"I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya" - Nick Griffin on immigration

"I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya" - Nick Griffin on immigration, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Thanks to the actions of Capt Nick and his valiant crew of white supremacists another cargo vessels containing hundreds of undesirables finds its rightful place at the bottom of the Med. It is thanks to people like Nick Griffin that Fortress Europe is safe from the unwashed hoardes who threaten to swamp our sacred homeland. Thanks Nick, the next torpedo is on us.

"Boats carrying illegal migrants to Europe should be sunk Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, said yesterday.

In a provocative intervention, Griffin, elected to the European parliament last month, called on the EU to introduce "very tough" measures to prevent illegal migrants entering Europe from Africa.

"I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea – I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya," Griffin said."

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/09/nick-griffin-bnp

"I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya" - Nick Griffin on immigration

"I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya" - Nick Griffin on immigration, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Sometimes words escape you. Sometimes you read or hear something so outrageous that your mind at first fails to fully comprehend the significance of it. I read in today's Guardian that the head of British far right BNP party, Nick Griffins said that the EU should sink ships carrying immigrants to Europe.

So firing upon innocent people and leaving them to die in open seas is OK. What the hell? They're not "civilised", so they wouldn't be able to fit in with "advanced" societies that produce such morally upstanding individuals as Griffin. And to think this piece of trash was elected the European parliament last month.

"Boats carrying illegal migrants to Europe should be sunk Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, said yesterday.

In a provocative intervention, Griffin, elected to the European parliament last month, called on the EU to introduce "very tough" measures to prevent illegal migrants entering Europe from Africa.

"I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea – I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya," Griffin said."

The Guardian

In praise of dead buildings

In praise of dead buildings, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

It has been a frenetic few days with so many things happening that it is hard to keep track of it all. Weddings, demos, meetings, exhibitions, and of course lots of pictures. Yesterday for example, I went on a march, then to a lesson, back to the demo and off to an open air exhibition held by the Stereosis photography group where I spent the rest of the evening .

Greek police turn blind eye when far right attacks anti - racist demo in Athens

Picture from Indymedia

During the course of yesterday's anti - racism march in Athens members of far right groups posing as "concerned citizens" were filmed and photographed carrying clubs and attempting to throw Molotov cocktails at demonstrators. All this while the riot police (MAT) walked alongside them and made no attempt to intervene.

Picture from the Eleutherotypia newspaper.

"Η ειρηνική πορεία, που είχε ξεκινήσει από την Ομόνοια, δέχτηκε τα... πυρά των διμοιριών των ΜΑΤ, που μαζί με «αγανακτισμένους πολίτες» από την περιοχή του Αγίου Παντελεήμονα είχαν κάνει φράγμα με τα σώματά τους, προκειμένου να απαγορεύσουν σε αναρχικούς-αντιεξουσιαστές, αλληλέγγυους στους μετανάστες να φτάσουν στον τελικό τους προορισμό. "

Ελευθεροτυπία

Anti - racist march in solidarity with immigrants - Thessaloniki, Greece

Anti - racist march in solidarity with immigrants - Thessaloniki, Greece, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Last night about 800 - 1000 people marched through the centre of Thessaloniki and many more in Athens in order to protest the government's anti - immigrant measures which include the rounding up of those without proper papers (which are virtually impossible to get from the authorities), and the deportation without trial of any foreign national who is accused of a crime which carries a sentence of three or more months.

The ruling New Democracy party has also announced that it will set up internment camps throughout the country to house those who do not have a legal right to stay in the country. It should be noted that at present Greece grants asylum to 0.1% of those who apply for it and has been repeatedly criticised by Amnesty International, other European governments and the UNHCR for its treatment of refugees and immigrants.

On the other hand the latest poll carried out by Public Issue found that 93% of those questioned thought that Greece could not take in any more immigrants and that 62% said that immigration is probably harming Greece.

Stung by his party's poor showing in the recent European elections prime minister Kostas Karamanlis has decided to get tough on the issue of immigration in order to avoid losing more support to the far right LAOS party. With the possibility of general elections in either September or March 2010 at the latest Karamanlis is hoping that a tough stance on crime and immigrants will help bring back voters who have deserted the party in droves after two years of corruption and influence peddling scandals involving several government ministers.

Salonica - The movie

"SALONICA is about Thessaloniki, the northern Greek city at the crossroads of the Orient and Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean. The film tells life stories, resembling short novels, which unite to relate a more general story involving many protagonists and interwoven plots – resulting in a cinematic narrative of Thessaloniki.

What makes this city historically unique is the fact that for 450 years it was mainly Jewish and the predominant language was Spanish. This is because Thessaloniki was populated by the Jews who were expelled from Catholic Spain in 1492 and who subsequently found refuge in the Ottoman Empire – up until their almost total annihilation by the Germans during the Shoah in 1943.

The history of the Jews of Salonica is an unfamiliar, yet profoundly European story. It is a story that echoes across the whole Mediterranean region from Spain to Italy and from the Balkans to Turkey. It is unique, because there has never been another predominantly Jewish city of this size anywhere in Europe.

Against this background, SALONICA takes a close look at the city today, meeting very different people – Jewish survivors, Russian immigrants, gypsies, Greek-Macedonian nationalists – thereby telling of the city’s modern reality, a display of historical layers and stories. From a great variety of real life stories SALONICA paints a cinematic fresco of a place and a century torn apart by violence."

A film by Paolo Poloni

ΕΛΒΟ - Θεσσαλονίκη

ΕΛΒΟ - Θεσσαλονίκη, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Πορεία πραγματοποιούν αυτή την ώρα στους κεντρικούς δρόμους της Θεσσαλονίκης οι εργζόμενοι στην ΕΛΒΟ, με κατάληξη το Υπουργείο Μακεδονίας – Θράκης. Οι εργαζόμενοι διαμαρτύρονται για τη σταδακή απαξίωση της γραμμής παραγωγής του εργοστασίου, γεγονός που μπορεί να σημάνει και το οριστικό κλείσιμο του εργοστασίου. Στο στόχαστρο της κριτικής τους βρίσκεται ο υπουργός Εθνικής Άμυνας Ευ.Μεϊμαράκης, καθώς λένε ότι από τη νέα παραγγελία των ρωσικών τεθωρακισμένων μεταφοράς προσωπικού, όλες οι εργολαβίες έχουν καταλήξει σε ρωσικές εταιρείες, και για την ΕΛΒΟ «επιφυλάχθηκε»ο ρόλος της συναρμολόγησης των … καθισμάτων.

www.newsblog.gr

Κατάληψη του Παύλου Μελά - θεσσαλονίκη

Κατάληψη του Παύλου Μελά - θεσσαλονίκη, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I was there when after a meeting people decided to tear down the fence surrounding the Pavlou Mela army camp in Thessaloniki, partly to stop one of the city's last remaining open areas being turned into a concrete tomb, partly to forstall any effort by the government in Athens to turn it into an internment camp for immigrants.

Weddings Vs Riots - which are more stressful?

Just looking through the pictures I took yesterday. I was asked to take pictures of a wedding, something I found more nerve wracking than covering a riot. At least with protests and demos there are always more chances to take another photograph, but if I made a mess of something during the ceremony then there is no way to go back and do it all over again.

Usually when I go out and photograph an event I just need a handful of images that work and I don't need to worry about the rest. That logic doesn't work in the case of weddings as everyone wants their picture taken and there no excuses for mucking things up.

The situation wasn't helped by the fact that is was sweltering inside the church so half the time my glasses fogged up making focusing a mite difficult. Just as well there were no extra lights for video as I think the bride and groom would have melted on the spot.

Blogs c1998 - 2009 RIP?

I just finished reading an article by Charles Arthur on the Guardian website that seems to imply blogging is on its way out, the victim of its younger, flashier cousins, Facebook and Twitter. According to a Technorati study quoted in the New York Times as well just 7.4 million of the 133 million blogs in existence were updated in the three months covered. Actually, this sounds about right, as when I think of all the blogs I have set up for myself or others over the last few years most have fallen by the wayside. The result of lack of interest of my part and that of my students.

Ironically, I blog far more frequently on this blog now than in the past, usually finding time to add something most days whereas when I started I doubt if I posted more than once a week, sometimes less. I guess that blogging is not for everyone. If you are interested in keeping in contact with your friends and family then Facebook makes far more sense. Also Twitter is much easier to handle since all you have to do is write no more than a handful of sentences, if that.

I think it was inevitable that blogs, which were some of the first platforms that allowed non - technically minded folk to add stuff to the internet would cede their role to more suitable applications. One size does not fit all and for every person who wants to write a 2000 word op - ed there are hundreds who just want to know what their friends did last night at the party.

Similarly, the whole "wow" factor that goes with any new innovation also wears off and what you're are left with is a tool, which has to be used well if you want to get people's attention. So blogging has become just another way of connecting with others on the web, part of a range of ways of communicating with a wider audience. As a result the initial wave of people starting blogs was never going to be sustainable.

Also I have noticed that the way blogs are being used is changing, origially they were considered to be some kind of diary which I suppose people were meant to keep up for years. Now blogs are being set up for a specific duration, designed to get a message out and then left when no longer needed.

Actually, because we have got over the hype connected with blogs and the whole web 2.0 phase we can now think about much more fundemental questions such as what is it I want to share? Now I guess people are thinking more carefully about what they want to say as opposed to simply stating that they have a presence on the internet. Once again when the technology becomes boring the social implications become fascinating.

Lydia is feeling much better

Lydia, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who expressed their concern on the blog and elsewhere. I spoke to Lydia again and she was bright and breezy today, so it seems that yesterday's fears were groundless. However, no TV, PC or games for the next couple of days and plenty of rest.