Red Light Politics

Welcome to my short form Tumblr blog. My name is Flavia Tamara Dzodan, I am a business developer, writer, public speaker, ideas instigator, content creator, media facilitator and trend watcher living in Amsterdam.

This Tumblr is about the spaces and intersections between politics, culture, race and gender matters with some humor and pop culture thrown in the mix.

My long reads blog is Red Light Politics.

I also blog at Tiger Beatdown.

Read my posts at Persephone Magazine.

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48 posts tagged EU

Global Comment: Networks of racist hatred, the hidden side of the European Union

I wrote about the racist networks across the European Union that are almost always unveiled when a major hate crime is investigated. From the piece:

Back in July 2011, when Anders Behring Breivik went on a murderous rampage in Norway, leaving a trail of 77 dead and numerous injured he also left behind a manifest that hinted to his connection with like minded individuals and groups across Europe. He spoke extensively of his extreme right wing sympathies and mentioned his contacts with others across the continent. Authorities investigated the links and found that he had been in touch with groups in the US and the UK. The arrest in Zurich this week, in connection with the German NSU, though not related to Breivik, does indicate a certain pattern. These connections across borders point to a modus operandi that is replicated across hate groups who are united by a common goal and racist rhetoric.

“What we know about defendants in racist and religiously motivated crimes is that the majority are men (83.4%). Most defendants were White British (73.4%) and the majority were aged between 25-59 accounting for 51.3% and a further 28.8% were aged between 18-24. Of interest is the fact that the proportion of both 10-13 year olds and 14-17 year olds involved as defendants has declined from 2.6% and 20.2% respectively in 2007/08 to 1.7% and 14.9%. What we know about victims is that 58.3% were men and 26.2% were women. The number of victims with no identified gender at 15.5% represents a significant improvement since 2007/08 when it stood at 56.0%.”

I am going through the newly released hate crime report in the UK (link goes to PDF)

The number of women victims of racist attacks in the UK is at 26.2%. The people whose gender was not included in the report (that does not mean they purposefully prefer not to be identified by gender, it’s that the people collecting the data did not include the gender) is at 15.5%. Let’s say half of those were women? (cis or non cis, either trans* or gender queer or gender variant). 

And then I sometimes have to hear that racism should not be of utmost concern within feminism?

Right.

Vatican told to pay taxes as Italy tackles budget crisis

via The Independent:

After several years of scandal in which the Catholic Church has faced allegations of financial impropriety, paedophile priests and rumours of plots to kill the Pope, the Vatican is now facing a new €600m-a-year tax bill as Rome seeks to head off European Commission censure over controversial property tax breaks enjoyed by the Church.

As the EC heads closer to officially condemning the fiscal perks enjoyed by the Catholic Church and introduced by the Berlusconi administration, Prime Minister Mario Monti has written to the Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, saying that the Vatican will resume property tax, or Ici, payments.

Mr Almunia said in 2010 that the exemption amounted to state aid that might breach EU competition law.

Now, if every government told them to stop meddling in the usual restrictive and oppressive politics that made them infamous in most of Latin America, we might be on the path to some change.

“In its less than two months in office, Spain’s new conservative government has begun to introduce sweeping educational and reproductive health reforms, prompting protests from the opposition and from civil society groups, which see them as a throwback to an earlier era.”

SPAIN: Conservative Government’s Reforms Draw Fire - IPS ipsnews.net

From the article:

The measures proposed by the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the centre-right People’s Party include a modification of the law on sexual and reproductive health, known as the abortion law, in effect since July 2010. 

Justice Minister Alberto Ruíz-Gallardón announced that he would seek legislative changes in the timeframes for legal abortions, and would make parental consent obligatory for girls aged 16 and 17. 

For its part, the health ministry said it would seek restrictions on the emergency contraceptive pill, or “morning-after pill”, which has been available in pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription since 2009. 

More at the link above. Also, this attack on reproductive rights seems to be spreading across continents, specifically, in virulence. 

“

Doctors at the Odense University Hospital refrained from operating a 65-year-old woman with pancreatic cancer, noting as a reason in her medical journal that she was ‘slightly retarded’.

Six months later, the woman was re-admitted to hospital in a serious condition, with her cancer having spread so much that it was not possible to operate. She died six months later.

”

Denmark: No op for retarded patient - Politiken.dk

I don’t think I can add anything articulate to this. Words fail me.

(H/T inessita)

Tiger Beatdown: Those who die to keep us safe: European Union’s Frontex and the administration of immigrants

And then I went down the rabbit hole of the European Union’s policies on the treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers. This is not the first time it happens. Last year I wrote quite extensively about the corporate profits behind the detention of undocumented immigrants. This time, however, I was interested in the policies and enforcement that lead to the abuses. People die. We forget. More often than not, we are not even aware of these deaths. Each of these immigrants, a person, a human being killed by State policies and the arm that executes them. I desperately wanted to understand why.

I don’t usually tell people to “go and read” something I wrote because really, people who are interested will click and those who are not will pass on. However, I believe this matters and it rarely gets a mention in European press. Especially not in the context of the magnitude of the human rights violations involved.

Headache by theology

When I write some stuff I tend to go through the rabbit hole of departures, meandering theories, etc. I know for a fact these deviations have no purpose for the topic I am writing but I cannot help it, it just… happens. Yesterday I started going through the documents released by the EU for the program of administration of external borders (and more specifically, the issue of the treatment of migrants within the EU). I don’t know what kind of mental leaps I took that I ended up reading about Calvinist theology (Calvinism was the official religion of The Netherlands for a few centuries until all Protestant Churches formed an alliance to become the official Protestant Church in the Netherlands, again, all of this is an oversimplified version of events that transpired for decades).

I’ve been specifically reading about the Calvinist doctrine of the “non-elect” (i.e. this piece of, to put it in very simplistic terms, Calvinist doctrine that states that people have been chosen by god to be saved beforehand, which renders the issue of human will to be pointless). This Calvinist doctrine was used to justify slavery and the slave trade on the basis that Blacks (and all Africans) were not elected by god for salvation and, as such, they didn’t have to be granted “humanity” (again, I insist, this is a rather simplistic reduction of the entire argument). It was also the doctrine used by Afrikaners to set up apartheid in South Africa.

I wonder how much of this doctrine survives in modern theology as it is clear that Calvinism still holds the principle of the “non elect” to be central to their belief system. And of course, the implications of said beliefs in our contemporary, current society and the racist ideas that seem to flourish these days. Especially considering that the SGP IS a political party, with several seats in Parliament and a sizable power in some regions of The Netherlands and their politics are based on Calvinism.

“The family’s terrifying experience is part of wider epidemic of such violence in the Greek capital. Migrants and asylum seekers whom I and my colleagues from Human Rights Watch interviewed spoke of virtual no-go areas in Athens after dark because of the risk of attacks by vigilante groups. An association of Afghans in Greece provides newly arrived Afghan migrants with a map marked in red for areas to avoid.”

Greece’s Epidemic of Racist Attacks - NYTimes.com

And more to the point regarding my previous post about the EU. Similar reports about growing racism and violence, this time in Greece.

“

French police are using overly broad powers to conduct unwarranted and abusive identity checks on black and Arab young men and boys, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 55-page report, “The Root of Humiliation: Abusive Identity Checks in France,” says that minority youth, including children as young as 13, are subjected to frequent stops involving lengthy questioning, invasive body pat-downs, and the search of personal belongings. These arbitrary stops can take place even in the absence of any indication of wrongdoing, Human Rights Watch found. Insulting language, including racial slurs, are not uncommon, and some stops involve excessive use of force by the police.

”

France: Abusive Identity Checks of Minority Youth

I’ve been literally screaming over the “normalization” of racism across the entire EU. Now Human Rights Watch has released a report that pretty much spells this out in France. I wish they’d conduct a similar research on the rest of the countries.

“A Filipino worker was tied to a chair by a racist colleague in the North while another was locked in a freezer, a community representative has claimed. The allegations emerged as new research found almost half of Filipinos living in the North say they have experienced racial harassment in the workplace.”

Ireland: Report warns of workplace racism | Irish Examiner

I’ve been posting about escalating anti Black racism in Ireland for the past couple of weeks. Now a report by Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM) has been released with chilling details of the abuse endured by members of the Filipino community. From the article:

Filipino community representative Jason Braga, 36, who has lived in the North for nine years, said some of his compatriots were frightened to report abuse in case it harmed their chances of staying in the country.

“I was told of a nurse being tied up in a chair and a hotel worker being locked up in a freezer,” he said.

French woman acquitted of ‘racial injury’ in case about anti-white racism

A few weeks ago I posted about the first case of “anti White racism” to be tried in a French court. Finally yesterday the verdict came out.

The Netherlands: Anti-Islam party PVV vows to resist plans for funding transparency

via DutchNews.nl:

MPs are overwhelmingly in favour of new legislation to increase transparency in political party funding, but the PVV wants to keep its donations secret, website nu.nl reports.

The draft legislation will be debated on Wednesday and Thursday and will require parties to publish the identies of donors giving over €4,500, nu.nl says.

PVV parliamentarian Hero Brinkman says the measure is ‘anti-PVV’.

Of course Geert Wilders opposes this legislation because, as the article notes, the majority of his donations come from far right groups in the US (such as the one from Pamela Geller). This foreign donations would raise suspicions of his big talks of patriotism, nationalism and allegiance to The Netherlands.

uncdan replied to your quote: An eight-year-old Nigerian girl has been injured…

Do you think it’s related to the economic downturn? When things are good, people are happy. When things are bad, people turn on each other and blame each other.

You know, no, I don’t think so. I used to think that it was the case (i.e. happy people when they have money vs. racist assholes when they are poor) but I no longer believe so. The argument reminds me of those who somewhat justify physical or verbal violence by drunk people. They say “it’s because they are drunk!”. No. It’s because they are assholes. There are plenty of people who get drunk and don’t go around beating up others. The alcohol exacerbates a character trait that was already there. With the current wave or racism sweeping the EU, I tend to take a similar stance: the economic downturn has only brought back to the surface what was already there. One does not go from “accepting and embracing of one’s neighbor” to “violent, racist thug” through lack of money. That’s a co-opt to avoid addressing the historical issues with race that Europe never remedied to begin with.

“An eight-year-old Nigerian girl has been injured in a suspected racist attack on her family’s home in Dundonald, which has now been targeted twice in the past week.”

Ireland - Nigerian family targets in ‘racist attack’

The number of racist attacks in Ireland seems to be increasing exponentially on a daily basis. From the link above:

A brick thrown at the home of Charles Awoyelu and his wife Monica in the Brooklands Estate, at around 5.30am on Saturday.

It smashed through a bedroom window where Promise, one of their five children, was sleeping. She was taken to hospital with a head injury.

Irish Couple quit Derry home after attack by racist thugs

From the article:

A young couple have said they will not return to their Londonderry home after a gang attacked it with golf clubs in a racist attack.

Police said they are treating the attack on the home of Jonathan Taylor and his Filipino wife as a hate crime and have appealed for witnesses.

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