Melissa on the road

Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC, CBC, F24...), writer (on art, music, culture...), I work in radio, podcasting, online, on films. As a writer, I also contributed to the New Arab, Art UK, Byline Times, the i Paper... Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and in Bristol, UK. I also reported from Italy, Germany, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq, South Africa... This blog is to share my work, news and cultural discoveries.

11/05/2016

England, photography and poetry, music and politics, May and June

Thinking of England...
I'll be back soon in this country where I feel so alive, so much more encouraged, so inspired.

One more event:

Church of St John the Baptist,

Broad Street, Bristol, BS1 2EZ

Date: 09/06/16
Time: 7:00pm - 10:30pm
Price: £3

Life, Love and Mortality: A literary night - Bristol St John's

A literary night focused on the things that can stop us in our tracks and spur us on to achieve our dreams.

Performers will share literary works and music inspired by the setting, and by the themes life, love and mortality.

Featuring the words of Judy Darley, Paul Deaton, Louise Gethin, Harriet Kline, Mike Manson, Helen Sheppard, and Claire Williamson, plus the music of Joanna Butler and Paul Bradley, this promises to be a memorable evening.

See more at: http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/Whatson/Fulleventslist/2016-06-09/Life-LoveMortalityliterary-night-Bristol-St-Johns/#sthash.2OvpmDkd.dpuf

About one's dream

Yesterday, despite the rain, the weird hot coldness, the sound of police cars everywhere in Paris, despite the state of emergency and all the dramas travelling in my head due to my job - refugee crisis, instability in Iraq, etc - yesterday I realised one of my oldest dreams: I had my first real singing lesson.

It was as simple as that to find pure bliss, listening to you inner desire...

So, for my second lesson, on top of an Armenian traditional song, here are two songs I want to work on...

--

Firstly, relevantly, 'Silent All These Years'...

"Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent All These"...

Tori Amos - "Silent All These Years"

Lyrics

"Silent All These Years"

Excuse me but can I be you for a while
My dog won't bite if you sit real still
I got the anti-Christ in the kitchen yellin' at me again
Yeah I can hear that
Been saved again by the garbage truck
I got something to say you know
But nothing comes
Yes I know what you think of me
You never shut-up
Yeah I can hear that

But what if I'm a mermaid
In these jeans of his
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent All These Years

So you found a girl
Who thinks really deep thoughts
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts
Boy you best praya that I bleed real soon
How's that thought for you
My scream got lost in a paper cup
You think there's a heaven
Where some screams have gone
I got 25 bucks and a cracker
Do you think it's enough
To get us there

Cause what if I'm a mermaid
In these jeans of his
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent All These...

Years go by
Will I still be waiting
For somebody else to understand
Years go by
If I'm stripped of my beauty
And the orange clouds
Raining in head
Years go by
Will I choke on my tears
Till finally there is nothing left
One more casualty
You know we're too easy Easy Easy

Well I love the way we communicate
Your eyes focus on my funny lip shape
Let's hear what you think of me now
But baby don't look up
The sky is falling
Your mother shows up in a nasty dress
It's your turn now to stand where I stand
Everybody lookin' at you here
Take hold of my hand
Yeah I can hear them

But what if I'm a mermaid
In these jeans of his
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice [x3]

And it's been here
Silent All These Years
I've been here
Silent All These Years

--

Second song:

'Morenika'

Lyrics:

Morenika a mi me yaman
Yo blanka nasi
I del sol del enverano
Yo me hize ansi

Morenika, graciozika sos
Morena yo graciozo
I ojos pretos tu

Morenika a mi me yaman
Los marineros
Si otra ves a mi me yaman
Me vo kon eyos

Morenika, graciozika sos
Morena yo graciozo
I ojos pretos tu

Translation:

"The dark girl they call me
my skin was pure white
From the fire of the summer sun
I am dark

Dark girl, so very beautiful
In your eyes - a burning fire
my heart is all yours

The dark girl, they call me
all those who go down to the sea
if again they call me
I will go with them

Dark girl, so very beautiful
In your eyes - a burning fire
my heart is all yours"

--

Yes, the dark girl they call me...

About local politics

Though it seems very unlikely to happen here in Paris anytime soon, I do believe in local politics very much. Examples like this one are always welcome. Let's be the change!

The Guardian, yesterday:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/labours-marvin-rees-bristol-mayor-shows-future-is-local-politics

Bristol’s mayor shows the future is local politics

Peter Hetherington
Labour’s Marvin Rees is one of a new breed of youthful, visionary and eloquent local leaders who are outshining Westminster politicians

Tuesday 10 May 2016 07.00 BST

Afew days ago, a late-middle-aged, casually attired party leader met a youthful, snappily dressed, eloquent new mayor in Bristol. They were pictured in a local cafe. Rarely have the contrasting images of local and national politics been thrown into such sharp focus: young and relatively old; the future and the past; Marvin Rees and Jeremy Corbyn.

Marvin who? Elected mayor of Bristol at the second attempt, he is destined to become an articulate, passionate voice in English local government – a fresh face for the party nationally. He will be going places. Where the Labour leader ends up is anyone’s guess.

This is no direct criticism of Corbyn, who raced to congratulate 43-year-old Rees soon after his victory and has supported him well since becoming party leader. But the House of Commons, after all, has its fair share of uninspiring, if worthy, MPs across all parties, overshadowed these days by brighter, visionary leaders in town halls around the country. Many council leaders, of all parties, outshine ministers.

They get precious little credit. From Newcastle upon Tyne to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and beyond to Conservative shires, English local government boasts pragmatic leaders struggling to deliver essential services – against the toughest austerity programme ever visited upon town and county halls – while, at the same time, boosting the economies of their patches with a string of initiatives that should put Westminster to shame.

The skylines of our great cities, cranes towering over construction sites, neighbourhoods being rebuilt – against every obstacle set by a regressive government – attest to their ingenuity. In contrast, ministers rarely deliver much of substance as they bear down on council finances with a vengeance, even eyeing self-financing local authority pension schemes – around £200bn of investments generating £7bn annually – with a recklessness that beggars belief. (In the civil service, growing pension liabilities are met from departmental budgets.)

Likewise, ministers are fond of lecturing councils on dipping into an estimated £17.1bn they hold in reserves, seemingly unaware that they would be empty in almost two years if local authorities used them to plug further cuts in funding. In that scenario, auditors – already alarmed that some councils are fighting to stay afloat – would judge town halls perilously close to sinking.

Who, you might ask, would want to become mayor, or a council leader, with local authorities facing such a daunting financial future? It seems, an unexpected number of career politicians, fed up with a life of opposition in the Commons and seeing a new breed of cities providing them with more opportunities locally than nationally. Might Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary and one-time Labour leadership contender, be the first in a string of national politicians sensing more challenges and opportunities locally: in his case, seeking Labour’s nomination to run for “metro mayor” of Greater Manchester next year?

Marvin Rees, a father of three, is the son of an English mother and Jamaican father, rooted in the community and social fabric of St Pauls in his native Bristol, dedicated to youth work and much else, educated in local schools, then university in Swansea and the USA. Should we be surprised that he this week started running a unitary, all-purpose council in a large, attractive, multi-ethnic port city with stronger powers than the limited, partly strategic functions, from transport to planning, enjoyed by the new mayor of London, Sadiq Khan?

Might George Osborne’s devolution package offer new opportunities for visionary and ambitious politicians in other cities, if councils seize the available opportunities (although several devolution deals around greater Tyneside, and Leeds, already appear to be floundering)? We shall see.

But Bristol, with a population of 442,500, is in another league. Its electorate supported the concept of an elected mayor in a local referendum in 2012 when voters in other cities rejected the idea. Rees, who last week beat the incumbent George Ferguson, architect and entrepreneur, has promised to reach out – “transparent, inclusive, sharing power and empowering”. Who knows how far he will go?

Peter Hetherington writes on regeneration and communities

09/05/2016

About Dadaab, one of the largest refugee camps in the world

This would be so hard to handle... More than half a million refugees have been living in Dadaab's refugee camps, for years. When I visited for reported, I interviewed Somali refugees who spent 20 years of their life in the camp...

The situation is Somalia is - appallingly - still very dangerous, fragile, inhospitable. Same for South Sudan and the regions of DR Congo and Burundi some of the other refugees come from.

Let's hope Kenya manage to handle the situation properly with the UNHCR.

Here is the UN's appeal, and below, one of my articles from Dadaab, in 2011. Still valid today, unfortunately.

--

UNHCR appeals to Kenya over decision to end refugee hosting

Press Releases, 9 May 2016

On Friday of last week (May 6th), the Government of Kenya announced that it intended to end the hosting of refugees, citing economic, security and environmental burdens. A statement issued by the Ministry of Interior, said the Government had disbanded its Department of Refugee Affairs and was working on a mechanism for the closure of Kenya's refugee camps – a move that could affect as many as 600,000 lives.

It is with profound concern that UNHCR takes note of this announcement. For almost a quarter of a century Kenya has played a vital role in East Africa and the Horn of Africa in providing asylum to people forced to flee persecution and war. The safety of hundreds of thousands of Somalis, South Sudanese and others has hinged on Kenya's generosity and its willingness to be a leading beacon in the region for international protection. Tragically, the situations in Somalia and South Sudan that cause people to flee are still unresolved today.

UNHCR has been, and will continue to be, in touch with the Kenyan Government to fully understand the implications of its statement. We recognize that Kenya has played an extraordinary role over many years as one of the world's frontline major refugee hosting nations, and that inevitably this has had many consequences for the country and its population. It is for these reasons, that UNHCR has been a prominent advocate for robust international support for Kenya, including support for host communities and a careful listening to their concerns.

In today's global context of some 60 million people forcibly displaced, it is more important than ever that international asylum obligations prevail and are properly supported. In light of this, and because of the potentially devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of people that premature ending of refugee hosting would have, UNHCR is calling on the Government of Kenya to reconsider its decision and to avoid taking any action that might be at odds with its international obligations towards people needing sanctuary from danger and persecution.

Kenya's Refugee Camps

The overpopulation of Kenyan refugee camps threatens relations between Kenya and Somalia.

Article | 20 June 2011 - 1:32pm | By Melissa Chemam

Dadaab and Nairobi, Kenya

With around 300,000 refugees using facilities intended for 90,000 people, Dadaab City’s three refugee camps, in Northern Kenya, are more than overpopulated. Dadaab is considered to be the biggest refugee camp structure in the world. Up to 10,000 people have been appearing at its gates each month since January, fleeing the misery of war-torn Somalia.

Daghahaley, Ifo and Hagadera have been progressively growing in the city of Dadaab since 1991, and the outbreak of war in Somalia. Situated at the border between the two countries, the city has become the only safe haven for thousands of Somalis. While a small number of refugees are from Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Sudan, most of the refugees arriving in Dadaab come from neighbouring conflict-torn Somalia.

Refugees who have recently arrived therefore often have to live in tents in the outskirts of the camps. And while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and NGOs like Medecins Sans Frontiere (MSF) and Oxfam have pushed for the addition of a fourth camp, Ifo II, the Kenyan government has been refusing since last November.

Muslima Hassan has four children. She fled Mogadishu to escape the war and drought. But here in Dadaab she didn’t even find a proper shelter. “I fled with my husband and my baby because of the war”, she said, holding the crying infant in her arms. “And my children joined us later on in January. But when we arrived we were disappointed by the terrible living conditions. We don’t have enough water, enough food. Nobody can help us here”. Thousands of other women are in the same situation in the outskirts of the camps.

For the programmes’ director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Richard Floyer Acland, it’s clear the overcrowding in the camps has become unbearable. “One of the problems is congestion. We’re looking at how we can decongest the camps. We’re asking the Kenyan government for more sites”, Acland explained during a visit to the camps. “I think we’re getting to the stage where the number of refugees in this part of Kenya has really reached a level which is going to be difficult to sustain”, he added.

To ease the pressure, the UNHCR negotiated with the local communities, elected leaders and the provincial administration to open the fourth camp. The UNHCR acquired more land in December 2009 and the construction of Ifo II camp began early 2010. It was designed to host 80,000 refugees and was supposed to open in November 2010. It now has clinics, schools, water access and sanitation facilities.

But the new camp remains empty.

According to the Kenya Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA), the Kenyan government did not give its official approval, due to the concerns of local communities about the construction. The Kenya Department of Refugee Affairs commissioner Omar Dhadho has maintained since February that a compromise will be found. And Haron Komen, Dadaab refugee camps’ director for the DRA explained to me during my visit: “structures, houses, there are concerns in the host communities of Dadaab about the respect for their environment. The government has to discuss and consult the local leaders before making any decision”. Yet still no decision has been made regarding Ifo II.

The spokesperson for MSF, Maimouna Jallow, wonders: “Why is Ifo II closed when it was meant to open last year and has a capacity to host 80,000 refugees? If they say stalled negotiations, who are they between and why? Is there a solution in sight? Is the Kenyan government simply fed up of receiving refugees?”

The whole problem of congestion and the Kenyan government’s inaction demonstrates, on the one hand, that Kenya is no longer ready to take responsibility for those who manage to cross the border, which has been happening for 20 years now. On the other hand, we should not forget that the Somali government, despite its protests, has again proved it cannot bring any stability to the country.

Kenya is one of the more stable and developed nations in the East and Horn of Africa and has to bear the burden of Somalia's recent misery. The crisis is problematic as it is changing relations between the least stable and most stable countries in East Africa.

Nowadays, most NGOs and UN agencies helping Somalia are based in Nairobi and some Kenyans often complain that a lot of the aid attention based in Kenya does not concern Kenya at all. While Somalia and Kenya both currently suffer from a drought crisis, for instance, the international aid agencies like the World Food Programme (WFP) and Oxfam are much more worried about Somalia's situation. A large part of the Somali people who left their country for Kenya in 2011 were running away from the drought, not the war.

“I met Somali women and children who have fled conflict and arrived traumatised and suffering from malnutrition,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, in April, trying to raise concern.
“After more than 20 years of war, Somali refugees have become a true global population. The majority are here in Kenya and in Djibouti, Yemen and Ethiopia but Somalis have sought refuge in countries on all five continents”, added the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “As the war continues unabated, I appeal to all countries in the world to keep their borders open and to allow them to live in dignity”.

Around 300,000 Somali refugees live in Dadaab. But thousands of Somalis also live in Nairobi, and thousands of Kenyans have Somali origins. Nowadays these Somali Kenyans, living also in the Dadaab region, are increasingly responsible for the Kenyan government’s decision not to let the new Ifo II camp open. Unfortunately, if the Kenyan and Somali governments don’t manage to improve their relations, hundreds of thousands of people will continue to be put at further risk every day.

Events around socialist historian Raphael Samuel, soon in London

Radical Histories

LONDON JUNE 30-JULY 3 2016

To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the death of the socialist historian Raphael Samuel, along with the fortieth anniversary of the journal he helped to found, History Workshop Journal. A weekend of discussion, celebration and debate bringing together activists, community historians, students, teachers, writers, artists, practitioners of history, from inside and outside universities
Talks, films, screenings, theatre, song, dance, walks and talks
Stands, exhibitions, caucuses, debates

THEMES INCLUDE
What is radical history? ● History and radical struggle ● Utopianism, radical visions and visionaries ●Radical education ● Radical religion ● Gender and sexuality ● Race, ethnicity, and activism ● Radical London ● The politics of housing ● Radicalism and the university ● Radical arts and aesthetics ● Radical archives, radical publishing ● History online ● Oral history ● Protest movements ● Class, communities, labour history ● Local and global connections ● Peace activism

PLENARIES
Radical Histories Then and Now
History Workshop and its Legacies
Open plenary discussion to conclude the conference

The conference takes place over three days, at Queen Mary University of London, with a pre-conference day event at Birkbeck.

THURSDAY 30 JUNE: pre-conference day event
RADICAL UTOPIAS, with Sasha Roseneil, including workshop and screening on Greenham Common, and roundtable discussion ‘Feminism and Radical Utopianism, Past and Present’. This pre-conference event will be held at Birkbeck, University of London, organised by Birkbeck Centre for Gender and Sexuality and Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image

Thursday timetable
Workshop and screening: booking for workshop and screening.
Feminism and Radical Utopianism, Past and Present – Roundtable Discussion: booking for roundtable discussion

This event is free, but booking is essential, and places for the workshop and screening are limited

Click here for the History Workshop Journal Virtual special issue!

FRIDAY 1ST –SUNDAY 3RD JULY: RADICAL HISTORIES/ HISTORIES OF RADICALISM

Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Rd, London E1
Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd July, conference at Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road, London E1
Chargeable, registration essential. Booking for QMUL Radical Histories conference
Fee: Full price £50, Unwaged £25, Day rate £20, Unwaged £10.

Click below for full timetables day by day:
Friday timetable
Saturday timetable
Sunday timetable

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT TIMETABLES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE!

More detailed information will appear on this site in the near future – keep watching.