CHANCE 2000 – THE LAST CHANCE PARTY (1998)
Right in time for the 1998 German elections, Christoph Schlingensief’s decision to found his own party with the futuristic-sounding name CHANCE2000 marks the artist’s most high-profile attempt yet to unite his art and life…
Un filmato documenta la tragica fine degli immigrati espulsi dalla Libia. Così come prevede l’accordo siglato tra Berlusconi e Gheddafi
Le mani nere sollevate ad afferrare l’aria. Pochi passi oltre, il vento sulla camicia anima la smorfia dell’ultimo respiro di una donna. E subito accanto, il corpo di un ragazzo ancora chino nella preghiera da cui non si è mai rialzato. Muoiono così gli immigrati. Così finiscono gli uomini e le donne che non sbarcano più a Lampedusa. Bloccati in Libia dall’accordo Roma-Tripoli e riconsegnati al deserto. Abbandonati sulla sabbia appena oltre il confine. A volte sono obbligati a proseguire a piedi: fino al fortino militare di Madama, piccolo avamposto dell’esercito del Niger, 80 chilometri più a Sud. Altre volte si perdono. Cadono a faccia in giù sfiniti, affamati, assetati senza che nessuno trovi più i loro cadaveri. Un filmato però rivela una di queste stragi. Un breve video che ‘L’espresso’ è riuscito a fare uscire dalla Libia e poi dal Niger. Un’operazione di rimpatrio andata male. Undici morti. Sette uomini e quattro donne, da quanto è possibile vedere nelle immagini…
La minchia gli scassarono ‘sti migranti al governatore Lombardo, non solo l’uscio del capanno di Grammichele. Per questo incita i siciliani a far ronde notturne con il mitra, caso mai incontrassero tunisini in fuga da Mineo o sbarcati sulle coste. Li fulminassero sul bagnasciuga, come proclamò con scarsa padronanza dei termini marinari e ancor meno fortuna bellica la buonanima di Mussolini per l’altra invasione dell’isola, quella del 1943…
The Ghana ThinkTank
Developing the First World
Founded in 2006, the Ghana ThinkTank is a worldwide network of think tanks creating strategies to resolve local problems in the “developed” world. In our most recent project, we sent problems collected in Wales to think tanks in Ghana, Mexico, Serbia, Iran, and a group of incarcerated girls in the U.S. Prison system. The network began with think tanks from Ghana, Cuba and El Salvador, and has since expanded to include Serbia, Mexico and Ethiopia.
These think tanks analyze the problems and propose solutions, which we put into action back in the community where the problems originated – whether those solutions seem impractical or brilliant.
Some of these actions have produced workable solutions, but others have created intensely awkward situations, as we play out different cultures’ assumptions about each other.
It’s become a way to explore the friction caused by solutions that are generated in one context and applied elsewhere, while revealing the hidden assumptions that govern crosscultural interactions.
Carlos Motta – The Good Life/La Buena Vida
The Good Life is a multi-part video project composed of over 400 video interviews with pedestrians on the streets of twelve cities in Latin America shot between 2005 and 2008. The work examines processes of democratization as they relate to U.S. interventionist policies in the region. The conversations and dialogues recorded in Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Guatemala, La Paz, Managua, México City, Panamá, Santiago, San Salvador, São Paulo, and Tegucigalpa, cover topics such as individuals’ perceptions of U.S. foreign policy, democracy, leadership, and governance. The result is a wide spectrum of responses and opinions, which vary according to local situations and specific forms of government in each country.
For many thousands of years people have been settling the Americas. The earliest hunted, gathered, fished, and raised families in small communities. The old tradition holds that people first entered the Americas over a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska about 14,000 years ago. Recent finds, however, put the date of the oldest human remains somewhere between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago. These earliest people were not really migrants in a strict sense because they simply widened their hunting areas over many generations, gradually moving into new territory as the population expanded and the animals they were tracking moved into new habitat.
This bill would provide conditional permanent residency to certain illegal and deportable alien students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment, if they complete two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning. The students would obtain temporary residency for a six year period. Within the six year period, a qualified student must have “acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or [have] completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor’s degree or higher degree in the United States,” or have “served in the armed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, [have] received an honorable discharge.”[2] Military enlistment contracts require an eight year commitment, with active duty commitments typically between four and six years, but as low as two years.[3][4] “Any alien whose permanent resident status is terminated [according to the terms of the Act] shall return to the immigration status the alien had immediately prior to receiving conditional permanent resident status under this Act.”[5]
Image via: http://luckybogey.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/senate-amnesty-cloture-vote-dream-act/
Immigration reform is a term used in political discussion regarding changes to current immigration policy of a country. In its strict definition, “reform ” means to change into an improved form or condition, by amending or removing faults or abuses.[1] In the political sense, immigration reform may include promoted, expanded, or open immigration, as well as reduced or eliminated immigration.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation’s border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security. The largest components within DHS are Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO). Headquartered in Washington, D.C., ICE is charged with the investigation and enforcement of over 400 federal statutes within the United States, and maintains attachés at major U.S. embassies overseas.
ICE is led by a director, who is appointed at the sub-Cabinet level by the President of the United States, confirmed by the Senate, and reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security.[3] The mission of ICE is to protect the United States and uphold public safety by enforcing immigration and customs laws.
