24/10/2026

More to mourn: Racist attack in France kills Pengo Wangi

 

France - The victim of Friday's terrorist attack in the Yvelines, near Trappes, south west of Paris, was the MMA fighter:

PENGO BOSSIO WANGI

He was 26, was shot and killed.

He ws amateur MMA fighter, and trained in Aubervilliers, north of Paris, where he was loved and respected.




A 12-year-old girl was also struck by eight bullets and has been hospitalised.




The deails, according to Agence France Presse: On Friday morning, a man opened fire in the street, killing one person and wounding at least four others, including a 12-year-old child. 

The attack also left five people injured.

The suspect is a man believed to have targeted individuals with an immigrant background. According to the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT)—which took charge of the case—he had also rigged his apartment in Plaisir (located a few kilometers from the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, where the attack took place) with three gas canisters and electrical wires connected to a timer.

The mayor of the city of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, denounced a “racist terrorist attack”: it was "objectively an attack, with racist overtones, probably Islamophobic," he said. 

“This is likely one of the first—an initial attempt at a mass crime with Islamophobic and racist overtones,” the official added.

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Emmanuel Macron visited the scene that evening. He also recognised it was a “racist terrorist attack.”

The man has been arrested and taken into police custody, as has a member of his immediate family, the PNAT announced.

The PNAT has announced the opening of an investigation into "murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, with the aggravating circumstance that the acts were committed on the basis of actual or perceived membership in a specific race, ethnicity, nation, or religion."


23/10/2026

Insight into AKAA Paris 2026

 


I love this art fair... 




A wonderful series led by Dagmar Van Weeghel with other African artists.

More on it soon






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Nu Barreto




 I previously wrote about Nu's work, notably here: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20221012-the-slave-ship-in-a-london-courtyard

And posted previous artworks notablly here:

https://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2023/12/nu-barreto-new-exhibition.html


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Work from South African artist Zanele Muholi 





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And extra snapshots...
















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More soon.



13/10/2026

NAZA

 


I saw NAZA tonight with my Lebanese friend of 30 years and his new Cambodian friend...

It was a shock to the system, despite all we already know about this entreprise of massacres.




Here is the official trailer for the award-winning documentary produced by the Guardian that details the systems behind Israel’s mass killings in Gaza:




This critically acclaimed film was produced with the team behind the 'Zone of Interest' by Jonathan Glazer.

It is directed by Oscar-winning film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two Israeli directors of the four behind 'No Other Land', which won the Oscar for best documentary in 2025.

It includes testimony from 24 Israeli military insiders, shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv. 

It is being released in cinemas in more than 50 countries from the week, and then will stream on the Guardian’s website for free from late November.


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12/10/2026

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor with Aditya Chakrabortty

 


Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s new book, End Times Fascism, came out recently. The idea came after a special essay written by both of them in The Guardian in April 2025.


I recommend this conversation:




'Radical Thinking' with Aditya Chakrabortty: In this new series from The Guardian, Klein and Taylor speak in an extended interview about Trump 2.0, the rise of the tech billionaire to Gaza and the ongoing climate emergency.

They both argue that we are not just lurching from crisis to crisis but in a new and dangerous moment in history. Yet, they haven’t given up hope of a fightback.




11/10/2026

On trauma and identity

 


An interesting point of view... 




Lived Experience’ has become a byword for standpoint authority and progressive politics. It has allowed people from marginalised groups to speak and be heard, and forced us to confront how power plays out in interpersonal dynamics. 

But it has also become a way for people to brand themselves online, and excuse antisocial or even downright nasty behaviours. Has ‘lived experience’ helped the left, or turned us into self-obsessed therapy-speakers, incapable of communicating with the majority of people? 

At the latest Downstream IRL, Ash Sarkar from Novara Media sat down with Catherine Liu – cultural theorist, professor and author of Virtue Hoarders – to discuss her new book, Traumatized: The New Politics of Public Suffering. 

Liu argues that as class politics has declined, the language of psychology has stepped in to explain problems rooted in capitalism. But what happens when trauma becomes content and politics gives way to what Liu calls the ‘gentrification of pain’? 

Is ‘lived experience’ a prerequisite for legitimate political analysis? Why do movements so often end up policing each other rather than confronting power? And if politics becomes about who’s hurting most, who benefits?





10/10/2026

'Anywhere on This Road'


Mood tonight




'Anywhere on This Road' · Lhasa De Sela 

(The Living Road)


 

06/10/2026

Soutien aux lycéens de ce monde en perdition...






Paris, 6 octobre 2026




Plusieurs centaines de milliers de personnes - lycéens mais aussi parents, professeurs et syndicalistes - ont manifesté ce mardi (6 octobre 2026) dans plusieurs villes de France. Au moins 450 000 selon les organisateurs.rices.

Partie d’ÃŽle-de-France le 28 septembre, la mobilisation gagne toute la France. Environ un quart des lycées du pays étaient bloqués ce mardi.

Les lycéens ont l'intention de manifester de nouveau ce jeudi. 

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Several hundred thousand people—including high school students, as well as parents, teachers, and union members—demonstrated this Tuesday in various cities across France. Organisers put the figure at at least 450,000.

Having started in the ÃŽle-de-France region on September 28, the protest movement is spreading across the entire country. Around a quarter of the nation's high schools were blockaded this Tuesday.

Pupils and students intend to march again on Thursday.

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More words to come




05/10/2026

3 years




 



The Crackdown on Protest and Why it Matters

 






The Fight to be Heard is a new documentary by Amnesty International UK that charts the changing landscape of protest in Britain. From record-breaking prison sentences for peaceful protesters to fears of surveillance and criminalisation, The Fight to be Heard looks at the growing pressures faced by protesters in the UK today – and asks why we continue to do it, despite the risks. 

At a time when it’s never been more vital for us to come together, this film is a rallying cry to make sure we continue to have our voices heard. 

Featuring testimony from Lucia Whittaker De Abreu (Just Stop Oil / Whole Truth 5), Chantelle Lunt, Patsy Stevenson, Usama Ghanem, Khalid Abdalla, and organisations including Defend Our Juries, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Save British Farming and more.


More here: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/authoritarianism/protect-the-protest/fight-to-be-heard/