Migrant Influx Shifting but No Let-Up

Posted: June 12, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Global, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere | Tags: Agence France-Presse, Agencies of the European Union, Brexit, Capacity building, Citizenship of the European Union, European Union, Member state of the European Union, Theresa May, United Kingdom, United States | Leave a comment

© AFP/File / by Michel VIATTEAU | As ever greater numbers of migrants risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean from Africa, the European Union has beefed up its border agency Frontex to try and check the mass influx.

WARSAW (AFP) – The migrants pouring into Europe have changed routes: the crossing between Turkey and Greece is practically closed, but ever greater numbers are risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy.

A criminal industry has flourished, while the European Union has beefed up its border agency Frontex to try to check the mass migration.

Frontex is at once both good cop and bad cop, rescuing migrants from sinking boats but also dropping them off at welcome centres where they risk being sent back home.

Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri summed up the situation in an interview with AFP.

– Who are the migrants? –

On the shores of Greece there are now “80 or 100 people who arrive every day, whereas we had 2,500 a day” before the agreement with Turkey, said Leggeri.

Among those who arrive from Africa via the central Mediterranean and Libya, whose number is up by more than 40 percent, most come from west Africa. They are Senegalese, Guineans, Nigerians. In 2016 they totalled 180,000.

They are mainly economic migrants and include many young men but also families and young women. Nigerian women are often exploited as prostitutes in Europe.

“It’s not the poorest who leave, because they have to be able to pay the smugglers,” said Leggeri.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), of the more than one million people who made it to Europe in 2015, 850,000 crossed into Greece via the Aegean Sea. More than half came from Syria and most of the rest from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Following a landmark EU-Turkey accord in March 2016, the total number arriving in Europe by sea fell that year to around 363,000, IOM figures show.

But as the number of arrivals in Greece dropped, the figures arriving from north Africa started to grow.

By mid-April 2017, “some 36,000 migrants had arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, or an increase of 43 percent over the same period last year,” according to Frontex.

– Who are the smugglers? –

At the beginning of the most dangerous leg of the trip across the Sahara, the migrants are transported by Tuareg or Tebu nomads, for whom it is a traditional commercial activity, Leggeri said.

The Mediterranean crossing however is run by criminal networks, both big and small, as well as lone smugglers.

At the bottom of the ladder there are petty crooks, sometimes migrants themselves, who become the skippers of the small overloaded boats to pay for their own crossing, according to Leggeri. Read the rest of this entry »

Megan G. Oprea: After London Bridge, World Is Sick Of Politicians Downplaying Terrorism

Posted: June 5, 2017 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Global, Politics, Terrorism, War Room | Tags: Angela Merkel, Brexit, EUROPE, European Union, Facebook, Theresa May, Twitter, UK Independence Party, United Kingdom | Leave a comment

Our political leaders are basically telling us that this kind of terrorism, random and deadly, is the price we have to pay for their policies of multiculturalism and political correctness.

Megan G. Oprea writes: As if on cue, in the wake of Saturday’s terrorist attack in London political leaders are trotting out the usual treacly lines that have become so rote. But the words they pretend will provide comfort to anyone but the most naïve are borderline worthless. Worse, they’re an insult to the families who have had to experience the shocking pain of the sudden loss of a family member or friend at the hands of a terrorist.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, called Saturday’s attack “deliberate and cowardly,” and asked “all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant today and in the days ahead.” Most notably, he said: “You will see an increased police presence today, including armed officers and uniformed officers. There is no reason to be alarmed by this. We are the safest global city in the world.”

What a thing to say at a time like this. Shouldn’t Britons be alarmed? Isn’t Saturday’s attack in London, coming as it did on the heels of the Manchester bombing, deeply disturbing? Why isn’t Khan more concerned about the threats that are so obviously at the doorstep, or better put, in Britain’s streets? Does anyone really take comfort from being told about swift police response times after yet another terrorist attack?

Our Politicians Can’t Handle the Truth

The sad truth, and getting sadder with every attack, is that the political class has little interest in doing what would really be necessary to combat Islamist terrorism, let alone talk about it. They don’t want to talk about how Britain’s lax immigration policies over decades led to hundreds of thousands of immigrants entering the country with varying degrees of willingness to assimilate and adopt Western values. They don’t want to openly criticize the blatant problems with the multiculturalism the UK has pursued for years and the obvious impact it has had on the immigrant population.

Oh no. This would cost them too much. It would shatter the façade of political correctness that’s been constructed over our “civilized” western world, and destroy the illusion, so vital to the political class, that Western values are universal. Read the rest of this entry »

Britain Poised to Muzzle Extremist Speech

Posted: November 9, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Censorship, Global, Politics | Tags: Conservative Party (UK), David Cameron, Extremism, Home Secretary, Islamism, Law enforcement in the United Kingdom, Liberal democracy, Sharia, Theresa May, United Kingdom | 3 Comments

free-speech-zone

In Britain, if you have extreme views on anything from Western democracy to women’s role in public life, you might soon require a licence from the government before you can speak in public. Seriously.

“It’s the brainchild of Theresa May, the Home Secretary in David Cameron’s government. May wants to introduce ‘extremism disruption orders’, which, yes, are as terrifyingly authoritarian as they sound.”

Nearly 350 years after us Brits abolished the licensing of the press, whereby every publisher had to get the blessing of the government before he could press and promote his ideas, a new system of licensing is being freedom-of-speech-x proposed. And it’s one which, incredibly, is even more tyrannical than yesteryear’s press licensing since it would extend to individuals, too, potentially forbidding ordinary citizens from opening their gobs in public without officialdom’s say-so.

“Once served with an EDO, you will be banned from publishing on the Internet, speaking in a public forum, or appearing on TV. To say something online, including just tweeting or posting on Facebook, you will need the permission of the police.”

It’s the brainchild of Theresa May, the Home Secretary in David Cameron’s government. May wants to introduce “extremism disruption orders”, which, yes, are as terrifyingly authoritarian as they sound.

Last month, May unveiled her ambition to “eliminate extremism in all its forms.” Whether you’re a neo-Nazi or an Islamist, or just someone who says things which betray, in May’s words, a lack of “respect for the rule of law” and “respect for minorities”, then you could be served with an extremism disruption order (EDO). Read the rest of this entry »

Landesman: Why Are Right Wing Women So Hot? The Lust That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Posted: July 21, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Cosmo Landesman, Feminism, Gertrude Stein, Imelda Marcos, Jemima Khan, Romance, Sarah Palin, Sex, Sexism, Spectator, The Left, the right, Theresa May, UK politics, Virginia Woolf, Yoko Ono | 2 Comments

My secret lust for right-wing women

“I envy men of the right — their sexual lives are not constrained by the rules of sexual correctness we lefties are expected to live by.”

For The Spectator.uk, Cosmo Landesman writes: Not long ago I was out drinking with a group of friends and we started playing the If-You-Had-To game. The idea is to present players with two people they would never want to sleep with — and then make them choose which they’d sleep with. Here are some of the fiendish alternatives I had to face: Imelda Marcos or Wallace Simpson? Ayn Rand or Yoko Ono? Gertrude Stein or Virginia Woolf?

“Sorry, comrades, but when it comes to the bedroom I’ll have to vote Tory.”

Then one joker said: Theresa May or Jemima Khan? Everyone laughed at this no-contest choice. Everyone except me. How could I tell them the ugly truth: I’d prefer a night of passion with right-wing Theresa over lefty Jemima any day of the week.

Theresa May or Jemima Khan? Photo: Getty

But then I belong to that small, deviant group of liberal-lefty-pro-feminist men who find conservative/right-wing women super sexy. In an age when anything goes — at least in terms of sexual pleasure — ours is a lust that dare not speak its name.

[On progressivism ruining sex: “Well, it ruins everything, you know” — Glenn Reynolds].

I know this because later that evening, I turned to one of the group and confessed my secret longing for the likes of Theresa May, Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin — ideally all at once. I thought my fantasy night of passion would be received with sympathy and understanding. After all, this friend of mine pays a woman in Earls Court to put him on a rack and do things you don’t want to read about. He just looked at me and said: ‘You’re sick!’ Read the rest of this entry »

Islamist Fanatics Approach British Soldier in Public Street…

Posted: May 22, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, War Room | Tags: Allah, British Army, David Cameron, London, Paris, Royal Artillery Barracks, Theresa May, Woolwich | Leave a comment

…to Engage in a Peaceful Discussion about the Deeper Meanings of their Islamic Faith, and Demonstrate their Sincere Butcher him to Death with a Meat Cleaver, in Broad Daylight, in view of Horrified Witnesses

Terrorism returned to the streets of London as two suspected Muslim fanatics butchered a man in broad daylight in the name of “Allah”.

One of the attackers behind the barbaric killing, near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, was filmed wielding a bloodied meat cleaver, saying: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”

Security has been stepped up at military barracks across London, as witnesses and others close to the area said the victim, pronounced dead immediately, was a serving British soldier. Metropolitan Police officers called to the terrifying scenes opened fire and shot the attackers, who were rushed to nearby hospitals, where one is said to be in a serious condition.

Prime Minister David Cameron described the attack as “truly shocking” while the Home Secretary Theresa May said it was “sickening and barbaric”. At a press conference in Paris, the PM said Britain has faced such terror attacks before and added: “We will never buckle in the face of it.”In expressing solidarity with the PM, French president Francois Hollande referred to the murdered man as a “British soldier”. The Prime Minister, who was planning to stay in Paris overnight, is to return on Wednesday night instead.

After it became clear through witness accounts that the attackers had political and religious motives, the Government held a so-called Cobra emergency response meeting. The meeting, which lasted around an hour, heard security had been tightened at Woolwich barracks and increased at all London barracks, Downing Street said. It was attended by Mrs May, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Met Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick and intelligence agencies.The meeting was told there are strong indications that it was a terrorist incident.

In a chilling development, footage emerged of one of the suspected killers, apparently explaining his terrifying actions. In the clip, obtained by ITV News, he is heard to say: “We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.” In an extended version on The Sun website, the man adds: “You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start bussin’ our guns? You think politicians are going to die? No it’s going to be the average guy, like you, and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so you can all live in peace.” The attacker, who spoke clear English without a foreign accent, is then seen walking towards the victim, who is lying in the street. Another man is standing by a car that has collided with a road sign.