De danske udlændingeregler er nu så stramme, at selv topdiplomater ikke kan få deres ægtefælle til Danmark, hvis de ender med at få arbejde her i landet. Det vil sige, at folk, der har tjent Danmark som ambassadører i både 20 og 30 år må opgive at bosætte sig her, når de går på pension. Det er på grund af pointsystemerne, som blev indført i 2010, og som Liberal Alliance for nylig reddede i endnu et formentlig karrierebetinget krumspring.
Der er også historien om den kinesiske PhD-studerende, som kom til at indbetale 1600 kroner i stedet for 3025 i gebyr for at søge om at komme til Danmark, fordi Udlændingeservice bragte de forkerte oplysninger på deres hjemmeside. Da fejlen blev opdaget, nægtede de bare at modtage de manglende 1425 kroner og arbejde videre derfra, man måtte have en ny indbetaling og en ny ansøgningsdato, for det andet “kan de administrative systemer ikke håndtere”. Til dato har studenten mistet flybilletten fra Kina og de første måneders husleje i København, men han håber stadig.Men de klogeste har vel efterhånden lært at sætte sig ind i, hvad Danmark er for et land, og holder sig væk.
Og så er der nogen, der ikke kan forstå, at det ikke lykkes at trække turister til landet. Læg hertil den fortsatte historie om Birthe Rønn Hornbechs magtmisbrug og bevidste lovbrug i sagen om statsborgerskab til statsløse palæstinensere, er billedet efterhånden kun alt for klart. Måske man skulle se at få pakket den kuffert, mens man stadig har lov til at rejse her fra Danmarks Demokratiske Rige.
Billede: OneLiners4DK, en udmærket, Danmark-kritisk Facebook-side, som du også kan følge på Twitter.
… over for undertrykkende arabiske regimer. Efter revolutionerne i Tunesien og Egypten og deres aflæggere i Libyen, Irak, Marokko, Jordan og Bahrain må det være slut med den racistiske, overbærende forestilling om, at arabere er for “umodne” til at leve i et frit og værdigt samfund og at det bedste, de kan håbe på, er et “moderat” diktatur.
Gaddafi, in power since 1969, is best known in the west for his eccentricity, from the voluptuous nurse that accompanies him everywhere to his habit of setting up a bedouin tent during state visits abroad. The focus on such personal foibles, as well as Libya’s alleged role in the Lockerbie bombing, has dominated the portrayal of the country. For most people around the world, Libya was Gaddafi.It turns out there are another 6 million Libyans, many of whom are now rebelling against the Gaddafi family, and that at least 200 have died in the last few days fighting for their freedom. Libya is the Arab world’s North Korea, a near-totalitarian nightmare and an insult to common decency. And as Pyongyang is protected by China, so Tripoli is being given cover by Tony Blair, BP and academics-turned-consultants like Anthony Giddens and Benjamin Barber. The idea is that it was best to try to help countries like Libya “reform”, even if the reforms in question tended to be mostly about making the place more business-friendly.
Men det gælder også netop “moderate” lande som Marokko – styret er i virkeligheden alt andet end “det bedste, folk har at håbe på”, og landets indbyggere har ærligt talt grund til at mene, de har fortjent bedre – også bedre end den endeløse snak om “stabilitet” fra vestlige ledere, når der i virkeligheden er brug for frihed og bedre vilkår:
For 15 years, Morocco has been considered the “best student” in an Arab class of deadenders. Next to Algeria’s traumatised society, Tunisia’s police state or Libya’s sheer hell, who could disagree? Morocco has made great strides since the 90s in terms of human rights, notably holding the Arab world’s first (if somewhat flawed) national reconciliation process and passing progressive laws on women’s rights.But for the last few years something has been increasingly rotten in the kingdom of Morocco. Advances for press freedom made in the 90s have been reversed. A political transition that had been made possible in the late 90s by a historic reconciliation between the opposition and the palace has stalled. A fragile economy has been hampered by a predatory royal holding that creates monopolies for itself.
More and more Moroccans want something akin to what they see in Britain or Spain: a constitutional monarchy where the king is head of state but does not interfere in government. Like the protests elsewhere in the region, the peaceful demonstrations that have taken place in eight cities are about dignity. Moroccans, like other Arabs, are tired of being subjects: they want to be citizens.
They would also like solidarity from the outside world, and to be seen as more than an exotic tourist destination.
Og ja, de har ærligt talt fortjent bedre. Lad os håbe, at bølgen har nået Saudi-Arabien, inden året er omme.
Sharif S. Elmusa skriver i den egyptiske avis Al-Masry Al-Youm om, hvordan revolutionerne i Egypten og Tunesien har vækket befolkningens slumrende poetiske bevidsthed, og hvordan netop poesien har været blandt de elementer, der har båret revolutionen frem:
The political comes the morning after, although it’s articulated in slogans, drums and chants during the days of mobilization, and even long before that, in the daily sighs and dreams of the oppressed. Although we may adduce all kinds of “factors” to the eruption of the revolution, we cannot use them to explain its timing. The sudden synergy of hundreds of thousands of people chanting loudly and in unison, their joy drowning their aches as they inhale the air of freedom, defies rational explanation.
Great creative works, like Handel’s symphony The Messiah or Melville’s Moby Dick were made after periods of deep gloom. In the Arab world, revolution has poured out of the deep well of despair and loss of confidence.
The late Nizar Qabbani, the love poet of the Arab world, who also penned much political poetry, wrote “the Arabs have died.” Mahmoud Darwish said “Egypt is not in Egypt.” But pain and suffering were as fertile as Egypt’s soil, green as Tunisia itself. They have reawakened the spirit, opened the portals of the body and the body politic. They have ushered Egypt back into Egypt and Tunisia into Tunisia. You could see the metamorphosis and hear it in the performance of the crowds and their words, in the free wheeling slogans and the rhyming couplets.
They rendered acts of poetry–cleaning the streets, regulating traffic, protecting the national museum, guarding houses, breaking bread with someone–even more poetic. These mundane acts became inspiring moments, like that of a poem, spawning a new spirit, free of the dust that had settled on the conception of work and on those who perform it day after day. Writing a poem and engaging in a revolution are both acts of self-discovery.
The revolution dignifies the ordinary, and elevates it, just as poetry transforms common words into rhythms and meaning.
Never will the privileged person who swept leftover food, cigarette butts and plastic containers into a pile in the street think of the street sweeper as lowly again–just like what a poem about a street sweeper does, it dignifies the person and the work.
Never will the person who helped formed a ring around thugs to prevent agitated comrades from meting out spontaneous justice forget the meaning of magnanimity. A poem that is not imbued with a spirit of forgiveness is an ersatz poem.
Never will the person who guarded the museum go by it again thinking it is just another building. Standing guard by the house of antiquities is like a poem about lost objects, about lives vanished; it keeps them alive for as long they last.
The words that revolutionaries make are poetry, even if they are not meant to be. Language under authoritarian regimes rusts, turns dull, loses its edge and luster. Revolution restores to words their truthfulness, meaning, even magic. The first word of the revolution was “The people want to bring down the regime.” It is the people who want, not the ruler. The declarative statement is economical, uses the active verb, and announces the expiry of the old order. It is in itself an act, a performance.
Sharif forklarer videre, hvordan den egyptiske opstands helt grundlæggende slagord – “Folket ønsker at vælte regimet” – faktisk er en henvisning til et digt af tuneseren Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabbi.
Det virker underligt at slutte af med et indlæg med titlen “Good Morning, Bahrain!” om demonstranternes tilsyneladende landvinding i Bahrain og så ikke nævne noget om udviklingen i Libyen, hvor Gaddafi og hans regime tilsyneladende er begyndt at beskyde demonstranter fra luften med kampfly.
Al Jazeera English har uden tvivl den bedste live-dækning. Et udpluk af de seneste nyheder:
9:29pm: Ali Richi, the Libyan minister for immigration is in Boston. He denies he has resigned yet, but is calling for all Libyan ambassadors to continue their work independently of he regime.
9:27pm: Residents of Tajura, a suburb to the south-east of Tripoli, tell Al Jazeera the bodies of those killed are being left in the streets, with relatives unable to retrieve them due to the ongoing shooting.
9:24pm: BBC reports Libya’s ambassador to India has resigned. If confirmed, he will be the seventh ambassador to quit their posts in protest at the violent crackdown against civilian demonstrators – and may signal the beginning of a collapse in Libya’s diplomatic corps.
9:19pm: Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, contacts Amr Moussa, Arab League secretary-general, and calls for an extraordinary meeting of the league. The meeting will be held tomorrow morning, we understand.
9:11pm: Footage emerges online showing burnt corpses, reportedly of those killed during fires in Benghazi.
9:09pm: The Libyan deputy foreign minister denies Gaddafi has fled the country, says Reuters.
9:00pm: Al Jazeera is providing rolling coverage of the ongoing crisis in Libya. You can watch our TV stream by clicking here. In the UK, we’re live right now on Freeview. And if you’re in the US, don’t forget, you can Demand Al Jazeera on your cable provider
8:52pm: Qatar’s foreign ministry condemns use of airstrikes against civilians – and also criticises “the silence of the international community over the bloody events in Libya”.
Jyllands-Posten fortæller, at to libyske Mirage-jagerfly er landet på Malta – hoppet af, fordi piloterne fik ordre til at beskyde civile i Benghazi.
Google har sat en telefon-til-twitter-tjeneste op på adressen alive.in/libya/. De nyheder, der kommer ind her, er ikke opmuntrende:
Uhm basically we need help from everybody, we need support, we need medical aid, someone to stop this…he’s sending in mercenaries from…we don’t where, we need help, we this guy to leave the country. I mean everyone basically leaving their houses and saying the shahada (a prayer to God, to accept them into Heaven if they should die), nobody is coming back. It’s really bad out here, everyone is getting killed, worse and worse right now.
Vil Gaddafi falde, efter alt det her? Sagen er, at Gaddafi burde være faldet for fyrre år siden. Libyen er kun en bleg skygge af, hvad dette meget rige og tyndt befolkede land kunne have været under et frit styre. En Twitter-bruger mener ikke, der er nogen tvivl:
Mubarak: Egypt is not Tunisia. Gaddafi: Libya is not Egypt or Tunisia. You fools: the entire Arab world is Tunisia. – Ibrahim Dsouki
De helt bevidste drab på fredelige demonstranter torsdag og fredag medførte en så voldsom reaktion, at styret i Bahrain lørdag eftermiddag valgte at trække miltær og politi bort fra urolighederne. Kronprins Salman lover dialog og opfordrer folk til at gå hjem, men demonstranterne er vrede og nægter at gå hjem, før deres krav er efterlevet.
Mange har givet udtryk for skuffelse over den amerikanske regerings manglende eller i bedste fald særdeles valne støtte til demokratibevægelserne i den arabiske verden. Den megen tale om “stabilitet” er under alle omstændigheder en fornærmelse – har en undertrykt befolkning brug for stabilitet? Nej, de har brug for frihed, frihed og mere frihed, som den palæstinensiske journalist Naser Alsehli forklarede til et møde om situationen, jeg deltog i forleden.
En anden måde at sige det på er, at det ville være godt, hvis USA fra starten havde tilkendegivet en klar støtte til protesterne i Tunesien og Egypten – for USAs egen skyld! Folk i området er ligeglade og ønsker ikke længere USAs støtte, som Robert Fisk forklarer i The Independent:
“The Americans interfered in our country for 30 years under Mubarak, supporting his regime, arming his soldiers,” an Egyptian student told me in Tahrir Square last week. “Now we would be grateful if they stopped interfering on our side.” At the end of the week, I heard identical voices in Bahrain. “We are getting shot by American weapons fired by American-trained Bahraini soldiers with American-made tanks,” a medical orderly told me on Friday. “And now Obama wants to be on our side?”
Folk er allerede begyndt at tale om den “anden afkolonialisering” – 50-80 år efter, at den arabiske verden holdt op med at være vestlige kolonier af navn, holder de også op med at være det af gavn. Vestens og USAs indflydelse er måske ved at være forbi. Hverken krigen i Irak eller Obamas og Clintons fumlen har gjort det lettere for USA at hoppe på toget. Det er endnu alt for tidligt at sige, hvad det hele ender med, men herfra skal ønskes masser af held og lykke til de gode oprørere i Bahrain, der nu er begyndt at tage deres egen by tilbage. Måtte de få alle deres krav opfyldt.
Store demonstrationer i mange af de største byer i Libyen er tilsyneladende ved at udvikle sig til en tragedie. Meldinger om 24-84 døde, måske hundredevis; hundredevis af sårede. Lad os ikke håbe, Gaddafi overlever dette.
Update: Hos Arabawy faldt jeg også over denne supplerende øjenvidneberetning:
Kristne egyptere slår ring om bedende muslimer på Tahrir-pladsen for at beskytte dem mod angreb fra Mubarak-regimets bøller.
Jeg har tidligere fortalt, hvordan Egyptens koptiske kristne nu forventer bedre og mere tolerante tider, efter Mubaraks fald. De allestedsnærværende vagtlokaler uden for kristne kirke er ikke længere bemandede, for folk er ikke længere bange for angreb.
Det samme gælder for jøderne og deres synagoger, skriver Egyptian Chronicles:
Do you know that during the last 18 or even 20 days in Egypt there has not been a single guard from the police force protecting the Jewish synagogues in the country !!?
Do you know that there has not been a single attack against a single synagogue recorded in the country ?
Do you know that the synagogues in Down town were not attacked or harmed from any kind ?
Men: Hvis folk i Egypten ikke har noget særligt imod kristne og jøder og det i en sådan grad, at minoriteterne slet ikke har brug for Mubarak-tidens beskyttelse, nu hvor politiet er som sunket i jorden, hvem stod så bag de sidste mange års forfølgelse af kopterne? Hvem stod bag bomben mod en kirke i Alexandria, som dræbte 21 mennesker omkring nytår og fik tusinder af egyptiske muslimer til at slå kreds om de kristne og stille sig op som menneskelige skjolde til kristne gudstjenester rundt omkring?
Sagen er endnu ikke opklaret, men de foreliggende oplysninger tyder særdeles stærkt på, at det var Mubaraks indenrigsminister Habib El Adly, der stod bag. Daily Kos citerede 7/2 “britiske efterretningskilder” for, at man efter de store fangeflugter i den egyptiske revolutions første dage kom i kontakt med flygtede fanger, der forbandt El Adny med bomberne:
A British diplomat revealed before the Chambers of the French Palace, Elysee, the reason for the insistence of England to demand the departure of the Egyptian President and his team, especially the Ministry of Interior, which was administered by the Minister Habib Al-Adli, the reason is that British intelligence confirmed, from audio and paper Egyptian official documents , that the sacked Egyptian Interior Minister Habib Al-Adli had formed six years ago, a special body run by 22 officers, and consists of some members of Islamic groups, which spent years in the prisons of the Interior ministry, number of drug dealers, teams of security companies, and number of registered risk of ex-offenders, who were divided into groups according to geographical regions and political affiliation, this body is able to be a comprehensive sabotage all over Egypt in case the regime is subjected to any threat.
The British intelligence also revealed that Major Fathi Abdel Wahed, who is close to the former Minister Habib Al-Adli, started on 11 December to prepare “Ahmed Mohamed Khaled” (who spent eleven years in the prisons of the Egyptian Interior Ministry) for the connect to a radical Egyptian group, as to push it to hit Saints Church in Alexandria. Ahmed al-Khalid succeeded in making contacts to a radical movement in Egypt, its name (Jundullah), and told her that he has equipment which he got from Gaza, that could explode the Church in order to “discipline the Copts”. Muhammad Abd al-Hadi (leader of Jundullah) liked the idea, and recruited an element named Abdul Rahman Ahmed Ali. Abdul Rahman was told that he will park the car, which will explode on its own later, but Major Fathi Abdul Wahid himself was the one who exploded the car remotely, by wireless device, and before Abdel-Rahman Ahmed Ali the victim could step out of the car.
Thus happened the horrific crime that shook Egypt and the world last year’s new Eve.
Daily News Egypt fortæller, at anklagemyndigheden er i færd med at undersøge beskyldningerne mod El Adly. Al Arabiya har også historien. Der har endnu ikke været nogen retssag om bomberne i Alexandria, men El Adly er i forvejen anholdt, anklaget for korruption, bedrageri og for at beordre sine sikkerhedsstyrker til at åbne ild mod demonstranter. Det kan i hvert fald forklare, hvorfor Egyptens kirker og synagoger pludselig ikke længere har brug for vagter: Fordi de folk, som havde en interesse i at sætte befolkningsgrupperne op mod hinanden, nu er sat fra bestillingen.
Zaz alias Isabelle Geffroy fik sit gennembrud i 2010 og lægger sig mellem fransk visekunst og mere traditionel jazz. Sangen hedder “Les passants“.
PS: Hvis du ser denne sang, vil du ikke fortryde det. Den er rimeligt mindblowing.
Update: “Passe, passe, passera, la dernière restera” er fra en fransk børnesang og betyder noget i retning af det kendte: “Første gang så lader vi ham gå, anden gang så lige så, men tredje gang så tager vi ham og putter ham i gryden.” Her kan du finde en engelsk oversættelse af sangteksten.
