity and peace." – Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

[gayvampyr]

CNN:

Hundreds of families gathered in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina on June 15, plotting their escape from what had become a hellscape of blown-out buildings scrawled with racist graffiti and streets strewn with corpses. The state governor had just been executed and mutilated by Arab militia groups, leaving civilians with no choice but to flee.

What followed was a gruesome massacre, eyewitnesses said, believed to be one of the most violent incidents in the genocide-scarred Sudanese region’s history. The powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and its allied militias hunted down non-Arab people in various parts of the city and surrounding desert region, leaving hundreds dead as they ran for their lives…

…residents set off en masse from southern El Geneina, many trying to reach the nearby Sudanese military headquarters where they thought they might find safety. But they said they were quickly thwarted by RSF attacks. Some were summarily executed in the streets, survivors said. Others died in a mass drowning incident, shot at as they attempted to cross a river. Many of those who managed to make it out were ambushed near the border with Chad, forced to sit in the sand before being told to run to safety as they were sprayed with bullets.

“More than 1,000 people were killed on June 15. I was collecting bodies on that day. I collected a huge number,” one local humanitarian worker, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told CNN. He said the dead were buried in five different mass graves in and around the city.

Conflict erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese army in April. Since then, more than one million people have fled to neighboring countries, according to estimates from the International Organization for Migration.

Now, a telecommunications blackout and the flight of international aid groups have all but cut off Darfur from the outside world. But news of the June 15 massacre began trickling out of the region from refugees who escaped to Chad. The evidence uncovered by CNN suggests that, behind a curtain of secrecy, the RSF and its allies are waging an indiscriminate campaign of widespread killings and sexual violence unlike anything the region has seen in decades.

The RSF’s official spokesperson told CNN that it “categorically” denied the allegations.

“To say you were Masalit was a death sentence,” said Jamal Khamiss, a human rights lawyer, referring to his non-Arab tribe, one of the biggest in Darfur. Khamiss was among those who said that they fled from El Geneina to Chad, surviving a series of RSF and allied militia positions by concealing his ethnicity.

The United Nations raised the alarm in June over ethnic targeting and killing of people from the Masalit community in El Geneina, after reports of summary executions and “persistent hate speech,” including calls to kill or expel them.

The vast majority of those who managed to make it out of El Geneina alive sought refuge in the Chadian border town of Adre, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) away from the city.

On June 15, the town received the highest number of migrants in a single day, along with the highest number of casualties — 261 — since the Sudan conflict broke out, according to Doctors Without Borders, widely known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which runs the only hospital in Adre. The number of wounded people that arrived at the hospital was even higher the next day: 387.

“The last time we recorded the death toll in Geneina it was 884,” one local humanitarian worker from El Geneina, who works for a Western non-profit organization, told CNN. “That was June 9. After June 9, it was a different story. The dead became uncountable.”

Action Against Hunger is accepting donations to provide health, sanitation and nutrition services to Sudanese refugees in Chad.

[migrantsday]

Ways in which government can promote safe migration.

Act to promote safe migration 

Open family reunification to migrants at all skill levels 

Establish government programmes for labour migration 

Give residency or work permits to irregular migrants in their country 

Introduce visas for migrants with specific skills 

Grant humanitarian visas for people in especially difficult situations 

Five ways states can promote safe migration

[sayruq]

3 thoughts on this:

Economy - Israel's economy took a hit in October that was comparable to the economic tremors caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. It is effectively in a major recession today. The longer they drag out this war, the worse their economic condition will be. Foreign capital will continue leaving the country as it seems incapable of stabilising. While the continued use of reserves means 300,000 Israelis will be unable to work, not to mention the millions of dollars Israel has to spend to mobilise its reserve every day. The longer the war goes on, the more people will end up leaving the country. 470,000 have left in October and November with no intention of returning while over 300,000 settlers are internally displaced. Both of those numbers are bound to go up as the war continues. This means that Israel is missing hundreds of thousands of Israeli workers. A few weeks ago, Israel struck a deal with the Indian government to get 100,000 workers after tens of thousands of worker migrants fled the country. That plan fell through thanks to Indian trade unions. Now Israel is turning to African States in a desperate attempt to replace the Gazan workers it's currently genociding. We will see if that plan works as Africans are by and large pro Palestine. Plus the Yemeni naval blockade is growing more and more intense every week as a direct response to the genocide in Gaza. In short, Israel's economy can't withstand a long war. America cannot help prop up the economy as it will soon be facing its major economy issues in the coming years including a housing crisis and likely a recession.

Military defeats - Israel cannot defeat Hamas. It cannot win a war inside Gaza. It failed to do so in 2014, it's failing right now. It has lost hundreds of military vehicles including the (formerly) vaunted Merkava-4. The estimated number of injured soldiers stands at 10,000+ while the Resistance is still intact and capable of carrying out dozens of military operations against IDF and the surrounding cities and settlements every day. The IDF has never looked more weak than it is right now. Hezbollah has been employing a military strategy dubbed the escalation ladder, in which one end of the ladder is no war and the other end is total war. It has continuously escalated against Israel, attacking deeper and deeper into its territory, and it will continue until there's open war between Israel and Lebanon. The point of the escalation is to give Israel time to leave Gaza but as that's not something the Israeli government is planning on doing, we're looking at a region war in 2024 (so far we have a regional conflict and whilebits serious, it's not yet war). Just like it can't win in Gaza, Israel can't defeat Hezbollah and occupy Southern Lebanon like its leaders have been threatening to. It certainly can't take on the Ansar Allah group in Yemen.

West Bank - every week, there are clashes between Israeli forces and the Resistance in the West Bank and it's growing more and more intense. The best way to describe the region is 'powder keg.' Israel has responded to Oct 7th by detaining thousands of Palestinians and killing hundreds. There's a growing popularity of Al Qassam Brigades and other militant groups in Gaza. There also seems to be coordination between the Gazan and West Bank resistance groups, as in they would carry out operations at the same time. The longer the war on Gaza goes on, the more likely that war will also break out in the West Bank.

Many, many more Palestinians will die. This plan, more than anything, is a call for the continued slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

But the longer this goes on, the closer Israel gets to collapsing.

[drdemonprince]

This is kind of late re: the culture conversation but I feel like I have a kind of weird perspective on this general idea of cultural appropriation re:embodiment. I’m Italian American, and indigenous South American but I was born in the US and when we immigrated to the US my South American ethnic group is so small and my parents were in Japan so long they culturally assimilated and I was raised in the Japanese immigrant community and literally went to Japanese day school.

This tension between who is “allowed” to participate in a culture or identity has always been deeply fraught for me in a way that has kind of bulldozed my understanding of cultural ownership. Not being “ethnically” Japanese has led to many people deciding for me what the appropriateness of my cultural participation is. And being indigenous South American complicates my relationship to standard cultural alignment with latinidad more broadly.

I have a lot of friends who are white USAmericans who are progressive but also deeply concerned about the boundaries between themselves and the cultures they studied in college and the countries they taught English in as migrant workers. I had a conversation with one of my friends who worked in China and he was talking about how he didn’t mind being legally disenfranchised because he was a white American migrant and didn’t feel it was necessary for him to have the same legal rights as Chinese citizens. And I had to point out that he was living in the same disenfranchised conditions as any other immigrant and there was no reason for him to downplay it. I don’t think it’s disingenuous or appropriative for him to have Chinese art in his house or cook Chinese food or participate in Chinese culture. Not because he lived there or had a complicated legal status in the country or somehow crossed some imaginary threshold of true and genuine cultural appreciation but just because culture is what you do its not a given fact of who you are. It’s a seamless part of his life and just because he sought it out doesn’t make it less genuine to me.

I think because of my complicated upbringing I have spent a lot of time with people between cultures, reconnecting, adopting new ones and feel very strongly that if there is no biological tie to culture people can incorporate whatever they want into their lives and it’s a VERY US American perspective to be so self critical and political about it.

And this isn’t to say cultural exploitation doesn’t exist but when it does happen it’s usually underpinned by a capital motivation to sell an idea of a culture and not a weird white guy who got really into Buddhism or a several generations totally removed Italian American incorporating Panettone into their Christmas celebrations. When people cross the line it’s cringe and inauthentic but it rarely goes beyond that.

When I was in college I had a professor who studied my indigenous ethnic group and I took a couple of his classes. Once I brought my grandmother and mom to campus to speak with him in our indigenous language, and my grandmother spoke to him for three hours straight. He was a white man from Michigan but also one of my only connections to my culture, a person to practice and share my language with, to connect with my family. And all because he thought South American indigenous groups were interesting and got a job with Amnesty International to investigate the dictatorship to get down there. He is the kind of man people wag their finger at and he was one of the most important cultural elders I had.

This is a long way to say basically I just really believe we are allowed to make our lives whatever we want and make ourselves whatever we want. The phenomenon of white Americans in search of culture exists for the reasons you listed below and outside of these political discussions about its appropriateness and its moral boundaries there are just people doing and embodying that cultural fluidity and exchange for a million different reasons that aren’t worth litigating. The small town gay kids who move to big cities and hang out in the leather scene, getting into punk or hardcore or goth scenes, even converting to a new religion function under the same mechanism of the kind of cultural immersion that gives you access to the community and membership in the culture that weebs who immigrate to Japan to teach English, or international students coming to America, or inter cultural or inter faith partnerships undergo.

Anyways thanks for listening to my treatise. So to whoever’s reading this take the dance class or the traditional craft class or learn a new language or learn to cook new kinds of food make all different types of friends and make new traditions out of old ones or old traditions out of new perspectives. Culture isn’t a sacred part of who we are it’s a sacred form of the things we do and embody and connect with others through :-) <3

this is an incredible, wise, compassionate message. Thank you so much for sending it. You've said so much here about the problems of tying cultural identity to a race, ethnicity, or blood, or to regard it as static or isolated. And how much the standard racist American conceptions of racial and ethnic identity make structural discussions about disenfranchisement worldwide hard to have. Said so so much far better than I could, thank you!!

[demonicintegrity]

Truly apologetic for what I did to yalls dash tonight. I genuinely did not think I would spam that much because I didn't think I'd hear something bonkers every other minute.

I think theres a couple key take aways here though:

Kamala Harris was able to circle back to what policies she wanted to enact just about every time. Where as Trump would only refute her and attack her (or Biden)

Trump would repeatedly dodge yes or no questions

When talking about Israel and Palestine, Harris brought up wanting the war to stop, wanting a ceasefire, a two state solution, and that although Israel had a right to defend itself it has gone too far and should abide by international law.

In response Trump said she hated Israel and Arabs? For some reason?

Trump kept interrupting and for some reason they kept turning on his mic when it wasn't his turn

Trump said he didn't have a plan for healthcare, he only has concepts of a plan, because he isn't president. (This was in response to the fact that he said he would do something about the ACA during his presidency)

Trump claimed Democrats wanted abortion in the seventh, eighth, ninth month as well as "execute" babies after theyre born. (He was immediately fact checked)

"She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens in jail"

He got mad so very often. She was clearly frustrated with him near the end

He said that crime was on the rise and the reason the FBI says its going down is because the FBI is fraudulent. He also said migrants were eating our pets.

In general, I knew Trump was a bad politician and bad speaker before this but holy shit. I've never sat down and watched him speak for an extended amount of time.

"Lesser of two evils" "No perfect candidate" yadda yadda yadda, the difference between them is night and fucking day. And the difference comes down to intent and competency. There is no excuse for anyone to vote for Trump after that embarrassment of a debate he tried to do.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

"THERE'S NO MENTAL HEALTH UNDER BOMBING AND COLONIAL OCCUPATION": Open letter from Brazilian psychology associations calling for an end to the violence against the Palestinian people

We call on all people, the international community, especially mental health professionals, to work towards a non-violent and definitive solution to the ongoing conflict, to take concrete actions for an immediate ceasefire in the area, and for the ending of the brutal colonialism in place. We also emphasize the importance of opening the borders to humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people.

In these last days, Israel’s brutal and cruel bombing in the Gaza Strip – a territory that has been besieged by Israel for the last 17 years – has resulted in  the deaths of more than 8,000 Palestinian (including more than 3,400 children), and more than 20,000 injured people. Alongside, millions of people have been forcibly displaced and deprived of basic needs (PRCS, 2023)[1].

However, the figures fail to represent the current reality, as the death toll and injuries rise second by second.Israeli air strikes destroyed more than half of Palestinian residences, besides deliberate attacks on hospitals, schools and universities, erupting a massive humanitarian crisis.

We also condemn and deplore the violence against Israeli civilians, victims of Hamas’ violent retaliation, especially because it has affected innocent people, many of whom are still kidnapped.

Recent statements released by an official representative of the Israeli governmentrefered to Palestinian people as “human animals”[2]. Accordingly, the entire Gaza population  be held like hostages, through a complete blockade of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicines. Israel very recently blocked access to internet signals, isolating Gaza from the rest of world. (MSF, 2023)[3]

The collective punishing of innocent people constitutes a war crime and, hence, must be strongly condemned. (ICRC, 2022).[4] We consider that Israeli government pronouncements have amplified the racist ideology, relying on international impunity and compliance. Xenophobia reinforcement turns migrants, refugees and stateless people – not just Palestinians – the main victims of the dehumanising discourse.

It’s crucial to keep an eye on what’s going on in Gaza: 2.2 million people – most of whom were already displaced migrants from historic Palestinian territories irregularly occupied by Israel – have been living in an open-air prison for 17 years[5]. Israel determines what comes in and out of Gaza: people, energy, food, medicine, fuel and humanitarian aid. Whole families have their homes destroyed by bombings, children are born and die surrounded by walls, and their national identity and existence as a people have been denied for decades.

The systematic ethnic cleansing of a walls-confined population living under a military siege by air, land and sea is undoubtedly a horrendous crime.. The colonial measure imposed on this population, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and other parts of historic Palestine, has already produced 6.1 million Palestinian refugees (UNRWA, 2023)[6].

While witnessing the unacceptable thousands of deaths, we note with concern the harassment and attempt to silence supports of Palestinian rights. Under any circumstance, it should be acceptable to persecute those who denounce the existence of stateless people living in apartheid conditions.

These claims are incontestable. The UN Human Rights Council 2022[7] presented a report pointing out 3 essential elements: Palestine is strictly an open-air prison, the largest prison in the world; there is an apartheid regime throughout Palestine; and some aspects of everyday life in Gaza share similarities to a concentration camp. None of this began on the 7th of October 2023. There is nothing new except for the intensification of war propaganda against the Palestinian people. That can be named as Media Genocide, which is the intentional elimination of a people through war propaganda and, the circulation of false news and narratives.

The Palestinian struggle is also a struggle to be waged in Brazil.. We perceive the Palestinian tragedy as deeply connected to the war against the poor, Black people and traditional communities in our country. The same logic of racial and ethnic supremacy relies on Brazilian whiteness, which justifies police incursions into favelas systematically murdering Black people including children, teenagers and young people. It is important to emphasise that there are numerous agreements between the Brazilian security forces and the Israeli armed forces, with Brazil being one of the biggest markets of Israel’s arms industry[8]. Israeli ammunition finds Black and peripheral Brazilian bodies.

The supremacist rhetoric of brutalisation and dehumanisation has historically been denounced by the Black movement in Brazil, for example in the context of the former South African apartheid regime and also in international solidarity actions for the Palestinian people. Black liberation movements have also experienced the ideological condemnation of their freedom efforts, which were labelled under the rubric of “terrorists”. The dehumanisation of Black people is also the dehumanisation of the Arab people, a violence consolidated by the whiteness global alliance and its genocide and ethnocide practice.

THE SOCIAL COMMITMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY IN DEFENSE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

We, as psychologists committed to every human life’s dignity, guided by the Fundamental Principles of our Ethic Code, urge for a radical commitment to the anti-racist and anti-genocide struggle, which is connected to the ethical and political duty of psychology.

We call on our professional category and psychology students to bravely tackle this issue affecting the whole world. A call to fulfill  our ethical duty to uphold human dignity, by keeping a critical distance from war propaganda and demanding humane and dignified relations throughout all the ongoing situations.

Almost every child or teenager in Gaza has been born in a state of segregation, a situation that combined with constant attacks, and the side effects of the siege and occupation has been triggering severe psychological distress and psychiatric disorders[9]. The colonial and apartheid regime imposed on Palestinians, described in six reports released by United Nations and recognised by several humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International,  are social determinants of mental health deterioration.[10].

Therefore, a historical analysis of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, the Nakba effects and the 1948 catastrophe is essential. Psychology, as a science and a profession, must reject superficial or improper analyses in this sense. We criticize institutions and associations in the mental health field whose statements endorse the dehumanising rhetoric worldwide spread. For instance, the APA declaration[11] neglected the Palestinian historical context, disregardingthe violence imposed on the besieged Gaza population. There is no mention of the terrible bombing of the small enclave [a territory or part of a territory surrounded by another state] affecting Palestinians in an incomparable way to Israelis. We consider that these statements[12] ignore contingencies such as precarious mental health, besides amplifying the collective trauma resulting from decades of oppression, continuous violence, humiliation and injustice inflicted by Israel’s occupation.

Politics and mental health cannot be dichotomised. One cannot analyse the occupation of Palestine without examining the strategies of dehumanisation, and the stripping of dignity and life of the Palestinian people.

The dehumanisation of Palestinian lives – whether in deeds or speeches – normalises Palestinian suffering, as if it was natural, obvious and impossible to stop. Palestinians have been vocalising their suffering for decades and pleading for visibility to the international community. They do so in countless non-violent ways: resisting every minute, every second, to avoid disappearing. They produce art, music, and poetry. They cultivate and care for their original land and territory.

Until we see a Palestine free of Israeli colonial domination, no number of bombs will extinguish the innate desire to live with dignity. In this way, the Palestinian resistance is incurable, quoting Mahmoud Darwish.

As psychologists, we understand and accept the historic call to stand alongside the Palestinian people. The complicity with mass genocide, ethnic cleansing and the murder of children in particular, shall not be in our name.

We condemn the system of segregation, discrimination and collective punishment imposed on Palestine. There is an urgent need to build peace, which only comes through the consolidation of the Palestinian State and establishing a regime that respects the universal rights of all those who live in the region.

The Palestinian people – like all people in their self-determination – need to be able to exist beyond the imposed walls, the barbed wires, the refugee camps and all the dehumanisation: they need to be able to make their contribution to the beautiful story, yet to be built, of collective emancipation and the development of the humankind.

Link to the letter.

Link if you wish to sign it.

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Migrants' contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Family Remittances and Investment.

Technical meeting on "Migrants' contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Family Remittances and Investment" (in observance of the International Day of Family Remittances 2017 (A/RES/71/237)) co-organized by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).