Migrant Workers

Watch the shocking documentary about the world championship in football in Qatar! Also, listen to interviews with different migrant workers from Nepal.

The End to the American Dream?

msnbc - John Moore/Getty

According to msnbc and Amanda Sakuma, president Obama will have to wait another year before his Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), also called his executive action on immigration, will be implemented. In February 26 states, with Texas in the lead, brought Obama's plans to court, and by June both the district and appeals court have decided against the Obama administration. Obama is frustrated, but still convinced that his executive action to protect millions of undocumented immigrants will prevail before he is out of office. However, since these programs are an executive action and not a law, the next man or woman living in the White House can erase the action with a stroke of a pen. If the new president is a Democrat s/he will support Obama's plan; if s/he is a Republican on the other hand, there will be no more DAPA or DACA. According to a poll made by msnbc, "63% of all Republican voters view immigrants of all stripes as a burden who generally compete for jobs, housing and health care."Watch Changing America to put your finger on the American people's pulse on the issue.

The Crisis in the Mediterranian

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The Norwegian ship Siem Pilot has now reached the Mediterranian and is ready to rescue refugees. However, according to the Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg, the ship is also going to control Schengen's borders. Thus, the personell on the ship are from the police and the army. So far this year, Italy has taken in more than 50,000 refugees, which is 10% more than at the same time last year. Read more in today's BT.

Foto: Helge Hansen / NTB scanpix

More about FIFA

Maybe Vladimir Putin has a point when he asks with what right the FBI investigates the corruption scandal in FIFA? Read this article and make up your mind!

Sports

Some claim that sports has nothing to do with politics. Unfortunately, the world has seen several times that the opposite is true. In 1936 Hitler used the games in Berlin to promote his Nazi politics, in 1972 in Munich 11 Israeli athletes were assasinated, and in 1980 more than 60 countries boykotted the games in Moscow due to the Russian intervention in Afgahnistan. However, there is more, nearly every Olympic game has shown some political aspect; read all about it in the Guardian . 

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Football is maybe the most enjoyed and practised sport in the world today, and thus it is also influential, ie what famous football players say and do is noticed worldwide by the upcoming generation as well as leaders and politicians. Consequently, when the players say they are not preoccupied with what their governing bodies (FIFA) do, they send an important message to the world, ie do what you want as long as we can play football. Corruption ruins democracy and should nowhere be accepted! Read more about the FIFA scandal in today's Guardian or the BBC.

Trafficking

Trafficking is today's slave trade - people are being exploited in order for the traffickers to gain profit. It is a global matter and concerns children, males and females alike. People are trafficked into domestic labor, bonded labor, child labor, donor donation, and or prostitution. Statistics are hard to find due to the fact that trafficking is illegal, but there are estimates saying that 30,000,000 people are enslaved in one way or another today.

The Guardian has several articles giving shocking facts about trafficking in different types of work, and if you think that this does not happen in your country, think twice. The sad thing is that people managing to escape from the traffickers have a hard time making the police believe in their story, and many are sent out of the country and back to the country they first entered in accordance with the Dublin Agreement. The question is whether this agreement helps the victims or not. In my opinion the answer is a clear NO. Thus, it is about time to reconsider the agreement. Is it fair to send people back to Italy, for instance, when we know how many people the country has rescued from drowning in the Medterranien and, consequently, have to take in every month?

Latest news says that kids prefer i-pads as playmates, Twitter and Facebook have helped win revolutions, and now Hilary Clinton is going to try to win the presidency by hiring Hanie Hannon, "Google's director of product management for civic innovation and social impact, to run her technology operations"(reuters.com 8April2015). Not a bad idea at all. Obviously, tec rules, and those not playing by these rules are no doubt losers.

@twephanie